Is There a Future for CDN Unions

8/13/2019 Is There a Future for CDN Unions

1/24

Jackson, A. (2010a). Is there a future for Canadian unions? In A. Jackson, Work and labour in Canada:Critical issues . Toronto, ON: Canadian Scholars' Press/Women's Press, pp. 223-242. Copyright 2010Andrew Jackson and Canadian Scholars' Press Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may

be photocopied, reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means,electronic, mechanical, or otherwise, without the written permission of Canadian Scholars' Press Inc.,except for brief passages quoted for review purposes. In the case of photocopying, a licence may beobtained from Access Copyright.

Jackson, A. (2010a). Is there a future for Canadian unions? In A. Jackson, Work and labour in Canada:Critical issues . Toronto, ON: Canadian Scholars' Press/Women's Press, pp. 223-242. Copyright 2010Andrew Jackson and Canadian Scholars' Press Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may

be photocopied, reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means,electronic, mechanical, or otherwise, without the written permission of Canadian Scholars' Press Inc.,except for brief passages quoted for review purposes. In the case of photocopying, a licence may beobtained from Access Copyright.


2/24


3/24


4/24


5/24


6/24


7/24


8/24


9/24


10/24


11/24


12/24


13/24


14/24


15/24

Peritz, I., Keenan, G., & Marotte, B., "At a crossroads, big labour digs in," Globe and Mail , February22, 2008, B3. Reproduced with permission.


16/24

238 Work and Labour n anada

The average size of new bargaining units is small: 50-70 members in Ontario sincethe mid-1990s, and just 30-40 members in B.C. There is evidence of rela tive successamong women workers and workers of colour, and more new organizing in services,especially health and wel fare services Yates 2000, 2003). In B.C. where the data aremost complete), more than 50,000 workers were organized into unions from 1997to 2002, of whom just one in six worked in the resource and manufacturing sectors.Large private-sector industrial unions, like the CAW-Canada and United SteelworkersUSW), have continued to add new members alongside the Canadian Union of Public

Employees CUPE), the National Union of Public and General Employees NUPGE),and other public-sector unions, but many of these new members have been in services,especially the broader public sector, rather than in areas of traditional blue-collarindustrial jurisdiction. Large unions have also grown through mergers

In most years, from the mid-1980s to the mid-1990s, union growth from new certifications offset stagnant or declining union membership in already unionized workplaces, accounting for almost all absolute membership growth. Since the mid-1990s,union membership in already unionized workplaces seems to have grown as well.New organizing in Canada has been far from negligible and has made an importantdifference to union density, but it has been a case of rowing agains t the tide of forcesworking against unions in the job market as a whole.

Observers have often drawn a contrast between an organizing as opposed to servicing model of trade unionism related to a social movement, as opposed to a businessunion model of what unions are about. While overdrawn, the servicing and businessunion model stands for the bureaucratic, top-down structures, member passivity,and lack of activism and interest in organizing that were often the results of stableindustrial relations in long-unionized firms and sectors in the 1960s and 1970s. Someunions were not particularly concerned about an overall fall in union density orbuilding links to the wider community so long as their own membership was stableand members were making gains at the bargaining table. However, falling overallunion strength tends to reach a tipping-point, at which time even long-unionizedemployers will take a much harder line in bargaining or will seek to become non-unionbecause of increased competition from lower cost, non-union employers. In the U.S.,the central labour body, the American Federation of Labor-Congress of IndustrialOrganizations AFL-CIO), was quite complacent about union density decline throughmuch of the 1970s and into the 1980s, but this turned to alarm as the absolute number

of union members began to fall, and as slipping density began to tum into a downwardspiral. By the mid-1990s, alm ost all American unions recognized that new organizingwas absolutely key to survival.

The commitment of unions to organizing new members will be strongly influencednot just by threats to union security in already unionized sectors,-but also by whetherleaders, activists, and members see themselves as part of a broader labour movementlinked to a wider movement for social and economic change. At their best, unionshave been concerned about improving conditions for all workers, not just the narrowunion elite. Historically, union expansion has come in big waves as a growing labourmovement has rapidly expanded into many workplaces over a very short period. InCanada, there were two big waves of union growth. The first was during and just


17/24


18/24


19/24


20/24


21/24


22/24


23/24


24/24

Date post:	04-Jun-2018
Category:	Documents
Upload:	buds75
View:	216 times
Download:	0 times

Is There a Future for CDN Unions

Documents