Concept of purely voluntary trade unions supported by small business employer group
A merger proposal put forward by the Canadian Auto Workers (CAW) union and Communications, Energy and Paperworkers (CEP) union may see the new union open membership to unemployed, temporary and retired workers not covered by a collective agreement — and who may never be in a position to bargain one either.
While not an entirely new concept, it’s one that has “never been executed properly,” says Dave Coles, CEP national president.
This new membership category would allow workers who are looking for work, in precarious jobs or those who could never be unionized to benefit from union membership, he says, pointing to clerical workers as the type of employees who may be interested.
“There may only be two or three employees in a firm and the chances of them getting a collective agreement are remote,” Coles says.
While their workplace may never organize and bargain collectively, the new union may be able to assist those workers with things such as medical plans and legal representation in disputes with their employer, he says. At the same time, the union could also lobby for legislation that would allow for sectoral bargaining, he adds.
“Unions haven’t gotten their heads around the new economy,” Coles says. “We must become relevant to the new type of economy where jobs are unstable with low wages.”
While anyone can join a union, union membership in Canada has tended to organize by sector, according to Laurel MacDowall, an expert in labour history at the University of Toronto.
The idea of involving individual workers, such as the unemployed, first occurred in the 1930s during the Depression, “to fight for their rights and to form solidarity,” she says.
Some unions, such as the Steelworkers, already have retired groups associated with them, she adds.
However, the proposal by the CAW and CEP is a new approach, MacDowall says.
“This really is a social justice movement,” she says. “They’re trying to be more inclusive. They’re beginning to think about social policies.”
This model — known as “minority unionism” — is common in Europe, but relatively rare in North America, according to Rob Hickey, a labour relations expert at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ont.
“It relies on the theory that more people want union representation than can achieve it,” he says, “which is partially a construct of labour legislation and regulatory constraints that prevent them from organizing.”
Union membership would allow these workers to press their demands in a more organized way, even in the absence of a collective agreement, Hickey says.
It’s an approach he used with success in the state of Georgia, where collective bargaining is prohibited in the public sector, to lend support to prison guards.
“A union can offer a range of services,” he says. “It puts workers in motion.”
This new concept has the support of small business employers, albeit for an entirely different reason.
The Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB) has long opposed the mandatory union membership requirements imposed under current labour law.
The CEP-CAW proposal is a “healthy” step toward unions becoming entirely voluntary, says Dan Kelly, senior vice-president of legislative affairs with the CFIB.
“It could enhance employee-employer relations if the next step is taken by policy makers,” he says. “On a practical level, it might freak out employers a bit but I doubt there will be tremendous take up anyway.”
Kelly points to the growing labour shortage that he says will demand more from employers and less from unions.
“Employers are vying for talent,” he says. “They will have to do more and provide more to keep workers. This will lead to more questions as to whether unions are even needed.”
Meanwhile, union representation is needed now more than ever, with more workers in temporary, precarious, and low-wage situations, argues MacDowall.
On the other hand, Hickey applauds the CAW and CEP for looking for innovative ways to stay relevant, but says the history of union mergers may not be in their favour.
“I tend to be somewhat skeptical of mergers as a catalyst to revitalization,” he says. “I’ve never seen a true merger work. One usually just dies away.”
That said, the cultures of the CEP and CAW are more aligned than some of those in the past, with both taking a more “thoughtful” approach, Hickey says.
