Toyota, WestJet targets of major private sector certification effort
Rumours of the union’s death have been greatly exaggerated, it would seem.
Organizing efforts at two heavyweight transportation companies — Calgary-based WestJet and Toyota’s Ontario plants — have kicked into high gear.
Despite recent stabilization of unionization rates in the country following a 30-year slump, the move could signal a watershed moment for the labour movement.
Cue Unifor and the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) union drives targeting Toyota’s 7,000 employees and WestJet’s 2,800 flight attendants, respectively.
This isn’t the first time unions have attempted certification at either company — initial efforts date back more than 25 years. But historically, organizing efforts have proven futile. As it stands, both unions are extremely confident, saying the timing has never been better.
"The whole mindset is much different today and the drive is really being pushed from within. The majority of this organizing is happening in Toyota facilities themselves, so that’s the whole change here," said Jerry Dias, president of Unifor. "I think people are really saying it’s not just about wages and pensions anymore. It’s about having some say, it’s about having an element of control over our lives."
In order to get certified, a union needs 35 per cent of workers to sign union cards to hold a certification vote, or 50 per cent support in order to be automatically certified.
Over at WestJet, Ricardo Miranda, CUPE’s national representative helming the campaign, intends to bypass the 35 per cent vote and instead go straight for instant certification. At issue for workers is that, as the company grows, they fear they are being left behind.
"They used to be this small airline — the little airline that could. They’ve now turned into a huge corporation, and it continues to grow," Miranda explained. "The change in the culture has meant the working conditions have changed. People don’t feel heard or happy."
Perhaps surprisingly, both union drives have been gaining traction where there was little or no traction before. Employee attitude coupled with intense organizing efforts (Unifor, for instance, has designated 10 per cent of resources — $10 million — to union drives such as this) could be a major turning point — especially for the near-defunct trade union movement in the private sector.
George King, a labour and employment lawyer based in the heart of Canada’s auto industry — Windsor, Ont. — said organizing campaigns of this magnitude are rare and could be a tipping point.
"Usually it’s real or perceived unfair treatment by frontline supervisors that’s the driving factor," King said. "You get a groundswell with employees who believe they’re not being treated fairly…that’s often a trigger for people deciding they need a third-party spokesperson on their behalf. It’s usually one or two things, and it’s usually not money. It’s less and less about money every year that goes by."
The WestJet case is unique because workers are owners too, as the airline boasts a lucrative share purchase plan for its staff. While the ownership issue is not a legal impediment (employees who have shares in a company can still have a union), it would make for interesting collective bargaining should those workers certify, King added.
For Toyota, consistency is a concern common for both employees and management. The need to stay on par with the Big Three — Ford, General Motors and Chrysler — has both stayed and propelled certification in the past.
Because a majority of conditions negotiated by unions at General Motors and Chrysler trickled down to Toyota, the company managed to stay union-free for so long — perhaps until now.
"What we’ve done at the bargaining table before at GM and Chrysler always filtered through to the Toyota workers. So when we went through the economic downturn, Toyota workers took their hits just like everybody else. But the difference was that, for GM and Chrysler, we didn’t have things imposed on us. We sat at the table and we were equal partners in finding a solution," he said. "And that’s what makes this much different — this is now people saying, ‘We want to lead.’"
On the other hand, Greig Mordue, Toyota’s general manager of corporate planning, said the company has managed to keep compensation systems in line with competing auto makers.
"Our commitment to employment security is impeccable — we’ve never had a layoff of a full-time team member. It’s very difficult for anyone else to make a similar claim," he said, pointing to recent setbacks such as the 2008 recession and 2011 tsunami in Japan. "It’s easy to say you’re true to your values when you’re on an up curve, but when you go through difficult times and you maintain your commitment, that’s when you really prove your metal. And I think we’ve done that. We don’t need a third party to tell us how to manage our company."
David versus Goliath
But the benefit of having a union transcends a one-dimensional relationship between workers and their bosses, according to Miranda.
"Right now the relationship is between an individual and company. The relationship should be between the collective agreement and the company," he said. "There shouldn’t be the individual having to fend for his or her self at every turn, having to fight a huge institution like this one — the bureaucracy that comes with it."
CUPE has yet to set a date for WestJet’s certification vote, while Unifor’s vote at Toyota is slated for first quarter this year.
