Halt in fall of unionization may be temporary given current economic, political climate
The number of unionized workers in Canada increased by 80,000 employees in the first half of 2011, compared with the same time period the previous year, edging up the unionization rate from 29.6 per cent in 2010 to 29.7 per cent, according to a recent report by Statistics Canada.
“It’s the first time the overall unionization rate has increased in a while,” says Michael Lynk, a labour law expert at the University of Western Ontario in London, Ont. “It’s modest. But it’s remarkable that it’s happening in a time when there’s a stalled economy.”
Five provinces saw gains in unionization between this year and last. The largest gain was in Nova Scotia, with Newfoundland and Labrador, Quebec, New Brunswick and Ontario also seeing higher numbers of unionized workers. Alberta saw the sharpest decline followed by Manitoba and Prince Edward Island.
“It appears unions have halted the decline but unionization is still not as high as it was in the 1970s, and certainly not as high as the peak in the mid-1980s,” notes Lynk, referring to the mid-1980s when roughly 38 per cent of Canadian workers were unionized.
He says labour laws, largely unchanged in most provinces since the mid-1990s, may be to blame. And where there has been reform — in B.C., Ontario and Saskatchewan, for example — the changes have not favoured unions, Lynk adds.
At the same time, he says public attitudes towards unions are being negatively shaped by recent high-profile labour disputes, including the ones at Air Canada and Canada Post.
“There’s probably more discomfort with unions today than I might have expected in the past,” Lynk says.
And that discomfort is likely to grow given the disparity between the numbers of unionized workers in the public sector versus the private, says Craig Riddell, an economist at the University of British Columbia.
The unionization rate of public sector workers held steady between 2010 and 2011 at roughly 71 per cent, as did the rate of unionization among private sector workers at 16 per cent in both years.
While there was no change, Riddell says the question is whether the public sector can sustain its unionization rate in the long term.
“There might be pressure (for legislative reform) given how stark the differences are between the public and private sector, especially among those in the public sector with defined-benefit plans,” he says.
Of note, the Stats Can report shows women experienced disproportionally more gains in unionized jobs than men, from 30.9 per cent in 2010 to 31.1 per cent in 2011.
Riddell says this is likely the result of more women working in the public sector, particularly in health, education, social services and public administration — occupations with the highest unionization rates.
While earnings are generally higher in unionized jobs overall, he says the wage premium is likely greater among men.
Riddell has researched and written on the relationship between unionization and wage inequality. He says studies consistently show a link between changes in union coverage among men and a gap in wages. The same does not hold true for women.
He says unions tend to compress wages for men because they increase wages among lower skilled men and decrease the wages of those with more skills.
Unionized female workers, on the other hand, are more likely to be professionals, such as nurses, teachers or public administrators, so unions tend to raise wages for all women, he notes.
While union decline has been slower in Canada than other countries, especially the U.S., Lynk says the Stats Can report shouldn’t suggest it has been halted for good either.
“We haven’t been as badly hit,” he says. “But the air is still going out of the balloon at a less rapid rate and we have to find ways to fix those holes.”
