Unions challenged to promote Aboriginal workers

The results of a recent Statistics Canada study on Aboriginal people in the labour market come as no surprise to Vinay Sharma.

As human rights department director at the Canadian Auto Workers (CAW) union, Sharma knows firsthand the challenges of getting Aboriginal workers into the workplace.

Unlike other equity groups — women, immigrants and minorities — Canada’s First Nations often don’t have even the basics, such as literacy, to get them in the door, he says.

“They’re fighting for the crumbs to start with,” he says.

The Statistics Canada study found employment among Aboriginal people took a bigger hit and over a longer period of time than non-Aboriginals, in the recent economic downturn.

Among the core-aged population (25 to 54 years old), the number of Aboriginal people in the labour force fell by 7.1 per cent over a two-year period from late 2008 to 2010.

In contrast, while employment also declined among non-Aboriginal people from 2008 to 2009, most of those losses were recouped by 2010. That left the overall employment 0.1 percentage points lower in 2010 than in 2008.

It’s a troubling trend for unions, which are often seen as a vehicle for improving employment equity.

Sharma says progress is slow for a number of reasons, chief among them communication and qualifications.

“Many times employers will say, ‘Well, we put out ads’ and leave it at that,” he says. “But the employer needs certain requirements and not every band would have people with the qualifications.”

So in Manitoba, for example, the CAW is piloting an initiative to help First Nations meet a local employer’s job hiring criteria even before positions are posted, by co-ordinating and facilitating training and upgrading through the community and local union hall.

In Ontario, the union also held a training session for Aboriginal women and their daughters to encourage them to work in the skilled trades.

“These are things they might not think they can even go into,” Sharma says.

Nationally, the Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC) is trying to bridge the gap on a number of fronts.

PSAC holds an annual conference for and about its Aboriginal members. The union has also set up Aboriginal “circles” across the country as a forum for them to bring forward their workplace experiences and challenges.

This has led to a number of significant changes. For example, in some jurisdictions the federal public service has dropped the Grade 12 graduation requirement for some jobs designated to be filled by Aboriginal people, such as driving a forklift, to open up the applicant pool.

According to Statistics Canada labour force survey data for 2007 to 2010, the dropout rate among Aboriginal students living on-reserve was 22.6 per cent compared with 8.5 per cent among non-Aboriginal students.

But Larry Rousseau, PSAC regional executive vice-president for the National Capital Region, says even those who are hired into the federal public service often leave.

“Aboriginal members get hired because the government has programs to ensure positions are designated but once they’re hired the opportunity for promotion and moving upwards isn’t there,” he says. “There’s a glass ceiling… and after a few years many quit and say, it’s not for me.”

The union is hoping gains at the bargaining table may change this. For example, PSAC has negotiated provisions such as time off for traditional harvest periods and special bereavement leave for Inuit families in the north who tend to live in extended families.

“It’s very important because whenever you negotiate a piece of language it then becomes the basis of precedent,” Rousseau says, adding that as more Aboriginal and Inuit workers move south, retention could be improved with these cultural acknowledgements.

The CAW has also been successful at improving contract language to make workplaces more inclusive of Aboriginal workers.

For example, the local representing workers at the Great Blue Heron Casino near Port Perry, Ont., has negotiated specific clauses to make job postings more available to Aboriginal workers, and to offer support for job improvements once they’re hired.

“The biggest challenge is trying to build the connections,” Sharma says. “Employers want everything done yesterday. We need to bring to them the understanding that we need to build a community first.”