Labour experts explain why Canadian employers need to pay attention to employee concerns
Canada is experiencing a level of strike activity not seen since the early 1980s, with Statistics Canada reporting 6.6 million person-days lost to labour disputes in 2023 – the highest since 1986.
The majority of these strikes have occurred in the public sector, particularly in education, health, and public administration, as unionized workers respond to years of wage stagnation and pandemic-era frustrations.
However, as Jason Foster, professor of labour studies and human resources at Athabasca University, explains, this current “strike wave”, coupled with the increase of the government’s use of section 107 to force workers back to work, may result in more organizing – or, at least, more disgruntled employees – in the private sector, too.
“They see costs going up all around them in terms of their life, and they're not seeing their wages go up to match it,” he explains.
“Workers are feeling like they've fallen behind in the last decade, and so now they're wanting to catch up.”
Wages, working conditions and government policy
There are many factors that can lead to increases in strike and labour action, but according to Judy Fudge, professor of labour studies at McMaster University, wage stagnation sits at the top, and is especially acute post-pandemic, as frontline workers in sectors like health care and education faced heightened health risk without corresponding increases in pay.
“Wages just haven't kept up over the past 25 years,” she says.
“Wages are down, and after the pandemic, I think people got kind of irritated at how profits were being taken, and some workers, particularly in the public sector, were working and suffering risk, and their wages weren't going up.”
Exacerbating this tension around wages is increased surveillance of employees, Fudge adds, and mandating workers back to in-person work, such as Ontario public service workers. According to her, it shouldn’t be surprising that employee unrest is rising.
“I think it's control without a concern about productivity or service,” she says. “They're conflating controlling with productivity.”
The pandemic accelerated changes in workplace expectations, Fudge explains, particularly around remote work and flexible arrangements.
“That cut people's costs a lot, not having to commute. Think of the GTA … people's commute is really long and it's really expensive,” she says.
“If you say to people 'We're requiring you to go back to work four or five days a week'... they're out of pocket, they're going to be irritated that they're going to have less disposable income. To go on strike, you have to really be irritated.”
This frustration is compounded by sector-specific labour shortages, which have given unions more leverage in negotiations, says Judge: “So it's a kind of concentration of the events that have been occurring.”
Labour relations lessons for employers, HR
Foster adds that these workplace issues add up and can push employees towards strike action or even organizing if employers fail to listen.
“Public sector workers are very much in a mood where they feel like their employer doesn't have their back,” he says.
“They didn't have their back during COVID, they felt unsupported and disrespected by their employers. And they see inflation going up.”
He emphasizes the importance of listening to workers and addressing their concerns proactively, as the current environment demands a shift in how employers approach labour relations, moving away from adversarial postures toward genuine engagement with employee needs.
He notes that starting with the understanding that employee concerns are legitimate is necessary for successful negotiation and basic employee relations.
“Any employer who's paying attention listens when their workers have a legitimate concern,” Foster says.
“This is a group of people who have had a rough few years and are looking for something. They're looking for a signal from their employer that their employer cares about them. If you start from that place, I think you'll be okay, you’ll be able to navigate your way through this in some fashion.”
How workers respond to dissatisfaction
Fudge explains that when employees face dissatisfaction in the workplace, they generally have two main options: they can leave for another job, or they can try to improve the conditions at their current workplace.
If alternative employment is readily available, many will simply leave; however, when job opportunities are scarce, they’re more likely to stay and seek change from within. Employers can do better in responding to these requests, "without having these pent-up irritations that drive people to support strike votes,” she says.
“It's wages that are driving it a lot, but it's also kind of work process issues … People are being overloaded with online stuff, after hours, and now they're being told to go back into work. Like, that's irritating.”
Unionization 'not necessarily a bad thing'
Employers who take the time to understand and address the root causes of employee dissatisfaction, whether related to wages, working conditions, or workplace culture, are more likely to maintain stable labour relations and avoid costly disruptions, Foster says.
Plus, contrary to popular belief, unionization is not necessarily a bad thing for employers, he adds; unionized workplaces are neither less productive or less profitable.
“There is a tendency to have lower productivity rates overall, but those are balanced off by higher retention and higher loyalty,” he says.
“Basically, the bottom line of the analysis is that unionization is not a negative for productivity or profitability. It gets workers a bit of a slight financial gain and protection in the workplace, and it just changes the nature of the employment relationship.”
Unionization adds an element of accountability on both sides, he explains, and a system of checks and balances missing from the private sector where employers can act much more freely in regards to their employees.
“The situation of unionization just balances those scales a little bit,” he says. “Employers would be wise, if their workers choose to unionize, to try and embrace that and work with that, because it can be a net advantage if done properly.”
Employers “get the union they deserve”, Foster stresses, meaning the more cooperative they are during negotiations and certifications, the easier and more mutually beneficial the process will be.
“If they approach it as ‘This is warfare,’ then you're going to get a union that's going to push back,” he says.
“You're going to get a union that's going to be quite militant in its response. So I think the employers are a key driver in the nature of the relationship. Employers have a lot of influence over the nature of the relationship with the union.”
