Unions

Les syndicats

Updated December 14, 2011
Page révisée le 14 décembre 2011

NOTE:
This page is NOT comprehensive, and it doesn't offer very much union website content --- that's because I tend to post union website content to the 'theme' pages on this site (e.g., Elections/Politics, Health, Women's Social Issues) rather than on this more general page.

* Scroll down for links to selected unions' home pages, where you can explore content to your heart's content.
* Click the link immediately below to see a selection of union-related content that didn't quite fit any of the theme pages on this site.

Selected union-related news, articles
- this link takes you further down on the page you're now reading, just past the section below containing links to Canada's major unions.

Battle of the Wages:
Who gets paid more, public or private sector workers? (PDF - 1.5MB, 33 pages)
http://cupe.ca/updir/Battle_of_the_Wage_ENG_Final-0.pdf
December 13, 2011
Analysis of Census data at the most detailed level available shows that overall average salaries for comparable occupation are very similar between public and private sectors in Canada.

Related CUPE news release:

New study dispels myths about public sector pay
http://cupe.ca/economics/study-dispels-myths-public-sector-pay
December 13, 2011
OTTAWA - There is no evidence the average pay of public sector workers in Canada is consistently higher than comparable occupations in the private sector, reports a new study released today by the Canadian Union of Public Employees.Battle of the Wages: Who gets paid more, public or private sector workers analyzes Census data at the most detailed occupational level available. By comparing average pay in comparable occupations, the study gives the most accurate snap-shot of how public sector workers pay compares to the private sector.

Source:
Canadian Union of Public Employees

On Labour Day, think about unions as an equalizing force
August 31, 2011
By Keith Reynolds
On Labour Day 2011 unions in North America are facing historic challenges. Governments and corporations are increasingly disputing the right of unions to exist and to represent working people. This is true not just in the United States. Here in Canada the president of the Canadian Federation of Independent Business, Catherine Swift, told the London Free Press: "What would be ideal is getting rid of public-sector unions entirely."
Not that long ago such a view would have been considered extremist. Now it is common in both much of the business community and the main stream media.
So Labour Day is a good time to review both what unions have given us and what has been lost in much of the world as governments reduce the rights of working people to democratically choose to act collectively.
Source:
Policy Note
Policy Note delivers timely, progressive commentary on issues that affect British Columbians, including the economy, poverty, inequality, climate change, provincial budgets, taxes, public services, employment and much more.

Policy Note is a project of the
Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA)
The CCPA is an independent, non-partisan research institute concerned with issues of social, economic and environmental justice.

The harm inflicted by public-sector unions
By Larry MacDonald
November 22, 2011
The programs and policies of the welfare state begin with good intentions but ultimately prove naïve. What happens in the real world is that organized groups end up bending the sovereign power of government toward transferring resources to themselves, away from the less organized. (...) A new book, Pension Ponzi: How Public-sector Unions are Bankrupting Canada's Health Care, Education and Your Retirement, highlights another instance. As you can guess from the title, the culprit in this instance is public-sector unions. (...) The bill [for government concessions to public sector unions] will come due for Canadians in the form of substantially higher taxes, reduced benefits and eroded purchasing power (due to higher inflation). (...) The cost of all those civil servants, politicians, teachers, firefighters, police officers and armed forces explains much of the overspending and indebtedness of the government sector, in the authors’ view.
Source:
CanadianBusiness.com

BULLSHIT.

Watch this two-minute video:
(Click the video window in the left column of this page or the link below.)

What have the unions ever done for US? (video, duration 2:09)
[Hint : Higher wages, better benefits, pensions, health and safety, medical coverage, equal rights on the job, paid vacations, the abolition of child labour, whistle blower protection, etc.]

See also:

Small Business and the Attack on Unions
Posted by Andrew Jackson
October 14, 2011
"...it does not seem especially rational for small business to embrace so fervently the extremist anti union ideology of the Fraser Institute and their political allies."
Source:
Progressive Economics Forum

Canadian Union of Public Employees
The Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) is Canada’s largest union. With more than half a million members across Canada, CUPE represents workers in health care, education, municipalities, libraries, universities, social services, public utilities, transportation, emergency services and airlines. A strong and democratic union, CUPE is committed to improving the quality of life for workers in Canada. Women and men working together to form local unions built CUPE. They did so to have a stronger voice – a collective voice – in their workplace and in society as a whole.

[A special thanks to CUPE for allowing me to piggyback onto their mailing list system (Mailman) - it makes my task of administering my mailing list and distributing the weekly issues of my newsletter quite a bit easier. I should mention that I don't share my newsletter mailing list with anyone, including CUPE, nor does CUPE impose any control over my work or my views...
March 2006
Gilles]

National Union of Public and General Employees
The National Union of Public and General Employees (NUPGE) is a family of 15 component unions. Taken together we are the second largest union in Canada. Most of our 337,000 members work to deliver public services of every kind to the citizens of their home provinces. We also have a large and growing number of members who work for private businesses.

Canadian Auto Workers
The CAW is the largest private sector union in Canada, with a total membership of 238,000. The CAW has a significant block of members in at least 15 different economic sectors : major auto - independent auto parts - aerospace - specialty vehicles & equipment - electrical/electronics - general manufacturing - airlines - railways - mining & smelting - other surface transportation (including trucking, bus & marine) - fisheries - hospitality services - shipbuilding - retail & wholesale services - general services

Public Service Alliance of Canada
The Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC), is one of Canada's largest unions. The PSAC is truly a national union with members from coast to coast to coast, in every province and territory. We even have an international face with members working abroad in embassies and consulates. Our membership is diverse and growing. While many of our 150,000 members work for the federal government or agencies as immigration officers, fisheries officers, food inspectors, customs officers and the like, an increasing number of PSAC members work in the private sector in women’s shelters, universities, security agencies and casinos.

Confédération des syndicats nationaux
La Confédération des syndicats nationaux est une organisation syndicale nationale, démocratique et libre. Elle est formée de syndicats, de fédérations et de conseils centraux couvrant tout le territoire du Québec ,et elle entend lutter pour la création de structures sociales, économiques, politiques et culturelles qui garantissent l’épanouissement de l’ensemble des citoyennes et citoyens dans notre société. (...) La Confédération des syndicats nationaux compte plus de 2 600 syndicats locaux répartis sur l’ensemble du territoire québécois représentant environ 275 000 travailleuses et travailleurs appartenant à divers secteurs d’activité.

Canadian Teachers' Federation
As the national bilingual umbrella organization for teachers in this country, the Canadian Teachers’ Federation (CTF) has 14 provincial and territorial Member organizations representing 213,000 teachers across Canada. CTF is a powerful voice for the profession and provides much needed support to its Member organizations and teachers at a time when many governments have moved ahead with very regressive education agendas.

Canadian Union of Postal Workers
Our 54,000 members work in large and small communities from Twillingate, Newfoundland to Tappen, British Columbia. A majority of members work for Canada Post as rural and suburban mail carriers, letter carriers, mail service couriers, postal clerks, mail handlers, mail despatchers, technicians, mechanics, electricians and electronic technicians. But CUPW represents more than post office workers. We also represent cleaners, couriers, drivers, warehouse workers, mail house workers, emergency medical dispatchers, bicycle couriers and other workers in more than 15 private sector bargaining units. CUPW’s national office is in Ottawa. The union has regional offices in Halifax, Quebec City, Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto, London, Winnipeg and Vancouver. There are CUPW locals with elected representatives in over 200 communities across the country.

Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada
CEP is one of Canada's largest unions, representing workers at pulp and paper mills, telephone companies, in the oil, gas, chemical and mining industries. We are printers, journalists, radio and TV broadcasters, graphic artists, hotel workers, computer programmers, truck drivers, nurses -- you name it, CEP members do it.
The CEP was formed in 1992 through a merger of three smaller unions, and we've been growing steadily ever since. Today, we are 150,000 strong.

United Steelworkers of America - Canada
Workers employed in the steel industry and in mining – two of the union’s traditional jurisdictions – total about 65,000, out of a total membership in Canada of 190,000. Steelworker members can be found in every sector of the economy – from factories to offices, to hospitals, university campuses, hotels, warehouses, bakeries, banks, transportation and communication workers and many more. More than 27 per cent of Steelworkers now are women, and there is a growing membership among visible minority workers.

Ontario Federation of Labour

Ontario Public Service Employees Union

Ontario Secondary School Teachers Federation

BC Federation of Labour

BC Teachers Federation

Syndicats québécois (...et canadiens, et ailleurs dans le monde)

AFL-CIO (U.S.)

Global Unions
World Trade Union Movement’s Web Site
Global Unions is jointly owned and run by the international trade union movement. Global Unions is run by 14 trade union organisations – the ICFTU, the eleven International Trade Secretariats, the European Trade Union Confederation and the TUAC.

Selected union-related news, articles

Pomp, pageantry and unions
By Linda McQuaig
July 4, 2011
We surely seem to be living in conservative times — with the NDP trying to distance itself from all things socialist and the public apparently unable to sate its appetite for all things royal. Certainly it’s easy to get the impression from the media that Canadians, content with their capitalist bounty, are primarily focused on the activities and outfits of the Royal Family.So perhaps it’s out-of-sync with the times to suggest that we’re actually in the middle of a class war, and that it’s been heating up lately. (...) In the wake of the 2008 financial crunch, ordinary Canadians stand to lose even more ground. As the recent labour battles at Air Canada and Canada Post show, employers — now with firm backing from Ottawa — have new wind in their sails as they demand concessions and insist that new employees be hired at lower wage and benefit levels. This means that employers are demanding the next generation of workers be paid less than today’s workers. If this isn’t evidence of an ongoing class war, it’s hard to think what would be.

[ Comments (53) ]

Source:
Toronto Star

Unions and Inequality
By Andrew Jackson
June 27, 2011
An important paper by Bruce Western and Jake Rosenfeld which is forthcoming in the American Journal of Sociology finds that the decline in private sector union density in the US (from 34% to 8% for men, and from 16% to 6% for women) explains one fifth to one third of the increase in inequality of hourly earnings over the period 1973 to 2007. This shows declining union density to be a much greater causal factor than most studies have found.

The novel contribution of the authors is to show empirically through a sophisticated quantitative analysis that a fall from high to lower union density in industrial/regional clusters is associated with rising levels of wage inequality among non union workers in those clusters.
Source:
Progressive Economics Forum

The paper:

Unions, Norms, and the Rise in
American Wage Inequality (PDF - 283K, 48 pages)
By Bruce Western and Jake Rosenfeld
March, 2011
"(...) We revisited the effect of declining union membership on wage inequality, arguing that unions not only equalized the wages of union members; they
also equalized the nonunion wage distribution by threatening union organization and buttressing norms for fair pay.
Source:
Department of Sociology
[ Harvard University ]

Massive protest march in Brussels rejects European austerity plans
September 30, 2010
On September 28, more than 100,000 trade unionists throughout Europe took to the streets in Brussels to oppose austerity measures, which, if governments do not change direction, will have disastrous social and economic results. Parallel national protests took place across Europe including a general strike in Spain and demonstrations in Italy, France, Portugal, Lithuania, Latvia, Germany, Cyprus, Serbia, Poland, Finland and Ireland. Protests already held in Bucharest and Prague brought together more than 20,000 and 40,000 people respectively.
Source:
Canadian Union of Public Employees
The Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) is Canada’s largest union.With around 600 000 members across Canada, CUPE represents workers in health care, education, municipalities, libraries, universities, social services, public utilities, transportation, emergency services and airlines.

World Day for Decent Work - October 7, 2010
- this website tracks activities organized by trade union organizations in the lead up to and during October 7 itself.

European Trade Union Confederation (organizers of the Brussels march)

December 15, 2009

One Year In and Still Waiting for a Recovery (PDF - 226K, 20 pages)
Recession Watch Bulletin (Issue 3 - Fall 2009)
Canada’s “Great Recession” began in October 2008, the month in which the global economy fell off a cliff and the national unemployment rate began to rise rapidly from 6.3%. Even before the recession, of course, there had been major layoffs in manufacturing because of a high Canadian dollar and an already slowing U.S. economy. The year from October 2008 to October 2009 saw a major deterioration in Canada’s job market. And the worst is not yet over. Most commentators expect that the job market will continue to worsen for a while, even if economic growth begins to recover. As of October 2009, the pace of job loss was slowing, but unemployment was still rising. Many commentators expect the national rate to go over 10% this winter.

Related links:

Recession Watch Bulletin #2
Posted: Wednesday, 1 July 2009

Recession Watch Bulletin #1
Posted: Sunday, 1 March 2009

Source:
Canadian Labour Congress (CLC)

Also from the CLC:

An Update on Canada’s Two Economies
- Implications for Workers and for Monetary Policy
June 8, 2007
By Andrew Jackson
NOTE: This is a revised and extended version of the comments made by Andrew Jackson at a panel on the Canadian economy organized by the Bank of Canada and the IMF at the recent Canadian Economics Association meetings.
- incl. * The Hidden Jobs Crisis * Boom and Bust: Resources, Trade and the Manufacturing Crisis * Manufacturing Matters for Workers * The Poor Quality of New Jobs * Flat Real Wages * Implications for Labour Market Policy * Implications for the Bank of Canada
Source:
Relentlessly Progressive Economics
Commentary on Canadian economics and public policy

Human Resources and Social Development Canada (HRSDC), Low Earnings and the Working Poor
By Andrew Jackson
September 18, 2006
Source:
Relentlessly Progressive Economics
[A Blog of the Progressive Economics Forum]

********************************

LINK - The Canadian Labour Congress Research Newsletter
- incl. New Papers in the Web (Socially Responsible Investment - Labour Rights: Anti-Scab Legislation - The OECD Jobs Strategy - Training - Policies to Assist the Working Poor) Worth Noting (New report from the Canadian Policy Research Network on Canada's adult education and training system
NOTES:
1. the "LINK"link above always points to the most recent issue of the newsletter
2. scroll to the bottom of the newsletter for links to three earlier issues back to March 2006

LINK Online Research Newsletter - May 2006 Issue
- incl. New Papers on the Web - Research by CLC Affiliates - Worth Noting
- Selected content from this issue:
--- Organizing Low Wage Workers: Performance and Prospects : the role of unions as part of the answer to the growing problem of low paid and precarious work.
--- Rowing Against the Tide: The Struggle to Raise Union Density in a Hostile Environment
--- Current Pension Issues and Trends focuses on current regulatory issues
--- Why Working Families Need Public Health Care : summarizes labour's arguments against private health insurance and private delivery of health care.
--- Private-Public-Partnerships (P3s) and the Transformation of Government
--- Labour Left Out : research from the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives into the failure of Canadian governments to protect and promote the collective bargaining rights of both unionized and non-unionized workers

Source:
Social and Economic Policy Department
[ Canadian Labour Congress ]

Some recent content from the CUPE website:

Low paid work still widespread in Canada (PDF file - 368K, 2 pages)
November 19, 2007
Despite strong economic growth, historically low unemployment rates and much discussion about labour shortages, about one in six of all employed workers in Canada - almost 2.2 million - was still low paid and earning poverty wages in 2006. This economic brief provides a short overview of the low wage workforce in Canada by province and demographic group.

From the
Canadian Union of public Employees:

Happy Anniversary Universal Child Care Plan --- from the Party Poopers!

One year later, Canadian families still have no child care solution
Harper Conservatives celebrate first anniversary of failed plan
July 10, 2007
Monte Solberg, minister of Human Resources and Social Development, is in Winnipeg today, holding a celebration of the so-called “Universal Child Care Benefit”.“I’m not sure what there is to celebrate,” said CUPE National President Paul Moist. “This plan hasn’t delivered a single child care space.”
NOTE: check the right-hand margin for 14 links to related websites and articles

Also from CUPE:

Early learning and child care - It's time
July 13, 2007
The Canadian Union of public Employees (CUPE) has published a new booklet that makes the case for a universal, high quality, not-for-profit child care system. The booklet outlines the major issues facing child care workers, and promotes CUPE's plan to help build a stronger system through organizing, advocacy and collective bargaining.

Complete report:

Early learning and child care - It's time (PDF file - 2.5MB, 24 pages)
July 2007
"(...) The Canadian Union of Public Employees believes Canada urgently needs a high-quality early learning and child care (ELCC) system. Many CUPE members are parents with young children. They need quality child care so they can work with peace of mind. More than half of CUPE members are women, and women still bear the major responsibility for child-rearing."

----------

Supreme Court of Canada says collective bargaining protected by Charter
June 8, 2007
Canada’s largest union is hailing today’s landmark ruling by the Supreme Court of Canada as the Court's most important decision in support of free collective bargaining in Canada. Referring to the Supreme Court of Canada's previous refusal to recognize collective bargaining as protected by Canada's Charter of Rights and Freedoms, Paul Moist, national president of CUPE, stated "In overruling its own decisions from 20 years ago, the Supreme Court of Canada has removed tremendous hurdles faced by the trade union movement in this country."

Related Web/News/Blog links:

Google Search Results Links - always current results!
Using the following search terms (without the quote marks):
"supreme court, collective bargaining"
Web search results page
News search results page
Blog Search Results page
Source:
Google.ca

Happy Anniversary, Conservatives!
January 24, 2007
Well, happy anniversary, Conservative Government. With all of the effort it's taken us this year to get used to saying "Prime Minister Stephen Harper", we might have actually forgotten the promises that got him that title in the first place. Well, we might have. But we didn't. On this election anniversary, we'd like to make sure you don't forget, either. So let's revisit the promises Harper made a year ago today, and evaluate how well each has been kept."

Tory child care plans fail families
Codeblue for Childcare
January 12, 2007
The Conservative government has shuffled its cabinet and shifted priorities, but it has some major unfinished business when it comes to child care. “The Tories haven’t created the child care spaces Canadians need. Businesses aren’t welcoming their plans for the private sector to create child care spots and parents have received a taxable $100 towards covering their child care fees. It’s shameful that this government could call that a success,” said Paul Moist, national president of the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE).

Thirty Years of Dwindling Minimum Wages in Canada
Nov 6, 2006
The campaign for living wages has gathered momentum with bills sponsored by NDP members in both the federal Parliament and the Ontario legislature to increase the minimum wage to $10/hour. The just-released report on Federal Labour Standards also strongly recommended that the federal minimum wage be reintroduced at a level that would allow full-time workers to live above the poverty line. Federal and provincial politicians claim that we can’t afford it. But as Commissioner Harry Arthurs stated in this report, "This is an issue of fundamental decency that no modern, prosperous country like Canada can ignore." The real value of the minimum wage everywhere in Canada is now not just far below the poverty line, but also far below what it was thirty years ago, as the following CUPE Economic Brief shows. And contrary to what some politicians and low wage employers claim, increasing the minimum wage tends to have few negative economic impacts and is often positive. We can afford it and we should do it.

Complete report:

Thirty Years of Dwindling Minimum Wages in Canada (PDF file - 147K, 2 pages)
November 2006

Related Links from the Federal Labour Standards Review Commission:

Fairness at Work:
Federal Labour Standards for the21st Century
HTML version
PDF version (1.5MB, 324 pages)
"Commissioner Harry Arthurs was appointed by the Minister of Labour in October 2004 to review Part III of the Canada Labour Code. Part III establishes labour standards for workers employed in federally regulated enterprises. It is administered by the Labour Program of the Department of Human Resources and Social Development."

Mininum Wages in Canada: Theory, Evidence and Policy (Executive Summary only)
Morley Gunderson, University of Toronto
Posted October 11, 2006
Source:
Commission Research Program

Also from CUPE:

Taxes, Productivity & Competitiveness: It’s Not the Tax Cuts that Matter… (PDF file - 177K, 6 pages)
Quality public services deliver a more competitive economy and a better quality of life
September 2006
CUPE Economic Backgrounder
Economics 101 teaches that, under certain assumptions, free and competitive markets will lead to the greatest level of good for the greatest number of people. In this model, taxes, government spending and regulation interfere with the free market and are therefore bad.
Economics 201 teaches that these assumptions are highly simplistic, heroic and unrealistic; that “market failures” are pervasive; and that there is an important role for public spending, taxes and regulation that improve the economy and increase well-being.

New report focuses on new forms of privatization
News Release
March 30, 2006
"Those who follow trends know that new and more complex forms of privatization have emerged in Canada and around the world. A new CUPE resource helps you understand and identify these “monsters.” CUPE’s 16-page paper Developments in Privatization of Public Services provides details on many new kinds of privatization that now exist. It helps to answer the question "what is privatization?” by using brief examples that show how certain kinds of privatization work."

Developments in Privatization of Public Services (PDF file - 346K, 16 pages)
A background paper prepared for the Public Services International Workshop on Trade Union Responses to New Forms of Privatization
March 14 –16, 2006
Ottawa, Canada

Child care open letter hits 26,000 signatures
February 28, 2006
Momentum is building.
More than 26,000 Canadians have lent their support to an open letter that urges the prime minister and premiers to honour the federal-provincial child care agreements signed last year.