Unions covering fewer of Canada's workers

Catholic New Times, Nov 16, 2003

TORONTO--According to the Globe and Mail, Canadian unions are struggling to regain lost ground as a growing proportion of the work force is employed in non-union operations.

The Canadian labour movement needs to organize between 150,000 and 200,000 new members a year to stem further declines in union density, the Canadian Labour Congress (CLC) says in a frank assessment of its slippage.

"New organizing has made a difference, but it has been a case of rowing against the tide in the job market as a whole," CLC senior economist Andrew Jackson said in a discussion paper to be presented at a conference of labour leaders and organizers in Ottawa.

"In 2002, just under one in three Canadian workers were covered by a collective agreement," he wrote. "The union coverage rate has trended down, by more than nine percentage points, from a high of 41.8 per cent in 1984 to 32.2 per cent in 2002."

"New organizing has slowed rather than reversed the overall decline in union density," Mr. Jackson wrote.

Canadian union membership has increased in absolute numbers. Between 1997 and 2002, union coverage grew by 350,000 members to 4.2 million employees.

However, union density has declined--"more because of strong job growth in non-union workplaces than because of job losses in union workplaces," Mr. Jackson said in his report, co-authored by researcher Sylvain Schetagne.