1. Canadian Unions:
Then and Now
History, Current Situation and Future in the Context of Globalization
And the Neoliberal Agenda
(using CAW and auto bargaining as a case study)
By Cathy Walker,
Former Director,
Health, Safety and Environment Department, CAW
Beijing, January 2013
International Conference on the Current
Situation and Development Of Labor
Relations under Globalization

2. What’s the purpose of trade
unions in Canada?

3. Purpose of unions
• Organize workers collectively to represent the
interests of workers and the working class
• Erode the power of capital in favour of
workers and the working class
• We organize in the workplace, in the
community and throughout the country
• For better treatment for workers and the
working class by employers and the
government
• Has our purpose changed over the years?
• Let’s explore this issue during this discussion

4. Let’s take a look at what we did in
the past, and determine if it is still
relevant

5. Capitalism began in England

6. England, Industrial Revolution
• 1760 to 1860

7. The English brought capitalism to
Canada by the 1850s and it was well
established by the end of the century

8. Thus the working class began in
Canada

9. Canadian Labour History, 6 eras
• Beginnings of industrial revolution in Canada,
mid-19th Century;
• Workers united to resist power of capital by
late 19th Century
• Workers’ revolt, early 20th Century
• Organizing in the Great Depression, 1929-
1939
• Labour gains in World War II, 1939-45
• Post – war years (up to 1976) and the labour
movement today

10. Beginnings of industrial revolution
in Canada, mid-19 th Century and
workers united to resist power of
capital in late 19th Century
Why?
What characterized work
back then?

11. 1850-early 1900s industrial revolution
in Canada
• Working conditions were terrible, hours were long and
work was very unsafe; many workers were killed or maimed
• Wages were very low and the standard of living very poor
• Worst work was done by immigrant labour
• Work included building of canals, railways, factories and
was heavily resource based in Western Canada

12. Miners, loggers and
textile workers

13. Coal mines were dangerous,
for children as well as adults
• Coal mines were incredibly dangerous places to work throughout Canada with thousands of
men and children dying in explosions
• Springhill, Nova Scotia, February 21, 1891
(among 125 miners killed in an explosion)
Alexander Bunt - 15
Ernest Chandler - 16
Thomas Davis - 15
Joseph Dupee - 12
John Dunn - 13
Roger Ernest - 15
James Johnston - 16
George Martin - 14
David McVey - 16
James McVey - 14
James Pequinot - 15
Peter Reid - 13
Ross Murdoch - 16
Philip Ross - 14
Edward Smith - 14
Douglas Taylor - 16

14. What did workers do to resist?
Were unions legal then?
• They organized for the 9,
then the 8 hour day
• They organized into unions,
even though they were
illegal
• They demonstrated and
struck

15. Early struggles hard-fought
• Employers threatened and fired workers for
forming unions
• Employers hired thugs to beat workers
• Governments used army and police to beat
and imprison workers
• Employers and governments used courts to
imprison unionists, grant injunctions against
picketing and financially cripple unions

16. 20th Century, Workers Revolt
• What international event inspired workers in
the early part of the 20th Century?

17. Workers revolt, early 20th Century,
inspired by Russian Revolution,
1905 and 1917

18. What was the Canadian workforce
like back then?
• Poor, badly paid, working long hours in often
dangerous working conditions
• And angry about unfair treatment

19. There were many child labourers

20. It was their untimely deaths and
injuries that brought us the workers’
compensation system in 1914

21. What was the effect of the Russian
Revolution on Canadian workers?
An inspiration to fight back

22. Canada’s first general strike, 1918
• Canada’s first general strike (called
a one day labour holiday by the
organizers) occurred following the
murder of labour leader, Ginger
Goodwin, in 1918, at the
Cumberland coal mines on
Vancouver Island

23. 1919
• 150,000 workers on strike in various
workplaces across the country
• Many unions opposed to capitalism and
imperialism and inspired by Russian
Revolution

24. 1919
• 150,000 workers on strike in various
workplaces across the country
• Many unions opposed to capitalism and
imperialism and inspired by Russian
Revolution

25. One Big Union
• Founded in Calgary in 1919
• The OBU's anti-capitalist policy was evident by
its constitution's preamble:
• “The O.B.U. ... seeks to organize the wage worker nor
according to craft but according to industry;
according to class and class needs; and calls upon all
workers irrespective of nationality, sex, or craft to
organize into a workers' organization, so that they
may be enabled to more successfully carry on the
everyday fight over wages, hours of work, etc. and
prepare themselves for the day when production for
profit shall be replaced by production of use.”

26. One Big Union

27. 1919 Winnipeg General Strike
May 15 – June 26
• Workers demanded union recognition and higher
wages
• Employers, vigilantes and government fought them
• Sympathy strikes in Brandon, Calgary, Edmonton,
Saskatoon, Prince Albert, Regina, Vancouver, New
Westminster, Victoria, and in as many as 20 other
towns
• Police attacked the Winnipeg strikers, arresting and
injuring many, and killing two
• Federal government intervened, deported many
strikers

28. Winnipeg General Strike, 1919

29. Have we had a general strike in
Canada recently?
• Why not?
• Do we lack issues?
• Do we lack inspiration?
• Do we lack courage?

30. Women workers
• Canada was largely a sexist society which
discriminated against women
• They had the worst and hardest jobs and
promotions were denied them because they
were women
• Canadian women workers were paid less than
Canadian men

31. Women munitions plant workers,
World War I (1914-1918)

32. Minimum wage laws, 1918
• For women only and only in some occupations
• The right to vote was won in 1918

33. 1920s, despite unemployment
• Unions are weaker when jobs are scarce
• But when employers imposed wage cuts of 37%
in Cape Breton and fired union leaders, coal
miners fought back in a 5 year wave of strikes
(1922 to 1927)
• Police and militia used against strikers
• Much public support for miners across the
country
• They finally won union recognition and restored
most of their standard of living
• Federal government forced to restrict use of
military in strikes.

34. JB MacLaughlan
• Led the Cape Breton miners, despite the US-
based union’s lack of support
• Member of Communist Party till 1936

35. Organizing in the Great Depression
1929-1939

36. Great Depression, 1929 - 1939
• Huge numbers of unemployed, about 30% of
workforce
• Many rode on top of railroad boxcars from coast
to coast looking for work
• Workers, especially led by Communist Party
through the Workers’ Unity League (1928 to
1935), fought back and won many strikes
• 1937, 10,000 workers, many women, struck
Dominion Textile in Quebec. Quebec government
enacted most repressive labour legislation in
country.

37. 1937 UAW Strike, Oshawa

38. Oshawa, 1937
• One of most significant strikes in Canadian history
• 4,000 auto assembly plant workers at General
Motors plant in Oshawa went on strike for union
recognition of United Auto Workers (UAW)
• Demands:
– Union recognition
– 8 hour day
– Better wages and working conditions
– Seniority system to eliminate favouritism
• Union won union recognition and improvements
in other areas after 2 weeks; company concerned
about losing market share

39. Labour gains in
World War II,
1939-45

40. World War II
• Labour shortages due to workers going to war
overseas led to increased power of unions
• By 1943, strikes had exploded and more
workers were on strike than in 1919
• Big successful strikes of miners and
steelworkers
• Public opinion shifted in favour of workers
• Labour laws improved for unions in 1944
• And for all workers, e.g. Unemployment
Insurance, 1940

41. Women Shop Stewards Burrard Dry
Dock, North Vancouver, WWII

42. Ford strike 1945

43. 1945 Ford strike
• Context, during WWII, there was a shortage of
labour making unions more powerful
• 17,000 Windsor, Ontario auto workers struck
for 99 days for union recognition and won
• Result was the Rand formula imposed by
Justice Rand: all workers must pay union dues
(automatic check-off) and in exchange union
must represent all workers

44. Post – war years:
*Cold War
*diminished role of CP
*improved standard of living
*new social programs (CPP,
Medicare)
*many wildcat strikes

45. Steel strike Hamilton 1946
Hamilton Mayor Sam Lawrence (White Shoes and Hat) marching
in Stelco strikers parade, 1946
Strike

46. Canadian Seamens’ Union strike,
1949

47. Cold War
• Industrial unions in Canada were controlled from the
United States.
• Communist Party members still led many industrial
unions in Canada and actively and successfully
organized workers in the late 1940s and 1950s
• But Cold War politics meant Communist Party union
leadership began to be expelled from many trade
unions and leadership went to CCF ( the Co-operative
Commonwealth Federation which was social
democratic) supporters.
• 1956 Canadian Labour Congress founded from former
competing central labour bodies.
• Fights against CP leadership in various unions extended
into 1960s and the CP leaders mostly lost.

48. Improved workers’
standard of living

49. Ideology
• The post World War II period saw an expanding
economy with more jobs;
• Workers’ standard of living steadily increased and
consumer goods became affordable
• It became harder to convince workers that capitalism
was a fundamental problem when workers felt their
lives were improving
• Capitalist ideology in education, the media and the
workplace actively tried to persuade workers that
their interests were the same as the owners
• This is ‘false consciousness’ when workers don’t
realize that their interests are fundamentally
different from the employers.

50. CP influence decreased; CCF
influence increased

51. Communist Party influence diminished
while CCF influence increased
• Cold War propaganda made most workers fear
the Soviet Union and the Canadian CP
remained very close to the Soviet Union
• Most workers stopped feeling that a
revolution was necessary and that socialist
ideas such as medicare could be achieved
through supporting the CCF

52. Influx of Women Workers
• Beginning in 1960s women began working
more than ever before so that by the 1980s,
56% of women worked, comprising 42% of the
Canadian workforce.
• By mid 1980s, Canadian trade unions had 35%
women members.

53. 1960s
• Collective agreements: unions guarantee there
will be no strikes during the term of the
agreement (usually 3 years)
• But in the 1960s, wild-cat strikes were a growing
phenomenon; indeed, these strikes accounted for
one third of disputes reported in 1966. Workers
ignored the legalities of their contracts and struck
to protest speed-ups on the assembly line, the
firing of a fellow worker, and slow resolution of
grievances or contract negotiations.

54. Improvements in the 1960s in law or
collective agreements
• Two day weekends became standard
• Two week paid vacations were required by law
• One day paid holidays for Christmas and other
holidays, 8 per year
• Overtime pay of time and one half if work
over 44-48 hours per week

55. Social programs introduced
• Canada Pension Plan, 1965: federal government run,
for all working Canadians, paid for by employers and
workers compulsory payment; benefits according to
income
• Medicare, 1966: all Canadians receive free doctor
visits and treatment at hospital (note: no drugs away
from hospital and no dental)
• 1971, Unemployment Insurance plan greatly improved:
42 weeks of benefit for 10 weeks of work and 15 weeks
sickness and maternity benefits added (benefits have
been mostly cut back during the 1990s and 2000s,
except for parental leave being extended to 35 weeks
in 2001)

56. Occupational Health and Safety
• Labour militancy of early 1970s including many
strikes over unsafe and unhealthy workplaces led
to new occupational health and safety laws
protecting workers
• These laws are based on three fundamental
rights for workers: to participate in joint worker
and management occupational heath and safety
committees; to know about workplace hazards;
and to refuse unsafe work.
• More employer responsibility

57. Common Front

58. 1972
• Common front of Quebec unions, largest strike in
Canadian history (250,000 workers) calling for
major wage increases (context: high inflation) and
improved working conditions
• Started in public sector and spread to sympathy
strikes in private sector
• Confrontations with police
• Union leaders were arrested and jailed
• Public pressure led to their early release (4
months instead of one year)

59. Wage controls
• In context of oil stagflation and high inflation
• In response to labour militancy of early 1970s
fighting inflation and unsafe and unhealthy
work through strikes,
• Federal government imposed wage controls,
October 14, 1975
• Response to government wage controls, day
of protest, October 14, 1976, one million
workers participated across the country

60. Day of Protest, October 14, 1976

61. What Unions Face Today
and What We do About it

62. Corporate
(neoliberal)
agenda
• Corporate
agenda of
privatization,
de-regulation
and free trade
• 1981-2
recession, tens
of thousands of
workers laid off

63. Lay-offs

64. 1989, Free Trade Agreement
U.S. and Canada
Brian Mulroney and Ronald Reagan

65. 1989, Free Trade Agreement
between United States and Canada
• 1991-2, recession, tens of thousands of
workers laid off
• Many parts of the country never recovered

66. 1995 NAFTA
North American Free Trade Agreement
US, Canada and Mexico

67. 1995 WTO Founded
combined with NAFTA, tens of
thousands of workers laid off

68. Seattle anti-WTO protest, 1999

69. Quebec City anti-FTAAA protest,
April, 2001

70. October 2008 recession
Protesting layoffs in Hamilton

71. Many jobs have left Canada as a
result of free trade agreements
• After 1985 to the Southern United States (FTA)
• After 1989 to Mexico (NAFTA)
• After 1989 to China and many other countries
(WTO)
• The union response to the corporate agenda
of free trade and globalization is international
working class solidarity
• Workers’ interests are the same throughout
the world

72. It’s important to get to know Chinese workers
and union through exchanges

73. Harvard’s Elaine Bernard and
UCLA’s Kent Wong:
• “China has undergone tremendous change in
the past few decades…In this context of
change, would not more worker-to-worker
and union-to-union exchange be positive?
Through more dialogue with Chinese workers
and unions, the …labour movement could
promote mutually beneficial labour solidarity,
move beyond the cold war and unilateralism,
and refocus attention on the domestic and
global corporations and associated
institutions that are, in fact, the main threat
to workers throughout the world.”

74. Today, 30% of Canadian workers are in
unions (high was 1982 with 39%)
• The public sector has 71% of workers in unions
• But today the private sector has only 16% of
workers in unions
• Manufacturing, resource industries employ fewer
people
• Workers in the service sector are hard to
organize because employers threaten and
intimidate workers if they talk about joining a
union

75. Today, 70% of workers in unions
are in Canadian unions

76. Most workers now in
Canadian Unions
• In 1970, only 30% of workers who were
members of unions in Canada were members
of Canadian unions. The rest were members
of conservative, American-based unions.
• Today, it’s the opposite. 70% of all workers
who are members of unions in Canada, are
members of Canadian unions. The rest are
members of American-based unions.
• Canadian workers now control most of their
own unions.

77. What is the union response to
globalization and neoliberalism at
the bargaining table?
• Concessions?
• Or strikes and fight backs?
• Let’s look again at CAW bargaining with the
Detroit Big 3 automobile manufacturers

78. 1985, CAW left UAW over
concession bargaining in US

79. This became the CAW’s theme

80. When was the last strike against
General Motors in Canada and
what was the issue?
• 1996
• Contracting out and speed up

81. 2012 bargaining
• Traded wage increases and cost-of-living
increases for lump sum bonuses
• Increased the time for new workers to attain
top rate to 10 years (had been 18 months in
1985)
• Eroded benefits and vacations

82. Why didn’t the CAW strike against
concessions in 2008 or 2012
bargaining?
• Context of 2008 recession and government
requirements for concessions from unions in
exchange for bail-outs of Detroit Big 3
automobile manufacturers
• Very high Canadian dollar (over-valued by 20-
25%) makes manufacturing here harder and
less competitive
• Were the gains of the past too out of line with
the lack of gains by other unions and workers?

83. Have we lost our way?
Why are concessions happening now?
• Would the unions of 1919 have struck?
• Would the unions of 1937 have struck?
• Would the unions of 1985 have struck?

84. Concessions do what?
• Protect jobs? Provide job security?
• No, it hasn’t worked in the past and won’t in
the future.
• In fact they increase inequality and leave
corporations less interested in investment.
They dampen demand for products because of
decreased buying power.

85. Concessions do what?
• Exert no pressure on automobile industry to
shift production to sustainable products, from
electric cars to wind turbines
• Remember auto factories during World War II
were converted quickly into war production,
and back again.

86. Concessions do what?
• Make the union movement seem irrelevant
• Why do you need a union to negotiate
deferred or non-existent wage increases? The
boss will do that for free – no need to pay
union dues.
• The union movement needs to recapture the
vision of the last two hundred years. Dare to
dream to demand a new and relevant
economy to improve society and the
environment.

87. Concessions do what?
• Let private industry amass more capital which
they leave unused in their corporate coffers or
squander on ponzi schemes
• Governments should be massively investing in
a sound, sustainable economy, including
infrastructure and public services, with public
ownership for the public good.

88. The new union: the new One Big Union

89. New Union Project
• CAW and CEP (Chemical Energy and Paper
Workers) unions will found a new union
August 2013
• Since 1944 unions have been defined by
government certification
• The new union will define itself: unemployed
workers, workers in workplaces where the
union is not yet certified, young people, and
precarious or temporary workers will be able
to join the union

90. New Union
• Committed to be a
relevant force fighting
on behalf of all working
Canadians
• Drawing on the
fundamental roots of
union organizing in
Canada
• Has the potential to be
very exciting and a
genuine reinvigoration
of the union
movement

91. Trade unions
• Are the defense organizations of the working
class.
• They defend workers against oppression and
exploitation by employers.
• But they are also something more.
• They are actors for social, political and
economic change.
• Depending on their courage, their efforts and
their ideology as well as the specific material
conditions, their effects on human society can
be profound.

92. Thank you very much