Canadian Scholars: Freedom to Form Unions Has Positive Impact

by Seth Michaels, Jul 8, 2009

A group of Canadian scholars is helping to cut through the myths and lay out the facts about the Employee Free Choice Act. These 100 scholars and professors agree workers need the freedom to form unions and bargain for a healthy economy.

In an open statement released yesterday, these 100 academics, who study a variety of disciplines at institutions across Canada, say wide access to collective bargaining in Canada is good for Canada’s economy. Contrary to the unsupported statements of corporate mouthpieces, Canada’s broad union membership hasn’t hurt its labor markets; indeed, in recent years, Canada—where some 31 percent of workers are in unions—has experienced lower unemployment than the United States.

Many Canadians have the choice of majority sign-up for forming unions; federally overseen sectors and workers in five provinces all have the option of using majority sign-up. In eight provinces, workers have access to first-contract arbitration.

Here’s what these scholars say about the benefits of greater access to the freedom to form unions and bargain in Canada:

Canada’s labor relations system works in a relatively effective and timely manner; the vast majority of contracts are settled without work stoppage.

There are also significant social benefits from Canada’s more extensive collective bargaining system. Income inequality is less extreme in Canada compared to the U.S., according to a variety of measures. The incidence of poverty (including poverty among employed persons) is significantly smaller. The impact of unions and collective bargaining systems in limiting low pay and providing more comprehensive and secure employee benefits to workers has surely contributed to these positive outcomes. Empirical evidence also indicates that union membership and collective bargaining has had an especially significant impact on the wages and benefits of workers who are most susceptible to precarious or insecure employment, including women, racialized groups, and new Canadians.

As research by American Rights at Work shows, first-contract arbitration in Canada is a successful tool to make sure workers can bargain for a better life. Some 80 percent of Canada’s workforce is covered under first-contract arbitration, and in nearly every one of the thousands of cases studied, workers and their employers reached contracts by voluntary agreement—fewer than 2 percent of contracts were reached through arbitration in studies of Ontario, Quebec and Saskatchewan.

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