Canadian Labour Today

...But if you look below the surface today, all is not so rosy. The long-term effects of neoliberal inspired restructuring that began in the late 1970s have reshaped the environment of today’s Canadian economy. This has given new power to employers to demand concessions. Whether the threatened outcome is takeover by a U.S. corporation, the movement of investment out of the country, enhanced dependence upon transnational investment decisions, outsourcing, or bankruptcy protection, the logic of capitalist restructuring weighs heavily on the minds of workers. This is not to mention the three-decade-long assault on public sector trade union rights going back to the late 1970s. Governments have increasingly used their power to legislate public sector workers back to work, instead of bargaining.2 Huge differences in wages, job tenure, security, and working conditions continue to be a growing feature of working-class life. Precarious work is becoming more prevalent. Better-off workers worry about losing their jobs and being forced into a lower tier of the labor market. Lower down the ladder, those who survive by working longer hours and making other sacrifices blame those at the bottom. The poorest feel little solidarity with the rest of the class. The reduction of social services and rights and the lack of collective experiences of common struggle have helped to create a “disorganization” of the class, with a growing consciousness of resignation to and acceptance of the status quo, resulting in a search for individual solutions.3 These factors have helped to undermine many of the previous successes of Canadian labor and leave the movement vulnerable. But they only tell part of the story. In this era, when capital continues to aggressively dismantle what remains of the welfare state, the movement has been unable and unwilling to recognize the depth of the crisis, the impossibility of resuscitating the postwar compromise, and the necessity of radicalizing its political outlook and its ways of working and organizing. Comparisons with the United States hide the downward slope of Canadian membership levels. Density peaked at 40 percent in the mid-1980s, declined to 36 percent in the mid-1990s, and has been reduced to today’s 30.4 percent level. Most of the decline came in the private sector, which shrunk from almost 30 percent in the mid-1980s, to less than 20 percent today. Public sector numbers have remained fairly steady.4 Densities are quite uneven across the country. Levels are highest in Newfoundland/Labrador and Québec, both around 40 percent. But in Ontario—Canada’s industrial heartland and by far the most populous province—rates have remained at about 27 percent overall, and at 17.8 percent in the private sector. Unions have organized new members, but the modest success of organizing hasn’t kept pace with the growth in the workforce.5 The decline in union coverage has affected men more than women. The percentage of male workers who were unionized fell from almost 50 percent in the mid-1980s to about one-third today. The percentage for women has fallen much less, remaining steady at 32 percent since 1997. This reflects the preponderance of women in the public sector, where two-thirds of women work. Sixty-one percent of unionized men work in the private sector.6 During this period of employer aggressiveness, most unions have retreated to a position of defensiveness. In auto and auto parts suppliers—Canada’s most important industrial sector—the World Trade Organization (WTO) has annulled the U.S.-Canada Auto Pact rules that tied market access to investment levels. The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) calls for continental, rather than country-based content rules. With no effective state-imposed regime regulating investment, and a growing overcapacity in the industry, the Canadian Auto Workers (CAW)—the country’s largest private sector union—has become more dependent upon U.S. multinational auto companies’ investment decisions and less able to argue for political means to structure or direct them. Full article: http://www.monthlyreview.org/0605brennan.htm [Proofreader's note: this article was edited for spelling and typos on June 7, 2005]

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