The various labour unions in Canada rarely disagree with each other – and especially not publicly – but there has been a recent rift between the Labourers’ International Union of North America (LiUNA) and the Ontario Federation of Labour (OFL). Last week, the Ontario Provincial District Council of LiUNA sent an open letter to the OFL, withdrawing its membership from the umbrella union organization for Ontario. LiUNA says they have about 100,000 members in the province.
The reason for the split is that LiUNA doesn’t agree with a number of the political decisions the OFL has taken in recent years. What this difference of opinion really represents is the vast difference between private sector unions and their public sector counterparts. As private sector unionization is declining, more and more of the organized labour movement is found in government. Currently, of all the unionized employees in Canada, the majority are in the public sector even though the public sector represents about one in every four workers.
The rate of unionization in Canada overall declined from about 38 per cent in 1981 to barely 30 per cent today. Almost all of the decline was due to less unionization in the private sector, which fell from 21 per cent in 1997 to 15 per cent today, while public sector unionization actually increased slightly. By way of comparison, the US rate of public sector unionization is about 32 per cent, and private sector about 6 per cent.
Private sector unionization has dropped significantly as technology replaced jobs held by people and international competition moved some employment in manufacturing and other industries offshore. The public sector is notoriously slow at adopting technology, and it is strenuously opposed by unions, so fewer jobs have been lost in government as a result. The massive growth of the federal government and some provincial governments in recent years have also contributed to the greater share of union jobs found in the public sector.
The massive difference between unionization in Canada versus the U.S. is not surprising, as Canada has laws overly favourable to unions compared to the U.S. In Canada, union dues are mandatory in a unionized business whether the employee chooses to be a member of the union or not. Despite the immense privilege of forced union dues, which guarantees unions very healthy cash flows, there is no requirement for financial transparency for Canadian unions as there is in most cases in the U.S. and other countries. Over the years, many union members have attempted to gain financial disclosure from their unions to see where their forced dues are spent. These efforts have always been stonewalled by the unions, despite union claims to be democratic and financially transparent. One can only imagine how much of union dues are spent on political causes many union members would not agree with.
The OFL has been very critical of the Ford Conservative government, which is one of the major beefs of LiUNA. As LiUNA is primarily a construction industry union, it has been supportive of the Ford government’s investments in infrastructure and blue-collar work in general. Predominantly private sector unions have always been more pragmatic than their public sector counterparts, as they realize if their demands get excessive, they will drive private sector employers out of Canada and their jobs will disappear. That being said, economic realities have substantially reduced union jobs in the private sector as Canadian businesses have become less competitive than their foreign counterparts in many industries.
Unionized public sector jobs are more secure as governments have no competitors and can continue to rely on taxpayer funding as union demands continue to increase. This is especially true in Canada where our population is overly tolerant of the excessive wages and benefits of government employees, who continue to earn significantly more than a comparable job in the private sector, while enjoying gold plated pensions, earlier retirements and other benefits private sector employees do not.
Another factor that appears to have created division between public and private sector unions in Canada is the ongoing war in the Middle East. Public sector union leaders have been absurdly outspoken in supporting the so-called Palestinian cause and appearing to side with terrorists. There are a number of lawsuits in progress between Jewish government union members and their government union, in which financial disclosure is being demanded by the union members so they can see how much of their dues are being spent on a cause they completely oppose. The unions have so far been very resistant to providing this information, once again showing how undemocratic these unions are. LiUNA has had a dispute with at least one public sector union over this issue.
This division in union ranks in Ontario is important and could be the beginning of a major organized labour split. There is nothing to indicate that the decline in private sector unionization will stop anytime soon, to the point that governments could soon be the only unionized entities in Canada and other developed countries. It would be preferable for the Canadian government to require that unions be more accountable, more transparent with their finances and stay out of things like foreign wars that have nothing to do with them defending the interests of their members. Better still would be to make union dues voluntary, so that unions have to be accountable and represent the real interests of their members, not go off on political tangents that should have nothing to do with their role. In the interim, it seems that “solidarity forever” doesn’t really mean forever at all.
She has published numerous articles in journals, magazines & other media on issues such as free trade, finance, entrepreneurship & women business owners. Ms. Swift is a past President of the Empire Club of Canada, a former Director of the CD Howe Institute, the Canadian Youth Business Foundation, SOS Children’s Villages, past President of the International Small Business Congress and current Director of the Fraser Institute. She was cited in 2003 & 2012 as one of the most powerful women in Canada by the Women’s Executive Network & is a recipient of the Queen’s Silver & Gold Jubilee medals.
