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Month XXXX
August 2013
2reasons to thank a union
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A celebrAtion of lAbour dAy How Ontario’s unions are forging forward to a brighter future for Canadians.
unionized lAbour in ontArio
Featuring
OntariO’s grOwth sid ryan on the future of ontario’s workforce
Organized LabOurHow skilled labour is the
key to a stronger province
Fairness FOr aLLKen Georgetti on workers’ equality
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Labour Day in Canada is an opportunity to honour and celebrate our nation’s rich history of organized labour while looking to the future of our workforce.
challenges
Unions promote fairness for all
On Labour Day we celebrate the many c o n t r i b u -tions of work-ing people who helped to
build Ontario and its economy. By standing together, people in the labour movement have won safer workplaces, decent wages, work-place pensions, drug and dental insurance plans.
It doesn’t stop there. Working together, we have demanded more from the people who hold elect-ed office in our boards, councils and legislatures. That’s how we achieved minimum wages, paid vacation time and public health insurance for everyone. When workers get together and stand up for fairness, we get results.
Advantages and gainsOur researchers at the Canadian Labour Congress have found that on average unionized workers in Ontario earn $6.11 an hour more than do non-union workers. That
unionized labour 2nd edition, august 2013
Publisher: david lilleymanManaging Director: Joshua nagelEditorial Manager: Maggie ritchie
Lead Designer: alana giordanoDesigner: laura shaw
Contributors: sharon desousa, ben Fallingbrook, Ken georgetti, ontario
Federation of labour, Chris riddell, Joe rosengarten, sid ryan, John telford,
Paul tsang, Madeline twerk
Send all inquiries to [email protected]
Distributed within: the toronto star, august 2013
this section was created by Mediaplanet and did not involve toronto star or its
editorial departments.
Mediaplanet’s business is to create new customers for our advertisers by providing readers with high-quality editorial content that motivates them to act.
extra money in the pockets of the province’s 1.6 million union-ized workers is worth a cumula-tive $351.6 million more per week that is added to the provincial economy.
This represents a gain for local communities and small business-es as well as for the individual workers involved because union-ized workers spend most or all of their pay cheques close to home. We bolster the community tax base and the donor base of char-ities. In short, these commun-ities become better places to work and live.
Worker equalityBelonging to a union is espe-cially important for female and younger workers. We have found that in Ontario women who be-long to unions earn an average of $7.43 cents an hour more than do women in non-unionized workplaces.
In Canada as a whole, young workers aged 15 to 29 earn an additional $5.53 an hour. But all
Ken GeorgettiPresident, Canadian labour Congress
workers — whether unionized or not — share in what has been won by the labour movement at the bargaining table.
Fairness for allAs union members, we believe in the old saying that what we want for ourselves, we seek for all. That is why, for example, our Congress is working to convince govern-ments to improve Canada Pension Plan benefits.
We want to make sure that every retired Canadian — wheth-er or not they belonged to a union — will receive a livable retirement income from CPP. It can easily be done and it’s only fair.
On this Labour Day we hold our heads high as we salute the con-tributions of workers and their unions. We have helped to build a stronger and more secure econ-omy for everyone in Ontario.
“When workers get together and stand up for fairness, we get results.”
Unions help to represent gender equality in the workforce.Photo: ua PiPing industry College oF british ColuMbia
Ken GeorGetti
1rEASon
ThAnK A Union For ThE 40-hoUr
WorK WEEK
Sid ryan lays out what ontario needs
to succeed
PAGE
special thanks
6
eDitOR’s pick
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We are Canada’s Building Trades Unions
ROOTED
industry perspective
People tend to think of unions as only benefiting workers they represent, but they actually benefit everyone. In Ontario, unions helped create Workers Compensation, Em-ployment Insurance, anti-sexual harass-ment laws, employment standards and Oc-cupational Health and Safety laws. With-out unions, people in Ontario today would not have these programs and laws to protect them.
When I was younger, Labour Day was simply a long weekend to spend with my family and friends. Until I became part of a union I didn’t realize Labour Day represented the history of how workers fought for their rights for a better life. Now I see Labour Day as a celebration of our Canadian heritage and I am honoured to be a part of that history.
Canadians just have to look at what’s happening in the United States as an ex-ample. In the U.S., union membership has been declining for years and with that we’ve seen lower wages and a disappearance of benefits and pensions. But it’s not just the economy that’s suffered; unions are a part of a healthy democracy by providing a voice for workers. Without unions, I worry about the quality of life for our children and the genera-tions that follow.
Sharon DeSousaOntario Regional Executive VP, PSAC
How have unions impacted Ontario’s workforce?
1 What would Canada’s future look like
without unions?
2 What does Labour Day mean to you?
3
Unions improve working conditions for union members and non-union workers. Unions campaign for improvements to so-cial benefits such as public healthcare, Can-ada Pension Plan, unemployment insurance, workers compensation, maternity leave, an-ti-harassment and occupational health and safety, and minimum wage. Unions are chal-lenging growing income inequality, oppos-ing tax cuts for the rich paid for by cuts to public services like education, health care, child care and social assistance that have the biggest impact on the poor and on middle class Ontarians.
Labour Day for me is about family, the community, and a vision for a better future. I take my wife and kids on the annual Labour Day parade, walk through the communities where workers and their family and friends live, and take pride in the being part of the tens of thousands of fellow union members working hard every day towards a shared vi-sion of good jobs for all, for a living wage, with dignity and respect in the workplace.
Unions are needed to negotiate the terms and conditions of work. Unions ensure fair-ness at work, a dispute resolution process with timelines and accountability, and pro-tection for workers standing up for their rights to refuse dangerous work, and protec-tion against workplace harassment and dis-crimination. A Union contract also protects Employers, ensuring no job action during the life of the agreement. Without unions, there would be a race-to-the-bottom on wages, health and safety, more precarious tempor-ary work, and work without benefits.
Through fair collective bargaining, construction unions and all unions as a mat-ter of fact have improved the lives of union members and their families; a side benefit to this is all workers have also been swept along to better wages and conditions. The union workforce of Ontario is highly motivated, multi-skilled and professional and most im-portantly the safest workforce in the world. What a pleasure it is to see young men and women entering the unionized construction industry, there are great times ahead.
At some point on Labour Day I reflect back on the Plumbers, Fitter and Welders who taught me my trades. These same people supported me as a tradesman, supervisor and eventually as their Business Manager. When I think of the individuals who spent so much of their lives teaching, mentoring and sup-porting me, well it humbles me and I am re-minded of all the men and women I work for and what they expect and deserve from me. It definitely keeps me grounded.
I would hate to think of the construction landscape without unions and fair union contractors. The first casualty would be the quality of work. The non-union contractors make a living utilizing 5 percent licensed trades people and by using 95 percent cas-ual labour with no thought on apprentice-ship or building the workforce of the future. Another major concern would be safety. The workplace would become a killing zone with absolutely no respect for the workers safety if it adversely affected the bottom line.
John TelfordDirector Canadian Affairs,UA Canada
Paul TsangPresident, Local 1998United Steelworkers
highly trained people,” he said.“When the job is done, the em-
ployer can just lay them off. He doesn’t have to worry about the cost of carrying the workforce, or paying any termination costs. All he has to worry about is paying them the hourly rate.”
Healthy working relationshipThe construction industry seems to be going some way to dispelling some of the age-old misconcep-tions that are held about the re-lationship between employer and union.
It doesn’t need to be fractious, that’s counter productive and benefits nobody. When all parties are working together, with shared goals, conflict is a rarity.
Blakely feels that unions only get mentioned during some sort of dispute, a fact that doesn’t help the public perception.
“A good news, labour relations story never makes the paper,” he said, “We don’t hate employers, that’s a myth. In fact, we part-ner with employers everyday when we represent our industry to government.”
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InspIratIon
chris riddell
things that we have in our lives today that were put into place by unions, and we salute the efforts of those workers that struggled to im-plement change for the better.
Steady and safe work for lifeBefore unions were formed, work-ers often were faced with danger-ous, unsanitary working conditions and not given respectable retire-
some people say Canada doesn’t need unions any-more, but unionized labour
plays a vital role in keeping the Canadian economy healthy and in the daily lives of ordinary Can-adians. Union workers account for over 40 percent of the Canadian workforce and provide many bene-fits for both workers and the public.
Some of these benefits include the types of things that Canadians take for granted. They were fought for long and hard by Labour unions over the years to implement, and in most cases governments have taken credit for implementing.
Fighting for their rightsBefore unions first appeared in Canada in the early 1800s, 60 hour work weeks were common and many people had to endure unsafe work conditions, receiving little in the way of retirement and bene-fits packages. Unions fought for the 40 hour work week as well as pen-sions, holidays, and health insur-ance. Better wages were also a ma-jor concern.
Higher wages with periodic raises helped secure better qual-ity of life for all workers. In 1872 Sir John A McDonald signed the Trade Union Act, giving workers the legal right to form unions and fight for the better working conditions they wanted.
There were many struggles for unions in their efforts to increase the standard of living for the work-ing person, including people losing their homes, livelihoods, freedom, and in some cases their lives to fur-ther the cause of helping working people.
History books do not tell us much about the good things that unions have done, but there are many
ment packages. Steady work was hard to come across and once work-ers were past 50 years of age there was no future for them at all. Now we see a total reversal of this in the current trend to keep skilled work-ers on the job into their 60s and 70s. It is well known that union mem-bers receive excellent retirement packages, and are able to refuse work if they feel it’s unsafe.
Skilled labour does a better jobWhen Building Trades union work-ers are on the job we have an assur-ance that they are properly trained in building codes and best practis-es with high skill levels for what-ever project they’re working on. This assurance that the job will be done right, safely, and productive-ly is the reason that all work in con-struction and maintenance should be unionized.
Building Trades unions have pro-vided a mobile workforce to build Canada for over one hundred years in many cases and have only really been recognized for this achieve-ment lately because of the worker shortages.
Building Trades union members are not bound to work in one city or province but can work anywhere in Canada that they choose to be-cause they possess valuable, trans-ferable skills that are in demand all over the world, and these skills can be applied to a multiple situa-tions and projects. This provides an unmatched level of flexibility, utility, and mobility which makes the union worker more valuable to industry.
Union workers have excellent job prospects, a good quality of life, and a bright future because of the work that was done in the past by unions that sacrificed their lives in some cases to make a better life for the working man in Canada. We need to remember that on Labour Day, and take a moment to thank them for the excellent standard of living we have today.
don’t miss
Organized labOur ensures better quality Of life fOr all
Madeline [email protected]
“Unions fought for the 40 hour work week as well as pensions, holidays, and health insurance.”
making a diFFerenceTOP: apprenticeships provide proper training and better workers. LeFT: canada’s diverse workforce is moving our country forward.PHOTOs: UA PiPing indUsTry COllege Of BriTisH
COlUmBiA
PHOTO: JOHn mAClennAn, CUPe
the person. If they want some-one who climbs steel and is pre-pared to work 350 feet in the air, freefall, the union will find them that person.”
Planning for tomorrowBy keeping the workforce in-formed and safe, and by ensur-ing that all employees are prop-erly trained, unions help to keep projects on track, meaning that they’re more likely to reach completion on time and, there-fore, have minimal impact on the day-to-day lives of Canadian taxpayers.
“We train a lot of the construc-tion workforce at our 350 training centres across the country, where we spend $160 million on train-ing annually. Our infrastructure in those training centres probably cost around $650 million,” said Blakely. “We’re trying to build for the future, so that our employers have an edge and others will want to do business with us.”
employer advantagesBlakely believes that there are a variety of reasons why it’s bene-ficial for an employer to have unionized workers on their team. “If an employer in a small town needs to take his workforce from 3 employees to 60 employees, for 14, 28 or 35 days, the unions can send
Unions seem to divide opin-ion. Whether it’s through a lack of knowledge, or a lack
of understanding, some people still view unions as divisive or-ganizations that aim to hinder the progression of important pub-lic and private projects. But these misconceptions are outdated and need to be eradicated.
Long standing myths“There is a myth that says that unions are anti-business, that unions hate their employers, and that unions think that every em-ployer is evil,” said Bob Blakely, chief operating officer of Canada’s Building Trades Unions.
“That’s not the case in our busi-ness. We have a business that is extremely competitive and virtu-ally every job is earned by the con-tractor, usually through past per-formance on a job or by being the low bid.”
Construction unions deal with a lot of the administration that comes with employing a large workforce, allowing the contract-or to concentrate on organizing the workflow of the project.
“Unions do a lot of the HR plan-ning for the employer,” said Blake-ly. “When the employer wants an employee, they don’t go to the newspaper, they phone the union hall and the union finds them
BRIDgINg THe DIvIDe: CANADA’S WORkfORCe
Joe rosengarTen
Bob BlakelyCEO,Building TradEs uniOns
“We’re trying to build for the future, so that our employers have an edge and others will want to do business with us.”
Pay equality for women has always been paramount to canada’s unions.PHOTO: ua PiPing indusTry COllEgE Of BriTish COlumBia
With Jared mccormick, Steamfitter/Pipefitter apprentice, Ua canada
Q&A
Why did you decide to join a trade union?
I decided to join UA local 56 after attending univer-
sity for two years. I had always im-agined that I would go to univer-sity and get a degree after high school, however, it was not for me. Joining a trade union gave me the option of working while learning the necessary skills for my career.
How have you benefited from a unionized workforce?
The greatest benefit of a unionized workforce is the
support you receive from the day your sworn in. There is always someone there to lend a hand, be it at work or helping with regis-tration for apprenticeship blocks. The union gives you a foundation for success.
What would you say to someone entering the workforce about union work?
I would tell them that union work gives you a safe work
environment, a great pay and the tools to succeed in your trade.
2reaSOn
THank a UniOn FOr PUBLic PenSiOnS
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joinUACanada.ca
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News
Precarious work■■ At least 20 percent of workers in
the GTA and Hamilton have pre-carious work.
■■ Precarious work has increased by 50 in the GTA and Hamilton over the last 20 years .
Migrant workers■■ In 2011, the number of tempor-
ary migrant workers coming to Canada (190,769) surpassed the number of economic immigrants that were admitted to Canada as permanent residents (156,077).
■■ The number of migrant work-ers deemed “low-skill” in Ontario has increased from 71,842 in 2006 to 119,899 in 2012.
Employment■■ Unemployment rate in July
2013: 7.6 percent. The unemploy-ment rate in Ontario has been hovering just below 8 percent throughout 2013, significantly higher than the 2008 unemploy-ment rate of 6.5 percent.
■■ The proportion of Ontar-ians who are employed has also failed to recover and a gap of over 220,000 jobs still exists to reach pre-recession (2008) employment rates.
Pensions■■ Only 34 percent of Ontario
workers are covered by a work-place pension.
■■ More than 11 million workers in Canada do not have a workplace pension.
Challenges facing young workers in Ontario
■■ In July 2013: 394,500 youth aged 15-24 were unemployed in Ontario.
■■ 128,695 jobs still need to be cre-ated for young workers in Ontario to the reach pre-recession em-ployment rate.
■■ Average student debt from both public and private loans af-ter a four year degree: $37,000.
■■ 42.3 percent of young adults aged 20-29 are living with their parents, compared to 26.9 per-cent in 1981.
Source: [email protected]
Changing face of Ontario’s workforce
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UniOns in aCtiOnLEFt: a union rally to celebrate achievements in labour relations. RiGHt: Union work ranges from constuction to trades, public work — even textiles establish the backbone of our province.LEFT: oFL, righT: workErs uniTEd canada
Thank a union.See what else the labour movement
has fought for and won. oneminutemessage.canadianlabour.ca
This message brought to you by the Elementary Teachers’
Federation of Ontario.
Looking forward to the weekend?
Sid ryan
For generations, parents have held dear the expectation that their hard work would deliver a brighter future and improved fortunes for their children and their grandchildren.
However, today’s youth are pre-dicted to become first generation in history to face a lower stan-dard of living than their parent’s generation.
For the better part of the last century, high school students could expect to graduate into well-paid jobs in manufactur-ing or other sectors that allowed them to buy a home and support a family. Their counterparts to-day are graduating from college or university with mortgage-sized debts only to wind up stag-nating in low-paying and precar-ious jobs that offer little room for advancement.
Current labour marketAt the root of this reversal of for-tunes are current labour market trends that are creating great-er income inequality, undermin-ing job security, driving wages down and quashing the hopes and aspirations of young workers. But the good news is that these trends are not natural or inevitable and that means they can be changed. Working together, community groups and labour unions are call-
ing on politicians at every level to adopt a new vision for economic growth that puts the creation of good jobs at the centre of a long-range plan to lift every Ontarian.
Doing so requires us to strengthen public policy to pre-vent the encroachment of a low-wage agenda. There are three im-portant steps we can take.
three changesFirst, we need to increase the min-imum wage to raise the bar for everyone. This requires an im-mediate increase to $14 per hour with annual adjustments for in-creases in the cost of living.
With a greater number of people earning the minimum wage than ever before, this will lift the working poor above the poverty line and en-able them to spend more money in their communities.
Second, we must enhance pro-tections for migrant workers. Whether you know it or not, in nearly every sector, the expending number of migrant workers is driving down wages and working conditions.
Take, for example, the fact that during the height of the reces-sion, while Ontario’s economy was shedding over 164,000 net jobs over 60,000 migrant workers still entered the province on tem-porary work permits. This allows employers to side-step the im-migration process, employment
standards and prevailing wages and it has a negative impact on every worker in Ontario.
Third, we have to bolster work-ers’ rights and enhance their abil-ity to join a union. Current efforts to limit union representation are motivated by a corporate desire to silence the collective voice of workers and erode employment standards, wages and benefits.
Counter-balanceIn workplaces across Ontario, unions provide a counter-balance to the unchecked power of cor-porations while, in communities, they defend the public interest by promoting public pensions, equal pay for women and support for unemployed workers. Simply put, unions are a vehicle for collective action and creating the good jobs that built today’s middle class and will support tomorrow’s families.
As Canadians celebrate the end of summer over the Labour Day weekend, it is an important op-portunity to reflect on the kind of economic future we want for ourselves and for the next gener-ation. It is time that we demand that people are put at the centre of Ontario’s growth.
UnIOnS PUT PeOPLe AT THe CenTre OF OnTArIO’S GrOWTH
sid RyanPresident, OntariO FederatiOn OF LabOur
“Simply put, unions are a vehicle for collective action and creating the good jobs that built today’s middle class and will support tomorrow’s families.”
Why did you decide to join a trade union?
The local Union was recom-mended to me after complet-
ing my first three years of appren-ticeship in the non-Union work-force. I wanted to get experience in the industrial and commercial workplace.
What would you say to someone entering the workforce about union work?
My Union guides its mem-bers to be the highest trained
and most valuable tradesmen in the industry. It’s an opportunity that I otherwise would not have had access to.
DON’T MISS
With Martin Mcnaughton, Ua Canada Local 71Plumber/Gasfitter
Q&A
