![]() The Ontario Chamber of Commerce and the Toronto Board of Trade declined to comment on the effect of unionizations on businesses.Īccording to Statistics Canada, the total number of job vacancies across all sectors reached an all-time high of 912,600 in the third quarter of 2021. "We see this trend continuing in 2022 as workers seek a meaningful voice on the job." ![]() "Since late 2020, workers at four book stores and eight retail cannabis stores in Ontario have voted to join UFCW 1006A," wrote Prince in an email to CBC News. Unionizing and the labour shortageĪccording to Lesley Prince, director of organizing at UFCW Local 1006A, the local has seen "strong interest" from many retail workers. "Advocating for ourselves became essential to our ability to advocate for our clients," said Craine. Over the pandemic, support services have been dealing with a worsening opioid, homelessness and mental health crisis leading to long service wait times and barriers to in-person treatment. "But I believe that we're coming at it from two very different perspectives … so it was necessary to create a situation where the people who their feet on the ground and direct service have a greater say." "I don't feel that it's an us-against-them situation," the program services case worker said of the relationship between the Salvation Army and its employees. Another barrier is employer intimidation, something he says governments don't do enough to stop, even though it's illegal.įor Lyndsay Craine, one of 110 new members from The Salvation Army York Housing and Support Services who unionized with UFCW Locals 175 & 633 in December, unionization seemed within reach after COVID-19 showed the importance of her work. ![]() Stanford says some of those hurdles include rules governing unionization campaigns and certification votes. Jim Stanford, director of the Centre for Future Work, says he expects efforts to win rights and protections for gig workers will accelerate for a variety of reasons in the coming years, including due to a tightening of labour market conditions as the economy reopens after COVID-19. Jim Stanford, the director of the Centre for Future Work, a research institute in Canada and Australia, says industries like retail, hospitality and manufacturing are reckoning with the reality that their employees, who traditionally aren't unionized, may be looking to unionize to improve their working conditions. The percentage of workers who belong to unions throughout the country has held steady - before and during the pandemic -hovering at over 30 per cent for about a decade, according to Statistics Canada.īut while public sector workers are highly unionized at 77.2 per cent as of 2021, only 15.3 per cent of their private sector counterparts belong to unions, down from 21.3 per cent in 1997. I think coming back, it sort of woke them up." Why now might be a good time to unionize "We locked down in 2020 and people had the time away from work. ![]() ![]() "COVID-19 was the straw that broke the camel's back," said Whipple. Whipple is now among 35,000 members represented by United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 1006A, which deals with workplaces such as grocery stores, retail shops, restaurants and more. Union calls for bonuses, increased safety measures for front-line workersīut instead of leaving, she helped spearhead the unionization effort at her store last summer, following in the footsteps of at least five other Indigo stores in Canada where employees unionized. ![]()
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