Present situation

Trade unions in Canada seem in better shape than trade unions (T.U.) in other industrialized countries. Membership has increased slightly but steadily over the last 20 years. Since 197S the degree of unionization hovers around 37%. This stability results from the unionization of public sector employees, who have in a way filled the vacancies left by the ever-declining number of union members in the private sector, where the proportion is down to 20% or 25% of the non-agricultural paid workers. The relative success of T.U. in Canada is partly if not wholly explained by the support received from the law.

Union certification procedure is by way of signed-union-cards checking rather than by certification election. The method has proven much more successful than the election votes in the United States. If a firm is sold or if a part of its operations is transferred to another firm, successor rights are guaranteed to the union regarding certification and the collective agreement. Automatic and mandatory union dues check-off have ensured ail certified unions an extraordinary financial security.

Day-to-day union activity at the workplace is as varied as there are union locals in this country. Four types may be identified: the business agent inspired-or dominated-local, the democratie and pluralist local, the "democratic" local controlled by the union representative, and the 100%- bureaucratic local with cases of ghost locals.

Current problems

The major economic problem facing T.U. in Canada is probably not free-trade but the major structural changes in the labour force. Already close to 70% of all jobs are in the tertiary sector of the economy, the largest chunk taken up by trade and personal services. Even the new firms in the secondary sector are mostly made up of small and medium size plants. In all these cases unionization is difficult: union structures are geared to large manufacturing plant situations. In the coming decade, court decisions regarding labour legislation and the new Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms will be critical for the T.U. movement. The Supreme Court of Canada has already ruled that freedom of association guaranteed by the Charter does not necessarily include the right to free collective bargaining and the right to strike.

Social climate involves a strong wave of individualism, personal rights and political conservatism, all factors that are not conducive and favourable to T.U. development.

Perspective 2000

In the year 2000, trade unions will still be around in Canada. It is much more difficult to define their character and characteristics. The T.U. movement would benefit if it were to define more clearly its short- and long-term objectives. The present hiatus between T.U. rhetoric and activities is obvious. T.U. activities, especially but not only in collective bargaining, are clearly of a corporate (or "corporatist") nature, essentially oriented towards the interests of the members and the institution itself. Privileges granted T.U. because of their social justice orientation may be brought into question, and even repealed if political climate calls for greater uniformity before the law. Public sector strikes, among other factors, have seriously damaged the public image of T.U.

Traditional T.U. jurisdictions are in jeopardy: more and more unions are recruiting in any sector of the economy. Various T.U. may all end up as general unions. Competition among them may be beneficial, but central bodies will lose one of their major raisons d'être, to defend T.U. member jurisdictions and to arbitrate any conflict of that nature.

Failing a major reorientation on their part, T.U. in Canada may not enjoy much longer their relative stability: they may eventually suffer the decline already noticed in the United States and in most industrialized coun tries. They may avoid such a fate, if they enter the true game of free trade and free enterprise. For they are themselves, as part of the T.U. industry, in the business of ensuring their members and other workers good working conditions.