Locked out Canadian Pacific Kansas City (CPKC) workers stand as they stop some trucks for five minutes before letting them enter the company's Vaughan yard, near Toronto, after Canadian National Railway and CPKC locked out workers following unsuccessful negotiation attempts in Vaughan, Ont., on Aug. 22.Carlos Osorio/Reuters
Canadian unions are still bargaining at the intensity they were in the 2022-23 years of high inflation – and locking in substantial wage gains for their members – even as inflation continues to ease.
Labour experts say this momentum at the negotiating table is mostly owing to unions trying to play catch-up on wages for their members whose contracts had not expired when the economy was experiencing rapidly rising prices.
“It is a lag effect. Unions are still getting wins on the wage front which are keeping them at pace with inflation,” explained Charles Smith, a political science professor at the University of Saskatchewan, whose research focuses on the intersection of labour and public policy. “I see this as just keeping up with the cost of living as opposed to getting ahead.”
Government data show that unions, both in the private sector and public sector, have successfully secured above-average wage increases for their workers over the past three years, even though those increases have not matched the pace of inflation.
Prior to 2022, unions would traditionally lock in annual wage increases that ranged between 1.5 per cent and 2.5 per cent (the prepandemic rate of inflation), but since 2022, that number has consistently been more than 3 per cent.
In the first half of 2024, according to data from Employment and Social Development Canada, private-sector unions across the country negotiated annual wage increases of 3.6 per cent for their members for contracts that spanned two to three years. That figure was 3.1 per cent for public-sector union members.
The average annual wage increases for private-sector union members was 4.4 per cent in 2023, and 3.1 per cent in 2022. For public-sector unionized workers it was 3.5 per cent and 2.5 per cent, respectively.
Private-sector unionized workers in Ontario have so far seen an average annual wage increase of 4.2 per cent in 2024, the same as 2023. That gain, however, is not evenly distributed amongst sectors, with significant wage wins coming from the construction industry.
“Although inflationary pressures are beginning to ease, the contracts currently being negotiated by unions are designed to make up for the last few years when inflation significantly outpaced wage increases,” said Larry Savage, professor of labour studies at Brock University. And to bolster their demands, Prof. Savage said, unions are continuing to engage in strike action.
This year alone, three high-profile strike actions have taken place across the country. In July, roughly 10,000 workers at the Liquor Control Board of Ontario walked off the jobs for almost two weeks – the Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU) managed to secure wage increases of 8 per cent over three years for LCBO workers.
A strike in July by 680 WestJet airline mechanics represented by the Airline Mechanics Fraternal Association (AMFA) resulted in a cumulative 26-per-cent wage increase over five years.
And just this past week, an impasse between the Teamsters Canada Rail Conference and the two major railway operators in Canada led to the first-ever lockout of Teamsters workers and a short-lived strike before the federal labour board imposed binding arbitration and ordered thousands of rail employees back to work.
Teamsters Canada Rail Conference members walk a picket line at the CPKC headquarters in Calgary on Aug. 22. The main sticking points for Canadian rail workers has been relocation, rest periods and scheduling.Jeff McIntosh/The Canadian Press
Federal data on the frequency and number of strikes across the country show that 74 work stoppages took place between January and June of this year. The data only cover strikes and lockouts of more than 10 days. Last year, there were a whopping 745 work stoppages, more than four times the number of strikes and lockouts Canada usually experiences over the course of year.
The rail strike, in particular, illustrated how there are significant residual issues from the pandemic around the welfare and treatment of workers that continue to galvanize unions, according to Rafael Gomez, a professor of employment relations at the University of Toronto.
The main sticking points for Canadian rail workers has been relocation, rest periods and scheduling. The latter two demands, according to the Teamsters union, are rooted in safety issues.
“Many labour-intensive industries such as transportation suffered shortages in the pandemic. The demand for these services came back: consumers wanted to travel but worker shortages continued, so you are going to have a situation where workers are asking for more because they are doing more,” Mr. Gomez said.
Labour unrest could well persist into the latter half of the year as contracts across major unionized sectors expire. Last week, Air Canada AC-T pilots voted overwhelmingly in favour of strike action that could result in a job walkout as early as mid-September. On Sunday, thousands of auto workers at General Motors’ electric-vehicle assembly plant in Ingersoll, Ont., delivered a strong strike mandate to Unifor ahead of formal talks on Sept. 9.
Adam King, an associate professor in labour studies at the University of Manitoba, told The Globe and Mail that he believes that union momentum at the bargaining table will continue in the near future until unionized workers feel that they have caught up on lost real wages from the years of high inflation.
“Inflation might have tapered, but I think workers will have a longer memory than their bosses about their own salaries,” he said. “Most working people are still experiencing a high cost of living so they are going to continue to be incentivized to vote for strike action if they need to.”