A Labour Day Dispatch from Nova Scotia

Well: unions have given us the weekend; they’ve fought to get us the eight-hour day; they have fought for improved health and safety laws; they have eradicated child labour; they have managed to get us paid holidays (a minimum of two weeks a year) and six paid public holidays each year. 

Unions have given 25% of Nova Scotians a voice in what is going on in their workplaces.  This is very valuable because without a collective voice, workers are forced to leave their jobs because there is little way to change anything substantive in their workplace. 

Unions have given many workers a sense of stability, the chance to keep their job –in reverse order of seniority– in the event of a layoff at their workplace. Unions have also given workers a way to fight discrimination and racism at work. Unions ensure workers have access to a grievance and arbitration process, which gives them a shot at reversing unjust disciplinary penalties or even firing by management.

Unions also raise the wages for most workers far beyond what individuals can get on their own. Data from Statistics Canada shows that union members earn $5.00 per hour more, on average, compared to their non-unionized counterparts. Interestingly, the union advantage was strongest for temporary workers; in 2022, unionized temporary workers earned nearly $9.00 more than those not unionized. 

What could unions do better?

Unions could be more proactive in organizing the unorganized, especially those in low-paying wage jobs.  Many in Nova Scotia look at the strike that just ended by 3700 Metro grocery workers in Toronto and wonder why there are no unions representing employees in the two major grocery chains on mainland Nova Scotia.  At one time, there were unions in some stores, but today – except for the stunning example of workers at Pete’s Frootique – no grocery stores are unionized.  Grocery workers earn $15 to $18 an hour – 36% less than the $23.50 per hour living wage in Halifax.

Nova Scotia is the only Canadian province that does not allow workers to claim for stress, and harassment caused in the workplace.  The NS Occupational Health and Safety Act does not recognize workplace harassment and bullying claims under Worksafe NS.  We have to get in line with Acts across the country and start to compensate those who can no longer work in psychologically toxic work environments.

Unions could take on and fight social causes outside of their immediate focus.  For instance, from 1970 to 1994, the union movement in Toronto developed, built and managed 3600 nonprofit-cooperative housing units.  Forty housing projects were developed by the Toronto Labour Council Development Foundation which built homes for more than 11,000 people.  In today’s rampant housing crisis, labour could help to solve it.

Another cause is that of disability rights. Here in NS about a third of adults have a disability, many disabilities become more pronounced as people age.  Unions could start fighting disability and age discrimination in the workplace. We’ve all noticed how few people with visible disabilities get jobs and how disabilities related to ageing limit the time people can spend in paid work.

Since COVID we have all noticed that 54% of workers in Nova Scotia have no paid sick leave.  Sixty-nine percent of Canadians who earn less than $25,000 per year have no sick leave.  This must change because COVID isn’t going away, and other illnesses such as the flu, ramp up in the winter months.  There is no paid sick leave mandated under NS Labour Standards.  People go to work sick, sometimes infect others and that has to change. 

Finally, many older people who have worked all their lives are forced to live on pensions which are too meagre to cover their needs.  The union movement must continue to lobby for vastly improved OAS and GIS benefits. 

Happy Labour Day.

Judy Haiven is a retired professor with a specialty in labour relations, at Saint Mary’s University in Halifax.  She is also a founder of Equity Watch, a Nova Scotia organization which fights bullying, discrimination and harassment in the workplace.  She is a member of the editorial board at Canadian Dimension.

Featured photo at the top: CUPE education workers’ strike, on the picket line in Kingston, Ont. November 2022. (photo credit: The Canadian Press/Lars Hagberg).