Unionized workers are fighting back in tough economic times

By Tony Poland, LegalMatters Staff • Economic uncertainty and inflationary pressures appear to be leading more unionized employees to flex their bargaining muscles to push back against their employers, says Toronto employment lawyer Jeffrey M. Andrew.

Andrew, a partner with Cavalluzzo LLP, says while the hours of work lost to strikes do not approach levels seen in the 1940s and 1970s, there seems to be more willingness to take action to improve work conditions, citing the British Columbia port dispute and the strike by Ontario Metro grocery store employees.

“I am not an economist or a social scientist but I suspect it is a confluence of factors contributing to a growing frustration,” he tells LegalMattersCanada.ca. “People are working hard and feeling the pinch of inflation.

“This is one of those periods in history where various economic forces have converged with people who have free collective bargaining rights who want to be treated equitably,” Andrew adds. “They are using their economic might to demand what they believe is fair treatment.” 

Employees feeling cash-strapped

According to PwC Canada, 42 per cent of the Canadian employees they surveyed say that while their household can pay its bills, they have nothing remaining for savings. Employees “are increasingly feeling cash-strapped as a cooling economy and inflationary challenges continue to impact workforce wallets,” the poll found.

“The proportion of the global workforce who said they have money left over at the end of the month has fallen to 38 per cent, down from 47 per cent last year,” PwC states. “One in five workers now work multiple jobs, with 69 per cent doing so because they need additional income.”

At the same time, some industries are recording large profits with CEOs claiming huge bonuses. 

In the grocery sector where employees earn an average of $16-17 an hour and are predominantly part-time workers, Canada’s three largest grocers – Loblaws, Sobeys and Metro – “collectively reported more than $100 billion in sales and earned more than $3.6 billion in profits,” according to the Competition Bureau.

The ongoing strike by more than 3,700 front-line workers at 27 Metro stores in the Greater Toronto Area is just one example of lower-wage earners pushing back against employers, say experts.

‘This is the revenge of the wage earner’

“This is the revenge of the wage earner,” David Macdonald, senior economist at the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, told the Toronto Star recently. “The first couple years of big increases in prices flowed into corporate profits, and workers were behind the 8-ball over that entire period. Now they are trying to claw back their lost real wages because prices are so much higher than they were in 2021.”

Andrew says grocery workers typically tended to have a much better earning potential in the past.

“It was a good living and people got reasonable pensions and benefits,” he says. “But they have gone through some 20-odd years of cost-cutting. There are now fewer checkouts and more self-serve checkouts.  

There are still full-time employees, but now workers are predominantly part-time. Their schedules can be unpredictable.

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“They do not make on an hourly basis what they would have made years ago,” he adds. “It is not unusual to start at or just above minimum wage, although unionized grocery workers tend to do better than their non-union, retail clerical people. It is a struggle for many workers.”

If more unionized workers are choosing to strike, it is not necessarily because they want to, says Andrew.

“I doubt whether any worker would say there is the perfect time to go on strike,” he says. “What we are witnessing recently could be a convergence of factors that make it an opportune and perhaps inevitable time for workers to stand up to have their contributions recognized more fully than they have been in the past.

Workers expect better pay, treatment

“They are saying enough is enough. They expect much better pay increases and much better treatment,” Andrew adds. “I am not really surprised by it but it is interesting to note how long it takes to develop. Workers were perhaps much more reticent to strike in recent years. That is changing quite rapidly.”

The decision by Metro workers to strike “comes after years of these workers being nickelled and dimed while facing increased precarity and eroded job quality,” Unifor national president Lana Payne said in a statement.

The union had brought a tentative agreement to its members they believed contained “considerable gains” but it was rejected. A further tentative agreement has been reached and is subject to ratification by the employees.

“That shows you that unions lead but they must also follow the direction of their members,” says Andrew. “It is not just union bosses flexing their muscles and expecting members to follow. That would be a complete misreading of how unions work.” 

Wages have not kept pace with inflation

He says wage increases have not kept pace with inflation and people are falling further behind financially. In the meantime, workers notice when corporate profits increase.

“For the most part, these are public companies that report their earnings,” says Andrew. “It is only natural that workers would want a share of that record profit since they had a hand in contributing to it.

“These are workers who have demands and they are prepared to exercise their right to strike,” he adds.

“This is what some people just don’t understand. Strikes are basically the entitlement of workers through their unions to withdraw their labour to seek economic equality. And it is lawful.” 

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