Union membership rebounds in BC, falls under Ontario’s laws
Eliminating barriers has let union coverage recover to 31.5% in BC; Ontario’s laws have shrunk union coverage to 26.4%, just above Alberta.
British Columbia’s union membership rate hit 31.5 per cent this September, up 0.7 per cent from September 2023 and rebounding 3.2 points from 28.3 per cent in September 2018, just before a newly-elected BC NDP government removed legal barriers to collective bargaining.
In contrast, in Ontario where anti-union changes from the Mike Harris government era remain mostly in place, just 26.4 per cent of workers were covered by a collective agreement this September, down 0.6 percentage points from 27.2 per cent in September 2023, according to Statistics Canada’s Labour Force Survey released earlier this month.
The overall decline in Ontario’s labour movement was driven by private section union coverage rates, which tumbled 1.4 points from 14.2 per cent in September 2023 to 12.8 per cent in September 2024. Private sector companies employed 77.2 per cent of Ontario workers in September.
Because of high seasonal variation and no seasonally adjusted figures, only union coverage data from each September is considered in this Data Shows report.
Alberta continued to be Canada’s least unionized province, with 22.9 per cent of workers covered by a collective agreement, declining 2.0 percentage points from 24.9 per cent in September 2023.
Quebec’s union coverage rose 0.7 points from September 2023, reaching 39.6 per cent in September 2024.
In Newfoundland and Labrador union coverage dipped 0.1 points to 39.5 per cent.
Anti-union laws doing their job in Alberta and Ontario
Both Ontario and Alberta have made controversial labour law changes eliminating union certification based on proof a majority of workers have become union members, replacing this “card check” method with a voting system that increases opportunities for employers to fight union drives.
Card check certification was restored in 2005 for workers in Ontario’s building trades sector only.
Once a union is legally certified, an employer has a legal duty to bargain collectively with its employees.
Legislative changes by the BC Liberals in 2001 also eliminated card check certification, causing coverage rates to plummet 8.3 percentage points from 36.6 per cent in September 2000 to 28.3 per cent in September 2018.
After the BC NDP’s return to government in July 2017, legislative amendments that came into force in mid-2019 that restored card check certification, leading to a rebound in BC’s union coverage.
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