POLICY PAPER – SETTING THE STAGE FOR UNION RENEWAL:
CHANGING DEMOGRAPHICS IN THE WORKFORCE
Newcomers to Canada, Aboriginal peoples, youth, racialized employees, and persons with disabilities
represent some of the largest groups of currently unorganized workers who stand to benefit from the
Union Advantage. Because these workers struggle daily with issues like pay inequity and discrimination –
matters that unions are well placed to tackle – the “together FAIRNESS WORKS” initiative could not be
more timely for them.
Recognizing that the demographic changes occurring across Canada will need to be understood and
reflected in the labour movement, the changing face and subsequent growth of union membership will be
determined in large part by our ability to address the most pressing issues facing these communities.
The contemporary workforce is ageing rapidly, and the rate of labour supply growth is slowing down. In
fact, the federal government projects that by 2020, 65 percent of all job openings will result from people
retiring. Within the next ten years, 3.7 million workers-out of a total current national workforce of
19 million-could potentially retire.
That generational workplace shift, coupled with lower birth rates, places Canada on the same path as
many countries facing a similar shortfall in the available labour supply. One way of addressing that
decline is the introduction of better social supports that open doors to labour force participation.
Programs such as universal early learning and child care help greater numbers of women to enter the paid
workplace, an increase that’s been seen in Quebec as a result of that province’s $7-a-day child care system.
It’s clearly essential to introduce and increase supports to enable the participation of other underrepresented groups. It’s essential to have the workplace reflect population growth in, for example,
Aboriginal communities, expected by 2031 to number as many as 2.2 million people, double their 2001
figures. Similarly, workers with disabilities are often vastly underemployed or unemployed, while
immigrants and their children will likely represent nearly half the working-age population (46 percent) in
Canada by 2031.
Both globally and in Canada, there is an increasingly intense competition for the most crucial of economic
resources: a skilled workforce. This presents us with a major opportunity. How the labour movement
chooses to respond to that economic environment and the workplace and community violations that
inevitably spring from a low-wage, disposable worker mentality may well change the face of union
membership and the country itself over the next two decades.
The Rise of Temporary Disposable Workers: No Solution to an Ageing
Labour Force
In response to employer pressure, the federal government has opened up access to and dramatically
expanded Canada’s Temporary Foreign Worker Program (TFWP), allowing companies to recruit
temporary migrant workers across all sectors of the economy. In the last decade the number of temporary
work permits granted to employers has tripled. Banking on initiatives like TFWP as their primary means
of addressing the slowdown in labour supply, the current federal government has provided additional
tools – including Intra Company Transfer (ICT) visas and temporary work permits allowed under
international trade agreements – for employers to import 500,000 temporary workers.
In practice, migrant workers do not have the same level of workplace protections and rights as members
of the national workforce. They have become a class of temporary disposable workers, as their stay in
Canada is time-limited, and they have few pathways to acquire permanent resident status.
Because the legal status of migrant workers in Canada is dependent on maintaining a good relationship
with a specific employer, they are extremely vulnerable to well-documented systemic problems that
include wage exploitation, fraud, health and safety concerns, poor housing, worker displacement, racism
and discrimination. Standing up for workplace rights and contract conditions can and often does mean
forfeiting their ability to remain in Canada. Many slip into undocumented status, creating a labour pool
that is even more vulnerable and desperate to work despite having to accept lower wages and fewer
workplace protections.
In addition, the TFWP has functioned as a low-wage policy tool that unfairly benefits employers. This was
clearly illustrated with the 2012 exposure of the Conservative government policy allowing employers to
negotiate a 15 percent wage discount for “high-skilled” workers and a 5 percent wage discount for “lowskilled” workers hired under temporary work permits. As a perfect example of the insidious manner in
which wage suppression works, this policy had applied to all workers on the same job site, regardless of
their status in Canada.
Although public outcry forced the cancellation of this employer benefit option in 2013, it was but one
tentacle of a larger beast. Indeed, wage suppression is further enabled by flooding the labour force with
temporary workers, particularly in lower-skilled, low-wage occupations marked by poor working
conditions. This sector represents the largest growth in the TFWP, with 70,000 temporary work permits
granted to employers in businesses such as fast food restaurants and retail during 2012.
Astoundingly, more than a third (37 percent) of all migrant workers entering Canada in 2012 were
classified in the “skill level not stated” category, indicating that the program is being used by employers to
receive temporary permits for low-skilled, low-waged occupations. Migrant worker entries in the “level
not stated” category have increased nearly 350 percent since 2003, and now comprise by far the largest
single skill level of entrants, almost twice as many as those at the second largest skill level.
Such figures have drawn the attention of former Bank of Canada Governor Mark Carney, who told an April
2013 House of Commons Finance Committee meeting that the TFWP should not be used to drive wages
down or to fill lower-skilled jobs:
“One doesn’t want an over-reliance on temporary foreign workers for lower-skilled jobs, which
prevent the wage adjustment mechanism for … making sure Canadians are paid higher wages,
but also that the firms improve their productivity.”
Yet despite concerns voiced by everyone from the labour movement to Mark Carney, since 2006
employers have rushed to access the TFWP by claiming labour shortages, even though there are clearly
high levels of unemployment and underemployment across the country.
The addictive and repetitive pattern of employers applying for and receiving these temporary work
permits year after year further indicates these are not temporary jobs. Despite federal government claims
to have reigned in the program, the TFWP has tripled in size over a short period.
Of equal concern to union members should be the divisive tactics that also underpin the TFWP, which act
as a wedge pitting the national workforce against migrant workers while feeding discriminatory notions
that “foreigners” are taking jobs away from the Canadian workforce. We’ve seen plenty of examples,
including controversial cases like the Royal Bank of Canada’s use of temporary work permits for IT
workers – trained by existing staff who were eventually displaced – and B.C.’s HD Mines importing
overseas miners despite the availability of unemployed miners within Canada.
As Canada grapples with a looming workforce decline, it makes far more sense to return to a robust policy
of permanent immigration rather than the seriously flawed temporary migration schemes on which we
currently rely. Likewise for unions, organizing and supporting newcomers, with a particular focus on
issues that are important to these communities, are essential to help grow a diverse and vibrant labour
movement.
Labour’s Response to TFWP
The labour movement has actively supported migrant workers and their families across the country. For
example, the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) union operates ten migrant worker action
centres that provide direct assistance to uphold their rights. They’ve played a critical role in successful
actions to access millions of dollars of owed benefits and services that workers had contributed to but
were arbitrarily denied. The UFCW has also developed unique “Union to Government Cooperation”
agreements that detail how state-level governments in Mexico work with UFCW to ensure Mexican
nationals are treated fairly and with dignity while working in Canada.
Other unions have contributed as well, from the Public Service Alliance of Canada’s development of
educational sessions for members to better understand the struggles facing migrant workers and the need
for worker-to worker-solidarity, to the United Steelworkers, who set up a hotline to document cases of
migrant worker abuse and created a unique website, www.everyoneschance.ca.
In addition, the Canadian Union of Postal Workers has advocated with Canada Post to offer low-cost
remittance services for migrant workers, while the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers and
UFCW have both established model clauses in collective agreements that ensure migrant workers are
protected by the same provisions as their Canadian members. In some cases unions have also negotiated
access to permanent resident pathways for migrant workers. Canada’s Building Trades Unions, the
International Union of Operating Engineers, and the United Steelworkers have mounted legal challenges
against wage discrimination and also supported high-profile judicial reviews that have called into
question the integrity of the TFWP in practice.
Provincial and territorial federations of labour play an essential role in advocating with the Canadian
Labour Congress (CLC) to introduce legislative protections for migrant workers and their families,
including ongoing lobbying for licence and regulatory regimes to hold accountable labour brokers,
employers, and immigration consultants using the TFWP. The labour movement has also exposed detailed
lists of employers who have been granted temporary work permits and called for the establishment of a
migrant workers’ Bill of Rights. When migrant workers have bravely come forward to blow the whistle on
numerous cases of workplace fraud and exploitation, individual union members across Canada have stood
in solidarity with them.
In another example of walking the talk, the CLC has proactively developed protocols with allies and
unions in five of the top ten migrant-sending countries to present pre-departure orientations for workers
headed to Canada. This initiative will help directly connect union and community members with migrant
workers upon their arrival, ideally before a workplace crisis develops.
The CLC will continue to push for comprehensive and progressive changes to immigration and labour
market policies, as well as demanding national adherence to international human rights instruments that
can genuinely protect all workers’ rights, regardless of their citizenship status.
Embracing Demographic Change in Our Unions
The changing face of Canada and its workforce presents us with good news. Newcomers to Canada,
racialized and Aboriginal communities, youth, and persons with disabilities are just a few of the
communities that can help grow the labour movement.
Finding them is easy, for they populate the expanding service sector in which workers stand to benefit
from the Union Advantage. While they have much to offer the labour movement, we have a great deal to
offer them as well. Because our job is about improving workers’ lives, no matter where they come from,
these unorganized workplaces are ripe for us to open the discussion about negotiating for social and
workplace protections that ultimately benefit everyone. The message underlying this approach is
accessible, logical, and clear: Fairness Works.
Listed below are some concrete actions we can take to embrace the coming demographic change and
enrich our labour movement.
1.
We need to deepen our understanding and policy engagement to support and implement progressive
immigration policies at all levels of government. This would include advocating a return to a robust
permanent immigration system that provides pathways to citizenship, re-investing in training and
apprenticeship programs, and an end to the exploitation of the TFWP by employers who obtain temporary
work permits for low-skilled, low-wage jobs. Such a move would require employers to provide objective proof
of shortages alongside measurable and enforceable plans to train and hire from within the national
workforce.
2. Where union density is strong, we need to forge strategic alliances with migrant rights groups and
immigration/settlement organizations to help organize and support the call for workplace rights
protections, health and safety on the job, and job-related language training initiatives. Newcomers, no
matter where they come from or how long they’re here, need to be treated as long-term citizens, residents
and community members.
3. The labour movement must be front and centre on public policy issues that matter to the demographic of
new workers. This may consist of opposition to racial and religious profiling practices as well as restrictive
immigration policies. We can also explore how to support tax credit policies to hire the underemployed,
living wage campaigns, universal child and elder care programs, calls for employers to make workplaces
accessible, and initiatives that acknowledge the need to warm up the diversity climate of workplaces by
confronting and eliminating xenophobia, racism, and discrimination in all its forms.
4. We must press for legislative change in support of sectoral approaches to certification and bargaining. The
current Canadian law of organizing bargaining units workplace-by-workplace is a substantial impediment to
organizing in retail, hospitality, and service industries. For a growing contingent of precarious workers, it is
unclear whether (or how) they could ever become union members under the current rules.
5. Our future growth depends on our capacity to deepen alliances, outreach and solidarity with diverse
communities that stand to benefit from the Union Advantage. As part of this work, we must continue
connecting with people with disabilities, as well as racialized, newcomer, and Aboriginal communities, and
the pool of young workers. By utilizing the ethno-cultural press and connecting with community-based
organizations, we can reach out to these constituencies, listen to what they have to say, and see what we can
offer to support their efforts. In addition, it is crucial to conduct demographic mapping of communities and
workplaces to better understand growth areas and sectors.
6. The labour movement should develop action plans that result in representative workforces, including
negotiating with employers representative workforce clauses in collective agreements, as well as promoting
provincially- and territorial-based job training, apprenticeship, and union-welcoming initiatives.
7.
Implementation of member education initiatives and monitoring their success will also play a role in
maintaining and increasing worker engagement with their unions.
8. The labour movement stands to benefit from a review of organizational governance structures, with the goal
of reflecting the realities of diverse communities.
9. We need to demand comprehensive federal, provincial, and territorial re-investments in labour market
agreements that provide effective training and apprenticeship programs as well as literacy skills training, all
of which can effectively recruit and promote in greater numbers employment for Aboriginal peoples, the
differently abled, young people, and racialized and newcomer communities.
10. Our historic leadership role must continue with respect to promoting strong worker protection legislation,
policies, and practices at all levels of government, and ensuring national compliance with international
human rights instruments and conventions.
Taking such steps will contribute to our efforts to grow the labour movement while meeting the needs of
the economy’s most vulnerable workers, a win-win dynamic that can address the major demographic
changes in Canada while preventing exploitation by employers taking advantage of this country’s
unorganized workplaces.