Canada’s public service unions – alive and kicking‏

It is not uncommon for The Economist magazine to overstate its case. But even by its usual standards of hubris, in this week’s edition a critique of the Canadian trade unions, ‘all struck out’, is very wide of the mark. http://www.economist.com/world/americas/displaystory.cfm?story_id=14660479&fsrc=rss

Of course, the loss of manufacturing jobs is hitting union membership hard in Canada like every other advanced economy. However, The Economist reports that ‘conservative pundits are proclaiming the death of unions’ in Canada.

In fact over 30% of Canadian workers are union members rising to 71% in the public sector – broadly comparable to the UK. The low 16% membership in the private sector has uncanny parallels with this country

UNISON has close relations with Canada’s two leading public service unions, CUPE & NUPGE.

CUPE

The Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) is 600 000 strong and Canada’ largest union http://cupe.ca/

CUPE has just concluded its 2009 national convention in Toronto where UNISON President Gerry Gallagher was in attendance.

CUPE has responded robustly to the economic crisis in its ‘strategic directions program for CUPE 2009-11’:

“CUPE’s commitment to its members has always been to make gains when gains can be attained, to protect our agreements from concessions when we are under attack, to fight back against privatization of public services and to promote public services wherever possible. In these difficult economic times CUPE’s commitment is to use its resources and power to create bargaining strength within our locals and sectors, to promote public services for the betterment of our communities and to ensure that our members’ rights are respected and protected. We are committed to ensure that CUPE emerges as a stronger union after an economic recovery.” http://cupe.ca/convention-2009/strategic-directions-2009-2011

NUPGE

The 340 000 strong National Union of Public and General Employees (NUPGE) is a national federation of 11 public service unions across Canada where most bargaining is done at provincial level.
http://www.nupge.ca/

NUPGE is widely respected as an effective campaigning union and has put public services at the heart of its response to the economic crisis. A key union campaign ‘Making Public Services a Priority’ calls for:

‘a national public services investment plan funded by bond initiatives and coordinated between levels of government is what we should be working to achieve. Lets put all the best ideas on the table, and ensure that we pick alternatives that lead to more spending for public services to protect our communities from recession. The great advantage of investing in public services is that governments are accountable to citizens for spending the money properly, and public employees work on our behalf to protect the integrity of public projects.’ http://www.nupge.ca/files/images/pdf/Making_Public_Services_a_Priority.pdf

Delegates to the UNISON 2008 NDC will remember the well received internationalist speech made by NUPGE President James Clancy: http://www.unison.org.uk/file/Clancy.pdf