I work for a small-ish company of laborers. We have ~100 full-time employees who work in labour, a small team of administrative employees, and very few managers all things considered. The reasons for this are part of the reason I need to be vague in public talking about this, because the details make the company very identifiable to anyone who knows anything about the industry.

Some previous employees tried and failed to unionize over a decade ago, but the vote was very close. Since then, wages have stagnated to a degree that make me laugh and cry, we are being pushed to work more and more overtime, and in general morale is very low. I am in contact with a small group of very well-connected employees who are 100% on board with unionizing, and I believe that we can successfully get the required signatures this time if we play our cards right.

  1. How does one go about choosing a union to work with? I have done some Googling but the results are useless. I need some kind of leftist search engine, please! I know of the major Canadian unions like Unifor and Teamsters, as well as the IWW, and then the very specific ones like the postal union or the teachers’ union.
  • Does the IWW even do workplace organizing? I was under the impression that it was more of a thing you joined solo.
  • Are any of the bigger unions in Canada actually useful? We need a hard wage correction upfront and then guaranteed cost of living increases after that, and I don’t want to do all this work to have some centrist ‘union’ let us down in negotiations.
  • Do you know of any trade-specific unions for things in the realm of carpentry and space finishing? (Again sorry for being vague in public about industry) I know that my industry is largely unionized in the US, but here it rarely is. I have not found any info from my Google searches as to which unions those other companies work with.
  • If we can’t find anything that’s a good fit, is it advisable to start an industry-specific union for us and others? Is that doomed to fail?
  1. I’ve found a few different groups that say “contact us if you want to organize your workplace” but basically
  • Most of them seem US-centric and we are in Canada
  • I worry that they’re ops lol
  • Not sure if this is the IWW’s wheelhouse or not. I don’t want to take help from them and then form a union under Teamsters or something, kind of feels like wasting their resources idk maybe this is fine??
  • So uhhhh please recommend a good group to talk to about this in Canada! Or I mean a US group is fine so long as they have the knowledge about local rules and can help us.
  1. There is some complex stuff to explain about the company structure that make it hard to know how many people we’d have to get to sign cards and I would really appreciate someone knowledgeable messaging me privately so I can explain a bit, or point me to a good group where I can ask this question

Gosh sorry I am rather at a loss of where to start here so I’m someone could just give me a stick and point me in the right direction I would be exceptionally pleased, thank you!!

Edit: as a bonus I may have slam-dunk proof of wage theft by the company not paying certain employees overtime, would be great if we could also get some resources on how to retaliate for that in as big of a blow as possible. ✌️

  • glans [it/its]@hexbear.netEnglish
    7·
    8 months ago

    My info might be a few years out of date but I doubt much has changed.

    Canadian labor law is much, much more restrictive on the workers than US, UK or other jurisdictions people might be framiliar with. For one thing, every collective agreement (CA) in Canada has a “no strike clause”. It is not possible to be a recognized Bargaining Unit without this, even if the employer were to agree to it. In order to obtain a CA, you must agree to only engage in strikes according to very specific rules laid out in your provincial Labor Relations Act. You cannot strike while the CA is in force, and even then after certain steps and timelines have been followed.

    This is highly relevant to the IWW due to their ban on “no strike” clauses. Although actually now that I am looking through a IWW constitution I can’t find the language. Perhaps thy changed it? For a long time, it was not possible for the IWW to act as an “official union” in canada because canadian-style CAs violated the constitution.

    All the provinces except for Alberta have cookie cutter labor relations acts/codes. Look yours up. Alberta is also fucked just not identically.

    Just as a random example, see below from Manitoba The Labour Relations Act, C.C.S.M. c. L10. I annotated and highlighted it.

    You should read this because it can generall help explain labor culture in canada

    Strike offence by union

    88(3)   Every union that declares or authorizes a strike contrary to this Act is guilty of an offence and is liable, on summary conviction, to a fine of not more than $1,000. for each day that the strike exists.

    The union can (and will) be financially punished for failure to discipline the workers. This is very smart by Capitalists. It shapes trade union culture. In some provinces they are fines for each worker who participates, each day. Not sure how it is enforced here. A small union of a large workforce doing and illegal strike action could sompletely destroy the organization in short order.

    Remember if you are in a different bargaining unit of the same union, this comes out of your potential strike fund, or legal costs.

    Strike offence on behalf of union

    88(4)   Every officer or representative of a union who declares or authorizes or participates in a strike that is contrary to this Act is guilty of an offence and is liable, on summary conviction, to a fine of not more than $500.

    Union staffers are also personally liable for unruliness of workers. In some jurisdictions this includes PRISION TIME in addition to financials. This of course incentivizes staffers to create a more obedient culture. Any kind of militancy is completely contrary to their interests.

    Strike offence by employee

    88(5)   Every employee who contrary to this Act, strikes or participates in a strike is guilty of an offence and liable on summary conviction to a fine of not more than $500.

    As a worker, you, personally, are on the hook to pay a fine. The max $500 thing is not the case in all jurisdictions. It can be much higher.

    Restriction on strikes etc., after certification

    89(1)   Where a union has been certified as the bargaining agent of a unit of employees of an employer, and no collective agreement has been concluded between the union and the employer respecting the unit,

    (a) the union shall not declare or authorize a strike of the employees; (b) the employer shall not declare or cause a lockout of the employees; and © no employee in the unit shall strike;

    during the period of 90 days after the date on which the union was certified as the bargaining agent of the unit and any period of extension that may be ordered in respect of the bargaining agent and the employer under subsection 10(3).

    So once you win the vote, you can’t strike for 3 months or longer if that is decided by someone else. If you do, see above for consequences.

    Restriction on strikes etc., under collective agreement

    89(2)   Where a union as the bargaining agent of a unit of employees of an employer and the employer have concluded a collective agreement respecting the unit,

    (a) the union shall not declare or authorize a strike of the employees; (b) the employer shall not declare or cause a lockout of the employees; and © no employee in the unit shall strike; while the collective agreement is in force.

    Here is your No Strike Clause.

    Once you have a contract, No Strike.

    Within Canada you might consider contacting the Edmonton IWW even if there is another one closer to you.

    You should also use this form https://www.iww.org/organize/ to contact the north american organizing department.

    It is highly likely you will end up going with another union but getting the influence of the IWW is a good move. They will provide context to understand the actions and motivations of the others. In all cases keep your antennas up.

    edit:

    I don’t want to take help from them and then form a union under Teamsters or something, kind of feels like wasting their resources idk maybe this is fine??

    Do not worry about this. The IWW does not get too salty about “poaching”. Certainly they do not engage in mob-type territorialism. IWWs understand the difficulty of shopping for a union and respect the agency of workers to make an informed decision. They should also be extremely aware and clear about their deficits. Going with the IWW is a big decision and nobody would want it to happen because someone felt guilted into it.

    IWW tacticts are in use far and wide under many organizational banners. Here is a great little booklet published years ago which discusses specifically: Weakening the dam - Twin Cities IWW. See the chapter Lasting Lessons from the Class Struggle:

    The concept of producing organizers at one company who scatter out to others companies has become a maxim for some IWW organizers in industry-wide efforts, and the concept is a good one, but there’s something more to it. Not everyone is going to become an organizer but everyone is going to have [t]o assess the fight they’ve just been through and draw conclusions for their own lives. When the dust settles from our action, as it inevitably does, we are left to consider what happened. We have seen the power we have as workers, a power unknown before. It may not occur to us immediately, but with any major change in our lives, there is a resonance - a white noise that does not go away. It could be a month later and we could be at the same job, or a year later and we could be two jobs down the road, but we will remember. And when we have the chance, we line up with, or maybe even lead, an effort to organize and take a stand against the boss. This time we do it with less hesitation than before, maybe with more foresight and with more vigor, because now we know exactly what it means.

    The bottom line is this: our organizing needs to have as its byproduct a new increase in workers’ willingness to resist - an increase in our propensity to act on our urges to resist the bosses - even if the resistance is individual. This is the revolutionary outcome. This will lay the groundwork for future organizing, in this industry or others. To “organize the worker not the job” as we say in this union, is to gradually create new kinds of people, people who are most likely to never again roll over and take the shit the boss throws at them.

    • tiredcoworkers [comrade/them, any]@hexbear.netOPEnglish
      2·
      8 months ago

      I found a contract for a similar company in a public access database and did notice the no-steike clause. But given that all strikes seem to happen after contracts expire anyway I wasn’t super worried about that.

      Side note, the similar company that has a union has the saddest wage table I’ve ever seen. I know it’s a corporate chain but I legitimately don’t know how anyone survives at those rates! And they have a union!! The one good thing is that they have a regular raise schedule so people don’t fall behind with inflation, I guess.

          • glans [it/its]@hexbear.netEnglish
            2·
            8 months ago

            Lol that was my guess for real union. They have a lot of grocery stores full of min wage workers.

            If you make minimum wage and you have a union, you actually make less than minimum wage. Because of the dues. Its embarrassing that they will allow the situation.

            • tiredcoworkers [comrade/them, any]@hexbear.netOPEnglish
              1·
              8 months ago

              It’s just extra weird because the industry normally doesn’t have low starting wages. The whole problem is that they get you with an appealing starting wage and never give you a raise despite record inflation. So to see the wage table at a place that’s unionized have worse starting wages is… something.

              • glans [it/its]@hexbear.netEnglish
                2·
                8 months ago

                People really don’t notice the brilliant evil of the canadian labor legislation. It is singular. In canada unions don’t just lack power because of the general global class war thing. They are totally tangled up in the enforcement of capitalism, more than in other places.

                The whole No Strike being required in every contract is an example. First, you guaranteed to have this devastating agreement in your contract. It really fucks over the workers. An agreement that in other places, like the US, strong unions do not enter into. But in Canada, there is no choice.

                Who is responsible to make sure it’s adhered to? The ministry? The employer? The police? The workers themselves? No: the Union. Not just the organization, but the officers of the Union as individuals. The officers of the Union are held to be personally liable if workers become too militant or disruptive. They can have their assets seized and become incarcerated. They and their families can lose their homes!! They can go to jail. For the actions of other people! It is a kind of accountability that basically doesn’t exist anywhere else.

                So think about it, over the decades, the workplace culture of the people who are employed at the Union. They do not want worker control over the Union. They do not want militancy. Not just because the status quo is kind of working for them, but because they are personally afraid of the consequences of it. Worker control, democracy etc immediately lead to militancy. Which they are on the hook for. We are taught that workers are meek and afraid, but it’s not true. Workers are brave. It’s probably already happened, but if not, you are soon going to start hearing about people’s fantasies of doing a big strike. People love the idea of showing the boss who’s boss. But the system in canada, really more than elsewhere is set up to scare unions away from this.