The Changing Face of Labor

To organize or not to organize? The question is no longer so simple in worker-hungry Alberta

By Bill Sass

December 04, 2008

There is also criticism that CLAC has a tactic of bargaining early to avoid Alberta’s statutory two-month, end-of-contract period when workers can decide to change union affiliation or get rid of a labor organization altogether. But the practice is rooted in the alternative union’s pragmatic outlook rather than in competition for members with traditional labor organizations, de Jong responds.

“One of the things that results from our focus is the ability to look at the big picture,” he says. “It’s not just about hard labor relations. We have agreed to bargain early in some cases because we felt it was important to tackle issues at that moment and it is apparent the employer is willing to negotiate.”

Project owners have taken an “open-site” attitude and seem willing to deal with whatever labor source is available – the Merit pool, CLAC or traditional unions – provided they see good faith in the bargaining, de Jong says. “The owners seek reliability – and if they don’t see it, they get a little testy.”

CLAC was founded in 1952 by a group of immigrant workers from Europe whose concept of the workplace was different than the one they saw in Canada. Their view was that while fair wages and good benefits are important, the quality of the job site – creating an environment where people feel good about going to work – is important too, says de Jong.

CLAC is structured as a multi-craft trade worker and civil servant union. In a CLAC shop, jurisdictional disputes between guilds of specialists do not happen because all skills involved belong to the same labor organization.

Does the approach imported from Europe work? To the extent that growth speaks for itself as evidence of workers voting with their feet, the answer is plainly yes. Last year, in Alberta, CLAC had 19,000 members, up 22 per cent from 15,500 in 2006.

Like any other union, CLAC negotiates various kinds of pension, health care and welfare plans. The health and welfare schemes are especially “first-rate,” de Jong says.

Traditional labor organizations are not surrendering the field to CLAC, however. At the Alberta Building Trades Council, an umbrella association of construction craft unions, executive director Ron Harry acknowledges the general membership decline but says the erosion is temporary.

“Everything is cyclical,” Harry says. “It comes up. It goes down. It goes around. Moving forward, the building trades unions are continuing to build their membership. They’re continuing to move forward into the future and will increase their market share right across the country.”

Those who think workers are suitably protected by alternative organizations are mistaken, says Harry. “Merit is actually a contractors’ association. They represent the employer. ”

The craft unions are still a distinctive labor breed that stands out for service to members, he suggests. “The building trades unions differentiate us from other organizations that consider themselves a union – which we don’t – in that our collective bargaining agreement rates, our pensions, our benefits and, most importantly, our safety, are superior in the construction industry in Alberta.”

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