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

He speculates that the emergence of alternative labor pools reflects the nature of the provincial economy, and especially the resource industry. “Traditionally, on big construction projects, such as those in Fort McMurray, you need a large number of skilled trades people, but for a relatively short amount of time.”

Historically, contractors recruited labor through union hiring halls. The emergence of alternatives, like CLAC and the Merit contractors, broke that tradition.

In CLAC’s case, “some think it’s companies trying to avoid a true trades union – there might be lower wages and benefits and it doesn’t defend worker rights as aggressively as a trade union,” Barnetson observes. Over the last 20 years the proliferation of non-union contractors has made getting a larger number of skilled trades people very difficult for the old hiring halls.

“Merit shops provide job services and portable benefit plans for 1,400 Alberta-based contractors. Construction employment is typically short term. If the employer offers benefits, the employee often isn’t there long enough to get covered. Merit allows non-union contractors, especially smaller ones, to have a variable workforce to provide portable benefits.”

Employers gained ability to shop around for personnel. The shrinkage of hiring halls as a force in recruitment gave contractors other labor sources that allowed them to find less expensive methods of obtaining staff.

Why would workers eschew the higher wages and better benefits claimed by union representation?
“You know, I don’t have a good answer,” Barnetson says. “I think many Albertans have a negative view of trade unions and say ‘I would prefer not to be represented by one when there are alternatives, such as, perhaps, a softer union like CLAC or non-union.’”

But traditional unions might not deserve the bad rap, he adds. “I’m not sure I agree with the generalization they’ve been overly aggressive. They seek the highest possible wages for their members and they’re not known for being particularly aggressive in other ways. You have to wonder about the claim ‘we can’t afford higher wages’ when oil is $100 a barrel. They’re just going after their fair share of the money that’s available.”

At the University of Alberta, Joseph Doucet, Enbridge professor of energy policy and director of the Centre for Applied Business Research and the Environment, says the changing face of labor might involve more than paychecks. “Maybe there’s some trade-off in that members are benefiting differently,” he suggests. The customary economic and union yardstick – numbers of dollars – could be “balanced by other things that might explain the growth (of Merit and CLAC employers).”

Project owners maintain they do not play favorites among different forms of labor organization, or lack of it, in putting together teams for major developments. Brad Anderson, executive director of the Construction Owners Association of Alberta says: “We’re not pro-union or pro-non-union. We’re dead neutral. I think the reality is there’s a really big pie out there, and everyone can have a large piece of the pie. From our perspective, we just look at the type of labor in general and, I’d say, we need it all, both union and non-union. And they’re all good.”

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