State of the unions in Canada

In 2023, the number of workdays lost due to strike action was reminiscent of the 1980s. However, union coverage rates have fallen notably, particularly in the private sector, since peaking in the early 1980s.

Public sector workers five times more likely to be in a union than private sector employees

Just under one-third of Canadian workers—or 5.3 million people—were covered by a collective bargaining agreement in 2023.

However, since Statistics Canada began measuring unionization through household surveys, the rate of unionization has fallen from a record high 37.6% in 1981 to 30.4% in 2023, with much of the decline occurring after 1997.

Indeed, the decrease in the collective bargaining coverage rate was driven largely by declines in the private sector, with coverage falling from 21.3% in 1997 to 15.5% in 2023, while public sector coverage rose from 74.7% to 76.7%.

As a result, public sector employees were nearly five times as likely to be covered by a collective agreement as those in the private sector in 2023.

Unionization in manufacturing industry down by over one-third

The manufacturing industry contributed the most to the decline in the collective bargaining coverage rate in the private sector over the last quarter-century, with the share of employees in the sector covered by a collective bargaining agreement falling from 36.2% in 1997 to 22.8% in 2023.

Part of the decline may be attributable to lower manufacturing employment over this period, combined with higher employment in industries with even lower unionization rates, such as professional, scientific and technical services.

Unionization rates highest in Newfoundland and Labrador and Quebec

Unionization rates declined in every province except Prince Edward Island from 1997 to 2023, where coverage rates rose from 29.4% to 34.5%. One of the largest declines in union coverage was in British Columbia, where rates fell from 36.5% to 30.1%.

Collective bargaining coverage rates were highest among employees in Newfoundland and Labrador (39.6%) and Quebec (38.9%) in 2023, and lowest in Alberta (24.9%) and Ontario (26.3%).

The unions strike back in 2023

Going on strike is a final option available to unions when negotiations with management reach an impasse. Strikes were much more prevalent in Canada during the 1970s and early 1980s. In 1980 alone, the number of person-days not worked due to labour disputes reached 9.1 million days.

Days lost to labour disputes, however, declined over the next decade and remained relatively stable until 2022.

In 2023, the number of person-days not worked due to labour disputes rose to its highest level since 1986, at 6.6 million days, mostly due to strikes in the educational services and public administration sectors.

Indeed, from 2014 to 2023, employees in the educational services industry have had the highest average number of hours lost due to labour disputes per 1,000 employees.

Inflation, another blast from the past, coincided with the uptick in strike action

The spike in strike action in 2023 happened at the same time as another phenomenon that characterized the 1970s and early 1980s: inflation.

In 1980, for example, the annual average rate of inflation was 12.5%, which most likely contributed to the high level of labour unrest that year.

From 1991 to 2020, annual average rates of inflation surpassed 3.0% only once. However, the annual average inflation rate rose from less than 1% in 2020 to 3.4% in 2021, followed by a 6.8% increase in the Consumer Price Index in 2022 and a 3.9% increase in 2023.

Higher inflation may therefore be related to the highest level of labour disruptions we have seen in almost four decades in 2023.

To learn more about union coverage in Canada and the recent uptick in labour disruptions, check out the papers Collective bargaining coverage rate, 2023 and Days not worked due to strikes and lockouts, 2023.