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Showing posts from September, 2013

Union membership in Canada increases (despite claims otherwise)

The Globe and Mail (regurgitating in today's print edition claims from the Canadian Press) gets it wrong in a story about the labour movement and the new private sector union, UNIFOR.  They claim that "Union membership has declined in Canada in recent years".  In fact, as the easily available Statistics Canada chart copied below shows, union coverage has grown by 164,000 employees from 2008 to 2012, growing in 3 out of the last 4 years. Union coverage (Thousands) 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 Total employees, covered and not covered by union Total employees, all industries  14,464.30 14,124.40 14,371.20 14,635.80 14,841.10 Public sector 3,412.10 3,415.00 3,511.10 3,563.00 3,600.80 Private sector 11,052.20 10,709.40 10,860.20 11,072.70 11,240.30 Union coverage Total employees, all industries