Why isnât there more tech unionization in Canada?
*BTW I donât definitively answer this, but I canât stop thinking about it. Why do you think there arenât more visible efforts to organize non-standard workers in Canada?
Hereâs why Iâm wondering:
The UK Supreme Court recently ruled that Uber drivers have âworkerâ rights. Italy ruled that delivery workers at four major companies are employees, and now companies need to pay âŹ733 million in fines or face criminal charges. Amsterdam made a similar ruling on employee status (in February 2021), and Spain is preparing legislation to the same effect.
đŚ Canada? Crickets. Changing labour laws to stop worker misclassification does not seem to be on the agenda ever since Foodora couriers were deemed eligible to unionize by the Ontario Labour Relations Board (and then the company literally left Canada, lol) last year.
In the GTA, Gig Workers United recently launched a new campaign to unionize app-based delivery jobs.
This work takes place amidst a âmomentâ of sorts for organizing technology workers. In January, the Alphabet Workers Union (the âGoogle unionâ) was announced. It is part of the Campaign to Organize Digital Employees, an effort to organize unions at tech companies, and affiliated with the Communications Workers of America, a larger trade union. Canadians that work for Google are able to join, so the geography isnât exclusive. Thereâs also the non-profit Gig Workers Collective, which has made headlines organizing Instacart workers in the US.
Last year, in February of 2020, Kickstarter United launched - making it the first tech company to unionize. There have been allegations that Amazon is deterring unionizing efforts and McDonaldâs Secretive Intel Team Spies on âFight for $15â Workers, Internal Documents Show.
These initiatives are all related to the regulation of precarious work, but responses differ depending on how the work is organized.
đ¨đŚ So, whatâs the deal in Canada?
Theories on why there isnât more [visible?] tech organizing in Canada:
Maybe there is, but itâs quiet - so that the firms do not notice ahead of substantive collective action. Itâs totally possible that this is difficult for me to âsee,â given that Iâm disconnected from the work and relying on the internet to learn. Canadaâs geography could play a role as well.
Maybe there is, but itâs not being covered in the media - this is a media capacity problem, as highly localized coverage is rare. Frankly, Canada has fewer people to cover these issues. Alongside Sara Mojtehedzadeh at the Toronto Star, a few dedicated publications are contenders, like: Briar Patch, Rabble, and Rank and File.
Maybe Canadaâs strong public health and education systems implicitly disincentivize unionization. Simply getting injured isnât as big of a financial penalty, but if they canât work theyâll still miss out on wages.
Maybe this is a time and capacity issue. There may be so much energy focussed on earning enough in the day-to-day that itâs difficult to have time to focus on organizing or even think long-term about improving conditions on the job.
Maybe this is a turnover issue. Staff that take on these jobs may only engage with Instacart or Uber (etc) for a short period of time, creating less affinity to participate in organizing efforts.
Maybe itâs just because we are a net tech importer; prone to follow. When it comes to technology, the Canadian school of policy has typically been one of âcopy and paste.â So, why arenât these efforts spilling over? Are we waiting to learn more from efforts taking place elsewhere? And who is the âweâ - do we lack leadership, are pre-existing unions taking the lead over self-organized initiatives?
*Earlier I said it was crickets when it came to unionization efforts in Canada. Thatâs not entirely true - thereâs activity, but itâs a highly localized patchwork.
Union drives are sweeping Indigo stores in Ontario. This is fascinating as it has been initiated in the pandemic;
In Newfoundland and Labrador, Dominion workers had a 12-week strike last fall. In recent years, the company had cut full-time positions and turned people into part-time workers so that they could offer less benefits. Unionizing could have created a domino effect for Loblaw-owned grocery stores;
Thereâs been movement among media companies, like Canadaland; echoing efforts like the New Yorker Union and Gimlet Union;
CUPE Local 2361 is working with Uber workers, and they have had some decisions at the Ontario Labour Board;
CUPW Postal workers have been organizing food delivery workers.
Most notably, some gig workers have been gaming the algorithm(s) that govern their work.
What are the Canadian technology companies best poised to unionize? While it hardly matters whether a company is Canadian or not when it comes to unionization pressures, I think itâs worth thinking about what kind of initiatives could originate in Canada as theyâd be specific to the company.
My ideas:
Skip the Dishes - though delivery workers keep 100% of their delivery fees and tips and get paid weekly;
Ritual - restaurants could revolt at the commission;
Tim Hortons - quintessentially Canadian and wholesome, Timâs is also an instance of service work increasingly governed by algorithms.
Unionization efforts wouldnât need to be limited to gig workers - we have white collar tech here, too. These workers could organize around the mistreatment of contracted gig workers, or oppose defence contracting (as one Hootsuite worker recently did with ICE). Itâs not clear whether or how any Canadian technology companies are working with CSIS or CBSA.
This matters because: âProp 22â could be coming to Canada.
This would come in a context of serious social assistance reform in Canada. It remains to be seen whether benefits modernization reinforces the fracturing of work via portability.
What could people unionize around:
Ending misclassification;
The right to unionize;
A living wage;
Better health and safety;
The usual benefits that come with employee status;
Predictable schedules;
Dental benefits;
Paid sick days;
Resisting algorithmically-governed work;
Etc.
Gig workers in Canada are governed by the same algorithms and subject to the same challenges that are motivating organizing in other jurisdictions. It is a failure of sorts that Canada canât claim the same collective action efforts of platform workers given the progress around the world.
Our policy and working environment is not superior enough to warrant this comparative silence.
Vass Bednar is the Executive Director of McMaster Universityâs new Master of Public Policy in Digital Society Program.
Great issue! I think two additional factors are the reluctance of existing Canadian organized labour to prioritize digital tools and workplaces, and the lack of coverage in Canadian media. In the case of the former, this is changing, but I spent time in the 90s and 00s unsuccessfully trying to get more interest in this area from incumbent Canadian unions. In the case of the latter, in my adult lifetime, there has not only been minimal coverage of unions or labour issues, there has been consistent and outright hostility towards unions and labour issues in Canadian mainstream media.
When I worked in media, the union at our shop was IBEW - the Int'l Brotherhood of Electrical Workers - headquartered in Philadelphia. I have to wonder if, like for so many other things, Canada becomes a branch plant for the American tech unions at some point. Re: Gig workers - any follow up on the Foodsters/Foodora story? Is that precedent setting for gig workers? - https://www.policyalternatives.ca/publications/monitor/gig-workers-win-right-unionize