Union Strong: Unionization workshops and the growing need for unions amid COVID-19
Written by: Daniel Xie
On May 23, the Toronto Centre NDP hosted a 1.5 hour workshop for prospective labour organizers regarding how to unionize a workplace. This workshop aimed to go over the procedures involved and share stories of past victories through labour organizing. This was meant to inspire attendees to form a union, and also gives prospective labour organizers a chance to talk to others. In the event, they simulated the circumstances leading to convincing another worker to join a union, as well as providing resources on what to do next if the attendees are interested in forming a union.
The event was hosted by Suze Morrison, the MPP for Toronto Centre and it was presented by Tania Liu, who is an organizer with the United Food & Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 1006A. As an organizer for UFCW, Liu seeks to engage with other workers, particularly in marginalized communities, and advocating for socioeconomic justice.
Before joining the UFCW, Liu worked with various progressive politicians at both the municipal and federal level, on issues pertaining to LGBTQI2S issues, gender equity, community development, environment, housing, and immigration. Currently, she is also an advisory board member of Progress Toronto and a past board member of Social Planning Toronto, as well as a member of the Toronto & York Region Labour Council of Chinese Workers Network steering committee.
The workshop proved a very insightful look into the process of successful union organization, along with the gains achieved as a result of labour organizing. It opened with a speech by Suze Morrison highlighting how the success of labour organizing historically is why we don’t have child labour in Canada, and fairer wages were granted to workers, alongsides other gains such as paid maternity leave. Following Morrison’s opening speech, Liu began her presentation about a friend of hers that faced harassment from her employers for having lunch during a shift, even when she did all required work. The efforts of her fellow hotel workers to establish a union allowed her friend to finally have a voice in standing up for herself. From there, the presentation went over the procedures for forming a union, which included:
Signing up at least 40 per cent of the workers for the union
Filing and application at the OLRB
Fighting the anti-union campaign of the employers
Winning the Unionization vote(50 per cent + 1)
Negotiating a collective agreement
In addition, the presentation also went over some of the reasons why people would join unions:
The desire to fight for better benefits such as better pay and better health and safety measures,
Support by unions when suggesting changes to the workplace and fighting against bad management.
Following the discussion on why workers would join unions, the workshop went over some of the rights workers would have when in a union. These include preventing employers from terminating union workers on a whim, while preventing employers from changing work conditions or wages without a union’s consent.
From there, a simulation was played out involving one worker convincing another to support a unionization vote; this was done by highlighting shared grievances both workers had, and highlighting the benefits of unionization to the other worker. Throughout the workshop, participants all got the opportunity to ask questions and raise concerns concerning the process of unionization. Many of the reasons why workers might seek to unionize being brought forward through discussions between Liu and the participants. After the presentation, many of the participants felt confident to consider organizing their own workplaces into unions.
Significance of the Workshop
COVID-19 has exposed just how unsustainable capitalism is, with regards to a just transition out of the Coronavirus outbreak. The problems exposed by the pandemic is something that’s recognized to an extent by Suze Morrison. She noted that the Coronavirus has spurred on discussion about the value of labor, particularly with the conditions faced by frontline workers being brought to the forefront.
Frontline workers and health workers have been lionized as heroes by politicians and the mainstream media. Yet their lived experiences are not glorious moments of heroism in keeping society running, but rather facing a very precarious position in working in essential services. Many essential workers have to deal with low pay, lack of protective equipment and health services that could offer protection from the virus. As well as the lack of a proper income to pay for essential services, such as simply living and the opportunity to receive employment benefits, along with the danger of being fired on the job. This has already affected many working in the restaurant, airline and hotel industries.
In this environment considering to form a union is a necessity not only to push for better conditions, but for the survival of frontline workers during this pandemic. The coronavirus outbreak has in many ways exposed the damaging effects of capitalism on our well-being during a pandemic, and not just for frontline workers, for workers in the gig economy as well.
Many gig economy workers are still expected to work shifts for their employers even as more and more people steer clear of gig economy workers in order to adhere to social distancing guidelines; this consequently means less wages with less customers being served. In addition, gig workers also face a lack of healthcare provided by employers. In Canada the lack of support provided by the government for gig workers has resulted in many gig workers that can’t work from home pushing for benefits such as sick pay.
The struggles faced by gig workers in turn may open up workers in that sector of the economy to consider unionizing to fight for better working conditions and health & safety protections; something that has been accomplished by Foodora workers in their drive for unionization--while Foodora ultimately closed down rather than choose to accept the formation of a union.
In this context, workshops such as the workshop hosted by the Toronto-Centre NDP are important in raising the possibility of unionizing and organizing one’s workplace to workers and providing them with the confidence and knowledge to unionize their workplaces. This has become a crucial imperative in order to fight for pressing demands exposed by the COVID-19 outbreak.
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