Labor Unions in Canada and the U.S.

This research examines the status of labor unions in Canada and the United States. The purpose of this examination to assess the extent to which unionism in the two countries is either converging or diverging.

Canada, Mexico, and the United States negotiated the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) in the early-1990s, and the probability is strong that NAFTA will become effective on the first day of 1994. In the late-1980s, Canada and the United States negotiated the Free Trade Agreement that became effective on the first day of 1989. NAFTA will bring about greater interaction between the economies of Canada, Mexico, and the United States, as the earlier FTA brought about a greater interaction between the economies of Canada and the United States. For these reasons alone, the comparable status of unionism in Canada and the United States is an issue of significance. There are also, however, other reasons that cause this issue to be important.

Canada is one of the world's industrial market economies. Further, among the industrial market economies, Canada is one of the Group of Seven major economic powers. Economic activity between Canada and the United States, thus, has global implications.

Through the 1950s, the Commonwealth played a major economic role for Canada, although the United States has always been Canada's largest trading partner. Since, the 1960s, however, interaction b

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s and returning to work as non-union employees at significantly lower wage levels. The problem posed by this type of employer participation in labor union decertification activities concerns the very future of the tenor of the North American labor-management environment, because the positions of the unions will be strengthened, as the general economy improves. Serious questions are, thus, raised by this type of employer action within the context of what type of actions will be taken by the labor unions when they are, again, in positions of strength. These questions concern the ability of North American societies to thrive in the future. During the severe economic recession which hit North America in the early 1980s, two significant changes began to appear in the labor relations environment. The first of these changes involved requests by management for wage and other types of concessions from positions or levels previously agreed to in collective bargaining agreements. In the United States, such concessions must be agreed to by both parties. In some provinces of Canada--Alberta in particular, employers may lock-out employees, a process which invalidates existing collective bargaining contracts, and arbi

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