Up Against the Wall: The Political Economy of the New Attack on the Canadian Labour Movement

Abstract

The Canadian labour movement faces an existential crisis. State and business hostility to unions is not new, but the attack has recently intensified as conservative political forces and major employer groups have embraced the agenda of the US Republican right. Mirroring anti-union US labour law would lead to the precipitous decline of union density in Canada, which is already eroding due to the manufacturing crisis and the long-standing failure of unions to organize in private services. The new attack is more a product of labour movement weakness than strength, and will be most effectively resisted by increasing union density and bargaining power in the private sector.