Only 25 per cent of Canadian racialized workers belong to a union

Despite evidence that union membership can increase wages and access to health insurance, new research from the Centre for Future Work shows that racialized workers are significantly less likely to be represented by a union. 

The extensive report cites several possible reasons, including the overrepresentation of racialized people in part-time and casual employment and a lack of advocacy for immigrants and undocumented and temporary workers.

There is a noted tension between the federal government’s temporary foreign worker programs and unions, which want to protect jobs for Canadian workers. 

In a recent membership survey, the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) found that one-tenth of its members identified as Black or racialized—significantly less than the proportion of Canada’s overall population that identifies as a visible minority. A further five per cent of CUPE’s membership identified as Indigenous. 

However, news also broke last year about a vice president of CUPE’s Quebec chapter publishing racist and Islamophobic posts on social media. The executive later resigned, but racialized workers remained unsure about who would advocate for their rights. 

“The simple math of Canada’s labour force cannot be denied,” write the authors of the Centre for Future Work report.

“If unions cannot become more representative of the growing racialized segment of the Canadian working class, their power will inevitably shrink in future years.” 

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