Is the U.S.'s Union Battle Headed Canada's Way?

Cash-strapped U.S. states have launched an unprecedented assault on unions. There is growing evidence that the trend is making its way north of the border.

Almost 80 years ago, the United States and much of the world were battling the Great Depression. Unemployment was high, stock market speculation drove regulatory reform, and the jobless were put to work through the New Deal, helping to rebuild communities across the U.S.

Workers achieved a major step forward when President Franklin D. Roosevelt passed the Wagner Act, putting in place a legislative framework that allowed workers to join unions without undue intimidation. By 1945, the Great Depression was long over, and the economy – booming due to Second World War production – converted to domestic goals, and an unheralded period of growth ensued. The ranks of unionized workers exploded, and the middle-class U.S. emerged.

This led to the United States’ so-called “Golden Age” following the war. Productivity and the economy grew at a strong pace, and workers shared in the increasing wealth – both with rising wages and an expansion of universal public services. Just as importantly, people fought for and won an expansion of democratic, human, and labour rights.

A quick look at history is instructive for us because it stands in sharp contrast to the political response to economic crisis today. Unlike the legislative response of the Great Depression, the current recession has seen an assault on public sector workers across the U.S. The large deficits and debts are the result of an economic crisis caused by an out-of-control financial sector, but the big money is trying to pin the blame on public sector workers.

The political right sees an opportunity to finish off the American labour movement. Private-sector union density has fallen to seven per cent, and the sole sector with significant union density, the public sector, is under attack.

In Ohio, Indiana, Idaho, and Wisconsin, just to name a few, the right wing is mounting an all-out offensive against public-sector unions under the thin veil of austerity.

These assaults are not about curing deficits or managing states’ debt loads. They are clearly about a political agenda that has been underway for the past quarter-century, with both legislative attacks and a global trade experience that has decimated the U.S. manufacturing base – all for the purpose of maximizing corporate profits at any cost. Workers’ rights get in the way of this agenda, and the political right smells blood.

The agenda isn't about wage freezes or restraint bargaining, it is about eliminating public-sector workers’ bargaining rights, as well as ending trade-union political-action efforts.