The proportion of Canadian employees who were union members in the first six months of 2011 remained virtually unchanged from the same period the year before, according to StatsCanada data. Unionization in the education sector, however, rose noticeably, particularly amongst teachers and professors.
Nearly 30 per cent of Canadians belong to a union, compared to 12 per cent of Americans. Ontario’s unionization rate is about 27 per cent.
The public sector has a higher rate of union representation (71 per cent) than the private sector (16 per cent). In the U.S., 36 per cent of public sector and only seven per cent of private sector employees are unionized.
A greater proportion of women than men are unionized. Unionization also varies according to such factors as: full-time/part-time status; job permanence and job tenure; and size of employer. Owing, at least in part, to differences in the pace of recovery from the recession, changes in union density also varies between industries and occupations.
| 2010 | 2011 |
| % | % |
Ontario total | 26.5 | 26.6 |
Canada total | 29.6 | 29.7 |
Men | 28.2 | 28.2 |
Women | 30.9 | 31.1 |
Public sector | 71.2 | 71.1 |
Private sector | 16.0 | 16.0 |
Ontario | 26.5 | 26.6 |
Full-time | 31.1 | 31.1 |
Part-time | 23.5 | 23.6 |
Permanent | 30.0 | 29.9 |
Non-permanent | 27.3 | 28.0 |
Education industry | 67.0 | 67.6 |
Teachers and professors | 73.5 | 76.0 |
Secondary and elementary | 85.9 | 87.1 |
Other | 47.1 | 53.0 |
Sources: Statistics Canada, Unionization 2011, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Union affiliation of employed wage and salary workers by occupation and industry
This article originally appeared in the OCUFA Report. To receive stories like this every week in your inbox, please subscribe.