By all accounts, 2013 was not a kind year for the labour movement. We could hardly go a week without hearing about another factory closure or round of massive layoffs. And government attacks on organized labour came both with proposed legislation and some misguided tweeting.
But 2013 also may have been one of the most important years for Labour. It was the year that we finally saw mass recognition of problems a vocal few have been speaking out about for some time.
People now know that the precarious job market is a trap that workers have difficulty escaping from; that finding full-time employment is a challenge and not something 20-somethings made up to excuse their laziness; and that the face of labour, once the domain of white men working full-time positions, is rapidly becoming far more diverse, female and younger.
That these conversations have entered the public domain is an important silver lining to take into 2014. These aren’t issues that the right can simply push aside as minuscule interests of special interest groups.
The shifts in the job market have crept up on everyone and are becoming harder to ignore. The labour movement is in a unique position to capitalize on public interest when it comes to securing fair and steady employment for everyone.
With that in mind, I have one simple resolution for labour movement. You know what the problem is. Now, start doing something about it.
Labour unions have to face the challenge of organizing people who not only will have smaller workplaces, but will also have short and shifting contracts and potentially non-traditional relationships with their employers.
Organizing precarious workers will involve more than just handing out union cards. Employers will fight back, possibly in the courts, and it will be expensive.
Unions have to be ready to go to the mat for these workers if they expect to prove that they are committed to growing the “tent of activism,” — to borrow a popular phrase from several union leaders I’ve spoken to this year.
The potential of programs like Unifor’s community chapters — the union’s primary plans for organizing precarious workers — and their $10 million commitment to organizing new workers are certainly steps in the right direction.
But promising to organize new workers is just one part of reaching out to marginalized workers.
This year has certainly seen much frustration amongst some workers on this very score — Unifor took heat for not including a woman or a person of colour on the speakers’ list of day one of their founding convention, and at CUPE’s national convention a young worker ran against longtime president Paul Moist in protest of what she believed to be the marginalization of young workers.
Ensuring that the voices of those workers are heard and represented right to the upper echelons of the movement is as integral to ensuring the future of unions as it is making them bigger.
If unions are unwilling to spend the money and time it will take to bring these new workers not only into the ranks of the union but into the leadership, than their promises are as empty as my now annual resolution to finally finish reading Anna Karenina — three years now, and running.
But perhaps if unions can reach out and organize new members in a meaningful way that reflects the changing reality of the job market, 2014 will be a much kinder year for labour.
Photo: flickr/jeff_golden
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