Dating back to the 1880s, the first Monday of September has been recognized as Labour Day in Canada to celebrate our nation’s workers. Increasingly, however, this weekend has been utilized by writers of certain publications to highlight the supposed futility of an organized workforce, an effort I deem ungrateful and incorrect .
One such article by Brian Lilley was published in the Toronto Sun. In his article “Labour Day: No reason to celebrate,” Lilley lists the many ways in which unions are no longer relevant. He describes how unions now are more about union bosses than about union members — that they tend to care more for the “outrageous salaries” of their top executives than for the well-being of their rank and file workers. This may occasionally be the case, but is certainly not an issue faced solely by large unions.
Lilley also states that the average worker must simply not want to be a member of a union, given that 70 per cent of government workers are unionized, while just under 15 per cent of the private sector are members. After all, according to Lilley (who himself was once a member of the Communication, Energy, and Paperworkers Union), it has never been easier to join a union.
He correctly asserts that labour laws across the country do — at least in writing — tend to favour unions. By law, Canadian workers can usually not be fired for creating, joining, or expressing interest in joining a union. However, Lilley has overlooked the fact that in practice, these laws are far from being carried out to the letter, as seen with large fast food chains and department stores.
The 40 hour work week and vacation pay were fought for by workers.
That all said, it is not about conveniently timed articles or the first weekend of September. The real issue is the rights we all enjoy and take advantage of — or should be able to take advantage of — every single day we go to work.
Things like the 40 hour work week and vacation pay were all fought for by workers who were faced with a loss of livelihood. The first Labour Day was staged in support of workers fighting in favour of a 58 hour work week. Once they had that foot-hold, they rallied for a 54 hour week and so on until we got the most universally accepted and “fair” amount at 40 hours. What this exemplifies is that the modern world has benefited greatly from the work of organized labourers.
The rub, however, is that these laws protecting the rights of workers are by no means set in stone; just because we are able to enjoy them today does not guarantee that they will still be in place tomorrow. Much like SFU’s Burnaby Campus, labour laws will simply fall apart without proper diligence and maintenance.
It is naive to adopt the line of thought that an organized workforce was a great thing back-in-the-day and that we can now just sort of get on with our lives. Not only is there still a long way to go — with many laws and regulations going ignored especially, in minimum-wage workplaces — everything we enjoy can very easily be taken away.
In short, people across the nation have profited far too much from the work of those before them to simply dismiss the relevance of organized workers. To do so would have the effect of, say, deferring upkeep on a large concrete structure that is being constantly exposed to water for long periods of time with inadequate drainage
