In 2015 the percentage of workers in Canada who belong to a trade union increased .1% to 30%. Canada's unionized workforce has actually grown in recent years. Today, the CBC reports that about 4.56 million workers are members of unions up more than 800,000 since 1997. Unions expansion has been outstripped by the non-unionized workforce, which grew by about 2.5 million over the same period.
Statistics are shown for this demographic
Province/Territory
Electoral District (2011)
Response rates from 4.2k Alberta voters.
67% Help |
33% Hurt |
47% Help |
30% Hurt |
12% Help, in theory but have recently become corrupt and should have their powers limited |
4% Hurt, I support some private unions but am strongly against public unions |
8% Help, but ban their ability to make political donations |
Trend of support over time for each answer from 4.2k Alberta voters.
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Trend of how important this issue is for 4.2k Alberta voters.
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Unique answers from Alberta voters whose views went beyond the provided options.
@8KMCS9R4yrs4Y
Neither, unions do not exist for the benefit of the economy
@9YFJQZ92wks2W
They help the economy only IF they are actually not being greedy. They should be checked by the goverment for any greedness.
@9WBTJ7S1mo1MO
Hurt. Most unions are puppets of the companies and enforcers of bad company relations and bad policies.
@9RGCB9P4mos4MO
I believe that they currently offer higher rates than privatized industry. This raises the cost to consumer and productivity goes down. Their entitlement appears to be abused. I work in an industry that is both union and non union and see an abuse of this in the union regions more. The cost is higher, causing a higher cost to the consumer, while the worker makes more and contributes more to society creating a catch-22, but their productivity is lower. I believe more research and data informed decision making needs to go into unions.
@9QZCYDN4mos4MO
They can do both. Unions should be made less powerful and corrupt however because people strike over the smallest things now.
@9LJGNWT 7mos7MO
Mostly hurt, especially government/public unions. Allow a company to operate with unions AND non-union workers. There have been and are benefits to unions but they also prevent meritocracy from determining financial reward, promotion and productivity.
@9KGWSV29mos9MO
A more democratic society, with a stronger more responsive labour regulator would make unions obsolete. Unions are often wasteful and an impediment.
@9H4CMCQ1yr1Y
Help, BUT I do believe some better measures need to be put in place to aid the employer even a little bit when it comes to removing employees who are 'riding the gravy train' because their employer is literally hand tied and cannot get rid of them due to union contracts. There are good honest people willing to work who are not able to due to unproductive workers who 'play the game' and remain employed. These type of employees, become a cost to the product/service their company is providing. At the same time, I do not think power should be given to the employer catre blanche.
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