With the passing of May Day and the recent strikes we have been seeing from the federal public service and, more locally, from school bus drivers, it’s worth taking the time to emphasize the important role labour rights have played in our history.

In the past 150 years, the Canadian labour movement won the right to the weekend, the 40-hour week, minimum wages, workplace safety standards, the right to maternity leave, the right to vacation pay, the right to overtime pay and various protections from discrimination and harassment in the workplace.

These victories came when labour militancy was high; when average workers took great risks, many times in the face of violent repression, to improve their conditions. Many of the staples of a high quality of life that we now take for granted weren’t just given to us by benevolent politicians or business owners but had to be fought for against great odds.

However, much of this is in the past as, until very recently, union membership has been on the decline since 1970s. Tellingly, the 1970s is also when the average wage adjusted for inflation stagnated for Canadians.

In a time of rising inflation, rising interest rates, labour shortages, covid and other pressures, many are working more for effectively less pay. It’s no surprise that some workers feel the need to push for better conditions.

This is not to say that unions are perfect or employers don’t face difficult conditions themselves, but it’s a net benefit that there are organizations that balance out the often one-sided nature of workplaces.

While many resent striking civil servants for jobs that pay more on average, have better work conditions and provide more job security, we may be better off following their example. Nobody wins a race to the bottom.

While at its peak Canada never had a unionization rate of over 40 per cent of the workforce, even at that number unions won rights for all workers, developed standardized labour safety practices and put pressure on non-unionized workplaces to raise wages, meaning we all have a stake in unionized workers succeeding. Higher wages mean more money for people to spend in local businesses, shorter working days and vacation time means happier and more productive workers, and safer working conditions means a healthier population that puts less of a strain on our healthcare system.

Since union rates have declined, large corporations have diverted their revenues towards paying CEOs as opposed to workers, leading to the greatest income inequality since the 1920s. The return of unions and labour militancy may be the one thing that can turn that trend around.

While strikes, by design, can be inconvenient and disruptive, without the right to go on them we’d all be worse off.

Workers in many industries have good cause to demand more. While the well-being of society as a whole should take precedence over meeting any specific union’s demands, showing a little solidarity won’t hurt anyone.

Brett Thoms