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Statistics Canada reports that during the first half
of 2007, union membership in Canada increased by 72,000 to 4.2
million. The rate of unionization remained at 29.7 per cent, with a
wide disparity between the public sector (71.7 per cent) and the private
sector (17 per cent). Overall, decreases were seen in Quebec,
Saskatchewan and in Alberta (despite its current oil-based economic
boom), while increases in union strength were registered in the seven
other provinces.
Speaking of disparity though, the rate of unionization
in the United States continued to falter. In 2006, according to the
U.S. Department of Labor, only 12 per cent of employed wage and salary
workers were union members, down from 12.5 per cent a year earlier, and a
big drop from 20.1 per cent in 1983.
The 2006 rate in U.S. private industry was a meagre
7.4 per cent.
In both countries, the labour leadership is caught up
in the infernal game of granting concessions to management, supposedly to
save jobs. But the U.S. labour brass appears to be winning the race
... to the bottom.
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