The Canadian Association for Work and Labour Studies (CAWLS) is calling on the federal government to immediately restore public access to data tracking work stoppages and to collect more information on labour relations.
It has now been over three months since Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC) quietly removed data tracking work stoppages from its website. This move also affected Statistics Canada’s tables which report strike and lockout numbers historically. The removal of these data deprives researchers and unions of critical information.
To date, ESDC has not explained why they removed the data or when it will become available again. This is unacceptable.
Researchers rely on ESDC and Statistics Canada data to produce high-quality, public research about work and workers. Without reliable and up-to-date figures, we can’t analyze, compare and contextualize current industrial conflicts. And without consistent longitudinal data, we can’t identify trends and changes in labour relations.
At a time when President Donald Trump’s administration is attacking the agencies responsible for collecting information about wages, jobs and prices in the United States, Canada must show its commitment to transparent and reliable data.
This moment also calls for deeper reflection about how Canada collects data on labour relations.
Even after ESDC restores access to the work stoppages data, researchers in Canada will still lack critical information because government agencies do not collect sufficient data about unions and labour relations.
At present, there is no timely national source of information about new union certifications, union membership, unfair labour practices, collective bargaining, or work stoppages when collective agreements are in force. With no central source from which to obtain labour relations data, researchers must wait for annual reports (that may not provide the necessary information), or they must make time-consuming and potentially expensive individual requests to provincial labour boards or Statistics Canada.
We need more, better and timely data about workers, unions and labour relations in Canada.
Many other countries collect more detailed data about unions and labour relations and make it readily available to researchers and the public. We should look to these other jurisdictions for inspiration.
For example, in the United States, the National Labor Relations Board provides monthly reports tracking union certifications and unfair labour practice cases. In Canada, some provincial labour boards publish annual reports, but there is no data comparable to that of the U.S.
Closer to home, the Ontario Ministry of Labour’s collective bargaining database provides information about private and public sector union negotiations, including wage settlements and sectoral wage trends, mediation, arbitration and settlement outcomes, as well as up-to-date files detailing the contents of recent collective agreements. A national-level equivalent of this database would address a substantial data gap.
Though the provincial regulation of labour relations and jurisdictional variation in data tracking practices make compiling national data in Canada challenging, these hurdles are not insurmountable. The Association of Workers’ Compensation Boards of Canada draws from provincial compensation boards to compile national figures about workplace injuries and fatalities and other occupational health and safety information. ESDC could work with provincial labour boards and ministries of labour to do the same for labour relations data.
We therefore call on the federal government to devote the necessary resources and capacity to begin collecting more detailed and reliable labour relations data.
Researchers need national-level data about
- Union certification applications and union membership
- Unfair labour practices and labour board decisions
- Collective bargaining processes and outcomes and other work stoppages, including during collective agreements
Labour relations play a key role in Canadian society and the economy. As such, it is crucial that researchers have access to timely and accurate data on this issue. Collecting and publishing better information on labour relations in Canada will improve transparency and accountability, assist in the production of high-quality research, and, perhaps more importantly, demonstrate that workers in Canada are a priority.
