Labour Day: Political action gives Canada's unions new power in 2014

They take a licking but keep on ticking.

That phrase — which was the tagline of the Timex watch company back in the 1980s — could also be used to describe the state Canada’s unions on Labour Day 2014.

We’ve all seen the stats: For past three decades, big labour has struggled to maintain its numbers. From 1981 to 2012, Canada’s unionization rate declined from 38 per cent to 30 pecent with most of the decline taking place in 1980s and 1990s.

During that time, public sector unions have also fallen victim to right-leaning cash strapped governments.

They’ve taken a lot of licks — 2014 has been no different.

On the west coast, B.C.’s Christy Clark government is embroiled in yet another dispute with the province’s teachers about salaries, benefits, class size and composition. To date, the average teacher has lost $5,000 in salary.

This year in Alberta, the PC government introduced Bill C-45 which restrains public sector salary growth, prohibits strikes by some unions and imposes heavy penalties on unions that do strike illegally.

In Ontario, Premier Kathleen Wynne recently told CBC News that “there is no new money" for her province’s government workers.

In Quebec, there’s new legislation obliging municipal workers to pay a greater share of their gold-plated pension plans.

And in Ottawa, the Stephen Harper government and the federal public sector unions have each doubled-down on their adversarial relationship. Over the past year the Tories have continued to cut jobs and are trying to claw back sick leave benefits.

[ Related: Unifor slams attack on labour rights by Newfoundland’s PC Government ]

While they’re losing many of the battles, big labour hasn’t given up on the war.

Throughout the country, public sector unions are increasingly being used as political action committees fighting against the election of right-wing governments who would put downward pressure on their members’ wages and benefits.

In 2014, Canada’s unions ratcheted-up this work.

In Ontario public and private sector unions banded together and spent millions of dollars to make sure that Tory leader Tim Hudak — who once mused about introducing right-to-work legislation — wouldn’t become premier.

The unions’ ‘war room’ — led by the Ontario Federation of Labour — organized workshops, mailed and telephoned their members and contributed financial resources to a select group of swing-ridings.

Some union leaders even promoted strategic voting at the expense of the NDP — labour’s traditional bedfellow. The strategy worked.

[ Related: ‘We have stopped Hudak, Harper is next,’ Ontario union leader Sid Ryan says ]

Political action campaigns have also had some success swaying public opinion federally.

In February, the Public Service Alliance of Canada — Canada’s largest public sector union — led a country-wide rally against the closure of nine veterans affairs offices.

The Canadian Union of Postal Workers helped organize rallies across the country to fight cuts to direct mail service and are vowing to make it an election issue.

And collectively — buoyed by the success of their brothers and sisters in in Ontario — unions are promising to make their voices heard, in 2015, with a formal ‘stop Stephen Harper’ campaign.

"The [Canadian Labour Congress] will take the lead on the overall campaign with assistance from the Federations of Labour across the country," OFL chief Sid Ryan told Yahoo Canada News last month.

"I suspect each province will mount a campaign similar to Ontario’s Stop Hudak campaign. So from an Ontario standpoint our Stop Harper campaign will have many similarities to the recent provincial campaign, but within the election parameters set out by Elections Canada."

[ Related: The Labour Day weekend just isn’t the same without the Jerry Lewis Telethon ]

This renewed focus on political action has given Canada’s unions a new weapon, if you will, in the fight for labour rights.

In the midst of dwindling numbers and negotiations lost it’s given them a new relevance and a new power.

On Labour Day 2014, Canada’s labour movement is ‘ticking’ along just fine.

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