Stop the Squeeze: How unions make life better for working families

An alarming new report by Global News shows that, “[t]he wealth gap between the rich and poor in Canada widened at the fastest pace on record in the first quarter of 2023 compared with the year before, according to Statistics Canada, amid high inflation and declining real estate values.”

While alarming, this trend likely comes as little surprise to working families who continue to struggle under a global affordability crisis that is increasing income inequality and has resulted in a majority of Canadians holding more debt than savings.

Increasingly, working people are looking to unions for relief from this unbearable situation.

A recent Gallup report out of the US noted that, “[t]he 67% of Americans who approve of labor unions today is down slightly from 71% a year ago but marks the fifth straight year this reading has exceeded its long-term average of 62%.” Angus Reid noted a similar trend here in Canada of late.

There is good reason for the upswing in union support in both countries. Over the past year, union members have won fights securing significant gains by standing together, from autoworkers and writers in the US to grocery store and dock workers here in Canada.

UFCW Local 401 was recently successful in securing the largest wage increase that top-rate and overscale workers at Safeway have seen in thirty years through a Wage Reopener process.

The fact is that Stopping the Squeeze on working families by the global affordability crisis won’t happen on its own. Workers must stand together and fight for fairness by working through their union and joining a union like Local 401 if their workplace is not unionized.

Posted on: January 23,2024