Collective bargaining is an essential instrument for building workers’ power, it is the core activity of our union. Collective bargaining allows workers to come together to identify common issues, challenge corporate power and take some measure of control in their working lives. The benefits of collective bargaining are felt not only by the workers impacted directly on the shop floor. When the USW bargains good collective agreements, we also create opportunities for workers’ families and communities.
As one of Canada’s largest private-sector unions, representing nearly every sector in the Canadian economy, the USW has a proud history of leading the struggle for workers’ rights and negotiating industry-leading agreements. The USW continues to stand at the forefront in the fight for equity; workers’ rights; health and safety and improving wages, pensions, benefits and living standards.
What is most interesting about collective bargaining is that no two rounds of negotiations are the same. Since 2022, following the COVID-19 pandemic and the worst economic crisis since 2008, the rapid economic recovery led to low unemployment and high numbers of job vacancies in many sectors, which put workers in a stronger position to negotiate gains at the bargaining table. Higher-than-normal inflation led members to hold out for higher increases in wages and benefits, as the balance of power, in many bargaining contexts, shifted toward workers and away from employers facing significant attraction and retention issues.
The changing dynamics at the bargaining table, and, in many cases, employers’ refusal to accept these dynamics, meant that more locals were required to take strike votes and threaten job action to achieve their well-deserved gains. USW locals also leveraged their bargaining opportunities through the pursuit of new and novel ways to inclusively engage their members and build power within the union.
Below are a few examples of some of the key agreements USW members have ratified since 2022.
With rising inflation, the balance of power shifted toward workers.
Steel, aluminum and metals
Several of our steel locals have won gains at the bargaining table since 2022. At Algoma Steel, in Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., USW Locals 2251 and 2724 each negotiated five-year contracts, covering nearly 2,800 employees, providing for 3-percent wage increases annually, as well as cost-of-living adjustments (COLA) and other pension and benefits improvements. At Stelco Lake Erie Works and Pickle Lines in Nanticoke, Ont., locals 8782 and 8782-03, representing 1,150 members, also ratified five-year contracts with big gains, including substantial annual wage increases, COLA, profit sharing and a significant market adjustment for skilled trades. Local 1005 members at Stelco Hamilton Works also saw similar gains in their renewal agreement. Evraz workers at USW Locals 6673 and 5890 in Calgary and Regina, respectively, also succeeded in negotiating new four-year contacts in 2022 that provided wage increases of 7.5-percent, COLA and substantial pension contribution increases.
In 2023, a strong strike mandate from the 330 members at the Gerdau steel mill in Selkirk, Man., helped Local 5542 achieve a five-year agreement with gains in wages, benefits, pension and other payments and benefits, including COLA. Later that year, 140 Local 7065 aluminum smelter workers at Métallurgie Brasco Entretien proved their mettle with big wage gains in their three-year contract with total increases ranging from 24.25 percent to 27.25 percent over the term. Also in Quebec, in their first contract with the USW, members at the Soucy-Belgen iron foundry in Sainte-Clare won 22 percent wage increases over five years, including 10 percent in the first year.
Mining and minerals
In 2022, the 1,300 Steelworkers in two bargaining units at Teck’s smelting and refining operations in Trail, B.C., negotiated five-year contracts with big gains including 2-percent annual wage adjustments and bonuses totalling $20,000 per member, including other benefit improvements. In 2023, more than 270 members of Local 6285 at the Tacora Resources mine in Wabush, N.L., were able to negotiate a new agreement, including a 12.5 percent increase in the first year and 24.5 percent over the life of the agreement.
Also in 2022, workers at Local 9449 at Raglan Mine in Nunavik, Que., waged their first-ever strike and stood firm for 15 weeks until they achieved a five-year contract with numerous gains. The workers at the isolated, fly-in, fly-out mining camp won total wage increases of nearly 20 percent. A previously negotiated 10 percent wage bonus was also rolled into the general wage structure and improvements were made in many other areas of the agreement.
Later in 2023, 1,500 workers at Iron Ore Company of Canada (IOC) in Labrador City, N.L., negotiated a five-year deal with total wage increases of 18.25 percent over the agreement term. The superior contract also includes an increased northern living allowance, COLA provisions, and improvements on pension and benefits. Likewise, 500 members at Local 9996 at Minerai de fer Quebec in Fermont achieved increases ranging from 26.5 percent to 30.6 percent over five years with up to 17.6 percent in year one.
In the potash sector, members working in the Saskatchewan potash/fertilizer giant Nutrien (Locals 189, 7458, 7689) reached a three-year agreement providing wage increases of 10.5 percent over the term, among many other gains.
USW members at Newmont Corporation’s gold mining operations in Timmins, Ont., (Local 7580) effectively leveraged their bargaining strength to negotiate total wage hikes ranging from 20 percent to 26 percent and additional adjustments, bonuses and COLA provisions.
Education and the broader public sector
Ont., were unfortunately constrained by the Ontario Progressive Conservative government’s Bill 124, which restricted wage increases to 1 percent. Nonetheless, the 1,400 USW administrative and support staff were able to attain a three-year agreement that included several other improvements, including on job evaluation, pay equity, parental leave and tuition and child-care benefits.
In November 2022, the Ontario Superior Court of Justice struck down Bill 124 saying that “the law infringes on the applicants’ rights to freedom of association and collective bargaining.” This opened the door for university workers at Local 4120 at the University of Guelph and Local 1998 at the University of Toronto to break the prevailing wage patterns in the education sector.
Local 4120 members negotiated a strong contract that included wage increases of 9.5 percent and benefit improvements. Later in 2023, Local 1998 members were also able to negotiate a three-year agreement providing total wage increases of 12.8 percent, with 9 percent in the first year.
Security and airport security screeners
In 2022, 16,000 USW security guards in Quebec, covered under the Quebec government sector-wide decree, attained a new contract with total wage and premium increases ranging from 19.2 percent to 27.8 percent over five years. In late 2024, security guards across Ontario also negotiated improvements in several agreements.
Likewise, in the Ontario security sector, the USW undertook an ambitious and co-ordinated approach to improving conditions for security workers. One challenge in this sector is the ever-present threat of inexperienced and unqualified upstart companies undermining our collective agreements and causing a “race to the bottom.” In 2024 bargaining, the union took the bold step to co-ordinate with our partner unions, employers and the provincial government to plug the holes that undermine the sector and our members. After extensive lobbying, campaigning and member engagement, the USW negotiated a series of landmark agreements for security guards in District 6 that included 3-percent increases to “client dictated rates,” improvements to benefits and pension improvements for “career guards” in the bargaining unit.
Efforts to co-ordinate bargaining efforts also paid off in negotiations for airport security screeners across the country. Following the ratification of good settlements in District 6 and District 3, Quebec airport screeners in District 5 held out to secure the best increases in the sector. Negotiating for the first time as a united front, airport screeners in Montreal, Quebec City and 12 regional airports secured two-year agreements with 12.5 percent wage increases and other improvements, including signing bonuses. This agreement closes the chapter on the union’s best-ever effort to co-ordinate bargaining across all three Canadian districts in the sector. More than 300 Ottawa airport security screeners with USW Local 1976 also achieved a superior agreement with Garda Security in a three-year deal, including 12.3 percent in wages, as well as cost-of-living improvements.
Manufacturing
In 2022, 130 members working at PTI Transformers in Winnipeg (Local 4297), negotiated an impressive contract with increases totalling 16.15 percent over the term, as well as a $3-per-hour average increase for new hires. In Saskatoon, workers at Andritz Separation (Local 8883) made big wage, pension and benefit gains in a three-year deal that boosted wages by 17.5 percent, including a 9-percent raise in the first year.
In District 6, USW members in manufacturing also saw a rebound in their bargaining outcomes. For example, negotiations at Pilkington Glass in Collingwood, Ont., (Local 252G) are notable for eliminating two-tier language in an agreement that also boosted wages by 17.5 percent over three years.
At National Steel Car in Hamilton, workers represented by Local 7135 stood firm in a six-week strike to win improvements at their plant, following a difficult period where three workers were killed on the job in 21 months. In addition, members won wage increases of 13 percent over the three-year agreement.
Strike activity resurged across the manufacturing sector in District 6 as employers refused to recognize the rebalancing bargaining power toward workers in the face of regional competition for workers and economic realities. At IMT, in Ingersoll, Ont., for example, Local 2918 held strong in a nine-week strike that concluded in a significant victory, with the elimination of longstanding two-tier language and significant wage increases.
In 2024, Local 9399 members who manufacture steel wire at the ArcelorMittal Saint-Patrick plant in Montreal negotiated a solid six-year contract including general increases of 37.5 percent over the term, in addition to other wage adjustments. Improvements were also made to premiums, vacations, pensions, benefits and health and safety provisions. Local 6565-02 members in Hawkesbury, Ont., also achieved large gains in their negotiations with Voith Canada.
Telecommunications
Three hundred Rogers Communications workers in Metro Vancouver (Local 1944, Unit 60) stood firm to achieve a fair settlement after being locked out by their employer in November 2022. Through the new collective agreement, the members achieved 14.25 percent wage increases over a five-year deal with retroactive pay, a $1,000 signing bonus and an assurance to members of automation protections, backfill language, hiring language commitments, a cap on contract use, clearly defined jurisdiction and enhanced layoff protection.
At Telus, USW Local 1944 members continue to fight for gains at the bargaining table, even in the face of relentless efforts by the company to eliminate and offshore Canadian jobs. In 2023, after 18 months of negotiations, USW 1944 members executed a sophisticated and sustained solidarity campaign that resulted in sizable gains at the bargaining table. The new contract, which expires in 2027, provides total wage increases of 11.5 percent as well as a $10,000 lump sum bonus.
Services and retail
The USW continued to pursue our ambitious campaign to organize at Starbucks locations across the country. These efforts have paid off, with the negotiation of several landmark first contracts at Starbucks locations in Western Canada and Ontario. In August 2023, Starbucks workers in Calgary-Millrise negotiated their first collective agreement. In October 2023, Local 1-207 Starbucks members in Sherwood Park, Alta., also negotiated a first contract, including improvements in working conditions and an immediate 5-percent wage increase. In Ontario, in late 2024, the USW successfully filed for first contract arbitration in response to Starbucks’ demand that USW members give up their right to work shifts in other Starbucks locations known as “borrowing,” With the support of the USW’s legal and research teams, Starbucks members were successful at arbitration, receiving an award that enshrined the right to “borrow” in the collective bargaining agreement (CBA). The USW’s success here will serve as an important precedent for future Starbucks organizing in both the U.S. and Canada.
Elsewhere across the services sector, Steelworkers negotiated significant gains to their agreements. For example, in 2023, more than 110 employees of Kootenay Savings Credit Union in B.C. (Local 1-405) achieved total wage increases of 10 percent as well as $4,000 in bonuses in a three-year agreement. Hotel workers across the hospitality sector also saw significant gains. Most notably, hotel workers at the Comfort Inn in Rouyn-Noranda, Que., attained increases ranging from 20 percent to 32 percent in a new five-year deal ratified in 2024.
Health care
Representing over 3,000 members in Ontario alone, health care is a growing part of the union. The industry suffers from chronic staffing shortages that were exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic and Bill 124. Coming into law in 2019, Bill 124 capped yearly wage increases at one percent for three years.
In November 2022, the superior court of Ontario struck down Bill 124 for infringing on Charter rights. Many health- care settlements reached under the duress of Bill 124 contained reopener clauses, instructing the parties to renegotiate compensation for the affected years.
Health care locals therefore found themselves bargaining backwards, reopening wages from the previous three years, while simultaneously bargaining for renewal contracts. The USW and employers have been working over the past two years to resolve the labour relations chaos stemming from Bill 124.
Despite this difficult environment, bargaining has been more successful in recent years than prior to 2020. Units at the Hawkesbury Hospital and Timmins General Hospital have replicated province-wide bargaining trends with wage increases of three-to four-and-three-quarters percent per year. These settlements also include significant adjustments for Registered Practical Nurses (RPNs), one of the classifications with acute shortages.
In long-term care homes, the union secured wage increases between 3 percent and 3.5 percent per year. In retirement homes, wage trends are between 3.5 percent and 4 percent. While these wage increases are more than double the trends that existed pre-pandemic, they still trail the rate of inflation and the settlements achieved by private-sector workers in the same communities.
In addition to wages, the union introduced the Steelworkers Pension Plan in some units while increasing contributions to four percent where the plan was already in place. Workers also gained a new mental health benefit of $500 per year for registered psychologists, psychotherapists or social workers.
These modest gains are considered successes since bargaining is constrained by the Hospital Labour Disputes Arbitration Act in Ontario, which prohibits strikes or lockouts and pushes any impasse to binding interest arbitration.
The USW has also begun renegotiating pay equity agreements for long-term care units that have access to the proxy method of comparison contemplated by Ontario’s Pay Equity Act. Employers have been resistant to engage in this process, but the USW is optimistic this it will result in significant and long overdue wage increases for these essential workers.
Transportation
At Rio Tinto’s Quebec North Shore and Labrador Railway (QNS&L) and IOC port operation in Sept-Îles, Que., USW members responded to inflationary pressures by negotiating an agreement that provided for 8.9 percent in the first year and included additional wage increases, special payments and lump sum bonuses. Later in 2023, USW Local 1976 members working at Trimac’s transportation operations in Golden, B.C., achieved a three-year contract providing total wage increases of 11 percent, including 5 percent in the first year.
USW Local 1976 members at both Delta Air Lines and American Airlines also achieved impressive gains in their negotiations since 2022. In November 2022, 300 employees negotiated a two-year agreement including wage increases of 12 percent over the term, in addition to increases to employer pension contributions, a signing bonus and improvements to benefits. At Delta Air Lines, the new contract will see compensation levels rise by 14 percent over three years, including total wage increases of 12 percent. The agreement also includes a new retirement benefit to supplement employees’ defined-benefit pension plan.
At CN Rail in March 2024, Local 2004 negotiated a new contract covering 3,000 workers across the country. The three-year contract provides wage increases of 3 percent each year as well as additional wage adjustments for certain classifications that represent increases as high
as 7.5 percent in the contract’s first year. In so doing, the local also planned and implemented a successful and multi-faceted strategic campaign aimed at mobilizing and engaging members that allowed the local to avoid labour action in a sector riddled with strike action in 2023-24.
Forestry and paper
Emerging from the pandemic, sawmills experienced artificially high lumber prices which were driven by both demand and supply-side conditions. In bargaining throughout Northern Ontario and Western Canada in both our master and independent agreements, the USW capitalized on this bargaining context by negotiating wage increases averaging over 3 percent and improvements in premiums by an average of 30 percent in an increasingly uncertain industry.
From industry-leading First Nations’ recognition language in our USW operation in Meadow Lake, Sask., with NorSask Forest Products and the Meadow Lake Tribal Council, to an unprecedented increase of the BC Forest Industry Pension Plan benefit from $60/month/year of service to $115/month/year of service, there have been many improvements in the collective agreements in USW-represented operations across the country, serving over 13,000 members.
This despite the devasting impacts of the fibre supply reduction, largely in Northern B.C., from the pine beetle infestation and the lack of available timber, along with the crippling U.S. softwood lumber duties and tariffs that inevitably caused the closure of seven USW operations. This had an impact on over 1,000 USW members and their communities since the beginning of 2022.
Conclusion
There is no doubt that, across the country, bargaining power has shifted towards workers in many sectors. This has been due to a variety of external factors, such as a rising and sustained high cost of living, regional and sector-specific labour shortages and an inability on the part of employers to attain and attract employees. However, our largest gains have occurred when in many cases, local unions have needed to threaten or otherwise take strike action to achieve increased gains at the bargaining table. In other cases, we see local unions putting renewed effort into engaging members and leading effective ‘building power’ campaigns, which has strengthened the mandates of bargaining teams at the bargaining table.
Despite improved outcomes at the bargaining table, workers have generally not recouped, in real terms, incomes lost due to high inflation and a rising cost of living. Bargaining teams and locals need to continue to work together to strengthen their membership, engage their communities and prepare to continue the fight to improve the livelihood of USW members.
As the business cycle evolves, headwinds will surely materialize across many sectors. For USW members to continue to make important breakthroughs at the bargaining table, local leaders and activists need to redouble efforts to engage with members to develop and maintain vibrant and resilient local unions. This is the source of the USW’s strength in bargaining and is the key to our success in bargaining sector-leading collective bargaining agreements.