From security services to Starbucks coffee shops, from mining to child care, from steel mills to education, from manufacturing to social services, from forestry to transportation and from hotels to health care, thousands of workers in virtually all sectors of the Canadian economy join the USW each year.
Workers across Canada turn to the Steelworkers because of our union’s strong track record on health and safety and negotiating better working conditions, wages, pensions and benefits. Our organizing successes over the last three years contribute to the ever-growing diversity of our membership, strengthen the Steelworkers’ role as a leader in the Canadian labour movement and attest to the motto that the USW is indeed “everybody’s union.”
In the wake of massive upheaval, job losses and employment precarity stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic, our union ramped up our commitment to organizing – in traditional and non-traditional sectors – across the country. Existing campaigns have been expanded and new strategies are being pursued to reach out to workers seeking to exercise their collective bargaining rights to improve their working conditions and gain greater respect, dignity and security on the job.
Workers across Canada are joining ‘everybody’s union’
Ongoing successes at Starbucks stores have solidified the USW’s standing as the go-to union for the coffee giant’s workers in Canada who are organizing to stand up to their employer and secure collective agreements that ensure fairness and improve morale as well as working conditions and wages.
The unionizing breakthrough by Canadian Starbucks workers began in British Columbia at the pandemic’s outset and has since spread to several locations in Western Canada and more recently to Ontario. The USW is supporting workers at Starbucks stores across the country who are mobilizing to overcome the corporation’s notorious anti-union tactics.
“We started this campaign after being inspired by other stores showing us that it was possible. We want to be able to protect and improve the workplace to make it better for everyone,” said a Starbucks barista involved in a successful USW organizing drive in the Ontario community of Waterloo.
Steelworkers also have made tremendous inroads in helping security workers unionize across Canada, so much so that the security sector now represents the fastest-growing USW group in the country, with tens of thousands of members, and counting. Recent successes include the certifications of 1,200 employees of Paladin Security in the Atlantic provinces of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Newfoundland and Labrador.
In Quebec, a province-wide USW campaign to organize road traffic control workers has led to the creation of a new Steelworkers local union with more than 1,000 members. The new local has substantially improved conditions for these workers, including safety, wages, bonuses and pensions. The District 5 campaign is targeting another 3,000 workers in the sector, where health and safety is a major concern.
The USW is pursuing a number of other strategic organizing plans, including in the post-secondary education sector; in sectors and workplaces dominated by women, racialized workers and other equity-seeking groups; and in key, traditional industries such as the mining and critical minerals sector.
The USW’s organizing work in Canada is reinforced by our international union’s commitment to fund and support the recruitment of member organizers in both countries. and help them build their own union. USW members are the best messengers to engage with non-unionized workers, exemplify what it means to join the union and demonstrate what it’s like to work in a workplace represented by the USW: everybody’s union.
Canadian workplaces where the Steelworkers have welcomed new members since the last USW convention include:
- Starbucks, Sherwood Park, Alta., (two locations).
- Starbucks, Calgary Millrise Centre, Calgary.
- Starbucks, Langley, B.C.
- Starbucks, Surrey, B.C.
- Magotteaux foundry, Magog, Que.
- Vale, security services, Ont.
- Sodexo, catering and facilities management, Prince George, B.C.
- Maxi-Metal, manufacturing, Saint-Georges-de-Beauce, Que.
- University of Toronto, student residence workers.
- Alutrec, manufacturing, Laurier-Station, Que.
- Starbucks, Terrace Plaza, Edmonton.
- Starbucks, Dunbar Street, Vancouver.
- Starbucks, Waterloo Town Square, Waterloo, Ont.
- Société des traversiers du Québec, ferry services, Sorel and Saint-Ignace-de-Loyola, Que.
- Canadian Phoenix Steel Products, Etobicoke, Ont.
- Enviro Industries, industrial cleaning services, Sorel-Tracy, Que.
- Queen’s University, student residence workers, Kingston, Ont.
- Starbucks, Conestoga Mall, Waterloo, Ont.,
- Starbucks, Fairway Plaza, Kitchener, Ont.
- Starbucks Pape and Danforth, Toronto.
- Edmonton People In Need Shelter Society, Edmonton.
- Garderie Cafalaga, child care, Montreal.
- Bridges of Canada, federal prison chaplains, Alberta.
- Andersen Pacific Forest Products, Maple Ridge, B.C.
- Leggett & Platt Canada, auto components manufacturing, Windsor, Ont.
- ConocoPhillips, gas field development, Montney, B.C.
- Paladin Security, Atlantic Canada security employees.
- Starbucks-Kingsway Ave., Edmonton.
- Winton Homes, home manufacturing, Prince George, B.C.
- Parsons Inc., Faro Rehabilitation Mine Project, Yukon.
- University of Calgary Faculty Association, Calgary.
- Cando Rail and Terminals, railroad contractor, Edmonton.
- Securitas Technology, security services, Port Coquitlam and Victoria.
- Prisoners’ Legal Services, Burnaby, B.C.
- McKinnon Sécurité, security services, Quebec City.
- Lafarge Canada Inc., concrete manufacturing, Longueuil, Que.
- Tremcar Inc., tank truck and trailer manufacturing, Montreal.
- Investigations R.K. Inc., security services, Pointe-Claire, Que.
- ACTRA, performing arts workers’ union, Montreal.
- S3-K9 inc., security services, multiple Quebec cities.
- P’tits Maringouins, child care, Matagami, Que.
- Transport B.R.S. Inc., transportation, Salaberry-de-Valleyfield. Que.
- Municipalité de Sainte-Victoire-de-Sorel, municipal services, Que.
- Trimax Sécurité Inc., security services, Montreal, Saint-Léonard, Que.
- King Sécurité Inc., security services, Trois-Rivières, Que.
- Groupe Fordia Inc., drilling equipment, Saint-Laurent, Que.
- EPC Canada, explosives manufacturing, Yamachiche, Que.
- Sécurité Mahikan, security services, Mashteuiatsh, Jonquière, Que.
- Boulangerie Auger, bakery, Saint-Jérôme, Que.
- Thessalon First Nation, Indigenous community services, Northern Ontario.
- GardaWorld, security services, Halifax.
- Don Mills Retirement Home, North York, Ont.
- Canadian Brick, manufacturing, Burlington, Ont.
- GardaWorld (Halifax Harbour Bridges), security services, Halifax.
- Starbucks-Indigo, Kitchener, Ont.
- Timmins and District Hospital, Timmins, Ont.
- Columbia Forest Products, Kitchener, Ont.
- Township of Fauquier-Strickland, Ont.