Is union drive here to stay in Canada?

Coverage is creeping up slowly after years of decline

Before the pandemic, Rahim Piracha and his co-workers at one of two Staples locations in Oakville didn’t have many gripes with their employer, save for the odd grumbles.

But when COVID-19 hit, understaffing became the norm, said Piracha, especially in the past few months. Shifts had a fraction of the workers staff were accustomed to, making breaks difficult and adding to increasing burnout, he said.

The last straw, said Piracha, was when six workers at the store tested positive for COVID-19 over the holidays.

The company didn’t tell its employees why their colleagues were suddenly off for two weeks, he said — but the news made it down the grapevine.

And when it did, Piracha said, management insisted the workers had not caught COVID-19 at work, leaving employees feeling unsafe and unsupported in the workplace.

“After that … there was talk of unionization.”

That talk quickly became action, and workers at the location organized a union drive with the United Food and Commercial Workers, a labour union representing more than a million workers in Canada and the U.S. While the movement received an outpouring of support on social media, it was ultimately unsuccessful, by just a handful of votes.

Had it succeeded, the Oakville location would have been the only unionized Staples in Canada out of some 300 stores.

Staples did not respond directly to questions about the allegations about the COVID-19 outbreak, but in an emailed statement to the Star, a spokesperson said the company is proud of the “strong partnership” it has built with its employees.

The Staples employees are not alone in their fight for safe work, better wages and more stable employment as the pandemic drags on, with a number of workplaces across Canada, among them retailers, cafes and airlines, having had successful union drives prompted by increasing worker unrest.

Workers at a PetSmart in North York successfully unionized Thursday with the United Food and Commercial Workers over pay and staffing issues. Multiple Indigo bookstores have unionized, as have several Canada Goose plants totalling 1,200 workers, a Vancouver hotel, a Starbucks location and hundreds of WestJet employees.

While union representatives said they have seen increased interest from front-line and precarious

Workers are recognizing that unionization is an opportunity to resolve the many concerns retail workers face, such as stagnant wages, lack of benefits, understaffing, health (and) safety concerns and unpredictable schedules.

LESLEY PRINCE DIRECTOR OF ORGANIZING

FOR UFCW 1006A