ABSTRACT

The decline in the prevalence of the Standard Employment Relationship in Canada has created challenges for Canadian unions. This article reviews the available estimates of the prevalence of precarious employment and gig work in Canada. Using data from the Poverty and Employment Precarity in Southern Ontario (PEPSO) research group it evaluates both the success of unions in organising workers in precarious employment and bargaining for them. The last section reviews recent union strategies to organise workers in precarious employment with a focus on the subset of precarious employment referred to as gig work. Organising gig workers presents unique challenges for unions as many are deemed by their employers as independent contractors and as a result not covered by existing Canadian labour legislation and hence not eligible for union membership. The paper concludes by arguing that organising precarious workers is a work in progress, whose ultimate outcome remains uncertain.

摘要

加拿大标准雇佣关系的流行度下降给加拿大工会带来了挑战。本文回顾了对加拿大不稳定就业和零工工作普遍性的现有估计。使用来自南安大略省贫困和就业不稳定 (PEPSO) 研究小组的数据，它评估了工会在组织不稳定就业工人和为他们讨价还价方面的成功。最后一部分回顾了最近工会组织工人从事不稳定就业的战略，重点是不稳定就业的子集，称为零工。组织零工工人对工会提出了独特的挑战，因为许多工人被雇主视为独立承包商，因此不受加拿大现行劳工立法的保护，因此没有资格成为工会会员。