Trade Unions and Work-Life Rights: The Challenge of Work-Life Interface in a Union Environment

Abstract

The issue of work-life rights is increasingly present in trade unions, who advocate for improved working conditions and living standards of workers. Indeed, unions have adopted numerous resolutions on the subject of work-family balance over the years and they have been negotiating with companies and public organizations in this field, and started to look at the situation within their own organization. However, while unions have negotiated work-life rights for their members, this may appears to apply more to the workplaces unions represent than to unions themselves, as employers, and the situation of their own employees. Our research shows that a culture of long hours and strong commitment to the cause sometimes makes it difficult to balance work and family for union employees. Also, the younger generation appears to question the culture of long hours as a signal for performance. IntroductionThe issue of work-life rights is increasingly present in trade unions, who have advocated for improved working conditions and living standards of workers, including for a work organization that is sensitive to work-family balance. Indeed, unions have adopted numerous resolutions on the subject of work-family balance over the years and they have been negotiating with companies and public organizations in this field, but they have not been as sensitive to the situation within their own organizations, and have not structured paid union jobs accordingly. We have studied the case of one Canadian union, which may not be generalized to all Canadian unions, or to other countries, but the information collected with this union, and more informally with other unions in Canada and abroad, seems to indicate that the situation is quite similar in most unions, as the type of work is very similar. While it would be important to pursue the research with other Canadian unions and abroad, this first research on work-life issues in unions is valuable inasmuch as it offers insights on an issue which has not been the object of publication to this day, as our literature review indicates, that is the work-life issues for paid union staff. The literatures' silence on this specific issue makes our research important.