Unions and Employment Growth: The Canadian Experience

Abstract

Using panel data from the Canadian Workplace and Employee Survey, the union effect on employment growth is examined. In line with previous North American findings, private sector unions are found to slow employment growth by approximately 2.2 percent per annum. This study is modeled after two recent articles published in this journal; one using the Australian Workplace and Industrial Relations Survey and a subsequent article using the British Workplace and Industrial/Employee Relations Survey.

Is the Union Employment Suppression Effect Diminishing? Further Evidence from Canada

“…www.erudit.org Tous droits réservés © Département des relations industrielles de l 'Université Laval, 2012 from 2.2% per annum to zero in his sample, depending on the measures of unionization and employment growth that he used. However, even taking the high-end estimate, Walsworth's (2010a) results seem to point to a diminution of the union employment growth suppression effect in Canada, given Long's (1993) finding of a union employment growth penalty of 3.7% to 3.9% per annum during 1980-85.…”

“…Nous notons toutefois que l'analyse de Walsworth (2010a) n'est pas comparable à celle menée par Long (1993) à plusieurs égards. Par exemple, Walsworth (2010a) ne ventile pas son analyse selon la taille des établissements, ni selon le secteur industriel. De plus, il n'a pas cherché à expliquer les raisons du ralentissement possible de l'effet de baisse de l'emploi syndiqué, une lacune que nous cherchons à combler en examinant deux facteurs potentiellement associés à un tel ralentissement, soit la croissance des gains d'emploi et l'avantage salarial des travailleurs syndiqués.Pour ce faire, nous avons analysé les données de l'EMTE couvrant la période et, comme Long (1993, nous avons observé d'importantes différences lorsque nous avons ventilé nos données pour fins d'analyse selon la taille des établissements, l'effet de la baisse de l'emploi syndiqué apparaissant dans les grands établissements manufacturiers mais pas dans les plus petits.…”

What Do Unions Do to Innovation? An Empirical Examination of the Canadian Private Sector

“…However the evidence against unions is not without exceptions and, especially in the Canadian context, it is either absent or dated. For instance, the only relevant Canadian empirical study to be published in the last fourteen years finds a much diminished negative union impact (Walsworth, 2010). From an empirical standpoint, the effect of Canadian unions on firm performance is poorly documented in the Industrial Relations literature.…”

“…In Canada, Long (1993) analyzed a sample of 510 Canadian workplaces from the period of 1980 to 1985, and reported that union firms grew 3.7 percent more slowly per year within the manufacturing industries and 3.9 percent more slowly per year within the nonmanufacturing industry. Also using Canadian data, Walsworth (2010) finds evidence of a diminished union employment effect in a sample covering 1999 to 2005. In fact Walsworth does not find any relationship between unions and employment growth when he employs the commonly used 'union status' measure, whereby even the presence of a single union member triggers the firm to be coded as 'unionized'.…”

“…Some relationships have been studied more than others; for example the monopoly wage effect and the debated productivity effect are well documented (see Walsworth, 2010 for a review). Less is known about performance outcomes that are more difficult to quantify and thus measure, such as the ability to create or significantly improve a product.…”