United in Struggle

Sharpening Our Tools to Build Worker Power: Unity and Struggle in the Union Movement

Everywhere you turn, people are talking about the struggles and concerns of the working class in Canada. Whether it’s runaway inflation, the looming tariff war, union-busting and worker repression, climate-driven catastrophes, or simply finding an affordable place to live, people are feeling the squeeze from the big capitalist ruling class. The conditions are there for the working class to organize and fight back, but to succeed we need to investigate where we are and unite on where we’re going. This means working class militants must have a clear understanding of:

1. The strength and composition of the workers’ movement;
2. Where class struggles are already taking place;
3. Where we are best situated to intervene, build support and solidarity, and offer leadership towards an independent political movement for the working class. 

The workers’ movement is the conscious, organized struggle of workers for economic and political power, and at its core is the union movement. Labour unions are the most common form of working class organization: they are how we speak back with a unified voice to the boss, push for higher wages and benefits, defend and advance our rights on the job, and organize collective actions such as strikes. Historically, most significant economic and political victories of Canadian workers have been won through union struggles. Today, however, less than 30% of the overall workforce is unionized, and in the private sector union density barely clears 15%. Many unions have been weakened by ruling class assault to the point where the best they can offer is meekly defending the gains of past generations.

Even worse, the union movement’s highest leaders have largely made their peace with this unacceptable status quo. They’ve been unable or unwilling to push back against the anti-labour legal system, which recognizes workers’ rights in name but stigmatizes shopfloor organizing and outlaws strike activity in all but the narrowest of circumstances. They’ve also cozied up to parties and politicians who have demonstrated time and again that when the chips are down, they aren’t going to put their interests on the line to stand against the bosses. Look no further than the NDP, which could barely muster a half-hearted protest against the federal government’s sweeping, illegal crackdowns on major strikes by the Teamsters, ILWU, CUPE, and CUPW over the course of 2024. Amidst this crisis, however, we can also see the sparks of a renewed workers’ struggle. More and more workers are coming to see that the system doesn’t work for us, and that united, fighting working class organizations are the only power capable of turning the tide against our capitalist enemy.

In order to advance the wider workers’ movement, we must broaden and deepen the union movement by growing its ranks and strengthening the levels of struggle and internal democracy. Unions are where most workers are first introduced to working class organizing and solidarity. Our immediate objective is to go to the unions, investigate their strengths and weaknesses, and build relationships with politically conscious workers both inside and outside of the union movement. Rank-and-file workers must learn to take charge of their union organizations as tools they collectively command in their workplaces and beyond. As our unions become bigger, stronger, and bolder, they will become “schools of class struggle” for the workers involved. By organizing workplace committees, democratically uniting around contract demands, allying with others in the workers’ movement, and taking collective strike actions to win what’s rightfully theirs, workers gain a sense of themselves as a class opposed to the monopoly capitalists. And as they begin to see what they can achieve for themselves and their families, workers will begin to imagine what more can be achieved by striking over deeper, political demands that benefit their communities and the entire working class. 

Independent political workers’ organizations like the East Van Workers Assembly can play a vital role in uniting workers, training organizers, and energetically leading the way towards a movement capable of fighting at this higher level. By bringing together the most militant and politically conscious leaders, organizers, and rank-and-filers from our unions, we can better understand the collective challenges and opportunities facing the workers’ movement. Only by working together to set a common strategy, objectives, and political vision will we be able to put the union movement back on the road to fighting for the whole working class, instead of fighting internally over our own little pieces of the pie. What we learn from one another can then flow back into the unions, as worker leaders educate, organize, and mobilize their own members. As our unions develop, so too will our independent political workers’ organizations, and vice versa. EVWA does not seek to replace the unions, but to strengthen them, stand with them, and help build links of deep class unity between industries and across unionized/non-unionized lines. The union movement is too important to let it languish. When workers exercise real control in the unions our class will wield one of the most powerful weapons we have in the struggle for worker power.