[ 25 November 2003: Message edited by: Skye88 ]

[ 25 November 2003: Message edited by: Skye88 ]

well, I guess if you want to send your money to the US, and receive semi-regular newsletters featuring pictures of other people attending conventions where they seem to discuss nothing of substance - and certainly nothing of substance for Canadian members, although they do elect a token Canadian exec member - then by all means, join OPEIU.

To join OPEIU, you would get a group of your coworkers together, file a petition with your LRB, have a vote in the office about whether or not to affiliate, and if you all voted yes, start negotiating a collective agreement.

I am sorry you have had such a bad experience with OPEIU in Canada, Vicky, they're pretty good here in the U.S. They represent some workers in the insurance industry here in Boston, and some public servants. And, of course, most union office staff. The members here who I know are basically satisfied with their representation.

I think a "craft union" for office workers, particularly temps, is an interesting idea. As I am sure you can attest, Michelle, there is actually a lot of skill involved in what you do.

The problem would be for an organization to establish an effective monopoly over the skill, like construction workers and musicians have.

If you're looking for either a carpenter or a cellist, the reality is, the union will almost always be the only place to get the best skilled, trained people for the job. "Supply and demand" conditions just aren't the same in the white-collar temp world, and it would take a lot of organizing and solidarity to change that.

[ 25 November 2003: Message edited by: robbie_dee ]

But if at some point you actually are considering the option, I would suggest you call all three of the unions above, and perhaps a few others, too. Prepare a list of questions along with your co-workers and see what each union has to offer. Find out if you can talk to any rank and file workers they represent in your area.

a good site for contingent worker stuff is the North American Alliance for Fair Employment

I know OPEIU has done some good things for folks in the US. I just don't see it evolving much beyond the traditional service/business unionism model. It does very little political action in Canada, no coalition/social justice work (which is what I look for in a union), and we get very little service to boot. Now, my sublocal is quite self-sustaining; we don't need much. So maybe that's why I'm more sensitive to wanting my dues to count for something....anything.

But this is a digression from Michelle's topic. If the guy you spoke with was trying to encourage you to unionize....and if, hypothetically, you wanted to look at your options, I would recommend making sure you had a few more people in your workplace who were interested in organizing. Then you shop around. In addition to the unions Mycroft mentioned (and I wouldn't rule out OPEIU, since they do represent a lot of office workers), I would also take a look at CEP.

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as far as I know, no union in Canada is considering an organizing strategy that is not along workplace lines.

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I am not an expert, but I think the CSN has done this in Quebec with daycare workers. All daycare workers that work in publicy-funded daycares are unionized by the CSN. These centres are all independently operated so they are separate workplaces. The CSN negotiated a collective agreement for all these workers, after a short strike I believe. Home-based daycare workers have their own association, but it is not a union.

Admitedly, it is a lot easier to unionize this class of workers than admin assistants, because of the government funding and I bet also becuase these centres are non-profit and managed by parent-led board of directors.

[ 25 November 2003: Message edited by: Sara Mayo ]

One of the problems that OPEIU has in a couple of their larger Ontario locals is that they have oodles of very small bargaining units...some with only one or two members. Its tough to provide service (grievance handling and negotiating contracts) and also a tough structure to allow for membership control over the union.

And yes I'd agree that OPEIU has been weak in providing written materials for its membership...and slow at adapting to the internet...very strange for a "white collar" union.

As for a "craft union" for office temps, yes I'd agree that its a good concept...and long overdue.

Prior to the 1930's for example work in North America's ports was controlled by private labour contractors...not unlike the various office temp agencies. Unionization put an end to the private labour contractors.

As for today, one of the reasons I think that the craft unions in the construction industry have been able to maintain their presence is through controlling the training of workers in the craft.

Unions like the IBEW, Carpenters etc. all have very large training institutions that do an excellent job of training workers in the craft...in fact they do a better job than the community colleges...with a much stronger emphasis on safety on the job etc.

Employers know that by using union construction workers they get a much better trained worker who produces much better quality work than non-union construction workers.

So if one were to setup a "white/pink collar" craft union then I think one of the strategies would be to have a good training centre that could certify people's skill sets and that members could go back to in order to get additional training (software is changing just about every week it seems!)

Taking on creating an "office craft union" would be an enormous challenge I think...but it needs to be done.

I would think that trying to do something like this in a city the size of Toronto would be biting off much more than one could chew...at least initially. Something like this would be much better done at first anyway in a smaller city...preferably one with a strong union tradition already...maybe somewhere like Windsor?

[ 25 November 2003: Message edited by: radiorahim ]

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Montreal District Savings Bank

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As for a "craft union" for office temps, yes I'd agree that its a good concept...and long overdue.

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Maybe rather than talking about this very old concept of unionism, it is time to bring forward a related, but new one?

One of the things these associations-turned-unions do in their first contract negotiation, whether they affiliate with one of the big unions or not, is focus on rights for casual employees, a seriously neglected labour area. The second contract generally deals more with pay increases, benefits, and tightening up the language in the collective agreement.

1) Organizing "temps". This would have to be done by organizing the temp agencies, particularly workers who "temp" on a full-time basis through an agency.

2) Organizing office workers who are full-time with a "regular" employer. Many unions have experience representing office workers including public sector unions like CUPE and OPSEU in Ontario.

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I think there's two different issues which would require two strategies, neither of which are easy.

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Yes I'd agree that there are two issues here...one being the organization of temp workers and simply the lack of unionization in the white/pink collar sector.

With organizing temp agencies, yes that would be very difficult... some folks only do one assignment for a particular temp agency and that's it...others will do a number of temp assignments over a period of time. Simply identifying the folks who work for a particular temp agency would be quite a difficult task itself.

Ultimately though what would be best would be to put the temp agencies out of business and replace them with union hiring halls. The temp agencies are basically parasites as far as I'm concerned.

Most of the white/pink collar organizing has indeed been done by the public sector unions i.e. PSAC, CUPE and the various provincial government unions. And yes they've organized IT workers too.

All of these unions have to some degree been branching out into organizing in the private sector...to some degree of necessity as public work is privatized...but they are in fact organizing in the private sector too.