Teachers' Unions in Canada

Ashley Thomson is a full librarian at Laurentian University and co-editor or co-author of nine books, most recently Margaret Atwood: A Reference Guide, 1988-2005.

Compiled by four members of the Ontario Institute for Studies in
Education, this book attempts to explain the unpopularity of teachers’
unions. It begins with a brief history of teachers’ unions that
focuses on the gradual politicization of teachers. It then looks at
various provincial labor laws (the legislation that provides the
precondition not only for collective bargaining rights but also for the
right to strike), before moving on to an analysis of the internal
operation of unions.

The ensuing chapters analyze the unions’ opposition to the current
neoconservative agenda, and then address union struggles in British
Columbia, Ontario, and other English-speaking jurisdictions outside
Canada. The final chapters evaluate the unions’ successes in the areas
of salaries and pension plans and suggest that while the teachers’
unions have not always been successful in their struggles with
government agendas, they have managed to protect their members from many
of the financial hardships suffered in the private sector.

The authors conclude that the public interest, as well as the interest
of some individual teachers, would be better served if labor laws were
modified so that unions would have less power. Their book, which suffers
from a lack of balance, will clearly be of particular interest to those
who don’t like unions.