I'm glad that you emphasize, Dennis, that being a member of a union (or not!) is a social determinant of health. Occupational health and safety is a big concern in union environments and largely ignored outside of them. The right to grieve mistreatment doesn't really exist for those without unions unless they are in fancy positions and can afford to make use of the courts.

You are right to emphasize the role of governments in determining whether workers get to organize. Almost 2/3 of Canadian workers tell pollsters that they would like to be unionized though only 30 percent are.  Dropping the card check system definitely hurt. In addition to the end of the card check system in Alberta, which has the lowest rate of unionization in the country, what's been very damning is what is often referred to as "double breasting," that is the ability of an employer that is unionized to legally form a non-unionized dummy company to which it can pass all the contracts from the unionized company. The result in Alberta has been to reduce unionization among construction workers from about 70 percent in the early 1980s to about 20 percent today.

And, as you suggest, union lobbying plays a big role in producing social gains. As I argue in my book, Social Policy and Practice in Canada: A History, the Canadian trade union movement played the biggest role of any group in winning universal medicare while their American counterparts, almost completely submerged in Cold War thinking, gave up the battle early and settled for Medicare for seniors and the limited Medicaid program for the absolutely destitute.

Alvin

On 2/5/2022 1:36 PM, Dennis Raphael wrote:
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Get a free copy of Social Determinants of Health: The Canadian Facts, 2nd edition at http://thecanadianfacts.org

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Dennis Raphael, PhD
Professor of Health Policy and Management
York University
4700 Keele Street
Strong College, Room 334
Toronto, Ontario M3J 1P3
416-736-2100, ext. 22054
email: [log in to unmask]
Website: http://health.info.yorku.ca/health-profiles/index.php?mid=162284

Of interest:

The Politics of Health in the Canadian Welfare State

https://www.canadianscholars.ca/books/the-politics-of-health-in-the-canadian-welfare-state

 

Poverty in Canada, 3rd edition,
Forewords by Cathy Crowe, Rob Ranier and Jack Layton
https://www.canadianscholars.ca/books/poverty-in-canada-d3408482-0caa-489a-8a76-7faf7587d00a

 

Staying Alive: Critical Perspectives on Health, Illness, and Health Care, 3rd edition
Foreword by Gary Teeple
https://www.canadianscholars.ca/books/staying-alive

 

Social Determinants of Health: Canadian Perspectives, 3rd edition
Forewords by Michael Butler and Maude Barlow, Carolyn Bennett and Roy Romanow
http://tinyurl.com/hm5l4hn

Immigration, Public Policy, and Health: Newcomer Experiences in Developed Nations
http://www.cspi.org/books/immigration-public-policy-and-health

About Canada: Health and Illness, 2nd edition
https://fernwoodpublishing.ca/book/about-canada-health-and-illness

Tackling Health Inequalities: Lessons from International Experiences
Foreword by Alex Scott-Samuel
http://www.cspi.org/books/tackling_health_inequalities

Health Promotion and Quality of Life in Canada: Essential Readings
http://tinyurl.com/3C8zteu


See a presentation! The Political Economy of Health Inequalities.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-NCTYqAub8g

Also, presentation at the University of Toronto on how Canada stacks up again other nations in providing citizens with economic and social security.
http://vimeo.com/33346501

See what Jack Layton had to say about my books!
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/story/2011/04/10/cv-election-ndp-layton-platform.html
at 27:20

 

 

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