By Trent Wilkie | St. Albert Gazette
Unionization in Alberta delivers clear financial benefits, shrinking the gender wage gap, and boosts pay for young workers, even as overall union coverage remains among the lowest in Canada, a new Parkland Institute report concludes.
Alberta’s Union Advantage: Wages, Equity, and the Power of Collective Bargaining analyzes Statistics Canada data and econometric modelling for 2023, finding unions would be a boon for Albertan workers.
“Alberta has the lowest union-density rate,” said Andrew Stevens, co‑author and associate professor at the University of Regina. “That’s not a reflection of public opinion, but the result of legislation in the 1970s and 1980s that targeted building trade unions, the construction sector, and other unions. There was a deliberate effort to weaken union density, and that continues today.”
Stevens said attitudes toward unions are shaped more by dogma than experience.
“It’s about ideology, sets of ideas that shape our worldview, often without evidence or experience,” Stevens said. “People might think, ‘Unions are for the lazy. I’m not lazy, so I don’t support collective bargaining.’ Yet people often engage in the activities that unions provide outside of those frameworks. They negotiate, they might talk to their coworkers, they might organize and work with and collaborate with peers.”
The report outlines Alberta’s labour law shifts — modest growth under the former NDP government and rollbacks after 2019 under the UCP — including limits on picketing, shorter certification timelines and changes to employment standards that critics say weakened worker protections.
Despite that, unionization still offers advantages. Labour Force Survey data show unionized Albertans earned about 10 per cent more per hour than non-unionized workers in 2023 ($37.88 versus $34.48) and had greater access to benefits (94 per cent versus 79 per cent).
The authors’ analysis found a smaller wage premium after adjusting for age, education, immigration status and industry, but pointed to strong gains in education, construction, and social assistance.
Stevens said unions affect more than just the worker, but the family that that worker goes home to as well.
“On a job site with unionized and non-unionized electricians, both are qualified and working hard,” he said. “The difference is union members go home with a pension, benefits and a stable, predictable wage. If they’re mistreated by the boss, they have checks and balances. Unions aren’t there to protect the lazy — they protect hard-working people from unfair treatment.”
Union‑avoidance pressures are not confined to Alberta.
“We might think of Walmart and Amazon as being structurally prone to unionize, but we also know that they will go through great lengths to undermine those constitutional rights through union‑busting measures,” Stevens said. “That might include, for instance, shutting down a facility out of spite if they unionize, and we’ve seen that with Amazon as well as Walmart.”
Young workers are open to unionization but remain under-represented in union jobs. The report estimates a nine to 10 per cent wage advantage for unionized employees aged 20 to 29, higher than the overall average. Yet only eight per cent of Alberta’s union-covered workers are under 25, compared with 16 per cent of all employees.
“Young workers are feeling increasingly disenfranchised, and unions might be seen as part of the solution,” said Stevens.
Women could see even greater gains from collective bargaining. The report finds unionization narrows Alberta’s gender wage gap from 19 per cent to eight per cent and estimates women’s union wage advantage at 19 per cent, compared with four per cent for men.
“Women should understand the value of collective bargaining and ensure they have a seat at the table,” Stevens said. “Too often, wage gaps are narrowed by unions, but leadership roles don’t reflect women’s membership.”
Most unionized workers in Alberta are in the public sector, where coverage sits at 74 per cent compared with 11 per cent in the private sector. Education and public administration lead the way. Private-sector coverage inched up from 10.5 to 11.4 per cent between 2022 and 2023, driven by transportation and warehousing, while public-sector rates also grew as national numbers fell. Higher union coverage is linked to lower inequality, even though Alberta still ranks among the provinces with the greatest income gaps.
