Yukon: An Organized Territory

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Yukon is a pretty organized place if compared to the rest of Canada. With almost 33 per cent of workers unionized, according to the Yukon Bureau of Statistics, we boast the highest union density per capita. That density has been maintained for over 50 years. In many ways, Yukon is a union territory.

There’s not a lot of history on trade union activity in the days following the gold rush. It’s known that individual members of the United Brotherhood of Carpenters worked in Dawson in the late 1890s. We also know that the National Union of Steam Engineers’ (NUSE) Local 360 was chartered in Dawson City around the turn of the century.

Industry associations and craftsman’s guilds formed around the same time, but details are hard to find. The photo accompanying this story shows the 1906 Labour Day Parade in Dawson City, indicating an active labour presence.

In the middle of the last century, Yukon’s workers began organizing in earnest. The United Brotherhood of Carpenters Local 2499 was chartered in 1947, while the Yukon Teacher’s Association formed in 1955. The UA, or United Association of Allied Workers representing plumbers, pipefitters, and welders established a Yukon presence in 1958 and the Yukon Territorial Public Service Association (YTPSA) formed in 1965. The YTPSA was the first incarnation of what is now the Yukon Employees’ Union, or YEU/PSAC.

Yukon workers are represented by the Yukon Employees’ Union, PSAC, the Carpenters, International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, the Teamsters, Steelworkers, Unifor, Canadian Union of Postal Workers, and the United Association of Plumbers, Pipefitters and Sheet Metal Workers. There is also strong representation by the Yukon Teachers Association and PIPSC, the union to which registered nurses belong.

There are similar organizations that do not call themselves unions advocating on behalf of their members in many sectors of the work force.

The numbers are significant, and they may suggest that despite Canada’s labour laws and despite health and safety legislations, workers still value the security of the collective bargaining process.

Union workers usually earn a higher wage than non-unionized workers. This is true here in the Yukon like it is across the country. The higher rates of pay permit greater investment into local economies with improved purchasing power. Stable incomes also permit a balance of work and life, allowing for greater individual contribution to the community. Yukon’s high rate of unionized workers may have something to do with the high rate of volunteerism in the territory. Workers needing to piece together income from several low wage part-time jobs have little time or energy left to volunteer.

The territory is a bustling place. Unionized workers maintain roads, deliver heating fuel, stock groceries, and supervise swimming pools. Unionized workers ensure our boilers are safely installed, our planes stay in the air, and our federal documents are filed. And since this is the Yukon, even our blackjack dealers and can-can dancers are card carrying union members.

We’re a union town.