Let’s not sell Resource Sector Assets to Americans. Not now, Maybe Not Ever.

May 14, 2025

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In a May 11^th, 2025 posting from the Canadian Press¹[1] it was announced that the United Steelworkers had ratified collective agreements at five Starbucks locations in Ontario. The locations include shops in Ajax, Kitchener-Waterloo and Toronto. Some observers may feel that unions cannot do much for workers in the retail and service industries and in particular workers at fast food chains and coffee shops. It is assumed that employers in this sector rely on low wage workers, typically part-time workers, students or second income earners as part of their business model. But this is a fallacious assumption. Moreover, pushing wages up in this sector does not necessarily drive up prices as much as it eats away at the employer’s margins.

Nevertheless, employers like Starbucks have been very resistant to union organizing drives and have even engaged in unfair labour practices to thwart those efforts. Starbucks closed a shop in B.C. that had unionized and had to defend its actions before the B.C. Labour Board. While the Board found that the closing of the shop was not because of anti-union animus but rather was for legitimate reasons it did find that Starbucks had wrongfully made “threats of adverse consequences” against a union-supporting employee.

In recent years there have been numerous stories of American based businesses engaging in unfair labour practices and questionable tactics in Canada. These include in addition to Starbucks, Amazon and Walmart. These firms employ what we refer to as suppression tactics designed to discredit unions and to scare employees from joining unions. The wide-spread belief that unions drive up costs that are passed on to consumers is part of the strategy to turn public sentiment against unions despite the fact that these American-based employers are very profitable.

In the case of Amazon and Walmart the companies are privately held by billionaires (Bezos and the Walton family respectively) who could well afford to share some of their wealth with the people who drive value in their organizations. Starbucks is publicly traded but its major shareholders have done quite well over the years of ownership.

In our consultancy we help organizations resist unions drives by working with employers to establish healthy employee relations practices that provide no reason for the employees to seek union representation. We refer to these strategies as substitution strategies partly because they replicate the benefits employees would receive if they joined a union. The most important of these benefits however is not wages or other forms of remuneration (though the employer needs to offers competitive levels of compensation). The most important thing an employer can do to ward off unionization is to establish a culture in which employees have a voice and feel they are valued contributors.

Hence, we strongly suggest organizations avoid suppression tactics by adopting long-term strategies that establish positive employee relations cultures. We cannot help but note that national cultures are translated into the ways companies treat their employees and the ways they react to unions.

In Canada we tend to be less anti-union then in the U.S.A. South of the border unions are treated as an unwanted intruder in the relationship and public policy has moved against unions over the years in the form of “Right to Work” laws which reduce unions’ ability to raise revenue through dues. Recently the current U.S. administration has taken actions that potentially could handcuff their National Labour Relations Board and ultimately have further adverse effects on unions and their ability to organize. There is no doubt that friends of the administration including Elon Musk have been very open regarding their dislike of unions.

In Canadian culture we also tend to favour a more equitable distribution of wealth and as a result people are generally more in favour of ensuring all workers are paid “living wages” and enjoy a reasonable standard of benefits. Social welfare programs including our medical care, safety legislation and minimum standards of employment (established in Employment Standards Acts across Canada) have all been in part pushed forward because of the efforts of unions and the collective demands of Canadian employees. These efforts are evidence of a healthy democracy. Anyone studying the labour movement from its inception in Europe and its early days in North America will understand that it was primarily a political movement seeking fairer conditions and a reasonable distribution of wealth.

The value of a relentless pursuit of profits at the expense of workers is something Canadians tend not to share with our American counterparts. A few months back we questioned whether or not labour legislation across Canada ought to be reviewed to consider outlawing American-based unions. The thought was that American unions will naturally favour their U.S. based membership over the interest of Canadian members. However, there is yet another reason to consider this.

As part of strengthening democratic values and ensuring working people have a voice to reduce the insidious influx of American values, it seems natural that the union voice be one that is Canadian-lead and Canadian based. See our related articles on this topic :

We Really Do Need Canadian Unions to be Independent from the U.S. April, 16, 2025

Should we Outlaw American Based Unions? March 19, 2025

We are not saying that Labour Laws in Canada are perfect. In fact we believe that change is needed. For this topic see our article proposing revisions to Labour law that would strengthen our economy and productivity.

Let’s Make Revolutionary Changes: Meeting the Existential Threat Looming over All Canadians. 10 Things to Improve Canada’s Industrial and Labour Relations and Supercharging the Canadian Economy. April 2, 2025 :

Find the links to each of these articles below.

In another recent news story Calgary-based Parkland Corp. is potentially being bought by the American fuel distributor Sunoco LP at a time of fraught Canada-U. S. relations and amped-up resource nationalism. The $9.1-billion US friendly deal announced last week is subject to a review under the Investment Canada Act, which considers whether it will be a net benefit to the country and unlikely to harm national security. The president of Unifor, a Canadian union which represents 150 workers at Parkland's Burnaby B.C. refinery said critical energy infrastructure should not be handed over to a foreign multinational in the middle of a trade war. Other dominant Canadian unions in the energy and mining and resource sectors would no doubt agree. It is unlikely that the American United Steelworkers union would raise the same concern. This issue we have written about multiple times in past articles.

It seems prudent that one of our Canadian owned energy companies such as Irving or Suncor or CNRL should be supported to buy Parkland, a Canadian asset of importance on our Pacific coast.

The central point here is that we as Canadians should guard against the importation of U.S. values and the American brand of labour relations. Our national identity is made up of many, many different cultural artifacts and practices. Labour Relations is an important way that distinguishes not only how we do business but also how we view democracy.

At Oakbridges we believe employers are better off without unions. We believe this because the right way to keep unions out is by being a good employer that values its employees. At the same time, we hold the belief that unions are good for our democracy and are legitimate and valued stakeholders in our uniquely Canadian economy. So, despite the broken record syndrome we continue to believe it is important to push for Canadian nationalism in the labour movement. We can see that unions such as Unifor will in turn support Canadian industry and nationalism and lobby for reinvestment in Canadian companies.

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Links to previous Oakbridges Articles as referenced above:

1. https://toronto.citynews.ca/2025/05/11/five-starbucks-shops-in-ontario-ratify-first-collective-agreements/

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