Privy Council Order 1003

Privy Council Order 1003, known as PC 1003, was a wartime measure during World War II in Canada by the Liberal government of Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King in 1944. It was the first in Canada to legally recognize the existence of unions and to force employers to negotiate with organized workers. It was drafted loosely on the American Wagner Act and is considered the framework for union rights in Canada. At the end of World War II, PC 1003, being a wartime measure, was "abolished" by the provinces, who said that the federal state does not have rights to pass that legislation. Subsequently, in 1948, all the provinces in Canada passed similar legislation to PC 1003.

PC 1003 posed both major gains and setbacks for workers and unions alike; some of the gains included^[1]: Unions had guaranteed access to financial resources and support through the Rand Formula, which required all workers under a union to pay union dues in exchange for a collective bargaining unit. Union density increased dramatically following the end of WWII. Unions were now legally recognized by federal law as a legal means of negotiating work terms with employers. Workers won the right to share in gains of increased productivity via higher wages and benefits (although this point is refutable to some extent). Promoted a virtuous cycle of production and consumption to produce economic growth based on Keynesianism policies. Created a grievance procedure that placed strict limits on managements ability to treat a worker n arbitrary manners.

However, multiple setbacks were also prominent in this legislation including^[2]; Grievance procedures shifted power away from unions and collective workers to lawyers and arbitrators. Unions became extremely bureaucratic and less radical.^[3] Workers agreed to Fordist/Taylorist working conditions and were expected to participate in increasing productivity. Unions shifted focus away from mobilizing and educating their workforce about political affairs and began focusing on policing the workers and acting as a middle-man between workers and employers. Union members became highly separated from the union representatives. Attempts to create and maintain a distinctive working class culture was largely abandoned. Wild Cat / Sympathy Strikes became outlawed, and unionized workers had to follow an orderly fashion to engage in striking which meant no striking during periods of collective bargaining.

1. ^ Black, E; Silver, J (2008). Building a Better World: An Introduction to Trade Unionism in Canada (2nd ed.) Fernwood Publishing, Halifax and Winnipeg
2. ^ Haiven, L. PC 1003 and the (Non) Right to Strike: A Sorry Legacy". In Cy Years of PC 1003 (Winnipeg/Halifax: Society for Socialist Studies/ Fernwood Publishing, 1995)
3. ^ Panitch, L; Swartz, D. The Assault on Trade Union Freedoms: From Consent to Coercion (3rd ed.) Toronto: Garamond Press, 2003.