Unions, Equity, and the Path to Renewal, Edited by Janice Foley and Patricia Baker, Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, 2009, 249 pp., ISBN 978-0-7748-1680-9

In 2010, 2.2 million Canadian women belonged to a union for a unionization rate of 30.9%. By comparison, fewer than 2 million men belonged to a union, for a unionization rate of 28.2% (S. Uppal, “Unionization 2010.” Perspectives on Labour and Income, 11(10), 2010: 18-27). In spite of the fact that women are now the dominate sex in the union movement, Foley and Parker argue in their new edited collection, Unions, Equity and the Path to Renewal, that the voices of women, and the perspectives they bring, have been and continue to be marginalized and undervalued. The authors call for a wide ranging transformation of the labour movement – one informed by what is framed as a “feminist vision of unions as instruments of social justice” – if unions are to prosper. The book is organized into four parts with twelve chapters. The introduction and several other chapters paint a picture of a troubled trade union movement in serious decline. Among the ails cited are: private sector unionism in serious decline, a large and growing low pay service sector that is mostly unorganized, a trend whereby youth seem disinclined to unions, along with an aging demographic that will mean many committed unionists may soon be retiring. What to do? Similar to most other commentators, the editors and most contributors to this book call for a total rethink of how labour in Canada is organized, along with a complete reassessment of its goals and priorities. What makes the message in this book different, is the suggestion that such a reinvigoration should be feminist-lead and driven. The first chapter by Jan Kainer summarizes the positive contributions of women trade unionists over the past few decades and suggests building on these initiatives is the way forward for a union movement in decline. As she notes on page 22, over the past couple of decades, feminist activists have helped to steer unions away from a strictly business unionism model toward a broader range of issues such as family leave, sexual minority discrimination, poverty and racism. She finds that one of most important contributions made by women has been the concept of organizing into separate committees. These women’s committees are now well established in many unions, and she argues, have provided a location for women to find support, raise their consciousness, and articulate demands for change to male-dominated union leaderships. The second section of the book is devoted to the equity struggle within the union movement from the perspective of people of colour. The three chapters in this section highlight the struggle black trade unionists have had to find equality within their unions. In Chapter 5, Marie Clarke Walker draws on her own experience, as well as the historical record, to assess labour’s engagement with racialized workers. She finds a trail of ignorance and exclusion in relation to minorities in general, and Asians and Blacks in particular, and laments the continuing lack of momentum on racial discrimination. Nevertheless, she ends her assessment on an optimist note, outlining ten practical strategies that labour might use to combat discriminatory practices and begin to close equity gaps. One example she gives is for unions to increase their educational efforts around social justice issues so that others better understand the issues and oppression that minority members confront. The third section focuses on practices and structures that work against a broader equity agenda for unions. In Chapter 6, Anne Forrest presents a forceful argument to support the transformation of labour from the industrial and sector based model that it has been since the mid-twentieth century, to an equity-centric …