In October 2025, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith invoked back-to-work legislation to end a strike by tens of thousands of the province’s teachers who had walked off the job over disputes around wages, class sizes and working conditions.

The legislation, known as the Back to School Act, forced the 51,000 striking teachers back to work and legislated a collective agreement that had been previously rejected by teachers during bargaining.

Smith also invoked the notwithstanding clause of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The clause is a constitutional provision that allows legislatures to override certain Charter protections, including the right to the freedom of association, which underlies the ability to strike.

This move was the latest in a long history of anti-union legislation in Alberta. The election of the United Conservative Party (UCP), led by former Premier Jason Kenney in 2019, heralded a return to anti-labour policies under the guise of “restoring balance” to what Conservatives perceived to be the NDP’s excessively pro-labour and pro-union reforms.

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith provides an update on teacher bargaining in Calgary in October 2025. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jeff McIntosh

Both Kenney and, later, Smith reversed several changes introduced by Rachel Notley’s NDP government. Under the NDP, basic workplace rights were extended to non-family farm workers, first contract arbitration was introduced, remedial certification measures enacted and the right to strike and bargaining collectively was formally extended to the post-secondary sector.

The UCP reversed these gains.

Despite these obstacles, organized labour continues to make important gains in Alberta, Canada’s most anti-union province. Our new report draws on Statistics Canada data to examine the economic impact of unionization in Alberta.

Why unions matter

The benefits of unionization are well established. Unions can decrease income inequality and push for policy changes that benefit all workers and people with a stake in their work and service environments, as in the case of teachers advocating for smaller class sizes.

Organized labour also contributes to the fabric of democratic societies in many ways, including by advancing sustainable development.

This role is particularly critical now, in a period defined by affordability crises and accusations of authoritarianism south of the border. Unions provide one of the few mechanisms through which workers can push back and secure fair treatment in the workplace.

Unionization also provides stronger outcomes for women, immigrant workers and young workers. While unionized men in Alberta earned four per cent more than their non-unionized counterparts, unionized women earn 19 per cent more than their non-unionized counterparts.

Collective bargaining stalls or even reverses gendered and immigration status-based pay inequities. Unionization helps shrink the gender wage gap from 19 to eight per cent, and the usual pay gap between Canadian-born workers and immigrants is either eliminated or reversed in some industries.

The material impact of unionization

Even in provinces like Alberta, where union density rates are relatively low, unions can deliver economic justice.

Our analysis of an unpublished dataset shows that unionized workers in Alberta earn $3.40 an hour more than non-unionized workers ($37.88 per hour compared to $34.48 an hour). This difference is slightly higher than the national average across Canada.

The average unionized worker earns $1,404 a week, compared with $1,296 for non-unionized colleagues working a similar number of hours. Unionized workers are also more likely to have supplementary benefits, which is especially important in lower-wage sectors like food services.

Students from Robert Thirsk High School demonstrate in support of their teachers after they were legislated back to work in Calgary in October 2025. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jeff McIntosh

Outcomes, however, are mixed. Part-time unionized workers gain the most, earning 29 per cent more than non-unionized ($32.57 an hour compared to $22.91). Unionized full-time workers, on the other hand, only earn five per cent more — $38.83 an hour versus $36.86 an hour.

Considering that some 20 per cent of workers in Alberta are employed part-time, these differences represent a substantial economic boost for a significant portion of workers.

Variation by sector

Unionized workers in Alberta earn, on average, more than their non-unionized counterparts, but results are mixed across industries and sub-sectors. Take retail, for example. In that industry, unionized workers may appear to earn less on average, largely because a higher proportion of them work part time, which pulls down overall wages.

In Alberta’s oil and gas sector, there is near parity between unionized and non-unionized workers when it comes to wages.

Even in health care and education, where many workers are unionized, collective bargaining can yield different outcomes within sectors.

In construction, some sub-sectors with fewer unionized workers actually show stronger wage gains than areas where unions are more established. These differences are shaped by a combination of industry-specific economic conditions, how wages are set by unions and how employers respond to union activity. Other variables, such as age, sex, education and tenure, also matter.

Political implications

For young workers, unions deliver the strongest wage advantages, even when accounting for other human capital variables like education levels and work experience. This is especially notable given that young workers are less likely to be unionized overall.

In both Canada and the United States, young workers demonstrate stronger positive opinions of unionization than their older co-workers, offering potential for unions seeking to grow their ranks provided they organize.

Alberta’s unions face significant political obstacles, but the evidence shows their resilience pays off for working people. That resilience should serve as an inspiration and call to action for union leaders everywhere.