The British Columbia (BC) government recently introduced legislation that will allow a majority of workers to organize a union a little more easily and make it harder for employers to intimidate and interfere in organizing drives. That’s good news both for working people and for the quality of our democracy.

Single-step certification means that if a clear majority of workers back forming a union — and sign authorization cards declaring this — they are allowed to form one. This is actually a return to the traditional framework for union certification in Canada. The single-step process was the norm until the 1980s, when governments began rolling it back in many provinces, including BC. This rollback was part of a longer trend in cuts to the social safety net and broader anti-labor policies.

Beginning in the 1980s, labor laws were changed in many provinces to make forming a union more difficult, specifically by instituting a two-step process. After a majority of workers had signed union authorization cards, a second step was added requiring a reconfirmation vote. This might sound innocuous (if unnecessary), but the main effect was to give employers a window to run anti-union campaigns and intimidate workers into abandoning organizing drives.