There’s no denying that the past nearly two years of “post-pandemic” recovery have been tough for Canadian union members. Inflation averaged 6.8 percent nationally in 2022. Meanwhile, average wage increases in major union settlements — contracts covering five hundred or more workers — came in at just 2.5 percent. Month after month, union members, like all workers, endured a compounding cost-of-living crisis.

Somewhat embarrassingly, average hourly wage growth for all workers, nonunion and union combined, regularly outpaced pay raises bargained into collective agreements. While, on average, all Canadian workers experienced real wage losses in 2022, union members’ inflation-adjusted pay cut was deeper. An unfortunate result of the post-COVID recovery will therefore likely be a further narrowing of the union wage advantage. Insofar as the higher pay secured through collective bargaining is a primary selling point of unionization, this is bad news for the prospects of new organizing.

But has a focus on underwhelming averages obscured important union victories? A deeper look at the union wage data suggests it has — especially when it comes to collective bargaining wins in Ontario. Some unions have in fact won big wage gains for their members, yet these have received little to no attention.