Article by Véronique Sioufi and Iglika Ivanova
Véronique Sioufi is the Racial Equity Researcher and Policy Analyst
Iglika Ivanova is co-Executive Director and a Senior Economist at BC Policy Solutions.
British Columbia just made labour history.
In July 2025, two breakthrough union certifications occurred: Uber drivers in Victoria joined UFCW 1518 to become the first platform workers in Canada to formally unionize, and Amazon warehouse workers in Delta won union certification with Unifor Local 114 becoming only the second Amazon facility in Canada to unionize and the third in North America.
These victories mark rare and hard-won gains for workers long considered “unorganizable” in two of the most notoriously anti-union corporations in the world. They offer concrete examples of how labour policy reform can reshape labour relations for workers in fragmented sectors where winning union certification is extraordinarily difficult.
Yet the rarity of these successes and the months-long battles to achieve them exposes the fundamental limits of workplace-by-workplace organizing in today’s economy and underscores why BC needs to move towards sectoral bargaining to lift standards for all workers.
BC labour policy reforms enabled organizing
These historic wins for workers were made possible by two recent provincial labour policy reforms—the 2022 restoration of single-step union certification (card-check) and the 2023 Employment Standards Act (ESA) amendment that classified ride-hail and delivery workers as employees of online platforms.
Under BC’s restored card-check, unions are automatically certified when 55% or more workers at a specific worksite sign union membership cards, eliminating the two-step certification process that was previously required. Research from BC and other jurisdictions has consistently shown that the two-step certification process reduces unionization rates, primarily by providing employers with time and opportunity to engage in forceful anti-union campaigns between the card signing and the later secret ballot vote.
Card-check certification strengthens the right of workers to organize unions, which has been shown to reduce income inequality and create more equal political representation across income groups. For deeper analysis on the importance of card-check for workers, read Alex Hemingway’s article on the 2022 BC labour reforms.
The employment classification reform for ride-hail workers proved equally crucial. In 2023, BC broke with the common practice of classifying ride-hail and food delivery app-based workers as independent contractors and classified them as employees and online platforms as employers under the ESA. This legislation (Bill 48) extended some, though not all, of the protections of the ESA to ride-hail and delivery workers, including minimum wage, some WorkSafeBC coverage and protections from unfair terminations.
Critically, Bill 48 gave Uber drivers in BC the legal right to unionize. The legislation removed a barrier to unionization that has proven insurmountable elsewhere in North America where platform companies routinely classify app-based workers as “independent contractors” to avoid both basic employment protections and collective bargaining obligations.
The contrast with other jurisdictions is stark. In California, Uber poured over $200 million into Proposition 22 to lock in contractor status and has effectively blocked workers from being able to collectively bargain. In New York City, ride-hail drivers have won some regulatory gains, but remain classified as independent contractors under federal labour law, preventing access to collective bargaining rights.
The limits of individual victories
Even with these supportive labour policy frameworks, both Uber drivers in Victoria and Amazon warehouse workers in Delta ran into significant challenges on the road to unionization, which illustrates the structural barriers facing vulnerable workers under workplace-based certification.
Amazon’s Delta warehouse campaign was subjected to the company’s notorious and well-documented union-busting strategy. The BC Labour Relations Board ultimately found that Amazon violated provincial labour laws with their egregious anti-union campaign, which included a large hiring blitz timed to coincide with the period when the certification applications were made. Only after this finding did the Board award union certification—a process that stretched over many months and required substantial union resources.
The Uber drivers certification faced different but equally revealing obstacles. Despite card-check provisions, the highly individualized and isolating nature of app-based driving work made it difficult and time consuming to build solidarity or even to determine how many drivers worked in the city. A major challenge for the union was proving that the 55% card-check threshold for automatic certification had been met. Uber disputed the union’s driver count and the uncertainty around the numbers led the BC Labour Relations Board to order a secret-ballot vote in March. Eventually, the Board was convinced that the 55% threshold was originally met and certified the Uber drivers in July, four months after UFCW 1518 filed for certification.
These delays and challenges occurred despite BC’s relatively worker-friendly legal framework. The experience highlights how even successful workplace organizing remains resource-intensive, time-consuming and vulnerable to employer resistance strategies.
The potential of sectoral bargaining to shift the playing field
In many European countries like France, Germany and Italy collective bargaining happens not only or primarily at the firm level but at the sectoral level, with unions negotiating standards across entire industries. Sectoral bargaining models enable unions to lift standards for vulnerable workers by negotiating with employer associations to establish industry-wide floors for wages, benefits and working conditions that apply to all employers.
Enabling sectoral bargaining in BC would address a key limitation of our current labour relations system. Rather than requiring vulnerable workers in individual warehouses or on app platforms to take on global corporations with deep pockets, sectoral bargaining would set standards across entire sectors, creating a fairer baseline and encouraging competition based on innovation and product/service quality and prevent employers from competition marked by lowering labour standards and wages.
For fragmented industries like ride-hailing, food delivery, retail and hospitality, where individual workplaces are often small, turnover is high and traditional organizing faces structural barriers, sectoral approaches could achieve the scale necessary to meaningfully improve pay and working conditions.
Quebec’s recent experience with Amazon illustrates the fragility of workplace-by-workplace organizing. Although Amazon workers in Laval successfully unionized under similar frameworks to BC’s (single-step certification and legally mandated bargaining), the absence of broader structural protections allowed Amazon to close all of its warehouses and outsource delivery functions in the province rather than engage in collective bargaining.
Without sectoral agreements that cover entire industries or regions, even landmark union wins remain vulnerable to strategic corporate withdrawal.
Beyond piecemeal progress
BC’s recent landmark labour victories should be celebrated. They were hard-won by workers and their unions over many months of consistent organizing efforts. These wins demonstrate that with appropriate labour law frameworks, workers can successfully unionize even in notoriously hard to organize sectors.
However, hundreds of thousands of low-paid, vulnerable workers remain shut out of collective bargaining in BC despite recent labour reforms. As we’ve written before, this contributes to “growing income inequality, widespread gender and racial pay gaps and entire sectors—like hospitality and janitorial services—stuck in a race to the bottom that drives down wages and living standards for everyone.”
To move beyond the occasional piecemeal victory and extend meaningful access to collective bargaining across the private sector, BC needs to move towards sectoral bargaining. This is the next essential step in modernizing our labour relations framework for 21st century economic realities.
A note from the authors: As this publication goes to press, we must acknowledge and condemn that Chris Smalls—the founding president of the Amazon Labor Union and a globally recognized labour organizer—was brutally assaulted and detained by Israeli occupation forces for attempting to bring food aid to starved Gazans with the Handala Freedom Flotilla. The targeting of a Black labour leader is a reminder that the fight for workers’ rights is inseparable from the fight against colonialism. As we mark hard-won victories for workers here in BC, we stand in solidarity with workers around the world who risk their freedom and safety for collective liberation.
We are thankful that Chris Smalls and the Flotilla team are being sent home and we call for the immediate release of all those kidnapped by the Israeli government.