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@ISIDEWITHQuestionsEconomyStarted 12yrs agoActive 2mos ago

Do you believe labor unions help or hurt the economy?

In 2015 the percentage of workers in Canada who belong to a trade union increased .1% to 30%. Canada's unionized workforce has actually grown in recent years. Today, the CBC reports that about 4.56 million workers are members of unions up more than 800,000 since 1997. Unions expansion has been outstripped by the non-unionized workforce, which grew by about 2.5 million over the same period.

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Answer Overview

Response rates from 34.5k Canada voters.

67%
Help
33%
Hurt
48%
Help
29%
Hurt
12%
Help, in theory but have recently become corrupt and should have their powers limited
4%
Hurt, I support some private unions but am strongly against public unions
7%
Help, but ban their ability to make political donations

Historical Support

Trend of support over time for each answer from 34.5k Canada voters.

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Historical Importance

Trend of how important this issue is for 34.5k Canada voters.

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Other Popular Answers

Unique answers from Canada voters whose views went beyond the provided options.

 @8KMCS9Rfrom British Columbia  answered…6yrs6Y

Neither, unions do not exist for the benefit of the economy

 @BDFWPJDfrom Ontario  answered…2mos2MO

Labour unions do both by helping compensation and providing benefits/pensions but harm the economy by making job security less competitive, thereby lowering potential productivity and quality of results.

 @BD4T64Yfrom British Columbia  answered…2mos2MO

unions dont have much power and honestly just take money

 @BD422WDfrom Ontario  answered…2mos2MO

Depends how much they intervene

 @BCZNZJNfrom Ontario  answered…2mos2MO

It would hurt the economy, the labour unions is basically communism

 @BCDN993from Ontario  answered…3mos3MO

Labor unions both hurt and help the economy and the government should have a very strict limit to the powers they withhold.

 @BBWKDX7from Quebec  answered…4mos4MO

Whether they hurt or help the economy, labour unions should still be able to make sure workers have proper salaries and conditions.

 @B96WWXDfrom Ontario  answered…6mos6MO

Help, power to the workers and let us unite to bring the rise of socialism to our country and our harts

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 @ISIDEWITH submitted…2yrs2Y

Volkswagen Faces Explosive Strikes Over Plant Closures and Job Cuts

Tens of thousands of Volkswagen workers will participate Monday in strikes at plants across Germany, labor union IG Metall said, marking the largest walkouts at the carmaker’s domestic operations since 2018.The walkouts, which are planned to last several hours, follow weeks of collective bargaining negotiations during which VW refused to rule out mass layoffs and potential plant closures in its home market — drastic measures the company says are necessary to prop up its fortunes amid competition from China and weaker European demand.A so-called “peace obligation” between workers and the company, which prohibited industrial action, expired on Saturday, allowing strikes to take place from Sunday at virtually all of Volkswagen’s German factories.“If necessary, this will become the toughest wage dispute Volkswagen has ever seen,” IG Metall’s chief negotiator Thorsten Groeger said in a statement Sunday. “How long and intense this dispute will be is Volkswagen’s responsibility at the negotiating table.”“Volkswagen has set our collective bargaining agreements on fire, and instead of extinguishing this fire during three rounds of negotiations, the management board keeps throwing open barrels of gasoline onto it,” he added.The walkouts will be the first large-scale strikes that Volkswagen has faced since 2018, according to IG Metall, when 50,000 workers idled plants over pay. Although the work stoppages will last only a few hours, it is possible that 24-hour warning strikes could be called later this year. Indefinite strikes could also be called as a last resort, but only after members have been consulted again, IG Metall said.The strikes represent a fresh headache for Europe’s largest automaker, which saw operating profit for the first nine months of the year tumble by a fifth from the previous year, as its flagship brand struggled. Vehicle sales also slipped on particularly weak demand in China, where it is losing market share to Chinese electric vehicle brands.

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 @ISIDEWITHDiscuss this answer...…2yrs2Y

Should the government incentivize the construction of affordable housing?

Yes

▲  2.7k3 replies2 agree

About This Data

Based on 34.5k responses to this question.

These results come from iSideWith's ongoing political issues survey. We collect over a million responses per day, filter out duplicate and multiple submissions, and break the results down by political party, ideology, age, state, and census demographics (income, race, education, household).

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iSideWith. (2026). “Do you believe labor unions help or hurt the economy?” — Public Opinion Poll Results. Retrieved June 25, 2026, from https://canada.isidewith.com/polls/657250856

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