FAQs
What is CLAC? What is the CLAC difference? What about CLAC’s unique name? How do I join? These questions, and more, are answered in this section.
What is CLAC?
The Christian Labour Association of Canada is one of this country’s largest independent trade unions. Both a union and a confederation of local unions, CLAC represents workers in just about every type of workplace. CLAC is one of the fastest-growing unions in Canada and today represents over 47,000 Canadian workers.
What is the CLAC difference?
CLAC is a unique trade union. Its practices are based on solid principles, such as partnership, integrity, fairness, and respect. CLAC focuses on its members and works hard to provide them with quality representation and a wide range of benefits, services, and training.
What about CLAC's unique name?
CLAC stands out among Canadian unions—its practices and principles are unique, and so is its name. The “Christian” in CLAC’s name refers to the Christian social principles upon which the union is based. While the union is not affiliated with any church or religious group, it bases its approach to labour relations on certain key beliefs: that all human beings must be treated with dignity and respect; that workplace justice is vital; that workplace cooperation is better than workplace warfare; and that workers should have choices, even when it comes to union matters.
How is CLAC affiliated?
Within Canada, CLAC is independent. It is not affiliated with any provincial or national labour federation or congress. At the international level, however, CLAC is affiliated with the International Trade Union Confederation. ITUC has 168 million members in 155 different countries. Most Canadian trade unions are affiliated with ITUC.
How do I join?
If you would like to unionize your workplace with CLAC, you can find more information here. While the unionization process varies from province to province, it generally requires that employees sign confidential union membership applications. Labour law protects employees from being harassed, punished, or fired for supporting a union organizing drive.
What do I gain from joining?
You gain effective union representation in your workplace, negotiation and enforcement of a collective agreement, access to benefits, pension, and training, as well as participation in the CLAC Advantage Program.
What does it cost?
If you are signing a CLAC membership application because you are trying to unionize your workplace with CLAC, there is normally no cost to join. Dues are not normally charged until a first collective agreement is in place. Union dues policy is set by CLAC’s National Convention and the amounts rarely change. Under the current dues policy, employees in most CLAC-organized workplaces pay dues totalling about 1.4 percent of their gross earnings; employees in workplaces with a lot of part-timer workers normally pay one-half of an hour’s wage per week (full-time) or three-quarters of that for part-timers.
My workplace is unionized; can we switch to CLAC?
Federal and provincial labour laws allow you to change unions during certain time frames. For more information, please contact your nearest CLAC office.