Today our basic rights to freedom of association, democratic representation in the workplace, and free collective bargaining may be easy to take for granted as having always been with us. But these rights didn’t just happen, or arise as gifts from enlightened employers or kindly governments.

Like so many other advances in human rights, each and every step on the path to social progress came through hard-won struggle. The basic labour rights that all Canadians enjoy today were fought for by the generations of working men and women who came before us.

Many have heard about the watershed 1946 decision of Justice Ivan Rand, who was appointed arbitrator to end a 99-day strike at Ford Motor Company in Windsor, Ontario. His decision to address basic union security — including a crucial requirement that everyone who was covered by a collective agreement had to pay union dues — was eventually extended across Canada and became known as the “Rand Formula.” But the struggle for union security in Canada started long before 1946 — and it didn’t end that year either.

At a time when powerful corporations and their friends in government are now trying to roll back the clock on workers’ rights, we have much to learn from the inspiring, and often untold, stories of the workers and activists who came before us, and from learning how our rights were won.

From Where Did Our Rights Come From – The Rand Formula and the Struggle for Union Security (pdf).