Prime Minister Mark Carney's Economic Overhaul Sparks Fierce Resistance from Canada's Labour Unions

Canada's Prime Minister Mark Carney has been trying to shore up the country's economic ties as he looks to diversify trade away from the United States. As the Prime Minister races to make the country less dependent on the United States, attract billions in new investment and get major projects built faster, his economic overhaul is running into resistance from a group that says it wants many of the same things: organised labour.

The latest clash, over the right to strike, comes after months of mounting pressure on Ottawa from Washington, DC. US President Donald Trump, since taking up a second term in office last year, has imposed steep tariffs on Canadian goods and weakened trade agreements. Canada has responded with retaliatory tariffs, while a broader movement to “Buy Canadian” has taken hold, and the hockey-inspired “elbows up” has become a national rallying cry.

With trade talks stalled since August, Prime Minister Mark Carney has moved with urgency to shore up the economy and invite new investments. Last month, he announced Bill C-39, known as the Building Canada Strong Act, promising to bring speed, certainty and predictability to investors. Along with measures to speed up approvals for major projects, the bill would also give Ottawa clearer powers to intervene in legal strikes and lockouts in federally regulated workplaces — a provision that has put the Prime Minister on a collision course with unions.

Canada’s largest unions have come together against the changes. The largest, the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE), had its national executive go as far as voting to defy the bill’s proposed limits on the right to strike if it passes Parliament without amendments. CUPE National President Mark Hancock credited Prime Minister Mark Carney’s handling of US President Donald Trump and said the union’s 800,000 members want to be part of “Team Canada”.

The controversy centres on Section 107 of the Canada Labour Code, which gives the Labour Minister broad powers to step into disputes if needed to maintain industrial peace. Beginning in 2024, Ottawa used the provision eight times to intervene in disputes involving airlines, Canada’s two largest railways, three major ports and Canada Post, and again during the Air Canada dispute in 2025.

The government says the new steps put clearer guardrails around an existing power, and Prime Minister Mark Carney has said the bill reinforces the right to strike. Unions have rejected this defence, arguing that the prospect of government intervention changes the dynamics at the bargaining table. Critics like Larry Savage, a professor of labour studies at Brock University, note that employers can simply hold out for Ottawa to remove union leverage.

The fight over the right to strike is part of a much bigger debate taking shape around Prime Minister Mark Carney’s economic agenda. New Democratic Party leader Avi Lewis has accused him of using the fear surrounding the trade war to push through unpopular measures. Meanwhile, economists like Jim Stanford and labour leaders such as Canadian Labour Congress President Bea Bruske and Teamsters Canada director of public affairs Christopher Monette have raised concerns over the economic and social costs of weakening labour rights.