Forming a union: How it works

The process

In Ontario, the process of forming a union is a straightforward, two-step process. Read on to learn more about this process.

Step one: Card signing

The law requires that at least 40% of eligible employees in a workplace sign union membership cards to signify their support for the union to represent them. However, AMAPCEO never requests to move to a vote until there is a significant majority who have signed cards. Our employer does not know who has signed a card.

On March 6, AMAPCEO filed for certification with over 60% support. 

Step two: Secret ballot vote

Once these cards are signed, they are confidentially submitted to the independent Ontario Labour Relations Board (OLRB) as evidence that there is sufficient support for unionization and as an official application to form a union. This triggers the OLRB to conduct a secret-ballot certification vote for that workplace—a vote that requires the approval of a majority of those voting. The ballots are counted securely by the OLRB and the employer never has access to them.

The only way our employer would learn about how a Toronto City Council staff member voted is if the staff member chose to make that information public.

Once an application for union certification is filed with the Ontario Labour Relations Board (OLRB), our existing terms and conditions of employment are “frozen” until our first collective agreement is negotiated.

This means that our employer cannot change the terms of our employment—like salary, benefits, or any other employment practices in place—without seeking and obtaining the union’s consent. If our employer wants to increase our compensation or address job classification, for example, before a first collective agreement is concluded, Toronto City Council leadership and our union, AMAPCEO, could come to an agreement.

This “freeze” on our terms and conditions has already occurred with the filing of the application on March 6—see the updates page for details. This legal protection means that our employer cannot retaliate against us for unionizing.

The OLRB has scheduled the vote from Thursday, March 13 at 2 pm to Friday, March 14 at 1:59 pm.

If the secret ballot vote is successful (Step two), we are officially unionized! It is important to note, though, that we do not pay membership dues until we, the Toronto City Council staff members, have collectively negotiated our first collective agreement. There are no retroactive dues for this time period and no initiation fees.