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Mounties are eagerly anticipating a decision this Friday from Canada’s top court over whether they can unionize.

Currently, RCMP members are not part of the labour relations regime established for other federal public sector workers. Instead, they elect staff relations representatives to advocate on their behalf on pay and workplace issues.

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Critics say these in-house representatives are “part of the chain of command,” and that RCMP regulations preventing Mounties from forming an independent association to engage in collective bargaining is a violation of their Charter rights.

One York University labour expert has gone so far as to suggest that the current RCMP labour management model wouldn’t be out of place in China.

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The RCMP is the only major police force in Canada without a union. In 2009, an Ontario Superior Court judge ruled that the ban on forming a union was a violation of the Charter, but that decision was overturned by the Ontario Court of Appeal in 2012.