Labour's Decline

On this Labour Day, Paul Willcocks takes a look at the state of labour in Canada. His conclusion is that we have nothing to cheer about:

And over the last five decades, work has been getting worse. Canadians have seen basic job security and benefits stripped away, while more and more of us are forced into precarious work.

And Canada's political parties are doing nothing to stop labour's decline:

They’re hiding behind a giant con. We’ve been duped into believing “market forces,” as immutable and mysterious as gravity, are responsible for crumbling Canadian job quality (and myriad other ills). Our politicians say we must offer sacrifices — like the quality of our work — to keep the market gods happy, much as Aztec priests demanded human sacrifice to ensure prosperity.

By now, it's become a cliche. Everything depends on "market forces." However,

reasonable people recognize that governments have a role in setting work standards and safety regulations and protecting workers’ basic rights, including the right to unionize. The question is balancing the competing interests of employers and workers.

For decades, governments have embraced actions — and inactions — that made work worse.

Take employers’ threat to move jobs to a country where wages are lower and workers have fewer rights. That’s become a much more effective weapon as Canadian governments have embraced free trade agreements that allowed businesses to shift capital and production around the globe.

Workers, however, are trapped behind barriers, unless they are prepared to migrate illegally — which again allows unscrupulous employers to exploit them.

Afraid that standing up for workers would drive jobs overseas, politicians have done nothing for working men and women. And, in fact, they have made matters worse:

Across Canada, the percentage of workers in unions has been falling without meaningful response from governments. In B.C., for example, the private sector unionization rate fell from 24 per cent in 1997 to 16.7 per cent in 2016.

But the federal government does play a significant role in determining the quality of work life. Governments have decided, for example, to expand the number of temporary foreign workers from 52,000 in 1996 to about 300,000 in recent years. That reduced the need for employers to offer more competitive wages and benefits.

So what's on offer in the upcoming election?

The Green platform talks about a guaranteed income and poverty, but gives little or no attention to work life. The Liberals haven’t released a platform, but their mishandling of the changes to the federal labour code signals a lack of commitment to improving the rights of workers. The Conservatives are still without a platform as well.

The NDP addresses some of the issues, and its promises, if implemented, would help. The party pledges to make it easier for workers in the federally regulated sector to unionize, bring in a $15 minimum wage and improve rights for temporary and contract workers.

But even the New Democrat’s commitments fall short of dramatic action in response to what should be seen as a crisis.

We’ve seen the quality of work worsening year after year. People entering the workforce today face low pay, precarious work and a lack of benefits — like pensions — that their grandparents took for granted.

In short, we've been moving in the wrong direction for a long time.

Image: The Atlantic