Different world for workers
This is Labour Day weekend, a time to reflect on the contributions that workers make to our country, and to celebrate the society they have built with their hands and minds.
Labour Day highlights the history of workers obtaining rights from their employers – the history of the labour movement and of unions. Employers did not give these rights away out of the goodness of their hearts, and unions came into being to ensure that working conditions were safe and that pay for that work was fair.
If you enjoy kicking back on the weekend, remember it was unions that fought for the five-day work week. If you like going home for dinner after work, remember it was unions that fought for the eight-hour workday. If you are forced to work overtime, but at least enjoy the extra pay it provides, remember it was unions that gave you that benefit.
There is a strong connection between these struggles and the riding of South Okanagan-West Kootenay that I represent. The miners of Rossland in particular played a key role in the fight for the eighthour workday, bringing that demand to the provincial legislature and striking to reduce the workday from 10 to eight hours.
But today’s labour market is a very different place than the one I entered when I was young. Most people now work on contract or do piecework in the gig economy. Regular jobs with regular paychecks, pensions, extended health benefits, and employment insurance are not the norm. We need to re-evaluate our social safety nets so that all Canadians can have more confidence that they and their families will be covered in times of extraordinary need.
In conversations I share across every industry, workers are worried about the rising costs of groceries, gas, and housing. Inflation has hit an almost 40-year high, and workers and their families are struggling to keep up. At the same time, employers are finding it hard to find workers.
But workers aren’t causing inflation and they shouldn’t be the ones paying for it. Much of the upward pressure on prices comes from excessive corporate profits— big grocery chains, big oil companies and big box stores are making a fortune from hardworking families.
These past pandemic years have shown that we are living in a time of unprecedented income inequality. But COVID-19 has also taught us an important lesson – the value of workers we had previously taken for granted – health care workers, care aides at seniors’ homes, grocery store workers, truck drivers, farmers.
As we face a concurrent crisis on the environmental front, we must offer more support to front-line workers like firefighters, we must bolster our investments in jobs that help adapt our homes and our infrastructure, and we must ensure those working in resource industries have a fair and just transition to jobs that allow Canadians families to thrive in an uncertain future.
When times are tough and we face multiple crises of affordability, climate, and health, it shouldn’t be hardworking Canadians that pay the price when many corporations are making record profits. The pandemic showed us we can pivot quickly and make the changes necessary to bring long-lasting changes to our society – how we treat our seniors, how we house the homeless, how we protect the environment, and how we value workers.
But much like the gains made by unions 100 years ago, a better future is closely tied with ensuring our workers can organize together. Today on Labour Day, I stand with workers to celebrate the significant achievements of the labour movement and I will continue to support them to ensure Canada can quickly create a more sustainable and resilient economy.
Happy Labour Day!