RETHINKING LABOUR IN CANADA
Balancing the interests of Canadian businesses and workers to acheive equality and prosperity in a fluctuating economy
The current government obsession with slashing deficits, through cutting jobs and essential services will ultimately prove to be a Pyrrhic victory with devastating social consequences , warns the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE).
“We started out in the 1980s by emphasizing supply-side economics, which argues that economic growth can be most effectively created by lowering barriers for people to produce goods and services,” CUPE’S chief economist to by Sanger explains. Therefore, cutting income and capital gains tax rates, while reducing burdensome regulation, would stimulate production. Such an environment would see consumers benefit from a greater supply of goods and services at lower prices.
Dealing with crisis
Things didn’t go according to plan, though. instead of basking in a glow of continued growth and rising incomes, “we have now witnessed an economic crisis that the European economies, especially, are struggling to recover from,” notes Sanger. Meanwhile, in Canada, the middle classes are being squeezed and the poor are getting poorer.
CUPE is the country’s largest union, with about 615,000 members. It represents workers in many essential services including health care, education, municipalities, libraries, and emergency services. More than half of CUPE members are women. a third work part-time.
Growing inequality must be tackled
If venerable conservative institutions like the International Monetary Fund, the OECD, and even the Conference Board are warning against continued deficit-reducing policies, because of the resulting inequality, surely governments should pay some attention, points out Sanger.
Budget cuts increase inequality, and women, 62 percent of the public sector workforce, will be more affected. “I recognize that in the short term, people need to reduce their debt while maintaining some level of spending, but in the long term, people need to have stable, sustainable growth,” Sanger says.
Some commentators have argued that government cuts merely shift the costs elsewhere, and fixing the resulting problems can be very expensive. Public services are a great equalizer in different ways, says Sanger. Both rich and poor depend on government services – think of the fire service, or food and environmental inspectors.
The reality of spending cuts
However, lobbying for change has been complicated because government information has been kept under tight wraps. It is incredible, for example, that Canadians are still unaware about the true impact of looming budget cuts. According to a March 2012 CUPE paper, “Economic Climate for Bargaining”, austerity budgets being tabled by federal and provincial governments could lead to more than 300,000 job losses. “Public spending in Canada is hardly out of control, having recently dropped to its smallest share of the economy in over 30 years,” Sanger points out.
Equally mind-boggling – this year, Canadian governments are expected to spend less per person than the United States does, for the first time in many decades.
Speaking for all workers
Yet, it is not all gloom. A weary Canadian public is an opportunity for unions, observes Sanger.
“We must emphasize policies that benefit society at large,” says Sanger. “We need to broaden our platform so that all workers can see that unions speak for them too and are fighting to safeguard their rights.”
It was in that spirit that CUPE lobbied for pension reform in 2009, calling for mandatory pension participation, a national system of pension insurance, and expanding the mandate of the Canada Pension Plan. CUPE also recommended that pensions be required as a condition of employment.
“Unfortunately, the campaign wasn’t successful, but we are trying to revive it.”