High price of competitiveness

RE: FORD CANCELS LABOUR REFORMS (OCT. 5)

“We’re going to make sure we’re competitive around the world.”

Right now Ontario is tied with the Northwest Territories with the lowest corporate taxes at 11.5 per cent with a promise to lower them. So how else does one become competitive? Pay workers less than they’re worth. Lower the minimum wage. Cut vacation days. Pay part-time workers less. Remove job protection. Scrap scheduling laws for workers on shifts. And of course make being part of a union harder. Doug Ford is doing all that in one fell swoop by repealing the Liberals’ Bill 148.

This is not the first time Conservatives have made it clear who they owe their allegiance to. When the NDP was in power Hamilton East’s Bob MacKenzie put forth legislation fighting replacement workers during a strike. When Mike Harris came to power it was the first thing to be repealed.

The thing is with conservatives, you can never be too competitive. So don’t feel too secure about health and safety protections, maternity leave, pensions you’ve paid into for years, break time, an eight-hour work day, paid overtime, child labour laws, privacy rights, equal pay for equal work, anti-discrimination laws, some semblance of a minimum wage, and weekends.

Any and all of it can be sacrificed on the altar of competitiveness. And next year Canada’s top CEO’s might make as much as the average worker does for the year; not by your first coffee break but by the time it takes for your computer to boot.

Richard MacKinnon, Hamilton