Friday Tunes: Rye Whiskey and Wine

This week’s installment of labour themes in popular culture (courtesy of colleague Jason Foster) is Danny Michel’s Rye Whiskey and Wine”. 

The song is an evocative look at the aftermath of the closure of a mine (or mill) in a one-industry town. The description of the detritus of a failed industry that is left behind ("just old rags and paint can and old turpentine") is poignant.



While ghost towns are a bit of a cliché, they do exist. In BC, we have Kitsault which was built to service a mine and then abandoned after 18 months when commodity prices crashed. The town was abandoned in 1983 and sits basically trapped in time.



While the Global story is predictably cheery and upbeat (barf), the song talks about what happens to the people when their town dies. The sense of despair in the last verse is pretty touching.

Rye whiskey Rye whiskey
Rye whiskey and wine
I get all misty every time

There's just old rags and paint cans and old turpentine
Everyone's leaving, they shut down the mine
They cleaned out the storefront and they took the stained glass
They pulled out the trani and they syphoned the gas

Shiver me timbers, shiver my spine
I drink to the sawmills and the western white pine
So hitch up the horses 'cause I feel just fine
I'll ride them to Carmacks and I'll bring back more wine

The chapel, the legion and the freemason hall
They left all the keys here it's like I own them all
So I'll buy the next round since we're frozen in time
Don't bother calling I cut all the lines

-- Bob Barnetson

UFCW 2013 Superstore strike documentary

UFCW 401 has just released a video documenting its (very short and successful) October 2013 strike of Real Canadian Superstore. 401 is one of the most innovative and assertive unions in Alberta these days. This documentary—which tells the union’s side of the story—is very interesting.



The video starts with a bit of background and then jumps into picket-line footage and employees explaining why they felt they had to strike the employer. You don't often hear the voices of strikers, although we need to recognize we heard only the voices the union wanted us to hear. It also speaks to how employers forcing workers to strike can empower workers and show them they are not powerless.

Superstore backed down within about a day. The video of the ratification meeting is perhaps the most interesting part. It is axiomatic in labour relations that it is easier to lead workers out on a strike than it is to lead them back.

The rhetorical strategies employed by the union leadership (starting at 13.20) in the ratification meeting start with a bit of fear: there is an offer; if you reject the offer it might disappear. Then there is an abrupt change in tone: you won, enjoy it! The workers ratified their deal with 85% in favour.

This management of the strike (or, less charitably, of the union membership) is a necessary part of trade union leadership. What is interesting is that this behaviour is almost never documented or seen.

There are some parts of the story that are missing from the video. For example, if memory serves, UFCW 401 was a hold out in cross Canada negotiations. This was a surprise to Superstore and perhaps the other locals of UFCW. 

An interesting effect of the video is that, by releasing it, the union has profoundly shaped how this strike will be remembered (i.e., as a quick, decisive win against a flint-nosed employer). This has implications for future rounds of bargaining (e.g., having tasted success, employees may be more militant which increases the union's power at the bargaining table).

-- Bob Barnetson

Friday Tunes: Making Plans for Nigel

This week’s installment of labour themes in popular culture (courtesy of colleague Jason Foster) is XTC’s 1979 new wave hit “Making Plans for Nigel”. According to the band, the song is about British parents planning out their child’s entire future with little consideration for what Nigel wants.

Jason, though, suggests a more working-class interpretation. Perhaps Nigel represents workers and those planning are paternalistic UK politicians who are shaping the working class. Nigel “must be happy in his work” and “he has his future in a British Steel”. And, as a good employee:

Nigel is not outspoken
But he likes to speak
And loves to be spoken to
Nigel is happy in his work
We're only making plans for Nigel

So Nigel is basically supposed to shut it, do his job, be happy and (perhaps) vote Labour, which will keep this gravy train rolling. Of course, that all came to a screeching halt in 1979, hey?!

It is easy to read way more into lyrics than the data can support. That said, I find it interesting (perhaps reflecting the time) that Nigel is a man. Is no one making plans for Nancy? The absence of women from songs about work is a pattern that is becoming more pronounced as the months go on.

And what about those Nigel’s who don’t want to work in factories, or who think that things could be different, or who have no opportunity to work? Artists, activists, entrepreneurs, and the unemployed are all missing from the sing (although that may well reflect the boundaries of the “story” XTC is telling).



We're only making plans for Nigel
We only want what's best for him
We're only making plans for Nigel
Nigel just needs this helping hand
And if young Nigel says he's happy
He must be happy
He must be happy in his work

We're only making plans for Nigel
He has his future in a British steel
We're only making plans for Nigel
Nigel's whole future is as good as sealed
And if young Nigel says he's happy
He must be happy
He must be happy in his work

Nigel is not outspoken
But he likes to speak
And loves to be spoken to
Nigel is happy in his work
We're only making plans for Nigel

-- Bob Barnetson

Hours of work and the gendered wage-gap

This spring, the Parkland Institute published a study examining income inequality between men and women in Alberta. Women’s average income is 58% that of men’s income in Alberta, the worst differential in Canada. Wage and employment inequity contributed to Edmonton and Calgary being named among the worst large cities in Canada in which to be a woman.

There are many factors that contribute to this wage gap, including women being responsible for much of the unpaid work required to keep society functioning (e.g., caring for families, managing homes). Juggling this social reproductive work often results in women taking part-time paid employment. An interesting question is to what degree does Alberta’s employment law contribute to this situation?

For example, all Canadian jurisdictions set limits on the length of the working day and/or week. For example, Alberta limits work to 12 hours a day. Limiting working time increases workplace safety and ensures workers have adequate time for social reproductive tasks. They also reflect the historical tendency of employers to demand oppressively long working days and weeks.

Some jurisdictions (such as Alberta) also allow employers to demand workers work over-time. (The term ‘demand’ indicates that workers cannot refuse the OT.) In Alberta, workers working beyond 8 hours in a day or 44 hour in a week are entitled to a wage premium (generally one-and-half times the normal wage rate). The premium both rewards workers for the additional labour and incentivizes employers to not rely on overtime as much. Other jurisdictions (e.g., Ontario) don’t allow employers to demand OT.

Work, Employment and Society recently published an article entitled “The gender gap in employment hours: do work-hour regulations matter?” This 23-country study examined the phenomenon of employed women working fewer paid hours than their male spouses (a key factor in the wage gap). It sought to understand if state regulation of the length of the working week and over-time (OT) was associated with this employment gap.

The findings were pretty unequivocal. Countries that limits on the length of the working week have greater gender-based equality in hours worked by men and women. There are other factors in play (e.g., occupation matters a lot; presence of children matters very little) but state regulation of working hours may be an important factor in equality.

Further, allowable overtime negatively affects gender equity in hours worked. Basically, for each additional allowable overtime hour, the work-hour gap between couples increased by 20 minutes. One explanation is that men are more likely to work long hours so limiting the length of their work week reduces the gap. It may also be that, facing limits, women increase their paid work to increase family income. And, perhaps, long working weeks require one partner (usually the women) to work less in order to cope with (unpaid) social reproductive work.

This research opens up an interesting point of discussion around Alberta’s Employment Standards Code: are Alberta’s rules around hours of work and over-time an important structural factor that produces gender-based income inequality? If so, would constraining the hours of work and/or possibility of OT result in greater gender equality?

-- Bob Barnetson

Friday Tunes: Bow River

This week’s installment of labour themes in popular culture is “Bow River”. The song was recorded by Australia’s Cold Chisel, a band known to addressing working class issues in its songs.

Bow River is about a town in the outback and the hold that it has on the singer’s mind. It’s a place he (?) aspires to be while spending time working in a factory in the big city, trading his youth for wages.

I been working hard, twelve hours a day
And the money I saved won't buy my youth again
I'm goin' for the heat babe, and the tropical rain
In a place where no man's puttin' on the dog for me
I'm waitin' on the weekend, set o' brand new tyres
And back in Bow River's just where I want to be

Some of the cultural significance of the song is perhaps lost on Canadians (claims that this is the best song ever written baffle me). Yet the overall theme of alienating inter-provincial (or rural-to-urban) migration is a familiar one.



Listen now to the wind, babe
Listen now to the rain
Feel that water lickin' at my feet again
I don't wanna see this town no more
Wastin' my days on a factory floor
First thing you know I'll be back in Bow River again

Anytime you want babe, you can come around
But only six days separates me and the great Top End
I been working hard, twelve hours a day
And the money I saved won't buy my youth again
I'm goin' for the heat babe, and the tropical rain
In a place where no man's puttin' on the dog for me

Listen now to the wind, babe
Listen now to the rain
Feel that water lickin' at my feet again
I don't wanna see this town no more
Too many years made up my mind to go or stay
Right to my dying day
I don't wanna see another engine line
Too many years and I owe my mind
First set o' wheels headin' back Bow River again
First thing you know I'll be back in Bow River again

I got the motor runnin', I got the rest of my days
Sold everything I owned for just a song
So anytime you want babe, you can come around
But don't leave it too late, you just might find me gone

Listen now to the wind, babe
Listen now to the rain
Feel that water lickin' at my feet again
I don't wanna see this town no more
Too many years made up my mind to go or stay
Right to my dying day
I don't wanna see another engine line
Too many years and I owe my mind
First set o' wheels headin' back Bow River again

I don't need the score
I'm goin' through the door
Gonna tell the man I don't want no more
Pick up a fast car and burn my name in the road
One week, two week, maybe even more
Piss all my money up against the damn wall
First thing you know I'll be back in Bow River again
First thing you know I'll be back in Bow River again

First thing you know I'll be
Back in Bow River
Again

-- Bob Barnetson

Gender and compassionate care leave in Alberta

I ran across an interesting article entitled "Accommodating the sandwich generation: Who’s taking care of the caregivers” in a Spring 2015 University of Alberta alumni mag. (I’ll add a link when I can find one.) The gist was that a significant proportion of workers are engaged in providing care not only to their immediate families (often spouse and children) but also to aging parents and friends.

I don’t know that this is any sort of revelation about the pressures of social reproduction. The article then goes on fawn over former Tory MLA Matt Jeneroux who advanced a change providing eight weeks of job-protected leave in Alberta’s Employment Standards Code to (more or less) mirror the 6 weeks of EI benefits available to workers taking care of gravely ill or dying loved ones.

Interestingly, the federal budget just extended these EI benefits from 6 weeks to 26 weeks, effective January 1, 2016. Amending the Employment Standards Code to mirror EI benefits (much like it does for parental benefits) should be a fairly non-controversial task for the Notley government and one that will likely disproportionately benefit women (who perform the majority of care work in our society).

Something else the Notley government may wish to look at is personal emergency leave (or family responsibility leave). Basically, this is a period of paid annual leave (in Ontario, it is 10 days) to allow workers to address personal or family medical emergencies, such as becoming ill or having to care for ill children.

Presently, Alberta has no clear rules around sick time. The Human Rights Code appears to require employers to accommodate personal illness. But, if an employer doesn’t, an employee’s remedy is through a very long and risky human rights complaint. 

According to the Human Rights Commission website, an employer is not required to accommodate a worker’s request to stay home to care for sick children. So, in theory, an employer could sack a worker for staying home with a sick kid. (This may well be changing as the jurisprudence around "family status” is in flux.)

Legislating clear rules around personal medical emergencies in the Employment Standards Code would clarify workers’ rights and employer’s obligations and also gain workers a faster pathway to remedy. Again, this would likely disproportionately benefit female workers.

-- Bob Barnetson

Friday Tunes: I Still Got a Finger

This week’s installment of labour themes in popular music is Blake Shelton’s “I Still Got a Finger.” Songs giving voice to workers’ frustration with the boss are not uncommon, such as “Take this Job and Shove It” (the video for this link is fairly funny).

Lyrically what is interesting about this song is that it talks about nepotism in the workplace. The singer notes he has been “Putting up with that prick of an owner’s son” and that he was “Helping his daddy stay rich”. When the son demands he work overtime (after already working through his lunch), the singer give shim the one-finger salute.

A few years back, the Huffington Post ran an interesting article examining nepotism as a strategy the wealthy use to maintain inter-generational advantage. Based on an academic study, as income increases, so too does the chance of a son working at the same firm as his father at some poit, a phenomenon that spikes for the top 1% of income earners.

And sons who work at different firms than their fathers have a higher chance of falling out of the top income strata than sons who do work at such firms. Possibly nepotism provides some sort of income advantage (do you think?). An alternative explanation is that nepotism provides no significant advantage and instead there is a selection effect: capable sons are chosen for jobs in the family business and less capable sons are moved out of the family business. I’m inclined towards the first explanation (although these explanations are not mutually exclusive), based on my own observations.



Well it must've been 100 in that summer sun
And I've been in it all day
Putting up with that prick of an owner's son
Making me some hillbilly pay

Working right through lunch, busting my hump
Helping his daddy stay rich
So when he kept me behind to pull some overtime
I told that little son of a bitch

[Chorus 1]
Hey I've been punching your clock, giving all I got
Putting up with your pain in the rear
Adios, I'm done, you can find me son
Between a hottie and an ice cold beer

[Chorus 2]
Hey I've been breaking my hump but it's never enough
Ain't a part of me that doesn't hurt
Hey but lucky for me you can easily see
I still got a finger that works

Yea I've been dragging home almost every night
'Bout the time that you're going out
Wearing something way too short and tight
Leaving me and the dog on a couch

Yea, now word's getting round you've been sneaking downtown
Dancing way too risky
Well I got a few dirty dance moves too
And a cute little one finger wave

[Chorus 1]
[Chorus 2]

Here it comes

[Chorus 1]
[Chorus 2]

Oh yea
Woo!
Yes I do
Look at that thing
You know you're number one, baby

-- Bob Barnetson

Interprovincial employment numbers, 2002 to 2011

Statistics Canada has released a new report on interprovincial employment from 2002 to 2011. Interprovincial employment occurs when workers declare residency in one province but work in another. About 3% of workers (or some 400,000 people) are interprovincial workers, although the numbers swing with economic booms and busts.

The results are not particularly surprising, with interprovincial employment being more common among residents in Atlantic provinces and Quebec/Ontario than the western provinces. Ontario, Alberta, Quebec and British Columbia were the biggest recipients of interprovincial workers (in that order) with Ontario and Alberta far out in front.

The majority of interprovincial workers drew the majority of their income from such work, although there are significant regional variations. Men are two to three times as likely as women to be interprovincial workers.

-- Bob Barnetson