High-end and high-profile restaurants that monopolize the industry often escape accountability in terms of sexism and other forms of discrimination within their workplace, marketing, and service. We hope to shed light on this disappointing trend by encouraging you to assess the places you choose to eat with a more critical eye.
The stories they have posted so far are pretty much what you
would expect: hiring based on looks, wage discrimination, and injurious gender-based
working conditions. Anyone who has eaten in a chain restaurant in Edmonton has
likely witnessed this. Of course, sexism isn’t just limited to hiring and
employment practices, as evidenced by the ad above, which ran in Singapore in
2009.
This week’s installment of labour themes in pop culture is The Clash’s Career Opportunities. This song was written in the late 1970s, a period of profound economic downturn in the UK, and it bemoans the lack and poor quality of jobs.
The profound shift in labour market power towards employers during recessions as well as the hopelessness this engenders among workers is captured in “They said I’d better take anything they’d got”.
The song also speaks to issues of class conflict and control:
They're gonna have to introduce conscription They're gonna have to take away my prescription If they wanna get me making toys If they wanna get me, well, I got no choice
According to one source I found, the line “And I won't open letter bombs for you” refers to an actual job held by guitarist Mick Jones (who knew the IRA were an important source of jobs?).
They offered me the office, offered me the shop They said I'd better take anything they'd got Do you wanna make tea at the BBC? Do you wanna be, do you really wanna be a cop?
Career opportunities the ones that never knocked Every job they offer you is to keep you out the dock Career opportunity, the one that never knocked
I hate the army and I hate the R.A.F. I don't wanna go a-fighting in the tropical heat I hate the civil service rules I won't open letter bombs for you
Career opportunities the ones that never knocked Every job they offer you is to keep you out the dock Career opportunity the one that never knocked
Oi!
Bus driver.... ambulance man.... a ticket inspector (I've done all of them...)
They're gonna have to introduce conscription They're gonna have to take away my prescription If they wanna get me making toys If they wanna get me, well hell, I got no choice
Career opportunities the ones that never knocked Every job they offer you is to keep you out the dock Career opportunity, the one that never knocked
The Labor Studies Journal has released an interesting article about labour-community-university partnerships in Southern California that focus on supporting worker engagement in occupational health and safety (OHS) enforcement in non-unionized workplaces. “Worker Engagement in the Health and Safety Regulatory Arena under Changing Models of Worker Representation” examines how the use of popular education and participatory action research to build the capacity of workers and advocates in low-wage, non-union jobs to participate in state occupational health and safety (OHS) enforcement processes. The five interventions documented appears to have resulted in increased state enforcement.
Worker engagement is important in complaint-drive OHS systems (like Alberta’s) by increasing the risk of an employer being caught violating the law in an era characterized by government’s starving enforcement regimes of resources amid the proliferation of small employers. The strategy explored in this article also identifies well documented worker complaints as being important to successfully remediation of unsafe work. In this way, workers can get around the ability of employers to cover up violations and the unfamiliarity of inspectors with the hazards of individual workplaces. Similarly, workers are able to perform ongoing follow-up won worksites to ensure remediation occurs.
Obviously such strategies are not a panacea for unsafe workplaces (meaningful enforcement is still required). But this article suggests worker partnerships can help to ameliorate some of the effects of the state withdrawal from OHS enforcement. This builds upon Canadian research on joint health and safety committees that suggests the manner in which worker representatives comport themselves can significantly improve the effectiveness of the committees.
This week’s installment of labour themes in pop culture is The Smith’s Frankly Mr. Shankly. This 1985 (I think) song was written as a message to the Band’s Label, disguised as a resignation letter from a worker to a boss.
What I like about this song is it teases out the meaninglessness and alienation of workers. Consider “Frankly, Mr Shankly, this position I've held/It pays my way and it corrodes my soul” and “But sometimes I'd feel more fulfilled/Making Christmas cards with the mentally ill”.
In an era marked by rhetoric around high involvement workplaces, team work and total quality management, it is refreshing to hear a more realistic assessment of most workplaces—even relatively good ones:
Frankly, Mr Shankly, since you ask
You are a flatulent pain the arse
I do not mean to be so rude
But still, I must speak frankly, Mr Shankly, give us money
A jaunty tune and cheeky lyrics can help workers who otherwise might over-identify with their employer or profession reconsider just who benefits the most from their work.
Frankly, Mr Shankly, this position I've held
It pays my way and it corrodes my soul
I want to leave you will not miss me
I want to go down in musical history
Frankly, Mr Shankly, I'm a sickening wreck
I've got the 21st century breathing down my neck
I must move fast, you understand me
I want to go down in celluloid history Mr Shankly
Fame, fame, fatal fame
It can play hideous tricks on the brain
But still I rather be famous
Than righteous or holy, any day, any day, any day
But sometimes I'd feel more fulfilled
Making Christmas cards with the mentally ill
I want to live and I want to love
I want to catch something that I might be ashamed of
Frankly, Mr Shankly, this position I've held
It pays my way and it corrodes my soul
Oh, I didn't realise that you wrote poetry
I didn't realise you wrote such bloody awful poetry Mr Shankly
Frankly, Mr Shankly, since you ask
You are a flatulent pain the arse
I do not mean to be so rude
But still, I must speak frankly, Mr Shankly, give us money
This week, A Better Way Alberta rolled out a nice video highlighting the effect of Alberta’s tax structure. A Better Way Alberta is a union initiative designed to identify the ways that government policy affects Albertans. The video below drives home who really benefits from a flat tax structure.
Of course, trade unionists don’t need a large budget to highlight bad behaviour, especially in the workplace. For example, when BC Government budget cuts forced colleges to lay off staff (circa 1985), the union at Northern Light College bought everyone long pink T-shirts (“official Northern Lights College Pink Slip”). I recall managers (the only workers not wearing pink) being uncomfortable: suddenly it was evident that they were (1) few in number and (2) being shunned by everyone else on-site.
Or last week, when Athabasca University demanded a 5% wage reduction from its staff. This comes after two years of wage freezes and layoff. Bargaining foundered on the employer’s unwillingness to negotiate and is now off to arbitration.
As it turns out, the university only budgeted for a cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) of zero per cent. Basically, the employer was hoping to stampede the faculty association into unnecessary concessions.
The worker’s response?
A Zero COLA (“Now with five percent less wages”) can and bottle wrap.
Nothing fancy or disruptive—just a quiet way to show solidarity and a degree of scorn for the employer’s lousy behaviour.
This week’s instalment of labour themes in popular culture is Billy Bragg’s There is Power in the Union. This was mostly recently heard on the soundtrack of Pride. It is popular to suggest that unions are irrelevant these days, especially in Alberta. Certainly trade unionism has been damaged by 40 years of anti-worker legislation and policy.
But come back to Bragg’s lyrics for a minute, especially, “The union forever defending our rights” and “Brutality and unjust laws can not defeat us”. Over the past few years, Alberta’s public-sector unions, however beaten up, have successfully fended off significant efforts by the Conservative government to strip workers of wages and pensions. And, it looks like they will have to do so again this spring.
While many traditional forms of protest have been foreclosed by government legislation prohibiting strikes, this legislation does not resolve the underlying conflict that gives rise to resistance. Instead, we’ve seen organized labour fight for workers rights in the court and, increasingly, in the public sphere. This includes public meetings and television ads showing the value of public-sector workers It also includes online documentaries are used to show the effect of government policies that grind the wages and workers conditions of public sector unions, such as this AUPE film on senior’s care.
Money speaks for money, the devil for his own Who comes to speak for the skin and the bone What a comfort to the widow, a light to the child
There is indeed power in a union. That is way the government keeps attacking them.
There is power in a factory, power in the land Power in the hands of a worker But it all amounts to nothing if together we don't stand there is power in a union
Now the lessons of the past were all learned with workers' blood The mistakes of the bosses we must pay for From the cities and the farmlands to trenches full of mud War has always been the bosses' way, sir
The union forever defending our rights Down with the blackleg, all workers unite With our brothers and out sisters from many far off lands There is power in a union
Now I long for the morning that they realise Brutality and unjust laws can not defeat us But who'll defend the workers who cannot organise When the bosses send their lackies out to cheat us?
Money speaks for money, the devil for his own Who comes to speak for the skin and the bone What a comfort to the widow, a light to the child There is power in a union
The union forever defending our rights Down with the blackleg, all workers unite With our brothers and out sisters from many far off lands There is power in a union.
The recent discourse around Alberta’s public sector wages warrants some unpacking. The crux is that the Prentice government is asserting public-sector compensation must be reduced in order to make Alberta fiscally sustainable.
Wage rollback legislation appears to be off the table, according to Finance Minister Robin Campbell. But hard bargaining for those unions with open contracts is (allegedly) ahead:
“We’ll have discussions with the unions, but (the contracts) are legally binding and we will live up to the letter of the law if we have to.”
“We’re not about to break any contracts, but I can also say to you that we have a number of contracts coming due and there will be some tough negotiations.”
The main contracts that are still open for negotiations are with the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees (AUPE) in health care (both auxiliary nursing and general support) that cover 44,000 Alberta Health Services employees. There are also a smattering of smaller contracts (e.g., post-secondaries, municipalities).
While tough talk about hard bargaining is a nice sound-byte, the government has tied its own hands here over the years. The government has legislated away the right to strike from most public-sector workers in Alberta so the government cannot force a strike (which would give it the opportunity to legislate an end to it). Instead, all of the contracts that are open right now are resolved via binding arbitration (i.e., a neutral third party settles them).
Arbitrators typically look at comparable settlements when they make awards. Given that most other public-sector unions have negotiated wage increases, the prospect for the government achieving significant pay freezes or cuts via are limited unless the government intervenes and legislates a settlement (or the parameters of a settlement).
The Redford government tried this in last 2012 with Bill 46, which turned into a political disaster for the Tories. Such intervention would also likely be found unconstitutional.
What this suggests is that, if Prentice is serious about reducing public-sector costs, he’ll likely freeze or cut operating budgets and prohibit deficits. This will force government departments, agencies, boards and commissions to cut staff in order to balance their budgets. The effects of layoffs are hard to see immediately (and are sometimes ameliorated by the remaining staff working harder) thus layoffs is a politically palatable way to grind the public service.
-- Bob Barnetson
Update: The province has just announced it will be "developing a co-ordinated and disciplined long-term approach to funding
for public sector bargaining that is fair, consistent and respectful of
both workers and taxpayers." Blah, blah, blah "best practices", reporting in four months. The real message is here:
Recent negotiations have led to settlements that have increased costs
significantly. In fact, public sector salaries in Alberta are scheduled
to increase by $2.6 billion over the next three years alone.
The province never substantiates or explains the $2.6B assertion and also ignores that Alberta public sector wage costs (which late behind private-sector compensation) costs are largely driven by inflation. Should be an interesting report. Still looking forward to seeing the report the premier commissioned last fall about why morale was so low and turn over was so high in the public sector... .
Last week, Metro News reported on an interesting project out
of the University of Alberta. Four U of A students have launched an interactive website to
track stories of sexism in Edmonton’s food service industry. More specifically:
