Research: Precarious employment and gender in Banff

One of the presentations from a Canadian Political Science Association conference panel I organized last week was entitled “Gender, Work and Community Sustainability: Young Adult Mobile Tourism Workers in Banff National Park, Canada ” by Dr. Angèle Smith from the University of Northern British Columbia. Angèle’s findings were interesting. 

First, she found that workers in Banff’s hospitality industry were highly precarious, often struggling to feed themselves and living in rather difficult conditions. One audience member used to work in Banff and talked about folks living 10 to an apartment and under staircases and fondly recalled the “Aussie who lived in a closet”! (Wow, audience participation!)

There is some recognition of the issues of precarity in official documents. What is interesting is that Angèle found significant gender differences by occupation among these workers, something that is entirely missing from the official discourse. As you’d expect, women tend to work in lower wage positions (food service, retail, house keeping) while men are more likely to work in higher wage positions (e.g., guiding, ski instructing).

Angèle also talks about the transitory nature of Banff’s community (long-term residents are few) and considers how the economic structure of the tourism industry is, perhaps, premised upon high turn over among the precariat. The costs of the service industry are externalized onto workers in the form of low wages, which the workers accept (for awhile) in order to live in Banff. When the seasonal bust happens, hours are cut and a certain segment of the service population moves on.

Overall, a very interesting paper and an afternoon well spent.

-- Bob Barnetson

Friday Tunes: Coal, not dole

This week’s installment of labour themes in popular culture is an a capella version of (I can’t believe I’m saying this) Chumbawamba’s “Coal not Dole.” (Yes, the same Chumbawamba that brought you the arena ear-bleeder, Tub-Thumpin’). The lyrics come from a poem of the same name about the 1984/85 coal strike in the UK.

The strike saw the eventual closure of many pits, devastating the surrounding communities. The bitterness, loss of self-respect and hopelessness wrought by such changes is nicely captured in this lyric:

Empty trucks once filled with coal
Lined up like men on the dole
Will they ever be used again?
Or left for scrap just like the men?

While “Coal not dole” was written about a specific event, it is also the tale of any one-industry town (e.g., lumber, fish, bitumen) where a business decision has a spectacular ripple-on effect for the workers.

They stand so proud, the wheels so still

A ghost-like figure on the hill
It seems so strange there is no sound
Now there are no men underground

What will become of this pit yard?
Where men once trampled faces hard
So tired and weary their shift's done
Never having seen the sun

There'll always be a happy hour
For those with money, jobs and power
They'll never realise the hurt
They cause to men they treat like dirt

Will it become a sacred ground?
Foreign tourists gazing round
Asking if men once worked here
Way beneath this pit-head gear

Empty trucks once filled with coal
Lined up like men on the dole
Will they ever be used again?
Or left for scrap just like the men?

There'll always be a happy hour
For those with money, jobs and power
They'll never realise the hurt
They cause to men they treat like dirt

-- Bob Barnetson

Research: Impact of TFWs on gender equity in construction

Today, Jason Foster and I are presenting a paper at the Canadian Political Science Association conference in Ottawa entitled “The Impact of Temporary Foreign Workers on Gender Equity in Alberta’s Construction Occupations, 2003-2013.” This paper is part of a panel about gender and employment-related geographic mobility in Alberta with Sara Dorow (UAlberta) and Angele Smith (U Northern BC).

Alberta’s construction industry claimed a labour shortage in the mid 2000s. A labour shortage often makes employers antsie because wages rise and workers will put up with less bullshit (i.e., the labour market starts working for workers). Employers and the provincial government vowed to hire more under-represented groups to ease the shortage (this typically means women, youth, aboriginal and disabled workers--this is a pretty standard promise that never seems to actually play out). At the same time, the feds made it easier (i.e., cheaper) to hire temporary foreign workers (TFWs).

Our initial question was what effect did immigration policy changes have on female participation in the construction industry? Women are generally under-represented in construction (14%) and the trades (7%). You’d think, in a tight labour market, female participation would rise. After some really boring angst around the data, what we found was this:

1. Participation rates of Canadian women in the trades, transport and equipment operator occupations stayed static over time (about 7%) but the overall number rose.
2. Participation rates by Canadian men in these occupations fell as did the overall number.
3. Participation rates by TFWs (almost all men) in these occupations rose (as did overall numbers) and this change is correlated in a statistically significant way to the decline in Canadian men.

Basically, it looks like employers substituted TFWs for male Canadian workers. The cause of this shift (i.e., were Canadian men were unavailable, or do employers preferred TFWs) is not clear. Other research Jason has conducted suggests employers have come to prefer TFWs to Canadian workers because employers can drive TFWs harder.

It is also unclear what relationship TFWs have to female participation. An interesting thought experiment is what do you suppose would have happened to female participation had the feds not made it easier for employers to hire TFWs? We suspect that employers would have taken steps to increase female participation rates, perhaps by changing workplace practices to make the jobs more appealing to women. In this way, federal immigration policy may have retarded employment equity.

-- Bob Barnetson

Friday Tunes: Slave to the Grind

This week’s installment of labour themes in popular culture is Skid Row’s “Slave to the Grind” (cause who doesn’t like hair metal?). Melodically and visually a bit uninspired (yay, another warehouse video complete with steel cage), Slave to the Grind was nonetheless a huge hit, speaking as it did to the economic hopelessness of 1991.

The lyrics focus on the singer’s rejection of being forced to do something (e.g., work in a dead-end job) that he doesn’t want to do:

You got me forced to crack my lids in two
I'm still stuck inside this rubber room
I gotta punch the clock that leads the blind
I'm just another gear in the assembly line - oh no

Although perhaps unknowingly, lead singer Sebastian Bach is talking about the commodifcation of labour: essentially he’s forced to sell his time to put food on the table and it sucks. Apparently he has some sort of plan that doesn’t include accepting his place within capitalism (“You might beg for mercy to get by/But I'd rather tear this thorn from my side”), but alas he doesn’t share the secret and instead declares “You talk verbal insecticide” (which seems like a rather desperate rhyme).



You got me forced to crack my lids in two
I'm still stuck inside this rubber room
I gotta punch the clock that leads the blind
I'm just another gear in the assembly line - oh no

The noose gets tighter around my throat
But I ain't at the end of my rope 'cause

[CHORUS]
I won't be the one left behind
Can't be king of the world
If you're slave to the grind
Tear down the rat racial slime
Can't be king of the world
If you're slave to the grind

Get it?

A routine injection, a lethal dose
But my day in the sun ain't even close
There's no need to waste your prayers on me
You better mark my words 'cause I'm history

Yes indeed
You might beg for mercy to get by
But I'd rather tear this thorn from my side

[CHORUS]

They swallowed their daggers by turning their trick
They tore my intentions apart brick by brick
I'm sick of the jive
You talk verbal insecticide

They swallowed their daggers by turning their trick
They tore my intentions apart brick by brick
I'm sick of the jive
You talk verbal insecticide

[CHORUS]

I said slave to the grind
Slave to the grind
Slave to the grind

-- Bob Barnetson

Direct-action solidarity in Brighton

Mainstream Canadian trade unionism continues to (mostly) focus on workers having full-time, permanent work with a single employer (sometimes called the standard employment relationship). This reflects (in part) that the laws structuring trade unionism in Canada were built for workers in (broadly speaking) manufacturing jobs in the mid-20th century.

Obviously I’m generalizing some—many unions make an admirable effort to represent workers in the now dominant service-sector (e.g., UFCW). But the nature of this work—low pay, high-turn over—and the workforce—often teens and foreign migrant workers—make representation challenging. The low unionization rate also means that non-unionized employers are often able to “out compete” unionized employers via various forms of wage theft.

An alternative to traditional trade unionism in these sectors is direct action solidarity. This comes in lots of flavours but the gist is that workers join together to picket, occupy or otherwise punish employers who screw their workers.



We have seen some of this in Edmonton with the Wobblies. Sometimes these campaigns are successful (i.e., the workers get their demands met). Sometimes they are unsuccessful (i.e., the employer ignores the pressure). And sometimes the results are mixed (e.g., a crappy employer is driven out of business and thus can’t harm other workers). A friend tipped me to this British example of a direct action campaign in Brighton.

One of the outcomes of current Canadian labour laws is that they tend to divert anger into manageable processes (e.g., interminable grievance arbitration). This tends to benefit employers (who don’t have to worry about workers putting down their tools. Yet, for some workers (and for all workers in some instances), acting outside of the confines of labour law and some workers may be more beneficial.

-- Bob Barnetson

Friday Tunes: EMS Anthem

This week’s installment of labour themes in popular culture is "EMS Anthem" by Farooq Muhammad. I’ve been seeing to a fair bit of trash-tweeting about unionized public-sector workers in the wake of the New Democrat election win. Some of its suggests that the NDs will roll over in contract negotiations with public-sector unions (ha!) and the rest is just ideological distain for the public sector.

The idea that private-sector jobs (e.g., convenience store clerk) are always “better” than public sector jobs (e.g., teacher) is incorrect right-wing dogma. EMS Anthem offers an interesting antidote to this belief, by examining the life of New York paramedic.

In the song Muhammad talks about the value of his job (“Savin' lives/Is what we do every day/Hopin' for you/Just to see the next day”) and the personal cost of doing it (“and damn you better believe /I cryin my eyes out any time I see /a poor baby that got murdered in his sleep”). 

While it is often easy to see the value of certain public-sector jobs like first responders nurses and teachers, there are few public sector jobs without value. Whether it is protecting the watershed or ensuring public institutions are clean and that public records are correct and accessible, these jobs have high social value. 

Perhaps more workers should start rapping—I know faculty council would be a lot more interesting with a hip-hop vibe. ("I'm wearin' the robe/Got the mortar board/I second the motion/Pedants galore")



Here we go again
Now I'm back in the saddle
Hotter than cayenne
With my EMS friends

Workin' in the ambulance
Waitin' for the next one
Dispatch droppin' jobs
Non stop, all ya' got

6-3, en route
Headed to the call
Pedal to the floor
Diesel fumes from exhaust

Streets criss-cross
till you know I'm 84
Got the gear, I'm walkin'
To the front door

Hopin' for
Not another corpse
Or a life lost
already seen enough of those

entrance to the residence
An old man hangin' on
For dear life with his medicine
High con oxygen

BVM

Start CPR
Gonna keep him goin'
But you know it's up to God

Ready for war
Fightin' death nail to the wall
Pumpin' harder than an engine
But we never stall

Never give up hope
You know you're gonna make it
We're here servin' you
Don't ever mistake it

Savin' lives
Is what we do every day
Hopin' for you
Just to see the next day

When death starts knockin'
Gettin' near
We'll be there
Don't ever fear

I am EMS
And I swear by my anthem
And I pray to God
To guide all of my actions

now please be singer
not voice not melodic
listen up partner
i'm a certified medic

workin' these streets of NYC
and if it wasnt for the bills
man i'd do it for free

ya'll stop the bleed
apply the lead
help those in need
and damn you better believe
i cryin my eyes out any time i see
a poor baby that got murdered in his sleep

lord have mercy for the evil that i've seen
pd on the scene for another body bloody shoutin 85 forthwith emts
expeditiously with expertise
we're the ones u need and if it wasn’t for us

there'd be a lot more people lay bitin the dust
spillin blood from their guts
supreme treatment from a team u can trust
doing it steady trained and ready

Never give up hope
You know you're gonna make it
We're here servin' you
Don't ever mistake it
save a life what we do everyday
hoping for you just see the next day
when death starts knocking gettin near

we'll be there never fear
I'm EMS and i swear by my anthem
and i pray to God to guide all of my actions

never do we hesitate going to calls we get sent
barricades near deaths even bomb threats hence
we just keep it movin at the speed of light
now we clickin the lights and we're hittin the strobe
for another man shot in the occipital lobe
we just go never stop stayin on it siren blasting drivin faster 

the golden hour dodgin traffic when it gets tragic hustlin' every time

doing what we gotta do no need for a thank you
were doin' it for passion
showin' you compassion not for fashion
or cashin any check just here to save ur neck
never once do we fret drippin sweat yea you guessed
we're the best ems never rest to the test
we posses what we need for success
ideal it doesnt get more real FDNY EMS

never give up hope you know ur gonna make it
we're here servin u dont ever mistake it
save a life what we do everyday hoping for you just see the next day
when death starts knocking gettin near
we'll be there never fear 

I'm EMS and i swear by my anthem

and i pray to God to guide all of my actions x2

-- Bob Barnetson

Will education reduce workplace bullying?

I had an interesting conversation recently about the value of education in the workplace. The gist was that educating employers about the costs associated with workplace bully would result in less bullying at work (I’m paraphrasing a bit). The underlying logic is that bullying is costly and that profit-maximizing employers, once aware of the costs, will act to avoid them.

I’m generally skeptical about this line of argument. The evidence I was pointed to about cost is from the Workplace Bullying Institute (under the Impact tab). This organization approaches bullying from a psychological perspective and focuses their impact studies on the personal impact of bullying.

This is a very valid perspective and yields useful insights into why and how bullying occurs and how it affects the target. That said, the psychological perspective ignores that bullying occurs in a political and economic context. Specifically, workplace bullying occurs within a capitalist economy, wherein employer behaviour is shaped by the profit imperative.

One of the more interesting articles written about bullying in employment is “Workplace bullying and the employment relationship”. Based on British data, this article suggests that employers may economically benefit from bullying. Specifically, bullying by supervisors (the most common bullies) may be an efficient way to increase productivity. In this way, bullying may be an endemic feature of capitalist employment relationships.

The idea that employer condone bullying is an uncomfortable one. Yet it certainly explains why profit maximizers (like employers) would put up with this bullying: it is in their economic interest.

This line of analysis is also a good tonic for advocates of workplace education, who often assume that deviant behaviour is the product of ignorance, rather than the interaction of systemic pressures and self-interest.

-- Bob Barnetson