Friday Tunes: Money for Nothing

This week’s installment of labour themes in popular culture is Dire Straits’ “Money for Nothing” (suggestion courtesy of my colleague Jason Foster). The song is written from the perspective of an apparently real New York appliance-store worker who was watching music videos and contrasting the life of rock stars with everyday workers. 

Many of the lyrics are based upon the worker’s actual comments on the videos. Front and centre in the lyrics is the worker’s jealousy at the relative ease of the rock stars' lives: get up late, plays some music and watch the cash roll in:

Now look at them yo-yo's that's the way you do it
You play the guitar on the MTV
That ain't workin' that's the way you do it
Money for nothin' and chicks for free

This is contrasted with the worker’s own experience of (hard) work:

We gotta install microwave ovens
Custom kitchen deliveries
We gotta move these refrigerators
We gotta move these colour TV's

There is an interesting class analysis here: there are different segments of the working class and their different levels of success create natural fissures that can be exploited by capital to impede class solidarity. I think the interesting part of the lyrics is how the appliance worker blames himself for his lack of labour market success.

I shoulda learned to play the guitar
I shoulda learned to play them drums

Internalizing failure can be a productive strategy if one’s failure is caused by factors within one’s control. If so, then working harder or making different choices is a good path forward. My guess here (recognizing that my data is a rock song and a cartoon…), though, is that the worker’s labour market prospects were constrained (although not necessarily perfectly determined) from the get-go based upon his talents and the small demand for rock stars.

Now sure, there are many examples of hard working bands beating the odds to find success (which is why this is a musical archetype). But I’d guess these success stories are dramatically outnumbered by musicians that tried and failed and then got so-called real jobs pushing appliances.

This brings me around to the fight for a $15 minimum-wage movement. There are lots of social justice arguments for increasing the minimum wage. A fairly pragmatic one is that our society requires a large cadre of workers to do service-sector work. Since we require this work to be done and many of us will spend our lives doing such work, we ought to establish a minimum wage that provides a decent living. 

In theory, the labour market should correct itself when wages get too low because workers will withdraw from work or will seek work elsewhere. Yet workers’ need to put food on the table and their limited access to other work means the labour market does not operate freely. This creates conditions ripe for exploitation, which is why we developed minimum wages in the first place.

I’ve embedded the original video (even though there are better versions of the song) because the video really brings out the perspective of the putative narrator.



Now look at them yo-yo's that's the way you do it
You play the guitar on the MTV
That ain't workin' that's the way you do it
Money for nothin' and chicks for free
Now that ain't workin' that's the way you do it
Lemme tell ya them guys ain't dumb
Maybe get a blister on your little finger
Maybe get a blister on your thumb

[chorus]

We gotta install microwave ovens
Custom kitchen deliveries
We gotta move these refrigerators
We gotta move these colour TV's

See the little faggot with the earring and the makeup
Yeah buddy that's his own hair
That little faggot got his own jet airplane
That little faggot he's a millionaire

[chorus]

I shoulda learned to play the guitar
I shoulda learned to play them drums
Look at that mama, she got it stickin' in the camera
Man we could have some fun

And he's up there, what's that? Hawaiian noises?
Bangin' on the bongoes like a chimpanzee
That ain't workin' that's the way you do it
Get your money for nothin' get your chicks for free

[chorus]

Now that ain't workin' that's the way you do it
You play the guitar on the MTV
That ain't workin' that's the way you do it
Money for nothin' and your chicks for free
Money for nothin' and chicks for free

-- Bob Barnetson

Petroleum, Politics, and the Limits of Left Progressivism in Alberta

Last week saw the publication of a new book entitled Alberta Oil and the Decline of Democracy in Canada. You can download the entire book for free from Athabasca University Press.

Trevor Harrison’s chapter entitled “Petroleum, Politics, and the Limits of Left Progressivism in Alberta” examines the conventional wisdom that Alberta is a conservative province, looking at the history of left-progressivism as well as the role of specific historical events and socio-economic and political factors in shaping Alberta’s political terrain. While acknowledging that a democratic governance can be challenging in resource-based economy, Harrison also notes that politics matters.

I found the latter part of his chapter particularly interesting, wherein he chronicles some of the contradictions of Conservative policies. Or example, the Conservative party found itself unable to raise taxes or increase royalties because of its ideological choices and financial dependence on the oil industry even when the province’s economic expansion required additional revenue. Among the issues that limited the Tory’s ability to respond to this problem was the very democratic deficit that oil dependence had created:

It was not just the Alberta state that lacked relative autonomy from the petroleum industry; the same was true of many Albertans who had grown dependent, psychologically as well as economically, upon the petroleum industry for their well-being and sense of identity. Many oil workers in Alberta earn enough money to be safely placed within the top 1 percent of income earners, making them unlikely recruits for a proletarian revolution; hence, also, many Albertans, tied either directly or indirectly to the industry, tend to go to the barricades to defend the oil companies when there is any sign of criticism from outside the province or, indeed, from internal naysayers.

The Tory’s inability to politically cope with the contradictions of petroleum dependence created space for the (re)emergence of left-progressivism in the 2015 provincial election.

-- Bob Barnetson

Federal OHS program deteriorating

The Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives recently released a study about the state of occupational health and safety in the federal jurisdiction (i.e., the federal civil servants plus workers in banking, telecommunication, rail, interprovincial trucking, etc.). 

While occupational health and safety in the federal jurisdiction is largely unstudied, the Lac-Megantic derailment (right) shows us why safety inspections in the federal jurisdiction are so important.

Waiting to happen: Why we need major changes to the health and safety regime in federally regulated workplaces details some alarming issues that include:

• The number of health and safety inspectors has dropped from 151 inspectors in 2005 to 67 as of April, 2015 (>50% loss).
• Between 2002 and 2013, 684 employees died as a result of workplace injury.
• There were nearly 21,000 disabling injuries in the federally regulated sector in 2012 alone.

At the same time, changes to the federal Labour Code (hidden in the Conservative’s 2013 omnibus bill) reduced the power of the remaining inspectors and weakened workers’ ability to refuse unsafe work. Overall, this report details shameful public policy that is negatively affecting the health of 1.2 million workers and endangering the Canadians that they serve.

-- Bob Barnetson

Friday Tunes: A Month of Sundays

This week’s installment of labour themes in popular culture features Don Henley’s “A Month of Sundays”. The song is sung from the perspective of an old farmer who is reflecting on the changes he’s seen since the 1950s (I think this was released in about 1985) and seems like an appropriate harvest-season song.

There is a lot (lyrically speaking) to chew on. One theme is the farmer’s pride in his work and ability to earn a living in difficult circumstances:

Between the hot, dry weather and the taxes, and the Cold War
It's been hard to make ends meet
But I always put the clothes on our backs,
But I always get the shoes on our feet

Yet this pride is tempered by a sense of loss as the industry has changed:

The big boys, they all got computers, got incorporated too
Me, I just know how to raise things
That was all I ever knew
Now, it all comes down to numbers
Now, I'm glad that I have quit
Folks these days just don't do nothin'
Simply for the love of it

While it is easy to get lost in the emotion of this verse, there is a bit of an untold story here. The trend towards agricultural consolidation into larger and more highly capitalized farms is undeniable as possibly unstoppable given the cost-price squeeze facing farmers in late capitalism. Yet, setting aside questions of environmental sustainability, are such farms inherently undesirable?

While corporate agriculture makes an easy target, there is often a false dichotomy between so-called family farms and corporate farms. It is possible to increase farm capitalization in ways (e.g., cooperatives) that don’t entail moving towards corporate farming. Perhaps this farmer’s inability to let function dictate form (i.e., his desire to hang onto his independence as a sole producer) is as much the cause of his misfortune as is the pressures of capitalism?

Hard to work that complexity into a catchy song, though. Anyhow, here is Henley singing at Farm Aid 1985:



I used to work for Harvester
I used to use my hands
I used to make the tractors and the combines that plowed and harvested this great land
Now I see my handiwork on the block everywhere I turn
And I see the clouds 'cross the weathered faces and I watch the harvest burn

I quit the plant in '57
Had some time for farmin' then
Banks back then was lending money
The banker was the farmer's friend
And I've seen the dog days and dusty days
Late spring snow and early fall sleet;
I've held the leather reins in my hands and felt the soft ground under my feet
Between the hot, dry weather and the taxes, and the Cold War

It's been hard to make ends meet
But I always put the clothes on our backs,
But I always get the shoes on our feet

My grandson, he comes home from college
He says, "We get the government we deserve"
My son-in-law just shakes his head and says, "That little punk, he never had to serve"
And I sit here in the shadow of suburbia and look out across these empty fields
I sit here in earshot of the bypass and all night I listen to the rushin' of the wheels

The big boys, they all got computers, got incorporated too
Me, I just know how to raise things
That was all I ever knew
Now, it all comes down to numbers
Now, I'm glad that I have quit
Folks these days just don't do nothin'
Simply for the love of it

I went into town on the Fourth of July
Watched 'em parade past the Union Jack
Watched 'em break out the brass and beat on the drum
One step forward and two steps back
And I saw a sign on Easy Street, said "Be Prepared to Stop"
Pray for the independent, little man
I don't see next year's crop
And I sit here on the back porch in the twilight
And I hear the crickets hum

I sit and watch the lightning in the distance but the showers never come
I sit here and listen to the wind blow
I sit here and rub my hands
I sit here and listen to the clock strike, and I wonder if I'll see my companion again

-- Bob Barnetson

A window on power and influence in Alberta politics

This week saw the publication of a new book entitled Alberta Oil and the Decline of Democracy in Canada. You can download the entire book for free from Athabasca University Press.

The premise of the book is that Alberta’s economic reliance on oil revenues has created a symbiotic relationship between government and the oil industry. Cross-national studies have detected a correlation between oil-dependent economies and authoritarian rule, a pattern particularly evident in Africa and the Middle East. Alberta Oil and the Decline of Democracy in Canada sets out to test the “oil inhibits democracy” hypothesis in the context of an industrialized nation in the Global North.

The first chapter I read was Ricardo Acuna’s “A Window on Power and Influence in Alberta Politics.” Acuna uses Joe Overton’s theory of the window of political possibility to examine how political discourse has been narrowed in Alberta. The Overton window basically suggests that only a subset of all policy options are considered realistic at any one time.

It is possible to move the window by flooding public discourse with specific messages. For example, if a right-wing lobby group repeatedly says that tax increases will kill jobs and this gets picked up by media, tax increases can slowly begin to appear as unthinkable. Acuna’s analysis specifically looks at how right-wing think tanks and the oil lobby have used flooding to shape public policy around oil royalties.

A particularly salient point in the chapter is how the anchoring of the Overton window on the far right in Alberta leads to political disengagement.

When public policy is seen as inevitable and economic theories are seen as truth, people have no reason to engage with the political processes that impact their lives. This trend is reinforced by messaging from the far right that con- sistently labels government and politicians as irrelevant, inefficient, and self- serving. Voter turnout and participation in political parties in Alberta are both likely to continue dropping for the foreseeable future, further abandoning the realm of public policy to the energy industry and think tanks (p. 309).

It will be interesting to see if the election of New Democrat government in Alberta has any appreciable impact on the Overton window during their first term.

-- Bob Barnetson

Authenticity (or, why I'm boycotting staff appreciation day)

I’ve just signed a contract with the University of Toronto Press to co-author an introduction to human resource management textbook. As we’ve been working through what topics the text will cover, I’ve been keeping my eyes open for examples of good and bad HR practice that might be interesting case studies.

Authenticity is a word that has had some traction in HR lately as companies grapple with the perennial issue of poor morale caused by economic instability. This Forbes article, for example, extolls the virtues of authenticity at work as a way to ensure worker high performance. But what is authenticity?

… Jay Canchola, an independent human resources consultant, says: “…From an employee point-of-view this turns out to mean that management is true to their word in all communications about the business, both good news and bad news. In other words there is no ‘double-talk.’”

I was thinking about this late last week when I got a series of reminders that Athabasca University was hosting its annual employee recognition event today. The purpose of the event is a bit unclear but it seems designed to celebrate achievements and recognize long-service and retirements—basically an employee appreciation luncheon.

After some thought, I’ve decided not to attend this event. My reason is that the notion that the university appreciates its staff sits uneasily with the university’s recent behaviour. For example, the university has tried to cut our wages by 5% at the bargaining table and has threatened (more) layoffs if we don’t comply. And the university has blamed its financial problems on staff greed, rather than the root causes of poor management and inadequate funding.

Less dramatic (but much more annoying) is that the university has failed to address very real complaints about the poor quality of its “improved” finance and HR systems. For example, it used to take 5 minutes to fill in an expense claim form and about two weeks to get paid. Now it can take up to 7 hours (yes, hours) over several days to fill in the form correctly and months to get reimbursed.

Basically the employer’s words (we appreciate you…) don’t jive with its behaviours (…but we’re gonna treat you poorly). The result is that the appreciation event looks like a sham exercise. Given that I have some discretion about whether or not to attend, I’ve decided to opt out.

While I doubt anyone will care (they may well even be happy I’m not there!), the underlying lack of authenticity can negatively affect morale and productivity. For example, a palpable sense of cynicism permeates most of the meetings I attend and discussions about fixing problems often end in disarray because most workers no longer believe that the employer is capable of taking (or even cares to take) effective action.

It will be interesting trying to explain the link between (in)authenticity, (il)legitimacy and (non)productivity in this new book. It will also be interesting to see if the research finds that the causality runs both ways. That is to say, inauthentic behaviour may degrade organizational performance but that does not necessarily mean that authentic behaviour can improve it (or reverse damage caused by earlier inauthenticity).

-- Bob Barnetson

Friday Tunes: Heart of the Matter

This week’s installment of labour themes in popular culture is Don Henley’s “Heart of the Matter”. This song is mostly about moving on after a relationship ends but the second verse touches on some interesting work-related material:

The trust and self-assurance that can lead to happiness
They're the very things we kill, I guess
Pride and competition cannot fill these empty arms
And the work I put between us,
Doesn't keep me warm

On first blush, Henley’s comment “And the work I put between us/Doesn’t keep me warm” has a nice double meaning: work can serve as a means to create (or be the cause of) distance in a relationship and work is also a poor substitute for a meaningful relationship. That is an important (if prosaic) observation about how work can affect our lives.

This couplet builds on the preceding line that notes “Pride and competition cannot fill these empty arms”. Thinking about this verse more deeply draws my attention to the dynamics and consequences of competition. As Alfie Kohn noted in his book No Contest: The Case Against Competition, competition is often asserted to be an innate state, usually premised upon a mis-application of Darwinism.

Survival of the fittest is often taken to mean that the strongest (fastest, most ruthless, etc.) will prosper (at the expense of the “least” fittest) and, therefore, competitive behaviour is natural and to be lauded. Kohn’s argument is that “fitness” doesn’t require competition and the most successful strategies of survival are based around co-operation.

In fact, most contemporary competition takes place within frameworks of profound cooperation. Employment, for example, often occurs within organizations which require cooperation to operate. And these organizations interact in ways that require cooperation. That there are roads and the rule of law and schools and hospitals reflects almost unimaginable cooperation over very long periods of time. Competition, while certainly existing, exists against this backdrop cooperation and, in fact, often serves to undermine it.

Competition also entails winners (few) and losers (many). The dynamics of competition erode trust (or degrade it to a highly conditional and transitory state). The constant fear that goes along with this dynamic result in a loss of self-confidence that pressure us to each look out for ourselves which (my experience suggests) does not lead to happiness. Coming back to Henley’s lyrics then, I see a metaphorical critique of the dynamics of competition:

The trust and self-assurance that can lead to happiness
They're the very things we kill, I guess
Pride and competition cannot fill these empty arms
And the work I put between us,
Doesn't keep me warm

The point of this is that the ethos of competition that caused the singer to lose his or her love also carries risks when applied to the workplace. The question then is what application to the workplace (if any) has Henley’s remedy of forgiveness? Anyhow, here’s Henley at Farm Aid in about 1990.



I got the call today, I didn't wanna hear
But I knew that it would come
An old true friend of ours was talkin' on the phone
She said you found someone

And I thought of all the bad luck,
And the struggles we went through
And how I lost me and you lost you
What are these voices outside love's open door
Make us throw off our contentment
And beg for something more?

I'm learning to live without you now
But I miss you sometimes
The more I know, the less I understand
All the things I thought I knew, I'm learning again

[chorus]
I've been tryin' to get down to the Heart of the Matter
But my will gets weak
And my thoughts seem to scatter
But I think it's about forgiveness
Forgiveness
Even if, even if you don't love me anymore

These times are so uncertain
There's a yearning undefined
...People filled with rage
We all need a little tenderness
How can love survive in such a graceless age

The trust and self-assurance that can lead to happiness
They're the very things we kill, I guess
Pride and competition cannot fill these empty arms
And the work I put between us,
Doesn't keep me warm

I'm learning to live without you now
But I miss you, Baby
The more I know, the less I understand
All the things I thought I figured out, I have to learn again

[chorus]

There are people in your life who've come and gone
They let you down and hurt your pride
Better put it all behind you; life goes on
You keep carryin' that anger, it'll eat you inside

[chorus]

[chorus]

-- Bob Barnetson