The Attack on Labour

Industry and by that I mean large mutli-national corporations have used recent downturns in the economy and near bankruptcies of economic sectors too big to fail to roll back advances labour unions have fought for over the past half century and even wage an attack on the unions’ very existence. While quick to ask for concessions restoring wages and benefits to their former levels when prosperity returns is quite another matter. They will, however, spend years paying no taxes as they write off past losses while you and I pick up the tab. Large conglomerates have gleefully snapped up smaller business, laid off workers, shut down factories, and put thousands out of work. Recent recessions have provided them with a golden opportunity roll back benefits and reduce workforces. Businesses that once argued they be allowed to raid bloated pension funds are now crying poor because those same funds lack sufficient premiums coming in to sustain their outlays.

The number of government jobs lost in the past few years is staggering. In the private sector industry has outsourced production to Third World Countries with lower wages, lower labour standards, few to no environmental controls, and appalling working conditions. Retail operations have made Made in the USA or Canada labels an almost extinct commodity. Only recently is it dawning on these entrepreneurs that if no one locally has a job no one will have an income to buy their merchandise. Fires and building collapses in off-shore sweat shops, online videos of working conditions and child labour, product recalls due to unsafe chemicals, and inferior products have all contributed to bad publicity and shamed CEO’s. The divide between salaries paid those CEO’s and the laborers who work for them is widening exponentially.

In their headlong pursuit of dividends for their corporate shareholders companies have forgotten that their most valuable resource is a loyal workforce. At the same time their employees increasingly look at their work as a means of paying their bills, not a career. Getting through the day, collecting a paycheque, and getting home safely have replaced pride in workmanship. Too many employers are like those recently caught replacing local workers with cheaper foreign labour; it was the bad publicity it generated and the possible effects on their corporate profits that concerned them. Too many are like the mine owner in the town of Frank; he was not concerned about the destruction of most of the town or the loss of 700 lives but how many days of production he would lose from the mine. Analyzed in psychiatric terms most big corporations are morally psychotic. The governments whose war chests they support through their donations are little better.