As an umbrella group comprising about 120 unions, the Canadian Labour Congress isn’t involved in collective bargaining. From this remove, executive vice-president Barbara Byers sees certain trends developing across bargaining tables, in both the private and public sectors.
One of them is a rising sense of frustration, particularly among employees in the public sector, said Byers. Pointing to public-worker strikes in Newfoundland and in British Columbia last year, Byers said she expects “more heat” this year.
“The public sector as employer has been letting people down for a number of years. And people are saying, ‘I’m not prepared anymore to take wage increases that are less than inflation and to find jobs that are being cut, and I’m not only doing my own job but two or three people’s jobs,’” said Byers.
“The financial strain and the emotional strain have been quite heavy on people. That’s why there has been a fight back, and it’s also why we anticipate there will be more.”
The outsourcing of government services is one issue in particular that will continue to face strenuous opposition from public-sector workers, who tend to view outsourcing as a means to “de-unionize” the public-sector workforce, said Byers.
“And it’s not fiscally responsible. Every time you look at a privatization, what you see is invariably it ends up costing more and you get less service.”
She added that she expects to see the issue heavily debated in British Columbia as the province heads towards a provincial election this year.
A similar sense of resentment is brewing in the private sector, over the perception of inequity between “the people who create the wealth for corporations and the people who benefit from them,” said Byers.
“While workers have faced job cuts, wages that aren’t keeping up with inflation, tax on their benefits, what they also see particularly in the private sector is the chief executive officers, the presidents, the owners of corporations doubling their wages or more,” she said.
“There’s a growing resentment among people who once considered themselves as middle-class who find themselves compressed further and further down.”
On hot-button issues such as pensions, Byers said the Canadian Labour Congress is calling for legislative and regulatory changes to, among other things, make defined benefit pension plans more portable.
“We need to have more joint management so that the people who are actually contributing to the plan have some say in the decisions that are made. We want more transparency in pension plan investment decision-making. Oftentimes people may be part of a pension plan but not feel that they really have any knowledge or transparency in any decisions made on their behalf.”
Pointing to Air Canada and Stelco, Byers said bankruptcy laws must change so that employees’ wages and pensions are on top of the creditors’ list.
“We need to say pensions really are deferred income. Many of us have made decisions at bargaining tables that we’ll take this much less in wage increases in order to increase the amount that goes into pension. So people should never think pensions as what employers give. It’s something people bargain for.”
The issue is an urgent one, given the wave of baby boomers heading into retirement, said Byers.
“We did some polling last May and double-checked it in August. Something like 75 per cent of people polled said they are nervous about whether they’ve got enough money, either in pensions or other sources of retirement income, to lead a decent life. And 23 per cent were actually worried about being homeless as a retiree.”
One of them is a rising sense of frustration, particularly among employees in the public sector, said Byers. Pointing to public-worker strikes in Newfoundland and in British Columbia last year, Byers said she expects “more heat” this year.
“The public sector as employer has been letting people down for a number of years. And people are saying, ‘I’m not prepared anymore to take wage increases that are less than inflation and to find jobs that are being cut, and I’m not only doing my own job but two or three people’s jobs,’” said Byers.
“The financial strain and the emotional strain have been quite heavy on people. That’s why there has been a fight back, and it’s also why we anticipate there will be more.”
The outsourcing of government services is one issue in particular that will continue to face strenuous opposition from public-sector workers, who tend to view outsourcing as a means to “de-unionize” the public-sector workforce, said Byers.
“And it’s not fiscally responsible. Every time you look at a privatization, what you see is invariably it ends up costing more and you get less service.”
She added that she expects to see the issue heavily debated in British Columbia as the province heads towards a provincial election this year.
A similar sense of resentment is brewing in the private sector, over the perception of inequity between “the people who create the wealth for corporations and the people who benefit from them,” said Byers.
“While workers have faced job cuts, wages that aren’t keeping up with inflation, tax on their benefits, what they also see particularly in the private sector is the chief executive officers, the presidents, the owners of corporations doubling their wages or more,” she said.
“There’s a growing resentment among people who once considered themselves as middle-class who find themselves compressed further and further down.”
On hot-button issues such as pensions, Byers said the Canadian Labour Congress is calling for legislative and regulatory changes to, among other things, make defined benefit pension plans more portable.
“We need to have more joint management so that the people who are actually contributing to the plan have some say in the decisions that are made. We want more transparency in pension plan investment decision-making. Oftentimes people may be part of a pension plan but not feel that they really have any knowledge or transparency in any decisions made on their behalf.”
Pointing to Air Canada and Stelco, Byers said bankruptcy laws must change so that employees’ wages and pensions are on top of the creditors’ list.
“We need to say pensions really are deferred income. Many of us have made decisions at bargaining tables that we’ll take this much less in wage increases in order to increase the amount that goes into pension. So people should never think pensions as what employers give. It’s something people bargain for.”
The issue is an urgent one, given the wave of baby boomers heading into retirement, said Byers.
“We did some polling last May and double-checked it in August. Something like 75 per cent of people polled said they are nervous about whether they’ve got enough money, either in pensions or other sources of retirement income, to lead a decent life. And 23 per cent were actually worried about being homeless as a retiree.”
