Toward a Common Front Against Austerity by Ontario Common Front

2011 OFL CONVENTION

Toward a Common Front Against Austerity P OL IC Y PA PE R

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Table of Contents EXECUTIVE SUMMARY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

Supporting workers without jobs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 The union advantage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

RECOMMENDED ACTIONS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

Majority card-based union certification for all . . . . . . 13 INTRODUCTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

Levelling the organizing playing field . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

ECONOMIC CRISIS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

Interest arbitration in the case of first contracts . . . . 14 Successor rights in the contract service sectors . . . . . 14

AUSTERITY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 A global agenda . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

Reviewing, renewing and defending and the strike tactic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

Sowing divisions, silencing opposition and weakening unions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

Binding arbitration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 CONCLUSION: TOWARD A COMMON FRONT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

The war on jobs and public services at home . . . . . . . . 7 CANADA: THE MONEY IS THERE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

APPENDIX A: GLOBAL RESISTANCE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

Corporate tax cuts: No-strings-attached . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 Dispelling the myths . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

Egypt and Tunisia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

THE TIERING OF WORK . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

Spain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

The new mobility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

Greece . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

Newcomer workers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

United Kingdom . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

Migrant workers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

Chile . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

Minimum wage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

United States . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

Employment insecurity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

Canada . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

ORGANIZING FOR THE RIGHTS OF ALL WORKERS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

Occupy Everything . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 ENDNOTES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

Employment standards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 Income security for all . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

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Executive Summary

High quality, publicly funded and delivered services; good jobs for all that include decent pensions and proper benefits; public services; income security for all those unable to work or who should be able to retire in dignity; and the fight for environmental justice are all part of the legacy we want to leave for young people and newcomers. Yet the global austerity agenda threatens to destroy not only the gains won in the past, but all hope for a sustainable, prosperous future for our children and grandchildren. Nearly three years after the global recession of 2008, global economies continue to sputter. In the wake of the global crisis, the world’s ruling elite moved to implement an “austerity agenda” using the crisis as an ideological baton with which they hammer ordinary people into believing there is no alternative to slashing public services, selling off public assets, shredding the social safety net, laying off public sector workers, increasing user fees for public services while simultaneously reducing corporate taxes. Even where governments have implemented stimulus measures, previous and new rounds of no-strings-attached corporate tax cuts have ensured that public deficits will grow, and thereby provide renewed justification for even deeper cuts. The austerity agenda is accelerating the neoliberal agenda that has already brought untold hardship to all corners of the globe, including Canada. The one percent driving this agenda use fear and division to push through their plans, attacking civil liberties, fostering racism and xenophobia, and cutting funding for groups that dare to criticize government policy. It is their hope that by weakening organizations that workers have used to defend themselves, they will emerge victorious from the current period of economic turmoil. This explains the concerted and direct attacks on basic collective bargaining rights that have been a hallmark of the austerity agenda around the world. The stakes are high. The fight for the next generation must entail a renewed commitment to activating every union member in the project to build solidarity between

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union and non-union workers, between public and private sector unions, between and across borders provincially, nationally and internationally. The workers’ movement is a movement that has the potential to unite the vast majority who have an interest in building a better world for all its inhabitants. But it cannot do so if workers are divided by xenophobia, racism, sexism, ableism, homo or trans-phobia, religious intolerance or other mechanisms used by the one percent to divide and conquer.

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This paper examines the impact of austerity and highlights strategies for legislative and policy reform and emphasizes the need for the labour movement to reach out to community and other civil society organizations and to better engage its own members in the campaign for social, economic and environmental justice.

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RECOMMENDED ACTIONS That the OFL: •

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Facilitate the establishment of local communitylabour alliances in communities across Ontario with the intention of creating a Common Front network across the province; Facilitate and coordinate local and provincial actions, up to and including a mass action at Queen’s Park to oppose the austerity agenda; Facilitate the development of a concise, comprehensive alternative vision for strong, healthy communities and income security for all, based on the aspirations of the Common Front; Develop a long-term, multi-year communications strategy, that seeks to improve the image of unions and promote the rights of workers themselves to organize to improve their workplaces and their communities and to counter the negative messages generated from pro-business lobbyists, media, think tanks, and politicians; Develop popular education tools to facilitate economic literacy among rank and file union members as well as among grassroots community members;

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Organize annual conferences that bring together union organizers to share organizing and lobbying strategies that will result in workers more freely exercising their right to join unions; Develop a comprehensive vision for improvements to the labour relations environment – including card-based certification and anti-scab legislation - and develop and execute the appropriate mobilization and lobbying strategies to implement it; Convene a labour research table to identify common research needs, including strategic corporate research, labour market trends, sectoral bargaining and other needs as determined by the organizing and mobilizing goals of affiliates and Common Front partners; Develop and implement a strategic plan to help the labour movement galvanize its own membership base and reach out to non-union members; Facilitate and assist affiliates engaging in similar strategic thinking to engage and activate the rank and file in the common struggle to defend good jobs and public services for the next generation of workers, and with special attention to those affiliates organizing workers in non-standard employment; Report regularly to the membership on progressto-date on these recommended actions.

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Defending the Next Generation of Workers: Toward a Common Front Against Austerity

INTRODUCTION When the global financial markets collapsed in 2008, governments around the world transferred trillions of dollars of public money to banks and other financial institutions to keep them afloat. In the ensuing years, corporate profits have rebounded along with CEO pay and bonuses. Yet now, governments are trying to balance their books on the backs of working-class people under the auspices of “austerity.” Many of the transfers from public to private coffers took place directly – through unprecedented bailouts to financial institutions (in Canada’s case, through the purchase of $75 billionworth of mortgages1 and $111 billion of US bailout loan money2). If left unchecked, the austerity juggernaut threatens to wipe out the social and economic gains made by previous generations. There is no doubt that resisting austerity in all its forms is perhaps the most important obligation our generation has toward the next generation. Indeed, the health and well-being of our children and the planet are depending on us.

ECONOMIC CRISIS Despite the myth that Canada is immune to the global crisis as a result of its “strong national leadership,” there is ample reason to worry that Canada’s Economy – if left to the dictates of the market – will not pick up anytime soon.3 In the first instance, Prime Minister Harper has refused to implement the kind of long-term policies that would address the loss of manufacturing and forestrysector jobs. In the wake of the financial crisis, Harper failed to meaningfully extend even the modest stimulus measures his government enacted. The $4 billion in federal cuts tabled in the 2011 federal budget, promise to further erode the social programmes upon which Canadians rely and exacerbate job loss. In the United States – Canada’s largest trading partner – the economy is weak, having produced less than 20,000 new jobs in June 2011, while job growth figures in previous months were revised downward.4

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Slow job growth and tempered consumer spending all contribute to dampening demand and undermining recovery. And without effective demand, there’s little incentive for corporations to invest in new production, no matter how great the promised corporate tax cuts. According to a June editorial in the New York Times:

a growing gap between the wealthy and ordinary people whose real incomes are falling or stagnant.8 As the Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz argues: Regrettably, the financial markets and right wing economists have gotten the problem exactly backwards: they believe that austerity produces confidence, and that confidence will produce growth. But austerity undermines growth, worsening the government’s fiscal position, or at least yielding less improvement than austerity’s advocates promise. On both counts, confidence is undermined, and a downward spiral is set in motion.9

Truth is, businesses’ decisions to invest or increase employment depend on the state of the economy. If consumer demand is depressed, as it continues to be, corporate chieftains see no business logic in raising production.5 This helps explain why today, despite ongoing reductions in the corporate income tax rate, many corporations (Canadian ones included) are awash in cash, but reluctant to invest in new production, and hence, job creation.6 By contrast, gambling on the stock market to make higher speculative profits than those offered by investing in real production can appear to be a more attractive option, even if it risks inflating bubbles that may burst down the road. But even stock markets now appear uncertain, as evidenced by the unprecedented volatility of the stock markets in August 2011. As CLC chief economist Andrew Jackson noted at the time:

AUSTERITY A global agenda Around the world, the impact of the austerity agenda has been sharp. In Britain, the Conservative-Democrat coalition is implementing £83 billion ($133 billion CAD) in public spending cuts over four years, a move expected to eliminate nearly one-half million public sector jobs and cut critical social programs like welfare, disability allowances, social housing and other core services upon which ordinary people depend. At the same time, the retirement age is expected to increase to 66 by the year 2020. The British Institute for Fiscal Studies stated:

Market over-shooting and excessive volatility likely reflects short-term trading for quick, speculative gains by hedge funds and the investment banks. Once again, the excesses of the markets will damage the real economy.

Once all of the benefit cuts are considered, the tax and benefit changes … are clearly regressive as, on average, they hit the poorest households more than those in the upper middle of the income distribution in cash, let alone percentage, terms.10

This should remind us that little or nothing has been done to implement the financial re-regulation agenda that was briefly given serious consideration in the aftermath of the 2008 stock market crash.

In Greece, tens of thousands of public sector workers have been fired. Wages, social assistance and pensions have been slashed by the equivalent of two months’ income annually and the recent austerity package will see over 100,000 more public sector workers lose their jobs.

Market mayhem continues because governments are still in thrall to a financial sector, which profits from patently parasitic and damaging speculation.7 In the meantime, the surplus cash is not invested in jobproducing sectors of the economy. Instead it goes to CEOs in the corporate and financial sectors. It results, as we have experienced in Canada and around the world, in

There is mass unemployment in Spain – upwards of 20 percent – while young workers face a joblessness rate of about 45 percent. There have been food riots in many countries as the cost of staples like corn and wheat have

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soared, thanks to high oil prices, climate change and commodity speculation.

hosted by Stephen Harper. This meeting of world leaders was convened to discuss a global approach to the still reverberating global economic crisis and Canada was a key proponent of an austerity agenda that demanded drastic public spending cuts by 2013.13 For the occasion, the Harper government spent nearly $1 billion on paramilitary security that included state-of-the-art crowd control equipment (including sound cannons) and thousands of police in anticipation of public opposition to this agenda.

In the United States, the New York Times reports: The economy grew at an annual rate of only 0.8 percent during the first half of the year. Millions of homes remain empty. Twenty-five million Americans could not find full-time jobs last month. And even without the debt ceiling deal, federal spending is in rapid decline. Little remains of the federal stimulus money. Payroll tax cuts are set to expire at the end of the year.11

As the chain-link, cement-based fences were erected around the Summit site, city streets swarmed with riot police – well before the meetings began. Recently revealed documents show police infiltrated civil society organizations and at least 50 people were “pre-emptively” arrested and charged with conspiracy, though the vast majority of such charges have been subsequently dropped.14 Ultimately, more than 1,000 people were arrested and detained in the largest mass arrest in Canadian history, more than doubling even those that took place under the War Measures Act in 1970. Hundreds more had their civil liberties systematically violated. There can be little doubt that this extraordinary show of force was intended to reiterate the message: “shut the fuck up.”

Sowing divisions, silencing opposition and weakening unions The so-called Tea Party movement in the US is driving an agenda that seeks dramatic cuts in public spending combined with vicious attacks on collective bargaining to weaken workers’ resistance to the austerity agenda. The right-wing movement in the US is simultaneously escalating racist and xenophobic campaigns as part of their strategy to weaken resistance and solidarity among workers and the poor. In Canada, the Harper government has systematically de-funded nearly 100 organizations – from faith groups to immigrant settlement agencies – that have dared criticize the federal government. Public servants who were critical of the Conservative modus operandi have been fired or let go and replaced with Tory partisans.12

In the end, G20 leaders emerged with an agreement on structural reform and fiscal responsibility that includes: accelerating privatization, shedding public sector jobs, reducing pensions, cutting wages, restricting or eliminating collective bargaining, and more. The final declaration of the Summit recommends that governments create “the right conditions for wage bargaining systems to support employment” – code for gutting collective bargaining, especially in the public sector where union density remains strong.15

At the same time, Harper has wasted no time in stacking government boards, agencies, courts, the Senate, and other bodies with the aim of muting criticism and further isolating those remaining critical voices. This not-so-subtle policy was highlighted in May 2010 when Conservative Senator Nancy Ruth advised about 80 representatives of non-governmental groups who were criticizing the Tories for their regressive maternal health policies to “shut the fuck up.”

The war on jobs and public services at home The 2011 federal budget set the stage for the elimination of as many as 80,000 public sector jobs. According to the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternative’s Alternative Federal Budget Coordinator David Macdonald:

It is no accident that Senator Ruth made these comments in the lead-up to the June 2010 G20 Summit

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The scale of the cuts expected … will be staggering. The public sector job cuts already flagged in the March budget will result in the elimination of 80,000 public sector jobs – about one-third of the public sector. This will unavoidably result in drastic cuts to public services Canadians currently rely on.16

where trade unions are either illegal or an extension of the governing regime. “We must cut taxes and reduce wages,” they say. “Otherwise, corporations will simply pull-up stakes and go where wages and taxes are low.” But the reality is actually quite different. There are other more significant factors in corporate decision-making, such as access to natural resources, proximity to markets and supply chains, exchange rates, and the health and education of the workforce, among others.

Provincially, the 2009 Ontario budget approved the elimination of 3,400 public service jobs and the 2011 Ontario Budget eliminates an additional 1,500 jobs. Public sector workers began receiving their notices this past summer in July 2011 in what the Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU) describes as the largest wave of layoffs since the era of Conservative Premier Mike Harris.17 As just a few examples of where the cuts are falling, OPSEU notes that the province is cutting those who safeguard locally-delivered social assistance, monitor the practices of collection agencies and provide water safety and air quality expertise.

The natural resources that exist in one place do not always exist elsewhere, which ought to give local communities and governments ample leverage to ensure that the resources are used sustainably and in a way that benefits the community. Therefore, governments have an obligation to ensure that those who want to profit from the extraction of natural resources do it in such a way as to preserve the environment, safeguard the health and safety of the workers, provide good jobs, and benefit the local community. This necessarily involves paying a fair share of corporate taxes.

CANADA: THE MONEY IS THERE Corporate tax cuts: No-strings-attached Thanks to provincial corporate tax cuts that began in 2009, the Liberal government under Premier Dalton McGuinty is set to reduce the provincial corporate income tax rate from 14 percent to 10 percent.

With respect to wages, CAW economist Jim Stanford makes a compelling case to show that wage rates in the big three auto manufacturing companies had little to do with their pre- and post-recession performance. As he notes:

This corporate tax reduction is the equivalent of handing profitable corporations a gift of over $2 billion each and every year.

Direct labour costs account for about 7% of the total costs of designing, manufacturing, transporting, and selling a new vehicle in North America. Yet labour costs (and labour negotiations) seem to get 99% of the attention. …

Combined with federal corporate income tax cuts, the combined federal and provincial tax rate will fall from over 40 percent in the year 2000 to about 25 percent by 2013.18

Simply cutting labour costs does not address the true competitive challenges facing the Detroit Three – most of which comes from offshore, and most of which has no direct relationship to labour costs (but is driven by other factors, like product quality & innovation, exchange rates, imports, and the macroeconomic problems which continue to hamper the recovery of North American auto sales).

Dispelling the myths Canadian CEOs and their proxies in elected office complain that corporations “must compete” (whether they actually do or not) in a global economy where their competitors pay next to nothing to ensure workplace safety or invest in training, where wages and taxes are low, where labour laws are weak or poorly enforced, and

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The Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA) has examined the veracity of the claim that reduced taxes for domestic companies stimulates investment in plant and machinery, thereby creating jobs and increasing the amount of corporate tax revenue. The CCPA focused on the period between 2000 and 2009 that encompassed both an uptick and downturn in the business cycle as well as a period of dramatic cuts in corporate income tax rates. After examining the data, the CCPA made the following observation:

At the same time, globalization has increased the likelihood of war and occupation. Global environmental destruction, including the extraction of natural resources, has contaminated land and increased the likelihood of floods, drought and other extreme weather. Financial speculation has increased the likelihood of hunger and famine, as the price of grain, rice and soy increases and as food production is displaced with fuel crops. The growing gap between rich and poor has all but eliminated hope for economic prosperity for millions in both the global south and north.

What is perhaps most striking ... is how little governments collected in additional income taxes in the boom years from 2004 through 2007. Profits for Canada’s biggest companies soared and governments saw very little additional revenue. ...

In short, globalization has increased and intensified the conditions under which millions of individuals make the difficult decision to leave their homes, their lands, their communities and their families.

As deficit pressures put both federal and provincial government spending under increased scrutiny, it’s hard to find so expensive a program with so few tangible benefits as corporate tax cuts. Canadian governments are now losing $12 billion a year to 200 of Canada’s strongest companies, who are making 50% more in profit while paying 20% less in income tax; all while creating proportionally fewer jobs than the economy-wide average.19

Newcomer workers While de-regulation and globalization have served to encourage the free-flow of capital throughout the world, governments everywhere have conspired to regulate human migration and turn it to their own economic advantage. In Canada, there are a variety of mechanisms with which the government attempts to regulate the flow of people entering Canada and it is beyond the scope of this paper to delve deeply into these areas. However, these Canadian mechanisms are directly shaping labour market conditions to the detriment of the workers who are entering Canada.

In other words, the public has been sold a bill of goods. Corporations, as we have seen, are awash in cash, and cutting corporate taxes further has little effect on job creation. Literally billions of public revenue is being handed over to corporations, while provincial and federal governments eliminate jobs and cut spending in order to pay for the tax cuts.

Newcomers have long faced labour market barriers upon entry into Canada. A 2011 report by the Wellesley Institute states:

THE TIERING OF WORK

Even when you control for age and education, the data show first-generation racialized Canadian men earn only 68.7% of what non-racialized firstgeneration Canadian men earn, indicating a colour code is firmly at play in the labour market.20

The new mobility Globalization has ushered in an era of unprecedented capital mobility in which resources can be extracted in one part of the world, parts manufactured in another, assembled in still another and the finished products shipped globally for sale and distribution.

There is also ample evidence that recent newcomers are faring much worse than their counterparts who arrived

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in previous decades.21 In 2008 – even before the onset of the global recession – Statistics Canada reports the following:

fail to provide minimal legislated workplace standards and pay, but may also engage in systematic abuse and super-exploitation.

In 2008, the proportion of immigrants earning less than $10 per hour was 1.8 times higher than the Canadian-born. At the other end of the spectrum, there was a lower share of immigrants earning $35 or more per hour than the Canadian-born.

It is this workplace differential that creates the incentives for employers to take advantage of such workers to their own economic benefit. There is growing evidence that employers are using non-status and temporary workers to undertake the most dangerous work.

In 2008, for example, the share of these immigrants earning less than $10 per hour was nearly three times higher than Canadian-born employees, and the share of these immigrant employees who landed more recently earning $35 or more per hour was much lower than the Canadian-born.

Unions and other community advocacy organizations are playing an important role in exposing employer abuse, organizing such workers into unions, lobbying for legislative and policy changes, and pushing for meaningful enforcement. But much more needs to be undertaken to ensure that these important issues are integrated in the day-to-day work of the labour movement.

In 2008, even the shares of immigrant employees who landed in Canada more than 10 years earlier and were earning less than $10 per hour was greater than the Canadian-born, and the share earning $35 or more per hour was less than Canadian-born employees.22

Minimum wage As we have seen, there is already a two-tiered workforce between status and non-status workers. There is also a two-tier workforce, especially at the lowest end of the income scale where a multi-tiered minimum wage expresses pay differentials between students, liquor servers and other minimum wage earners.

On the one hand, Canada’s immigration policy seeks to recruit highly educated and trained individuals. Yet once they arrive, all too often labour market barriers – including the failure to recognize credentials and outright discrimination – prevent them from excelling in the labour market.

It should be noted that, whereas in other provinces there is a prohibition on employing young people under the age of 16 between the hours of 9:00 pm or 10:00 pm and 6:00 am or 7:00 am – to ensure their employment allows for their effective participation in school – it appears that Ontario regulations fall short of those in other provinces.23 Further research is needed to measure the impact of the student minimum wage in displacing adult minimum wage earners in both the Retail and Hospitality sectors.

Migrant workers In Canada, the impact of neoliberal globalization can be seen as the more or less permanent drive to create a more flexible, more disposable and more vulnerable workforce. Federal programs like the temporary foreign worker program, the seasonal agricultural workers program, the live-in caregivers program and others, are designed to give the upper hand to employers. Lacking even the most elementary protections extended to those with citizenship status, workers in these temporary worker programmes face even more barriers in challenging exploitation by employers who not only

Between 2002 and 2009, the proportion of workers earning minimum wage in Ontario increased from 3.9 percent to 8.1 percent respectively. While this can be explained by the victory of the $10.00 minimum wage campaign waged by both labour and

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General Minimum Wage

$10.25 per hour

Student Minimum Wage

$9.60 per hour

Liquor Servers Minimum Wage

$8.90 per hour

Hunting and Fishing Guides Minimum Wage

$51.25 Rate for working less than five consecutive hours in a day

$102.50 Rate for working five or more hours in a day whether or not the hours are consecutive

Homeworkers Wage

$11.28 per hour (110 per cent of the general minimum wage)

community allies, it remains the case that nearly one in ten workers is subsisting on a wage that is well below the Low Income Cut Off (LICO). In 2009, the year prior to the last minimum wage increase, Ontario had the second highest percentage of workers earning minimum wage among provinces.24

Moreover, between 2008 and 2009, the proportion of minimum wage earners who were between the ages of 25 and 54 grew from 29 percent across Canada to 32 percent across Canada.

In Ontario, the proportion of workers earning $11.28 per hour or less (the minimum wage plus 10 percent) is over 14 percent of the workforce. In 2008, the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives estimated that at living wage for a Toronto family with two children and two adults working full-time would be $16.60 per hour.25

Another form of workforce tiering is the gap between involuntary temporary or part-time work as opposed to full-time, longer-term work. Indeed, since 1970s, there has been a growing shift away from what has been considered standard work to non-standard work. According to Dr. Leah Vosko in a 2003 Statistics Canada report:

Employment insecurity

Across Canada, the incidence of employees earning minimum wage increased for three consecutive years between 2007 and 2009, with the highest jump, taking place between 2008 and 2009.26

Many Canadians engage in non-standard work â&#x20AC;&#x201C; that is, employment situations that differ from the traditional model of a stable, full-time job. Under the standard employment model, a worker has one employer, works full year, full time on the employerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s premises, enjoys extensive statutory benefits and entitlements and expects to be employed indefinitely.28

According to Statistics Canada: Women are more likely to work for minimum wage than men. In 2009, they represented just over 60% of minimum-wage workers, although they made up one-half of employees.

Non-standard work can be considered as temporary, part-time, low-wage, less protected by regulation and where workers themselves have less control or influence over their circumstances. By 2008, less than two-thirds of the Canadian workforce could be considered to be in standard employment as shown by the chart below.29

The overrepresentation of women in this category of workers is observable among all age groups, but more significantly for women 25 years of age and over, whose rate was twice as high as that of men the same age.27

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EMPLOYMENT FORMS 2008, CANADA Part Time Permanent

11%

Temporary Full Time

“Standard Employment” Permanente Full Time (deteriorating in many cases)

64%

5% 10%

Temporary Part Time

Self-Employed Employers

Self-Employed Own Account

ORGANIZING FOR THE RIGHTS OF ALL WORKERS

Despite reports that Canada and Ontario has recovered the jobs that were lost as a result of the 2008 global recession, a February 2011 Statistics Canada report notes:

Employment standards

Although employment levels recovered faster than in previous downturns, there were still 113,000 fewer full-time jobs in October 2010 than in October 2008.

The Ontario labour movement should support a continued and expanded strategic approach to advancing the rights of all workers, especially those who are without unions. Such an agenda must respect and enhance work already underway by community organizations and unions to pressure the Ministry of Labour to provide the staffing and resources to ensure pro-active enforcement of existing employment standards, address the widespread misclassification of employees as “independent contractors” (and therefore not protected under the Employment Standards Act), and further regulate temporary employment agencies. Protecting workers under the Act will make it easier for them to join unions.

In contrast, the number of part-time workers rose by more than 50,000, but that increase was not uniform across all categories of part timers. Individuals who worked part time but would have liked to work full time (also called involuntary part timers) increased by 140,000 (+20%) over the period. Meanwhile, the number of individuals working part time on a voluntary basis declined by about 87,000.30

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Canada and those born elsewhere. Unfortunately, there is a decidedly hostile statutory environment facing workers who do attempt to work together through a union. Since the mid-1990s, anti-union legislation has given employers more confidence and scope to subvert workers’ desire to join a union. The fight for the next generation of workers means that the labour movement must recommit to expanding union membership among all workers and fighting for improvements in the statutory environment.

Income security for all Income security must also continue to be a concern for the labour movement, building on the previous success of the $10.00 minimum wage campaign, by campaigning for a living wage for all workers and addressing a wide range of income security issues faced by those without work, those unable to work or those who should be able to retire from work in dignity. In addition, workers who have wages and pensions owing to them as a result of bankruptcy, insolvency or negligence on the part of the employer should be guaranteed their outstanding wages, benefits and pensions. In this regard, all employers should contribute to a fund from which workers’ lost pay and benefits would be paid.

Majority card-based union certification for all Upon entering a workplace, most workers by necessity give up almost all democratic rights – freedom of speech, freedom of political expression, freedom of assembly, freedom of association – for fear of retaliation from the employer who has the authority to hire and fire employees, virtually at will. The notion of a level playing field between workers and employers is ludicrous. Indeed, the legal rights that do exist for workers have been won at great cost by previous generations of workers and offer only minimal protections, especially for those without union representation.

Supporting workers without jobs Supporting workers who have been laid-off by their employer continues to be an important area of work for the labour movement. The union-based, worker-centred, peer-led, action centre model to support laid-off workers must be maintained and supported. Labour plays a key role in addressing the required material, training, moral and organizational support for workers in transition between work.

The mandatory secret ballot required under current provincial labour law for workers outside the construction sector is touted by conservative politicians and right-wing think tanks as a “democratic reform” to “ensure workers can freely choose” to join a union.

The union advantage The ability of workers to join unions and bargain collectively for improvements in wages, benefits and working conditions continues to be a critical pathway out of poverty for most workers, despite relentless employer efforts to undermine the wages and benefits of union and non-union workers. Just by virtue of being in a union, workers have rights under the Labour Relations Act.

Unfortunately, the reality is quite the opposite. In fact, the so-called “secret ballot” is actually a public announcement to the employer of workers’ balloting preferences – before a union is even certified. This additional requirement gives the employer an extended period of time in which to intimidate, coerce and otherwise dissuade workers from joining a union. Since the Mike Harris government imposed the mandatory ballot, the number of successful certifications has declined, to the detriment of women in particular.

By fighting collectively through a union, workers have improved their health and safety at work; their pay, benefits, and pensions; and have narrowed the wage gaps between men and women, between white workers and workers of colour, and between those born in

Card-based certification – where workers vote only once

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by signing a union card and where the union is certified when a clear majority of workers have done soâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;must be a key focus for statutory change.

Therefore, union successor rights for the contract service sectors must also be a critical continued focus for statutory change.

Levelling the organizing playing field

Reviewing, renewing and defending and the strike tactic

There are other measures that can be taken to level the playing field between workers seeking to form a union and employers who have the final authority to hire and fire employees. These measures should be systematically identified and pursued appropriately. Such measures could include ensuring that workers and their unions have appropriate access to accurate employee lists, providing for the right to have communication between workers and union representatives, and insisting on meaningful penalties when employers intervene unfairly during an organizing campaign.

Compounding the problems already associated with a fragmented workforce are employersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; more frequent and aggressive attempts to entrench inequality into collective agreements, through the grandfathering of current employees and the cutting of wages and benefits for new hires, or the cutting of deferred wages (pensions) of retired workers. Resisting these efforts is part and parcel of defending the next generation of workers and retirees. Indeed, for nearly a year, members of USW Local 1005 endured a lockout at the hands of US Steel, for refusing to accept a two-tier workforce and cuts to pensions. Resisting two-tier wages and benefits have also been at the heart of recent disputes between CAW, CUPE and CUPW and Air Canada and Canada Post where the federal government intervened in the bargaining process on the side of the employer by passing back-to-work legislation or threatening to do so. If this situation is allowed to continue, there will be no incentive for employers to bargain fairly, since employers will know that if they can push workers into a strike or lockout, the government will simply legislate workers back to work.

Interest arbitration in the case of first contracts When workers embark on the process to form a union, they should reasonably be able to expect that, once certified, the process will result in a collective agreement. Many employers deliberately subvert or prolong the collective bargaining process, and too often, employers will force workers into a protracted work stoppage just to achieve a first contract. Having access to interest arbitration in the case of first contracts is a practice that exists in other jurisdictions and should be considered as an option in Ontario.

Such moves are not restricted to the current regressive federal government under the Harper Conservatives. In March 2011, the Ontario Liberal government passed legislation making the TTC an essential service, effectively removing the right to strike from the 10,000 members of the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 113. The Liberal government undertook this measure in response to the direct request of the right wing Toronto Mayor Rob Ford.

Successor rights in the contract service sectors Even where workers do successfully organize and achieve a first contract, too many workers in the contract service sectors (such as food service workers, janitors, home care workers and security guards) lose their collective agreements as a result of the competitive bidding process that is a feature of these sectors. Workers in the contract service sectors are among the lowest paid workers. Security of union membership is a critical pathway out of poverty.

At the same time, the global nature of many corporations has made it more difficult for workers to effect the business operations of the employers when workers do invoke their right to strike or when they are forced out

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of work through a lockout. Multi-national corporations – as we have seen with Vale Inco and US Steel – are often better situated to absorb financial losses in one country if profits are being extracted in other countries.

side can prove a “demonstrated need” to avoid gradualism and impose more drastic measures. Generally speaking, these guidelines have helped to produce agreements that both sides can live with.

This gives the employer an advantage over workers’ ability to sustain themselves during protracted disputes, and increases the material incentives for employers to simply out-wait the workers. To counter this power imbalance, many unions have had to develop highly sophisticated corporate campaigns, develop long-term coordinated bargaining strategies and build meaningful links between workers in multiple cities and, in some cases, countries.

But this more neutral mechanism is coming under growing attack by the likes of the CD Howe and other right-wing think tanks. In other words, in combination with attacks on effective work stoppages, there is a move afoot to undermine the arbitration process as a reasonable forum for compromise. For example, last June, the Harper government’s backto-work legislation against members of the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) provided for a government-selected arbitrator – a clear departure from the existing process in which the arbitrator is selected by mutual agreement between the employer and the union. It also included language that stipulated lower wages than those offered by the employer during the bargaining process. Less than four months later, the federal government intervened in a contract dispute between flight attendants represented by CUPE and Air Canada, promising to impose back-to-work legislation in the event of a strike and then referring the dispute to the Canada Industrial Relations Board for a ruling on whether the flight attendants performed essential services without the right to strike.

While anti-scab legislation must continue to be a critical labour demand for reforming the statutory environment, the labour movement must also identify and implement additional changes to ensure that multi-national corporations cannot simply extract labour or natural resources without also investing in healthy communities and the environment. In addition, the labour movement must re-invigorate traditions of rank and file solidarity across unions in the public and private sectors and strengthen alliances between community organizations and the broader public. Critically, there is a renewed urgency with which the labour movement must build solidarity between workers across national and provincial borders.

In a context where right-wing, pro-employer governments are intervening in the arbitration process, the labour movement must defend the neutrality of the arbitration process, while also defending the democratic right to withdraw our labour.

Binding arbitration Binding arbitration has been used by many unions as a mechanism to avoid work stoppages and seek fair solutions to workplace disputes. In general, arbitrators are guided by general principles of: replication, gradualism and demonstrated need. Replication refers to the concept that arbitrators should “replicate” what would have happened during the collective bargaining process had it proceeded. Gradualism refers to the concept that any changes imposed one way or another during the arbitration process should not be drastic, but rather, gradual. But the demonstrated need principle is intended to provide an exception to gradualism if either

Building the strength of unions in mobilizing their members and building alliances with non-union workers can play a role in advancing a more progressive statutory environment for raising the floor for all workers, increasing union density, improving bargaining power within sectors, and challenging multi-national employers. These measures are part and parcel of the fight to provide a progressive legacy for the next generation of workers.

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CONCLUSION: TOWARD A COMMON FRONT

Meaningful employment standards must be established and enforced to protect all workers, regardless of their age or citizenship status and all workers must have the right to organize in their workplaces, free from harassment and intimidation.

The austerity agenda only benefits a minority of already wealthy people. It can only be implemented when the overwhelming majority are thoroughly divided by fear, hatred and division. Those at the top of society generate fear, hatred and division implicitly and explicitly.

We need a renewed commitment to full, universal, publicly-funded and publicly-delivered, high quality healthcare that includes dental care and medicine.

During the Ontario provincial election, we saw Progressive Conservative leader Tim Hudak scapegoat â&#x20AC;&#x153;foreign workersâ&#x20AC;? as part of his agenda to foster divisions. We also saw the Conservatives publish openly homophobic and trans-phobic campaign materials. While these moves did not generate enough support to assure a Conservative victory in the provincial election, it does demonstrate the lengths that right-wing ideologues will go to foster divisions among ordinary workers.

Every person must have the right to access high quality public education and training through a free public elementary, secondary and post-secondary system and through the workplace and community. In this vision, universal, high quality childcare and elder care is essential. Underpinning it all is a renewed commitment to environmental justice. These are the foundations for a meaningful vision for Ontario that can provide social, economic and environmental justice for all.

This explains why it is so important for the labour movement to stand up, not only to enforce and improve their own collective agreements, but also for working people inside and outside the workplace. The need to build a genuine common front requires vocal opposition and real solidarity whenever ordinary people are facing racist, xenophobic, homo or trans-phobic, sexist, or Islamophobic attacks.

These lofty goals are not unrealistic or unaffordable. With a genuinely progressive system of taxation for corporations and individuals there are, quite literally, billions of dollars that can be put to use. But none of this will be possible unless the labour movement recommits itself to a long-term strategy to build a genuine working class movement that embraces, as equal partners, union and non-union workers wherever they may be, in our communities, our workplaces, schools and campuses, and places of worship.

As we have seen, there are ample public resources available to provide high quality public services, decent jobs with living wages and benefits, and a living income for all those with or without jobs. But more than that, there is plenty of work that is urgently needed to be done: public housing must be built, buildings must be retrofitted to reduce energy consumption; public transit must be dramatically expanded; roads and bridges need repair; and infrastructure must be built â&#x20AC;&#x201C; from our hydro lines to our roads and bridges. High quality housing and clean drinking water must be a fundamental right for all people. Full employment with living wages and benefits for all must become a public policy goal for all of us.

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Appendix A: Global Resistance

At home and around the world, the implementation of austerity has not been met without a fight. Already in 2011 there is a palpable appetite for solidarity and common cause, with successful movements in one part of the world igniting and inspiring resistance in others. Below is an all too brief (and incomplete) overview of the ongoing global resistance to austerity – much of it sparked and led by the next generation of young workers and students – that has electrified and solidified intergenerational and international solidarity.

“Another world is not only possible, she is on her way.” – Arundhati Roy

Egypt and Tunisia There have been revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt toppling entrenched dictators committed to implementing neoliberal policies. Key in the Egyptian revolution was the emergence of an independent trade union movement that organized and spread strikes as the occupation of Tahrir Square continued. It is no coincidence that one of the first acts of the military council that replaced Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak was to criminalize strikes and those who advocate for them. Nevertheless, the movement there continues to press forward – including strikes – with demands to increase the minimum wage and implement economic and democratic reforms and the movement has spread throughout North Africa and the Arab world as millions of ordinary people have risen up to challenge authoritarianism and austerity. Spain In Spain, the government has enacted the deepest budget cuts in three decades. Spain now has the highest unemployment rate in all of Europe: official unemployment is higher than 20 percent, while youth employment is about 45 percent. Between 2008 and 2010, as many as 300,000 homes were lost to foreclosure – an average of 12,500 every month, or more than 400 daily.31

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Last year, the Spanish trade unions organized the first general strike in over a decade. In May, the Indignados movement – young, unemployed and outraged – occupied public squares all over the country, most notably in Madrid. Inspired by the Egyptian Revolution and the occupation of Tahrir Square, the Indignados formed encampments in public squares. Recently, the Indignados have successfully resisted bank-imposed foreclosures and evictions on elderly people and newcomer families.

other financial institutions holding Greek debt to accept a 21 percent loss on anticipated profits and as this paper is being published there is open speculation that the financial sector may have to accept as much as a 60 percent write-off. In the meantime, the Troika is pushing for even deeper austerity measures as a precondition for releasing the most recent instalment of bailout funds. The new package was met with mass opposition and another two-day general strike that took place from October 19-20.37 Akis Papadopoulos, a 50-year old public sector worker, put it: Who are they trying to fool? They won’t save us. With these measures the poor become poorer and the rich richer. Well I say: ‘No, thank you. I don’t want your rescue’.38

Greece In Greece, the austerity measures have been resisted every step of the way. Between October 2009 and the present, there have been 17 general strikes, including two 48hour strikes – the first such strikes since the 1970s. In between these strikes, there have been dozens of local and sector strikes and countless mass demonstrations. In defiance of court orders, power workers implemented rolling strikes to oppose a 10 percent cut in pensions and the possible privatization of Greece’s public power corporation.32

Twenty-nine year-old Kyriaki Gavala, a private sector office worker said: “They are taking away our money, our wages, our lives. Enough! They must go now. People say I’m lucky to have a job. But I’m angry. I see people losing everything and I know my turn will come soon.” Gavala was joining the protest for the first time.39

In May, a movement known as the Indignant Citizens Movement began occupations of central squares in cities throughout Greece.33

United Kingdom

Despite the severity of its austerity agenda, Greece was recently condemned by the so- called “Troika” (International Monetary Fund, European Commission and the European Central Bank) for not privatizing more public assets.34

In the UK, students, labour and those most affected by the cuts, including people with disabilities and workers without jobs, have driven resistance to austerity. Last year, students mobilized in their thousands opposing plans to dramatically increase tuition fees and cut grants. Since then there have been mass demonstrations in March, where students, labour and other community organizations came together to resist the cuts. In June a one-day general strike to defend pensions involved over one million public and private sector workers, making it the largest mass action since the February 2003 demonstration opposing the war in Iraq. As this paper goes to print, millions of workers are expected to participate in a general strike on November 30.

The latest round of austerity measures adopted by the Greek government – in the face of mass strikes and police battles outside parliament – was intended to correct this problem. However, given the widespread opposition and the militancy of the union movement, some observers are expressing doubt about the government’s ability to implement privatization on the scale demanded by the Troika.35 Indeed, demonstrations in Syntagma Square in Athens have continued.36 The resistance of Greek workers has forced banks and

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notes.43 The demonstrations began with some 10,000 people and eventually swelled to nearly 200,000. The renewed community-labour movement launched a recall against Republican governors who supported the legislation and succeeded in recalling two of them - the first successful recall in Wisconsin’s history.

Chile In Chile, students in high schools and universities have been mobilizing in their tens of thousands since May. Many have camped out in their school buildings for weeks on end and concluded that the present educational system cannot be fixed, but must be replaced with an entirely new system, based on free, universal public education.

In March 2011, the Republican controlled senate of Ohio passed a horrendously anti-union bill gutting collective bargaining for public sector employees. Nevertheless, the community-labour alliance “We are Ohio” mobilized to put the law to a referendum, a provision for which exists if 300,000 valid signatures from 44 different counties were gathered. Nearly 1.3 million people signed the petition to put the anti-labour bill to a vote. And now the movement is mobilizing those 1.3 million people to “finish what they started” and defeat the bill in the referendum scheduled for November 2011.44 This kind of mass organizing began by marshalling 10,000 volunteers who knocked on doors, set up information tables, spoke to faith and community organizations, engaged their own union members and succeeded – more dramatically than any anticipated – in winning over more than four times the support they needed.

Education in Chile has been a flashpoint, since it is widely agreed that the system is two-tiered and shuts the door on working-class children and the poor. These demands quickly spilled over into broader demands for greater economic and social justice and captured majority support from the broader public. Yet in early August, the state prohibited new demonstrations, an act that triggered outrage and a broadening of struggle. The Central Workers’ Union (CUT) launched a general strike in response. President Arturo Martínez said the strike expressed “…demands of all sectors of society for the respect of social and civil rights and will reiterate the need for a new economic model, a new constitutional policy and a new labour code in this country.”40 Increasing the minimum wage was a key demand of the strike movement that has gained widespread popularity. Indeed, support for the current government, in office for just over 1.5 years, has plummeted from a high of 60 percent during the rescue of the trapped Chilean miners to a paltry 22 percent.41 This is the lowest support ever seen for a sitting president in 25 years. In the meantime, polls showed that 89 percent of the public supported the students and the strikes.42

Indeed, across the US, local community-labour partnerships have blossomed under the banner of “Rebuild the American Dream” combining grassroots organizing, house visits, and regional assemblies with local actions and city-wide demonstrations over the summer to intensify pressure on senators and congress people, as well as regional assemblies.45 Canada

United States

In Canada, some 40,000 people demonstrated in June 2010 against the global austerity agenda when leaders of the world’s largest economies met in Toronto at the G20 meetings. Since then, despite the vicious crackdown of police and the widespread violations of civil liberties, thousands have continued to mobilize, in their workplaces, in their communities, in their schools and in their cities. More and more people are standing

In the US, the whole of North America was electrified in February and March when thousands of ordinary people, including students, teachers, nurses, police, firefighters and even farmers joined forces to occupy the Wisconsin Capitol Building to oppose legislation that guts collective bargaining rights for public sector employees. On one occasion, teachers called in sick en masse while doctors offered to write the appropriate

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up for the next generation of workers by rejecting two tier wages, opposing cuts to current and future pensions, defending the social safety net, standing up for public services and resisting corporate tax cuts.

election, there precious little life in the so-called “Ford Nation” that had been trumpeted by the right wing in the wake of Ford’s November 2010 election. Occupy everything

The unprecedented support that emerged during the postal workers’ lockout – not only among trade unions, but also among students, seniors and other civil society organizations – shows there is an appetite for resistance and solidarity. In June, the rally outside the constituency office of federal Labour Minister Lisa Raitt was organized in less than 24 hours, and drew hundreds of CAW, CUPW and other trade union members. In Ontario over the past year, thousands demonstrated in solidarity with locked out USW 1005; critically, this rally connected Steelworkers’ struggles to the need for retirement security for all people.

In mid-September, a group of people occupied a park near Wall Street in New York City. This movement gave expression to a growing sentiment that the system is not working in the interests of the majority – the 99%. Inspired by the Tahrir Square occupations and los Indignados occupation movement in Spain, the Occupy Wall Street movement quickly spread across the United States and Canada. October 15 became a global day of action, in which local occupations gave voice to a global movement challenging the status quo and demanding better for all humanity. Demonstrations and occupations took place in every continent on the planet in a show of solidarity not seen since the 2003 global demonstration against the War in Iraq. Despite inclement weather, “Occupy” events were held throughout Ontario, including Sault Ste. Marie, North Bay, Sudbury, London, Kingston, Hamilton, Ottawa, Toronto, and Windsor.

Just as inspiring was the 10,000-strong Toronto demonstration on April 9 in support of public services and against Mayor Rob Ford’s austerity agenda. And on September 26, over 8,000 people converged on Toronto City Hall to defend good jobs and public services for the next generation. This Toronto-area mobilization reflects a renewed engagement among community and union members. To build this capacity, union members and other volunteers embarked on door-to-door campaigns in neighbourhoods across the city to raise awareness about the impact of privatization, cuts, the loss of good jobs and increased user fees. Indeed, local communitylabour alliances have blossomed in communities across the city.

Clearly, there is, before us, what some have termed: “a movement moment”. It is a time when ordinary people are open to new ideas because the old ones make little sense. Now is the time for the labour movement to join forces with millions of people at home and around the world, who know that a better world is possible.

There can be no doubt that this kind of communitylabour organizing played a role in exposing the lies behind the austerity platitudes. This work has helped unravel support for Rob Ford and ensured that during the provincial election, no Conservative candidate was elected in the Toronto area. Moreover, by mid-way through the provincial election, even the mainstream media was observing that Rob Ford’s association with provincial Tory leader Tim Hudak had become a political liability for the Conservatives. During the provincial

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ENDNOTES 1 Department of Finance, News Release, Government of Canada Announces additional support for Canadian Credit Markets. September 2008. See: http://www.fin.gc.ca/n08/08-090-eng.asp 2 Slater, Joanna. The Globe and Mail, “Big Five tapped Fed for funds during financial crisis: Banks accessed special program for low-cost loans for strategic reasons.” December 1, 2010. 3 Stanford, Jim. Progressive Economics Forum, “GDP Report: Awfully Weak Tea Leaves.” See: http://www.progressive-economics.ca/2011/05/30/gdp-report-awfully-weak-tea-leaves/. 4 Lam, Eric. Financial Post, “U.S. job growth in June falls far short of expectations.” July 8, 2011. See: http://business.financialpost.com/2011/07/08/u-s-job-growth-in-june-falls-far-short-of-expectations/ 5 New York Times, “Whose Stimulus?” June 26, 2011. See: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/26/opinion/sunday/26sun2.html. 6 Weir, Erin. Progressive Economics Forum, “Rationalizing Corporate Canada’s Cash Stash.” July 2, 2011. See: http://www.progressive-economics.ca/2011/07/02/rationalizing-corporate-cash-stash/.

Stanford, Jim. Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, Having their Cake and Easting it too. April 13, 2011. See: http://www.policyalternatives.ca/publications/reports/having-their-cake-and-eating-it-too

7 Jackson, Andrew. Progressive Economics Forum, “Market Mayhem.” August 12, 2011. See: http://www.progressive-economics.ca/2011/08/12/market-mayhem/ 8 Russell, Ellen and Dufour, Mathieu. Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, Rising Profit Shares, Falling Wage Shares. June 28, 2007. See: http://www.policyalternatives.ca/publications/reports/rising-profit-shares-falling-wage-shares

“Canadians’ average real wages — which are wages adjusted for inflation — have not increased in more than 30 years. Real wages have decreased for the lowest paid workers — those earning minimum wage. In the context of a growing economy, stagnant average real wages have led to a decreased share of the gross domestic product (GDP) going to workers, with an increased share going to corporate profits. This represents a significant break from trends established in the post-war era and the trend is showing no signs of letting up.”

9 Stiglitz, Joseph E. Truth-Out.org, The Ideological Crisis of Western Capitalism. July 10, 2011. http://www.truth-out.org/ideological-crisis-western-capitalism/1310127895 10 Institute for Fiscal Studies, Press Release, New IFS research challenges Chancellor’s ‘progressive Budget’ claim. August 25, 2010. See: http://www.ifs.org.uk/publications/5245 11 Appelbaum, Biny Amin and Rampell, Catherine. The New York Times, “From Spending to Cuts, While the Economy Stalls.” July 31, 2011. See: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/01/us/politics/01econ.html?pagewanted=all 12 Gruending, Dennis. Rabble.ca, “Stephen Harper’s firing range: A list of 87 organizations and people attacked in five years.” April 1, 2011. See: http://rabble.ca/news/2011/04/stephen-harpers-firing-range-list-87-organizations-and-people-attacked-five-years

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13 Campbell, Bruce. The Toronto Star, “Dr. Harper’s faulty prescription.” July 10, 2011. See: http://www.thestar.com/opinion/editorialopinion/article/833949--dr-harper-s-faulty-prescription 14 Seglins, Dave. CBC news, G20/G8 summit opponents infiltrated by police. June 24, 2011. See: http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/story/2011/06/24/g20-surveillance.html 15 The G20 Toronto Summit Declaration: June 26 – 27, 2010, Annex 1: point 13. See: http://www.g20.org/Documents/g20_declaration_en.pdf 16 Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, Alternative Federal Budget. June 1, 2011. See: http://www.policyalternatives.ca/newsroom/news-releases/federal-budget-set-unleash-significant-program-spending-cuts-ccpa 17 Ontario Public Service Employees Union, Media Release, “McGuinty begins biggest wave of layoffs since the Mike Harris era.” July 14, 2011. See: http://www.opseu.org/news/press2011/july-14-2011.htm 18 Stanford, Jim. Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, Having their Cake and Easting it too. April 13, 2011. See: http://www.policyalternatives.ca/publications/reports/having-their-cake-and-eating-it-too 19 MacDonald, David. Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, Behind the numbers: Corporate Income Taxes, Profit and Employment Performance of Canada’s largest companies. April 6, 2011. See: http://www.policyalternatives.ca/publications/reports/corporate-income-taxes-profit-and-employment-performance-canadaslargest-compa 20 Block, Sheila and Galabuzi, Grace Edward. Wellesley Institute and Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, Canada’s Colour Coded Labour Market. March 2011. See: http://www.wellesleyinstitute.com/new_notable/canadas-colour-coded-labour-market-the-gap-for-racialized-workers/ 21 Gilmore, Jason. Statistics Canada, The 2008 Canadian Immigrant Labour Market: Analysis of Quality of Employment, November 23, 2009. See: http://www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/71-606-x/2009001/part-partie1-eng.htm. 22 Ibid. 23 Government of Ontario, Ministry of Labour, Employing young workers. April 2011. See: http://www.labour.gov.on.ca/english/hs/pubs/yw/yw_tips_employers.php 24 Statistics Canada, Perspectives on Labour and Income, “Minimum Wage.” March 2010. See: http://www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/75-001-x/topics-sujets/pdf/topics-sujets/minimumwage-salaireminimum-2009-eng.pdf 25 Mackenzie, Hugh and Stanford, Jim. Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, A Living Wage for Toronto. See: http://www.labourcouncil.ca/livingwagefull.pdf 26 Statistics Canada, Perspectives on Labour and Income, “Minimum Wage.” March 2010. See: http://www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/75-001-x/topics-sujets/pdf/topics-sujets/minimumwage-salaireminimum-2009-eng.pdf 27 Ibid. 28 Vosko, Leah; Zukewich, Nancy; and Cranford, Cynthia. Statistics Canada, Perspectives on Labour and Income, “Precarious jobs: A new typology of employment.” October 2003. See: http://www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/75-001-x/01003/6642-eng.html

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29 CAW Fact Sheet 2009, sources: Statistics Canada, Labour Force Survey 2008, chart supplied by Professor Leah Vosko, York University. See: http://www.caw.ca/en/7688.htm 30 Statistics Canada, The Daily, “Inside the labour market downturn.” February 23, 2011. See: http://www.statcan.gc.ca/daily-quotidien/110223/dq110223b-eng.htm 31 Smyth, Sharon, Businessweek, “Spain Rejects Proposal to Reform Mortgage-Foreclosure Rules.” June 15, 2011. See: http://www.businessweek.com/news/2011-06-15/spain-rejects-proposal-to-reform-mortgage-foreclosures.html 32 Petrakis, Maria. Bloomberg News, Greek Power Workers Ordered to Obey Court Order. June 25, 2011. See: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-06-25/greek-power-workers-ordered-to-obey-court-order.html 33 Hope, Kerin. The Financial Times, “Thousands protest against Greek austerity.” June 5, 2011. See: http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/a9ef95d6-8f97-11e0-954d-00144feab49a.html#axzz1bRygnaEN 34 Granitsas, Alkman, The Wall Street Journal, “Greece Speeds Up Plans to Sell Off State-Held Assets.” May 24, 2011. See: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304520804576341414080784514.html 35 Hope, Kerin and Atkins, Ralph, The Financial Times, “Greeks face tough path to privatization.” June 30, 2011. See: http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/6a1c866a-a33f-11e0-8d6d-00144feabdc0.html?ftcamp=rss#axzz1RRfiIdqq 36 Ekathimerini.com, Indignants’ protests going strong in their sixth week. July 4, 2011. See: http://www.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/_w_articles_wsite1_1_04/07/2011_396977 37 Maltezou, Renee. Reuters.com, “Fury at leaders drives Greeks into streets.” October 19, 2011. See: http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/10/19/us-greece-people-idUSTRE79I38Z20111019 38 Ibid. 39 Ibid. 40 Santiago Times, “Chile’s most powerful unions launch nationwide strike.” August 23, 2011. 41 MercoPress.com, “Chilean president support plummets; 67% believe little or anything.” September 28, 2011. See: http://en.mercopress.com/2011/09/28/chilean-president-support-plummets-67-believe-little-or-anything-pinera-says 42 Ibid. 43 USA Today, “Largest protest yet fails to sway Wis. Lawmakers.” February 19, 2011. See: http://www.usatoday.com/news/topstories/2011-02-18-2232024354_x.htm 44 For more information visit the “We Are Ohio” website at www.weareohio.com. 45 For more information visit: • Contract for the American Dream. See: http://contract.rebuildthedream.com/ • MoveOn.org – Democracy in Action. See: http://front.moveon.org/ • Campaign for America’s Future. See: http://www.ourfuture.org/

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