Defying logic: Diane Finley eliminates youth summer jobs centres across Canada

Youth unemployment in Canada is getting worst and not better; currently the unemployment rate for young people stands at 14.5% with the real unemployment rate hovering around 20%. With this in mind it's absolutely unbelievable that the Federal government would even consider eliminating ameliorative initiatives that help young people get jobs in the summer, but that exactly what they're doing through eliminating student jobs centres across Canada. This is a concrete example of the strategic abandonment of young people through public policy and shows how the current focus on austerity measures will scar the economic prospects of the current generation for decades.

If you're concerned about the logic of this decision then I suggest you take some action and ask that this poor decision be reversed, here are the people to contact: Ian Shugart, Deputy Minister of HRSDC (tel: 819-994-6060; email: ian.shugart@hrsdc-rhdcc.gc.ca) and Diane Finley, Minister of HRSDC (tel: 819-994-2482; email: diane.finley@parl.gc.ca). In closing, this is a very detrimental move that calls into question whether the overall job creation strategy is little more than a slick propaganda campaign rather than a substantive policy. 

The Cotton Internship: Stephen Colbert Takes On Unpaid Internships

Ross Eisenbrey, the Vice-President of the Economic Policy Institute ("EPI"), was on the Colbert Report last night discussing unpaid internships; watch it here (my American readers can watch it here). EPI has been at the forefront of identifying the serious threat that unpaid internships represent to the labour market. It has developed cutting-edge research that traces the scope of the rise of this form of precarious employment and the detrimental impact that unpaid internships have had on the youth labour market.

As Mr. Eisenbury posits in a recent editorial "Unpaid work is exploitation. It is illegal, and colleges and universities should reexamine their role in promoting it. And as Ross Perlin, the author of Intern Nation bluntly puts it, 'It's time to enforce the law'." EPI research is excellent and I highly recommend reading the reports "No-So-Equal Protection - Reforming the Regulation of Unpaid Internships" and "Unpaid internships hurt mobility". Beyond that it's great to see that this issue is entering the mainstream media for discussion as it's a long overdue development and sorely needed. Below check out Ross Perlin talking about the scourge of unpaid internships in the United States in relation to structural joblessness and youth unemployment, see:

Kitchen confidential: what's wrong in Toronto's restaurant industry?

I have a lot of friends who work in restaurants, be it on a count of a depressed economy, by choice, as a stop-gap to total poverty, or as a means to fund school. I've also heard a lot of horror stories about the industry; physical assaults, sexual harrassment, and unpaid wages seem to be the norm. From what I can ascertain the whole industry is a cesspool of workplace law violations and is predicated on harassing staff, long hours, stress, frequent burnout, and rampant addiction issues.

Generally, food service industry jobs are a precarious form of employment that doesn't over much in the way of security, good wages, or a basis from which a young person can build a life. With that in mind it was with great interest that I read an article this past weekend in the Globe discussing the labour shortages in Toronto's burgeoning restaurant scene and the "problems" that restauranteurs face in hiring staff. This blog post is going to comment on the article, make a few observations, and offer some tips to young workers in the food service industry.

The Globe article interviews a number of players in Toronto's restaurant scene, but the focus of the article ends up being on Rob Rossi, the chef at the new restaurant Bestellen. I've never met Rossi, but I suspect he cried a lot as a child as he whines his way through a litany of complaints about the problems he has encounted hiring staff, such as: interviewing countless people, outrageous salary demands (a living wage is always outrageous), young inexperienced staff, the transitory nature of employees in the industry, and the dedication of his staff.

Boo hoo! Rossi seems like a reall swell boss and is clearly the norm within the industry. His comments point to some of the bizarre and deeper developments that have occurred within Canada's labour market and the attitudes that Canadian employers have developed over the past thirty odd years.

Within the new economy employers are typically no longer willing to train new employees and frequently demand fully formed workers from day one as a way to save costs in on-boarding employees, increase productivity, and avoid serving as training ground for their competitiors. In a labour market where the entry level job is an increasingly extinct species, one either has to have the exact skills the employers needs or has to engaged in unpaid work (read internship or a training program) to develop the necessary skill set for the industry.

This situation is a recent development within the labour market and can be traced back to the impact of neoliberal public policy through developments like governments not engaging in meaningful labour market planning, the imposed flexibility of corporate cost-cutting measures, workplace laws not responding to wider changes in the economy, and the lack of funding for programs that transition young people from school into the labour market.

The end result of all of this is that young workers get taken advantage of in the food service industry through employment standards being avoid, overtime pay not being provided, not paying back wages and a climate of fear where people are afraid to assert their rights. In situations where people are living paycheque to paycheque it's intimidating to ask for something that may well get you fired.

If you suspect you've experienced a violation of your rights, get informed about the Employment Standards Act and obtain legal advice. In the downtown core of Toronto there are a number of organizations that provide free legal assistance to workers who have had their rights violated, these are: Parkdale Community Legal Services, the Workers' Action Centre, West Toronto Community Legal Services, Kensington Bellwoods Community Legal Services, and the Human Rights Legal Support Centre. Also, if you really want to protect yourself in the workplace and have like minded co-workers, the UFCW-Canada and UNITE HERE respresent workers in the food service industry. In closing, here's an excellent video from CTV Victoria exposing a common scenario that young workers face, see:

 

No future: dissecting Diane Finley's direct appeal to youth over pensions

Diane Finley, Minister of Human Resources and Skills Development Canada, was on the prowl earlier this week on Bay Street to give a keynote address to the Canadian Club on the "Changing Demographics of Canada". With the Tories having enraged older Canadians with their surprise Old Age Security ("OAS") reforms, Finley was dispatched from Ottawa to lecture young people about how they're going to need to save more for retirement and to engage in some divisive intergenerational fracturing.

Finley told the audience that "Any necessary changes will be made with a substantial notice period, allowing plenty of time for Canadians — some of you here today — to adjust your retirement planning accordingly and prepare for the future." Now, that sounds all quite reasonable on first blush, but what's beneath Finley's remarks and do young Canadians even have the tools to save more for retirement? I would suggest that they don't and I've jotted down a few concerns below about the overall approach taken by Steven Harper's government towards young people.

The Tories have pursued a course of action that directly attacks any notion of intergenerational equity through inaction on youth unemployment, backing public and private sector employers who propose discriminatory orphan clauses, the targeting of racialized youth through unnecessary crime legislation, by failing to address surging income inequality either through taxation reforms or altering monetary policy, and via proposing austerity measures that will push tens of thousands of young Canadians into unemployment.

Finley has yet to lift a finger to address surging youth unemployment in Canada, but she did have time last fall to berate young Canadians by casting them as a "demoralized" group who have "chosen never to get a job". Despite the shiny Jonestownesqe television ads touting "Canada's Economic Action Plan" the reality on the ground is that the economy is deteriorating rather than getting better for young Canadians. Many young graduates either can't find work or end up in dead-end jobs in the service or retail sectors. Good jobs that provide benefits, pensions, and secure career paths are being replaced by precarious contingent, part-time, or temporary positions devoid of any sense of security or a future.

Now it's all well and good for Finley to tell young people to save more for retirement, but it rings hollow when one considers stagnating wages, surging student debt, historically low interest rates, and unaffordable housing in major urban centres. The vast majority of young Canadians in their 20s and 30s simply don't possess the means to save for retirement. Finley isn't presenting any solutions, it's pure spin and sound-bites devoid of content, though, or long-term strategy.

Finley's maneuver strikes me as simple demagoguery awash in the banality of Canada's political class, a group that has been characteristically unresponsive to the needs of young people throughout the past three decades (see attacking youth is a sport of both the Left and Right in Canada). The policy blunders of the past (increasing tuition fees, free trade, hollowing out the middle class, dismantling labour market regulation) are now bearing fruit through depressed birthrates, increased rates of mental illness in young people, young men adrift with no hope, and a real youth unemployment rate that's topping 20%. 

While I see some glimmers of hope in the current environment, a more likely future for Canadian youth played out of streets of Vancouver and London last summer through rioting and the subsequent repression. Unless changes are implemented that address intergenerational equity in a meaningful fashion young people will increasingly be standing in the shadow of the future with no hope for brighter days amid unending alienation. I don't want to live in that future Canada, as the old refrain goes: I want change. To do this we need actual reforms that address pressing economic issues important to young Canadian. In closing I'll leave you with a recent clip of Finley failing to address a question about the surging youth unemployment rate in Canada, check it out:

Are the Hamilton Tiger-Cats running an unpaid internship scam?

If the Hamilton Tiger-Cats can't excel at winning, at least they excel in other areas. Too bad one of those areas appears to be exploiting young workers trying to gain a toe-hold in the professional sports industry. From a gander at the Ti-Cats' website there's an extensive internship recruitment process underway in preparation for the 2012 CFL season. 

The problem is that it appears that all of the positions being recruited for contravene provisions contained in the Employment Standards Act, 2000 ("ESA") governing the use of unpaid interns. The advertised positions appear to breach multiple prongs of the six-fold test enumerated under s. 1(2) of the ESA and it's arguably a case of misclassification of employees as interns.

I'll let people judge for themselves the legality of these positions, but it's troubling to see a major Hamilton institution embroiled in a situation of questionable legality. Unpaid internships have become a blight on the economic and job prospects of too many young workers in Ontario. This sort of unpaid labour does little to transition students into the labour market, rather it serves as a form of exploitation of young people with dimming job opportunities and perpetuates the deteriorating youth labour market in Ontario. 

Hopefully the Ti-Cats organization will see the possible error of their ways and offer their summer employees minimum wage at the bare minimum. It should be noted that I discovered this job posting on the York University Career Centre's website. It troubling that post-secondary institutions in Ontario don't engage in simple due diligence to see if job postings contravene the ESA. For some of my past articles on unpaid internships, see: here, here, and here. Finally, what would a football story be without some nostalgia, so here's a choice clip from 1983:

Tesco, forced unpaid labour, and the U.K.'s failed youth employment strategy

The supermarket chain Tesco is the U.K.'s largest private employer, they're also the largest beneficiary of the Department of Work and Pensions flagship unemployment program that forces tens of thousands of young people into compulsory unpaid labour to receive government benefits. These aren't "lazy" kids either, rather the unemployed young people forced into this program often have university degrees and represent some of the best talent in the U.K. has to offer, yet they're stacking shelves on High Street.

In recent days Tesco and other large British retailers have come under increasing criticism for the use of forced labour amid a public outcry and in response many are pulling out of the program altogether; futhermore, this backlash comes at a time when there are mounting legal challenges against the use of forced labour under the provisions in the U.K.'s Human Rights Act.

The U.K. stands as a global model for how not to go about addressing intergenerational equity. Young people in the U.K. have been under prolonged attack from progressive government who have created an environment which is ripe for exploiting young workers, consider that: youth unemployment is at an all time high in the U.K., employers consider unpaid labour to be almost a right (be it through workfare programs or the rise of unpaid internships), and the skyrocketing tuition fees at British post-secondary institutions. It's a tense situation as austerity measures slash the lingering remains of the social welfare state and underlying problems that gave rise to last summer's riots go unaddressed amid growing intergenerational fracturing.

What we're seeing with the U.K.'s experimentation with forced unpaid labour is a concrete example of how neoliberal public policy is birthing the formation of a precariat class in post-industrial societies, of which youth figure heavily into it's structure. With little or no prospects of gaining a secure job youth have become perpetual outsiders cast out of the mainstream economy and political discourse. 

The disenfranchisement of youth has come about as a result of the failure of neoliberal public policy projects, which have left young people to confront and pick up the pieces of what Henry Giroux terms a "debilitating and humiliating disinvestment in their future." As the Occupy Wall Street, the San Precario Connection, and Indignado movements gain strength the impacts from precarious and forced unpaid labour will need to be addressed through comprehensive ameliorative public policies aimed at reducing income inequality, labour market insecurity, and precarity.

For more about forced labour there are a number of great resources on the web: the International Labour Organization's website has a great microsite on forced labour; the Boycott Workfare campaign is extremely topical as it deals with the situation at Tesco; and, Ontario's shameful history of deploying workfare programs. Also, I recently wrote a couple of topical articles: here's an interview with Guy Standing about the growth of the precariat and another on the campaign against unpaid internships in the U.K. started by the TUC and NUS. Finally, check out this video from an anti-Tesco protest yesterday in the heart of London, see:

Dalton McGuinty's Shock doctrine: EI, precarity, and Ontario's economic decline

This week the Drummond Report hit Ontario like an eight-ball swinging in a sock. Chock full of neoliberal shock doctrine and decline oriented austerity measures predicated on a ranking of life is a harsh medicine that may force Ontario's labour market into depression level unemployment and economic stagnation. It's also totally unnecessary and ill-timed as Ontario's economy is already starting to tank with broad-based deterioration in the youth labour market. Any further decline in public sector spending may well start an unrecoverable death spiral. Finally, the segment of society that's going to bear the brunt of the cuts will be the poor and the middle-class, while neither group was remotely responsible for the 2008 crash and the subsequent debt that was incurred they will nonetheless pay a heavy price through cuts to public sector services, increased user fees, and increased corporate welfare. All of this is amid inaction at the Federal level on issues like monetary policy and (un)equalization payments that result in a unbalanced form of federalism.

The foregoing being said there was one section that caught my eye. It deals with the Employment Insurance ("EI") system in Ontario. EI is a program that provides temporary financial assistance to people who lose their jobs. Now, the problem with the current system is that a person qualifies on the basis of hours worked and what region they live in (i.e. it's far easier to qualify in the Maritimes rather than Ontario). Also, for young people it's incredibly difficult to qualify given the changes in the labour market which have given rise to an increasing proportion of part-time contingent precarious work and self-employment. Simply put, it's near impossible to for young people to get EI to train for a new career or move to another locale in Canada that needs workers.

Drummond doesn't do a lot of his own thinking when it comes to the EI question, but he does pick up on the problems facing young workers in the new economy. He outsources much of the 'thinking' to the neoliberal cheerleaders at the Mowat Institute who recently released the final recommendations from their Employment Insurance Task Force. While the Mowat Institute's report picks up on the problem of youth unemployment in Canada and suggests some minimal changes to the program it doesn't go far enough in addressing the structural labour market issues that are impacting young workers such as income inequality, lack of career ladders, and precarious employment. Without innovative public policy that addresses these long-standing labour market problems we're going to continue to see increasing social strife, surging inequality, and intergenerational fracturing.

One interesting point that arises out of Drummond's discussion of EI is his suggestion of the establishment of a "national income-support for people with disabilities who are unlikely to re-enter the workforce". This is interesting, as it's a form of a guaranteed minimum income which is a public policy tool that seeks to establish a basic income floor for all citizens. This is an idea that deserves consideration for implementation across Canada for all citizens as a means to address the increasingly harsh economic conditions that we're all facing. Below, check out Naomi Klein discussing disaster capitalism and the shock doctrine, see:

Foxconn ♥ Interns

Motherboard magazine has published an excellent expose about the Foxconn's labour practices surrounding internships and it's the stuff of nightmares. Foxconn is an electronics manufacturer that does outsourcing for companies like Apple, Microsoft, Intel, and Nintendo. The company has seen a string of intern suicides, protests, and vast outside interest in their operations given the high-profile nature of the products it produces. Essentially, it appears that Foxconn is exploiting tens of thousands of interns as a reserve labour force to supplement its already massive workforce.

Ross Perlin, author of Intern Nation, indicated that Foxconn might be running “the world’s single largest internship program – and one of the most exploitative.” That's a pretty harsh critique, but one that's probably dead on target. What's driving Foxconn bottom line is the West's insatiable need for consumer goods, which get snapped up as fast as they can be produced. For some additional reading on Foxconn's labour practices, see: here and here. Also, check out the video below documenting a protest by Foxconn workers over unfair labour practices, see:

U.K. civil society groups launch "Unpaid Unfair Illegal" campaign against unpaid internships

Yesterday an interesting campaign challenging the rise of unpaid internships in the U.K. was launched by Trades Union Congress ("TUC") and the National Union of Students ("NUS"). The year-long campaign is aimed at ending the practice of unpaid internships and it's being endorsed by Interns Aware and the National Union of Journalists. The goals of the campaign are to demand enforcement of the national minimum wage regulations, to ensure that interns know and have a means of enforcing their rights, and publicly identifying employers' exploitative human resources practices.

Francis O'Grady, TUC General Secretary, commented that “Too many employers are ripping off young people by employing them in unpaid internships that are not only unfair but, in most cases, probably illegal. Internships can offer a kick-start to a career that many young people value. But as more and more graduates are being forced to turn to internships in place of traditional entry level jobs, we’re concerned that a growing number of interns are at risk of real exploitation. Employers need to know that there’s no such thing as free labour.”

There's a interesting point here that's applicable to the Canadian context. It's great to see organized labour, student organizations, and wider civil groups working together to address this serious problem and good to see this level of organization in the U.K., but it raises questions about organizations in Canada are (not) doing in relation to challenging unpaid internships in jurisdictions Canada. Unpaid internships are certainly an issue that groups like the Canadian Federation of Students, the Ontario Undergraduate Student Alliance, the Ontario Federation of Labour, the Canadian Labour Congress, or the Canadian Alliance of Student Associations.

The NUS has put together a range of resources for the campaign: they've released a couple of excellent briefing documents (see: here and here); produced a poster for the campaign; created a website where interns can share their experience; and, a smartphone app will be launched in March to help interns ascertain the legality of their internships. They also released a cheeky video about the situation (love the pug shots), see it below:

Does the Pan Am Games deserve a gold medal for exploiting young workers?

Unpaid internships are a serious blight on the youth labour market in Ontario. These positions erode entry level jobs in organizations, contribute to rising youth unemployment, get worked into business models thereby institutionalizing the practice of precarious unpaid labour, and make the school to work transition extremely difficult for young people. With those thoughts in mind it's come to my attention that the 2015 Toronto Pan/Parapan America Games committee is recruiting for illegal internship positions for the summer of 2012. 

Check out this job description for an "Intern Volunteer" role (backup link) in the Pan Am Games' Communications and Public Relations department. What makes the position most likely a violation of the Employment Standards Act, 2000 ("the ESA") is the wording on the provision of a stipend. The job posting says that the intern will be given $30.00 per day, but they have to work forty hours per week. Any way you analyze those numbers it doesn't come out to the Ontario's minimum wage, which is normally $10.25 per hour. This a prima facie breach of the sixth part of test enumerated under s. 1(2) of the ESA, it reads "The individual is advised that he or she will receive no remuneration for the time that he or she spends in training."  The language in the job description speaking to criteria that the applicant has to be a post-secondary student and undergoing practical training appears to be obfuscation aimed at justifying the misclassification of the employe. 

This seems like the classic unpaid internship scam to me. The Pan Am Games isn't paying the minimum wage under the ESA and there's a probable misclassification of the employee as an intern to avoid meeting the obligations under the ESA. What's most troubling about this situation is that 2015 Toronto Pan/Parapan American Games is essentially an operation run and funded by the Government of Ontario, replete with its own Cabinet Minister (Charles Sousa, ex-Minister of Labour) and the Ontario Pan Am Games Secretariat. Why the government can't afford to pay young people the statutory minimum wage is beyond me and points to how pervasive the problem of unpaid internships have become in Ontario's labour market.

I'll give an update if I hear about any developments on this story. For some of my previous articles on the rise of unpaid internships, see: here, here, and here. Also, if you've previously been an intern with the Pan Am Games in Toronto I'd love to hear from you, I can be reached here. (Update: Elissa Freeman, the Vice President of Communication and Public Relations, tweeted at me: "@youthandwork happy to address your concerns. We will be in touch on Monday.")

Internsheep X Youth and Work: the Shameless Article

Shameless Magazine is a Canadian alternative magazine for young women and trans youth. The current issue (order it here) is all about youth at work and it has some great features on young female farmers, sex workers' rights, taking on the union busters, and unpaid internships! Carley Centen, the brains behind Internsheep, wrote an excellent article exploring the rise of unpaid internships in Canada. It provides an excellent overview of the dimensions of the problems associated with this form of unpaid labour such as how unpaid internships are eroding entry level jobs and how it's a form of precarious employment.

Carley interviewed me for the article and on unpaid internships I'm quoted as saying "This is exploitation of the worst sort and it is an epidemic that is infecting the current generation of workers entering the workforce. Precarity is the new watchword for young people as they come to grips with a world in which their labour is as disposable as their possessions." At other points in the article I discuss how internships are a by-product of neoliberalism, what young workers can do to put themselves on a better legal footing to contest their misclassification, and how unpaid internships are a growing segment of the labour market.

For some of my previous articles discussing unpaid internships, see: the legality of unpaid internships in Ontario; public policy considerations; the complicity of universities in the unpaid internship scam and my analysis of York University's practices vis-a-vis unpaid internships; and, the use of unpaid internships in the cultural/non-profit sector and in journalism/publishing. Also, the New York Times has a "Room for Debate" feature on unpaid internships this past weekend, author Ross Perlin (Intern Nation) was featured as one of the writers. 

To the barricades! Saskatchewan Court finds a Charter protected right to stike

The rapid developments in Canadian labour law keep on coming. Yesterday Justice Dennis Ball of the Court of Queen's Bench For Saskatchewan released a groundbreaking decision that found the right to strike is freedom protected under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The case dealt with a Charter challenge to two provincial laws: The Public Service Essential Services Act and The Trade Union Amendment Act 2008 (for the actual changes, see: here and here).

Some background is necessary here.  Back in 2007 Brad Wall was elected premier of Saskatchewan on the Saskatchewan Party ticket. The party is politically conservative and sought, unsurprisingly, to severely curtail the power of Unions through anti-worker initiatives. One of the first legislative initiatives that Brad Wall brought in was essential services legislation. This type of legislation is fairly common in Canada, but Saskatchewan's approached differed significantly in that the legislation covered almost the entire public sector and gave employers ultimate authority to decide which employees are providing essential services.

The decision finds that the right to strike is protected under the "freedom of association" clause found in section 2(d) of the Charter. This case pushes the ball forward from the previous high-water mark established in the Supreme Court's B.C. Health Services decision that found a limited right to collective bargaining. This case flies in the face of recently decided Fraser case, which was a heavily divided decision and marked a significant retreat from the language previously used in B.C. Health Services. This undoubtedly sets the stage for an epic legal battle at the Supreme Court on whether the right to strike is actually protected under the Charter, remember this is ruling of a lower Court and there are two appellate Courts that will review this decision.

What hit me while reading the decision is how much Justice Ball rooted his analysis in international law. The decision is seeped with references to UN treaties (the ICESCR and ICCPR), jurisprudence emanating out of the International Labour Organization (mostly Committee on Freedom of Association and the Committee of Experts) , and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. It's heartening to see such a thorough discussion of the implications arising out of Canada's obligations under international law.

That all on this case for now. For additional commentary, check out the following: Doorey's Law Blog has posted a very thorough analysis; also, the CBC has coverage of the decision up.

Cold, bored and broke: Canada's youth labour market deteriorates further

Things continue to look grim for young job seekers in January as Canada's economic engine continues to stall. For the fourth straight month youth aged 15 to 24 incurred significant job losses (to recap January saw losses of -9,000; December -17,000; November -18,000; October -14,600). I drilled down on the data relating to young adults aged 25 to 29 and 30 to 34, these demographic groups have also seen an overall deterioration in the rate of employment over the past four months. Essentially, what we're seeing is an overall slump in the job prospects for young Canadians right now.

This slide is going to continue into the spring, if not much, much longer.  Events that might stop the bleeding of youth jobs would be a rebound in demand from the U.S., if recent positive indicators hold, and a positive resolution in the European debt crisis; however, what's clouding matters is the moves by provincial and Federal governments to implement austerity measures - any move in this direction will further devastate an already weak labour market. If the cuts are as severe as rumoured, we could be looking at an unemployment rate of 8.0% or higher. None of which is good for young people looking for work; right now the official youth unemployment rate is 14.5%, but as I've previously reported the "real" unemployment rate for youth is probably closer to 20%.

What we're lacking here is any sort of official acknowledgement or public policy response to the growing crisis of youth unemployment. Stimulus spending directed at the real economy and providing young people with sorely needed jobs would go along way at this juncture, but no politicians are talking about the dire state of the labour market for young people. Also of concern are the structural labour market problems such as training, workforce development and providing the skills that are needed by youth in the new economy. There's a lot of work to be done to put Canada's economy on a sustainable solid path to the future, but we're seeing very little by way of innovation at present.

That's my take for now. I've written quite a bit recently about the youth labour market, check out the articles: here, here and here.

Caterpillar, Globalization and Labour Relations: an Interview with Michael Lynk

I'm delighted to share an interview that I recently conducted with Michael Lynk. He's a labour law professor at Western's law school and one of Canada's foremost experts on labour relations. We discussed the ongoing lockout at the Electro-Motive Diesel plant in London, possible futures for labour relations in Ontario and the difficulties governments face in formulating responses to breaches of domestic workplace laws in a globalized economy.

The Backstory

Before we get into the interview let's briefly run through the backstory behind the lockout. Electro-Motive Diesel manufactures locomotives and was purchased by Caterpillar Inc. back in 2010. On January 1, 2012, the unionized workers were locked-out from their jobs with Caterpillar tabling an offer that would see the wages of employees at the plant slashed by between 43% and 50%. It should be noted that Caterpillar isn't a company in dire financial straights, quite the opposite with the company's annual profits jumping 83% over the last year to $4.9 billion.

On January 21, 2012, there was a massive rally in London to protest the ongoing lockout and on Tuesday Premier Dalton McGuinty made some unusually strong comments (see the video here) about how Caterpillar should "come to the table and demonstrate some flexibility". In the background of all of this is a belief in some quarters that what Caterpillar was after all along was the technology that Electro-Motive possessed and its intention is to move production to Indiana which has weak labour laws. This lockout comes on the heels of protracted labour disputes with foreign employers at U.S. Steel in Hamilton and Vale in Sudbury. Now onto the interview.

The Interview

A.L.: The lockout of the workers at the Electro-Motive Diesel plant in London, Ontario by Caterpillar Inc. comes on the heels of a number of protracted industrial conflicts at U.S. Steel in Hamilton and Vale in Voisey's Bay and Sudbury over the past few years. Is there a trend developing in private sector labour relations in Canada with employers moving towards more aggressive bargaining strategies?

M.L.: Lord Acton once said that it is difficult to prophesize, especially about the future. These strikes and lockouts might indicate several different trends: 1. One can see a move towards the Americanization of private sector collective bargaining in Canada, particularly in the manufacturing and resource extraction sectors where foreign investors are becoming more noticeable. There has been an upsurge of foreign investment in these sectors lately, and all three labour relations conflicts that you cite arose in the aftermath of recent acquisitions by foreign corporations (two of them American and the third Brazilian) of established companies with relatively stable union-management relations. The new owners have then sought to significantly re-order the collective bargaining relationships, and have been willing to endure lengthy strikes or lockouts to reach their new industrial relations goals.  Keep in mind that private sector unionization in Canada has been steadily shrinking -- it now stands at around 16% -- and private sector unionization in the US, at 7%, demonstrates that there is still more room to fall further.  2. Or it might be that these labour conflicts are the exception to the rule that mature, sophisticated and stable industrial relations reign in Canada. Until I see a more definitive pattern, I am assuming that these conflicts are the exception to the rule.    

A.L.: In the academic discourse surrounding labour relations in a globalized world there's an under-utilized concept called "exit", this is where a corporation can completely leave one jurisdiction for another that has less labour market regulation. It has been suggested that Caterpillar's end-goal is to move production to the United States. Might the final result of this lockout be the exit of Caterpillar from Ontario's economy? Is this a troubling trend for Canada's manufacturing base?

M.L.: The speculation in London, Ontario -- where I live and where the Caterpillar lockout is front-page news in the London Free Press virtually every day -- is that Caterpillar is looking to re-locate its locomotive assembly operations to Muncie, Indiana. Caterpillar has bought an enormous empty factory once owned by Westinghouse in Muncie, and has started locomotive production with a non-unionized workforce that is paid wage and benefit rates similar to what Caterpillar is offering the CAW local in London. The state legislature in Indiana is controlled by the Republican Party, and it has recently introduced "right-to-work" legislation that would restrict the ability of unions to collect dues. The state has also offered approximately $30 million in grants and tax rebates to Caterpillar to assist the Muncie plant. One curious pattern in the labour conflict in London is that Caterpillar has kept an exceptionally low public relations profile during the lock-out, issuing a static press statement, and responding only by e-mail to requests for comments; one might have thought that a company interested in staying put would be more pro-active in telling its side of the industrial relations story to the broader community.  The impact of globalization and free trade agreements over the past twenty years has been to significantly broaden the competitive space for workers and companies alike: they now have to pay attention to pay and benefit rates and labour laws not only in the next county and city, but also in neighbouring and distant countries as well.  The CAW lockout at Caterpillar is Exhibit A.    

A.L.: One of the areas that I'm interested in is the public policy response from governments to transnational corporations which can use their economic weight to do an end run around domestic workplace laws. What are the difficulties in formulating a regulatory or public policy response in the era of globalization? Do governments even have the right tools to effectively address protracted industrial conflicts given the transnational nature of capital and production?

M.L.: An obvious and visible problem, with no easy solution. The orthodox and uniform government response has been to lower corporate tax rates, harmonize the corporate regulatory environment, freeze labour and employment law reforms, and compete as the best place to do business in this brave new world. All of these factors have been cited as contributory elements to the growing rates of income and wealth inequality in the industrialized and industrializing world: see the writings of Paul Krugman and James Galbraith, among others. One emerging trend might be that as the popular understanding of economic inequality grows (the influence of the Occupy movement), this will push governments to bring in comprehensive tax reforms, maintain social spending levels and encourage tighter regulation of the national and international capital markets. What I fear is that any reforms in this direction will be modest and ineffective in scope (given that every major Western government is either ruled by a conservative party, or, in the US, the combination of Republican control of the House, and the unchecked rise in corporate political funding will checkmate any reforms), and the dominant trend towards, at best, a loose regulation of transnational capital will prevail.   

A.L.: You've previously commented that Caterpillar's tactics are a throwback to the early days of industrial America. What lead you to make those comments and are we seeing tactics being deployed in this lockout that similar to those used in pre-Wagner Act era labour relations in the United States?

M.L.: In modern, mature industrial relations, unions and corporations accept and respect each other's presence and each other's mission. They might fight over concessions in hard times or innovative employee-friendly proposals in good times, but this is all within a stable framework that ensures the union has a permanent place in the workplace, and the prevailing collective agreement is the general standard for future wages and benefits. I cannot recall an industrial relations fight in Canada where a large company was looking for such a drastic overhaul of the collective agreement, even in rough economic times. In these circumstances, Caterpillar has just posted record company profits over the past two years, the locomotive market for the foreseeable future is bright, and the current CAW collective agreement is comparable to prevailing industry standards (Caterpillar's main competition is a GE locomotive plant in Erie, Pennsylvania, with a similar wage and benefit structure in its newly-renewed collective agreement). An inquiring mind might ask whether Caterpillar's bargaining proposals are consistent with the legal duty to bargain in good faith, in that it would have to offer a persuasive industrial relations justification for its extraordinary final offer in order to comply with the duty.

Harper's Bazaar sued over use of unpaid interns

You really got to hand it to the NYC labour and employment firm Outten & Golden LLP for tackling the rising prevalence of unpaid internships. Back in the fall they launched a class action lawsuit against Fox Searchlight Pictures over the use of illegal unpaid interns during the filming of the blockbuster ballet noir hit Black Swan. Now they've struck another blow against the unpaid internship scam by filing a lawsuit against the Hearst Corporation over the practice by Harper's Bazaar of using unpaid interns. The firm is representing Xuedan Wang, a former intern at the magazine, in the class action and is presently looking for other plaintiffs to represent.

The lawsuit states the "Employers' failure to compensate interns for their work, and the prevalence of the practice nationwide, curtails opportunities for employment, fosters class divisions between those who can afford to work for no wages and those who cannot, and indirectly contributes to rising unemployment." Those be fighting words and as I've previously argued are part of the core problem of profitable media corporations using unpaid labour - it inevitably (and quickly) leads to situations that are precarious, exploitative and sometimes even deadly for interns.

I've been writing a lot about unpaid internships and will talking about a great deal more in the coming months as I've decided to write my thesis in the LL.M program on the topic. For some of my previous article on the subject, see: here, here and here.

Are Ontario's students right to complain about tuition fees?

Today is the Canadian Federation of Students' annual tuition protest (might it be time to try a different tactic?) and this year finds post-secondary students in Ontario still caught between a rock and a hard place. Here are some numbers - average tuition per year for undergraduates in Ontario for 2011: $6,640.00; rate of tuition increase between 1990 and 2011: 244%; estimated total amount of students debt owed to the Federal government as of 2013: $15,000,000,000.00.

Students face increasing tuition fees and a deteriorating youth labour market, while their families face higher debt burdens and take longer to pay for the cost of education for children. This situation isn't right as it's a stealth tax aimed at the next generation that has shifted the burden of funding the post-secondary education system onto young people who are often faced with small mortgages before they've ever held a full-time job. Any notion of intergenerational equity is lost when students are told by their leaders to get a good education, but are then pushed into the labour market without nary a thought from politicians about who's going to employ all the bright-eyed graduates.

Here are some resources that tracks the current scope of the problems that students face: the CCPA's Under Pressure report; OUSA's tuition policy paper; a great post from David Doorey about income inequality, youth and labour market policy; and, the CFS' report on the impact of government underfunding. Below I've posted a video that covers a lot of the issues facing students in Ontario today, see: