Photo by FORTUNE Global Forum Mass protests against free-trade agreements have died off since the days of the annual confrontations in the aughts, but this is at least in part because progress on opening trade globally appears to have stalled. In recent years, international trade volumes relative to global GDP
Continue readingAuthor: Michal Rozworski
Michal Rozworski: Is this the best they can do? The weak case against $14 in Ontario
Today the libertarian Montreal Economic Institute think tank released a short report claiming that Ontario’s $14 minimum wage is costing thousands of young workers their jobs and raising prices for everyone else. These overblown claims, based on skewed and cherry-picked data, came out—purely coincidentally to be sure—on the same day
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: Lessons from the 70th birthday of the National Health Service
Photo from Public Domain This summer marks the 70th anniversary of the United Kingdom’s National Health Service (NHS). When it was established in 1948, the NHS was the world’s first universal healthcare system. It quickly became a beacon of what a decommodified public service could be: open to all, free
Continue readingMichal Rozworski: Labour’s fate and revival in the US and Canada
This week, two labour historians talk about their new books on Canadian and US workers’ movements in the 20th century, books which offer important and practical lessons for unions today. First up, I speak with Barry Eidlin, Assistant Professor of Sociology at McGill University, about his just-published book, Labor and
Continue readingMichal Rozworski: How Doug Ford won and how to challenge him
Last Thursday was a dark day in Ontario as the Conservative Party led by businessman-bully-bullshitter Doug Ford won a majority in the provincial election. Two guests assess the factors behind the Ford’s win and the chances for building an effective opposition to the coming right-wing agenda for Canada’s most populous
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: The Ontario Election isn’t about Deficits, and that’s a good thing
Photo from Public Domain How big is your deficit? This Ontario election, no one seems to care – and that’s a decisive positive to emerge from a campaign that’s too often been submerged in the politics of personality. There is more and more light sneaking through the widening cracks in
Continue readingMichal Rozworski: The Ontario election isn’t about deficits—and that’s a good thing
How big is your deficit? This Ontario election, no one seems to care—and that’s a decisive positive to emerge from a campaign that’s too often been submerged in the politics of personality. There is more and more light sneaking through the widening cracks in Canada’s austerity consensus. Hopefully, it will
Continue readingMichal Rozworski: West Virginia teachers strike to win
This episode is dedicated to the recent, inspiring and victorious teachers’ strike in West Virginia. West Virginia teachers went out on strike in late February over low pay and continued attacks on the health insurance plan they share with all other state workers. They stayed out despite an initial deal
Continue readingMichal Rozworski: Jobs data doesn’t say much about the minimum wage (yet) but lots about growing inequality
We’ve had two months of jobs data in Canada since Ontario increased it’s minimum wage from $11.60 to $14 on January 1, 2017. When January’s Labour Force Survey numbers came out and showed some of the biggest month-over-month losses in years, there was a slew of predictable, reflexive commentary blaming
Continue readingMichal Rozworski: The problems with progressive free trade and a divided labour movement
…And we’re back to regularly-scheduled programming. Apologies for the podcasting hiatus to (now really faithful) listeners; I hope to be back to regular episodes once again. I’m restarting the show this week with two great guests. First up, I speak with Angella MacEwen about the on-going NAFTA re-negotiations and whether
Continue readingMichal Rozworski: Media get it wrong on Bank of Canada minimum wage study
Over a million workers in Ontario just got a big raise thanks to tireless, bottom-up orgainizing, but if you look to the media it’s a bad news story. The same, tired headlines are back. Yesterday, the CBC ran a story titled, “Minimum wage hikes could cost Canada’s economy 60,000 jobs by
Continue readingMichal Rozworski: Site C, Reconciliation and a Green New Deal
Reconciliation is not just about rhetoric, it is material. It is about how economic costs and benefits are shared. If we are to be serious about it, we have to be ready to take on costs that are both political and economic. The sunk and termination costs of Site C
Continue readingMichal Rozworski: Minimum wage whack-a-mole
Minimum-wage whack-a-mole is the best way to describe what I’ve been up to the past couple months. It seems like every week or so in August and September, the business lobby in Ontario was serving up a plate of inaccurate yet headline-grabbing predictions for consumption in the public debate. Going
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: The headline you didn’t see: $15 per hour will have a big net benefit
You wouldn’t know it from today’s headlines about impending job losses, but an analysis of the impact of Ontario’s move to a $15 minimum wage from the province’s Financial Accountability Office shows a net benefit for Ontario workers. Overall, this is a much more cautious report than what the Ontario Chamber of
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: For the 150th, let’s also re-make our economic myths
Every society needs its myths. But as much as myths and stories can empower, they can also be damaging. Here are three economic myths about Canada that could use re-writing. The first economic myth to remake is that we are “hewers of wood and drawers of water” — or, in
Continue readingMichal Rozworski: Summer writing round-up
I know it’s been a bit quiet on the blog this summer, but that’s in part because I’ve been doing a bunch of writing elsewhere. Here is a quick summary of what I’ve been up to. In the run-up to the UK election, I wrote a piece for Jacobin on
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: The Chamber’s economic impact analysis of Bill 148 still doesn’t make sense
On Monday, the Keep Ontario Working coalition spearheaded by the Ontario Chamber of Commerce released an analysis of the impacts of Bill 148 in Ontario, which will introduce a $15 minimum wage by 2019 and a host of other employment standards improvements. The analysis raised many red flags: it focused only
Continue readingMichal Rozworski: What do we do when we Fight for $15
On this episode, three guests provide some perspective on the politics and the economics of the Fight for $15. First, I speak with Jonathan Rosenblum, campaign director at the first Fight for $15 at SeaTac Airport, just outside Seattle, Washington. Workers there won an immediate raise to $15 via a municipal ordinance
Continue readingMichal Rozworski: Confused about universality? So are NDP leadership candidates
There some pretty confused stuff on universality and means-testing during last night’s NDP leadership debate. Here are some thoughts that might help clear things up a bit. First, Singh’s attack of Caron on means-testing early in the debate was a bit bizarre seeing as both of them have major new
Continue readingMichal Rozworski: Canadian economists support $15, media round-up
53 Canadian economists, myself among them, have signed an open letter in support of the $15 per hour minimum wage. The letter follows on the immense bottom-up campaign in Ontario led by the Fight for $15 and Fairness, which has successfully pressured the provincial government to announce a move to $15 by 2019.
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