What is a good job? In most people’s minds I assume that would be something that pays well and provides good benefits, steady employment and satisfying work. In the post-war period that described manufacturing jobs. They weren’t good because of the benevolence of the free market. Quite the contrary. They
Continue readingTag: precariat.
Views from the Beltline: Solidarity brings success at Cargill
If there is one thing workers in today’s precariat job market need to achieve both democracy in their workplace and a shot at a middle class life style, it’s solidarity, i.e. unionization. A fine illustration of this is recent collective bargaining at the the Cargill beef-processing plant in High River,
Continue readingViews from the Beltline: Joe Biden—union man
During Joe Biden’s election campaign, he promised he would be “the most pro-union president you’ve ever seen.” This may be the most important promise he made, at least on the economic front. Income inequality has steadily increased in the U.S. in the last 30 years and is considerably greater than
Continue readingViews from the Beltline: Will automation steal all our jobs?
Yet another report predicts we are all going to be replaced by machines. Well, maybe not us, but our jobs at least. The report, issued for Wells Fargo clients, predicts that over the next ten years technology will replace ten per cent of banking jobs. The report’s author, banking analyst
Continue readingTrump is no Substitute for Unions
The major reason Donald Trump was elected to the job he is manifestly unfit for was his appeal to electors in the Rust Belt states. These states had seen a collapse of manufacturing jobs, i.e. union jobs, and millions of people were thrown from the middle class into the precariat.
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Where Is the Exit Door?
How long will Canada remain under the boot of market fundamentalism? This is the laissez faire face of modern neoliberalism that has taken hold throughout the developed world, Canada included. It manifests itself most directly in free trade agreements and associated institutions such as the IMF, the World Trade Organization, and
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: A Couple of Thoughts About the Precariat.
We should all read Brian Stewart’s essay yesterday on “the rise of the precariat.” Everything he reports has been thoroughly analyzed and disclosed over the past few years. Most of us with 30-something children know the losing struggle that many of them face – lousy jobs, lousy pay, dubious benefits,
Continue readingParchment in the Fire: Temporary and part-time jobs surge promotes inequality, says OECD | Business | The Guardian
Temporary and part-time jobs surge promotes inequality, says OECD | Business | The Guardian. Heather Stewart A surge in self-employment and temporary or part-time jobs over the past two decades has been a key factor behind the rise in inequality in the world’s industrialised countries, according to a major new
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Ask Yourself, Have You Been "Tuned Up" Yet?
This breathes new meaning into the phrase “bored to death.” Behavioural pschology suggests we may have been conditioned to submit to neoliberalism. We have been made susceptible to manipulation and control. Alfie Kohn, in Punished by Rewards (1993), documents with copious research how behavior modification works best on dependent, powerless, infantilized, bored,
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Waging Class War is One Thing, Winning It Before the Other Side Knows About It is Everything
Bad news for working class America, white and blue collar – the class war they never really understood had been waged against them for the past three decades is over and they lost. A team of researchers from the U.S. government and Brookings Institute pored over 350,000 tax returns from
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