California, as you have likely heard, is raising its minimum wage to $15 by 2022. Although the efficacy of the increase is being hotly contested, with some claiming it will lead to substantial job loss and others citing studies that show just the oppos…
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Politics and its Discontents: More On The Precariat
In yesterday’s post, I wrote about Angel Reyes, the 61-year-old member of the precariat terminated from his five-year ‘temp’ job at a recycling company one week after speaking to The Star about his inability to secure a full-time designation for the work he was doing, which meant that he was
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Punishment For A Member Of The Precariat Who Spoke Out
Human nature is a funny thing, especially in its ability to compartmentalize things. For example, I suspect that the vast majority of us are able to witness the plight of suffering around the world with a certain dispassion; images from halfway across the world of disaster, for example, we are
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: A Precarious Existence
The Toronto Star last week concluded an excellent series on the plight of the precariously employed. If you haven’t read it, I strongly recommend it for the insights and possible solutions offered into what is becoming far too common an employment situation for far too many: irregular hours, absence of
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: The Life And Death Of Worker Resistance
When it comes to jobs, we live in very precarious times, with fewer and fewer people securing full-time work with benefits. Paradoxically, union membership continues to decline, while right-wing propaganda about the evils of such associations flourishes. As a society, we seem to have lost the will to fight for
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: More From Star Readers
Whenever I need a morale boost, I look to the letters’ section of The Toronto Star. There I find regular confirmation that progressive notions are far from dead in this country, despite the best efforts of the Harper regime: Re: Underemployment reshapes Canada’s job market, Opinion March 14 During the
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Justifying Poor Remuneration
Ever the big business apologist, The Globe and Mail, as reported by Operation Maple, had an article the other day by one of their newer hires, Leah Eichler, who essentially says that young workers today have it pretty good. Entitled For younger workers, perks trump pay, Eichler asserts that even
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Coffee Workers Unionizing
Many of us are abundantly aware, as both parents and citizens, of how hard it is for young people to establish meaningful career paths these days. Part-time and contract work abounds, as do minimum wage jobs, despite the fact that we have a very educated population. Corporations continue to sit
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: The Precariously Employed
The other day I made reference in a post to a study showing that half of the workers in the GTA are precariously employed, meaning they have unstable and unreliable employment with no benefits, a reality sharply at odds with the triumphalism of the right over the putative unalloyed good
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