Presented by Ken Georgetti on Wednesday, 3 March 2010

(Check Against Delivery)

Thank you Scott for your words of welcome.

And thank you to my fellow presenters on this topic.

Let me start by saying that talking about what some are saying is an “economic recovery” reminds me greatly of the old Wendy’s Hamburgers commercial from the 1980s.

You remember it – an elderly woman looks at a hamburger from a Wendy’s competitor and then asks the question: “Where’s the beef?”

So I ask this updated question – “Where are the jobs?”

The woman in the Wendy’s commercial also says:  "It certainly is a big bun. It's a big fluffy bun."  And that’s my concern – we have a big fluffy bun called “economic stimulus” that is costing Canada – and indeed the whole world – an enormous amount of money – but where are the jobs? …..Where’s the beef?

Because from where organized labour sits, we don’t see significant numbers of jobs being created.

And so, while the jury is still out on whether we are in a “real” economic recovery as opposed to a “technical” recovery from this recession, there is widespread agreement the jobs crisis will be with us for a long time.

The human toll of the recession continues to mount, as many countries, including Canada face the spectre of simply a jobless recovery.

The New York Times reported last month that economists fear this recovery is going to leave more people behind than in past recessions, with the prospect that millions of unemployed may face years without jobs.

Some economists predict many workers will find it very difficult to make their way back into the middle class, with the industrial jobs they once held – the jobs that paid decent wages – perhaps gone for good.

And I can’t let this moment go by without expressing my deep anger at those who brought us to this disastrous situation.

I have just returned from international meetings in Europe, where Greece is on the precipice of disaster thanks to the role of the global financial industry and the use of unregulated exotic financial instruments.

The insatiable appetite of many in the financial industry for profit at any cost, their unfettered greed, and the help of their political allies who deregulated and removed the protections that were in place to ensure a financial collapse like we saw in the 1930s would never happen again -- I cannot fully express my outrage.

Outrage that, after being brought to the brink by their recklessness, it is taxpayers who have had to pay not once, not twice, not three times, but now four times for their mistakes.

First through corporate bailouts.

Second, with our governments forced into deficit spending -- to ensure our economies didn’t collapse and to keep people working.
 

Next, with our jobs, as unemployment rates show no sign of improvement, and the private sector shows no sign of enough recovery to create jobs.

And finally, with a loss of valuable public services – as country after country around the world, and province after province here at home, are put under pressure to cut services and reduce the deficits created by those very same banks, corporations and bond rating agencies that got us into this mess.

So let me say what should be on the lips of every politician across the country today.

There can be no sustainable recovery without a jobs recovery.

That is where government action in the short term needs to focus and the ILO jobs pact offers solutions and strategies to that end.

After most recessions there is a lag in job creation.

And if we do nothing, it will take longer to recover.

We have a very big hole to climb out of.

Since October 2008, well over three hundred thousand full-time jobs have disappeared in Canada.

Many of these jobs won’t come back.

The plants have closed and they are unlikely to reopen.

When you add to that the thousands of young people and new Canadians entering the workforce each year, it’s clear our economy has to grow at least 2% a year to begin reducing unemployment.

Clearly, we need to address job creation in the short term, but it cannot be at the expense of a longer term political vision and strategic plan in which we – government, business and labour – all have a role to play.

Today the federal Conservative government gave its speech from the Throne to reopen Parliament.

Tomorrow, Finance Minister Jim Flaherty delivers his government’s budget.

Will we see this government produce a comprehensive job creation strategy for Canada?

Will he make a commitment to the significant public investment needed for research and technological innovation that will make us world leaders in the green industries of the future?

Will we see from him support for a labour market strategy that invests in employment-intensive sectors and promotes the creation of jobs for a greener economy?

Will we see a significant effort in investment to bridge the gap in skills training and apprenticeships that is making Canada fall behind in productivity measures?

Or will the vision be simply more tax cuts for corporations – an empty strategy that will again see some corporations benefit with higher profits while failing to make the promised investments in skills development, training and innovation that will lead Canada to greater prosperity and productivity?

I’d like to address another aspect of the ILO Global Jobs Pact that we’re discussing today.

There can be no sustainable recovery without a strategy for jobs that pay decent wages.

We have just passed through a decade of the most sustained period of economic expansion in Canada since the 1960s.

Did that prosperity get shared equally?

Not at all!

From 1998 to 2007, the average wage of full-time workers increased a little less than the rate of inflation – in reality – zero real wage growth.

If you were the working poor – you fared even worse.

Canadians in the bottom 10% of the income spectrum have fallen, yes, fallen since the late 1970s.
In this rich country, the maximum earnings of workers at the bottom have fallen from $15,000 in the late 1970s to $11,000 a year.

A sustainable recovery and positive economic growth cannot be built on a low-wage economic strategy.

And as we’ve seen in the past months, most of the growth in jobs has been in precarious self-employment, or in part-time work – hardly the kinds of jobs that will create the economic growth needed to get us into a sustained recovery.

Just two years ago, Statistics Canada reported that for the first time in Canadian history, there were more jobs in retail sales in Canada than in the manufacturing sector.

Clearly our economy is changing dramatically.

As I said before, many of the plants that closed in this recession will not reopen.

The plants and the jobs they provided are gone forever.

So we have to create new industries to replace those in the manufacturing sector that are gone.

And we have to ensure that the new jobs our economy is creating, and will create in the future, pay family-supporting, living wages.

Years of tripartite work in Canada show we can work together to create models of basic labour standards for a new economic reality.

We in the labour movement will continue to urge the federal government to implement the recommendations of the Arthurs report on federal labour standards.

Implementing those 2006 recommendations are long overdue.

To quote Harry Arthurs himself, no worker should be paid so little that – after working full-time at a regular job for a full year – they will still find themselves with less money than they need to live on – or are just above the poverty line.

But improving labour standards is simply not enough.

Government and business must recognize that free collective bargaining is also an essential component of a decent jobs and work strategy.

Reform to labour laws both at the federal and provincial levels in Canada must be a priority.

The erosion of union density in the Canadian private sector from about one-third in the mid to late 1980s to just under 20% today ought to be a concern, not only for the labour movement, but also for government, and dare I say, business.

Erosion of union presence and bargaining power has been a key factor behind the decoupling of wages and productivity growth for those not at the top of the income spectrum.

Wage stagnation, and even wage deflation in some occupational groups, is responsible not only for the growth in the number of working poor in Canada, but also is contributing to the heavy indebtedness of the middle class.

Wage stagnation has meant that the rising consumption of the last decade was fuelled by personal debt – now standing at 150% of personal disposable income.

Wage stagnation, in the face of record corporate profits over the last decade, is a paradox we all must acknowledge and address.

There is no doubt declining unionization rates are a contributing factor to the great rise in social inequality in the United States, and what we are beginning to witness in Canada.

Rebalancing relations in the workplace, starting with an honest and heartfelt recognition of ILO convention 98 on the right to organize and bargain collectively, simply must be a priority for any long term labour market strategy designed to lead us to future sustainable economic growth.

We in the labour movement like to talk about the union advantage – the advantage that unionized workers enjoy over their non-union counterparts.

But more than that, the union advantage is also an economic advantage for our country – and indeed the world.

Because it is union members with wages higher than non-union workers who have more to spend on goods and services that stimulate our economy.

There’s so much more we can become when we work together – government, labour and business.

When it makes sense, when it works for working people – labour will be there at the table, ready to roll-up our sleeves and get down to business.

We did that working side by side with business and government to keep people working in this recession, with the changes to the employment insurance work-sharing program.

We do that in our shared vision with our partners the Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters – at the Centre for Workplace Skills – one of a commitment to the investment in skills and training for our human capital that will make Canada a leading world economy.

And we’re pleased to have the support of the federal government in this venture.

When we realize the inter-connectedness between labour and business in our economy, we can truly find the solutions to the prosperity that we all want to enjoy.

Thank you.