At a recent Greater Halifax Partnership luncheon, Robert Kelly blamed
trade unions, in part, for Nova Scotia’s less than stellar economic
performance.
According to The Chronicle Herald (Oct. 19 article), the Canadian
former head of the Bank of New York Mellon Corporation, forced out of
his $16-million-per-year job over a year ago, told Halifax
businesspeople: “Employees enjoy a lot of rights today versus years ago.
Additionally, a lot of businesses think that if you have a risk of
having a unionized workforce, it might be another risk to doing business
and maybe I won’t open a business there.”
Kelly, chancellor of Saint Mary’s University, praised “back-to-work”
laws in operation in several American states, which drastically reduce,
if not impede, unions’ ability to organize. Such laws, he is reported as
saying, promote higher economic growth and, if implemented in Nova
Scotia, would “send a huge message … that Nova Scotia is thinking
differently, is pro-growth (and) pro-business.” After his speech, he
told reporters that “in today’s world where you’re competing against
kids in India or China or in Brazil, you’ve got to build every
competitive advantage you can have without creating artificial barriers
to more hiring.”
How convenient a scapegoat. But how unfair and inaccurate. After a
financial meltdown caused by financial speculation, it is indeed rich to
blame the 99 per cent for pursuing a better life through one of the
most effective vehicles available — unions.
First, there is simply no proof, except in the minds of the one per
cent, that investors flock to union-free zones or that low rates of
unionization are connected with strong economic performance.
Right-to-work states in the U.S., by and large, happen to be the
low-productivity ones, and vice versa. Across the world, highly
unionized countries tend to be among the most productive and prosperous.
A World Bank report a few years ago touted collective bargaining as an
important contributor to “co-ordinated labour markets,” a key factor in
prosperity. The Bank and its sister International Monetary Fund now meet
regularly with trade union leaders from around the world.
Kelly’s remarks also ignore the Supreme Court of Canada’s landmark 2007
decision which enshrined collective bargaining as a constitutional
right. The court affirmed that “one of the fundamental achievements of
collective bargaining is to palliate the historical inequality between
employers and employees.”
A study by Larry Haiven and Mathieu Dufour in 2008 showed that despite
steady productivity growth throughout the boom leading up to the recent
downturn, mean real weekly earnings for Nova Scotians actually dropped.
Moreover, the share of prosperity going to owners of capital surged over
the same period. And the recession has only made it worse for workers.
A study published this year by the authors of this article found Nova
Scotia labour standards generally among the lowest in Canada. And
average weekly earnings in this province are the lowest in the country,
bar Prince Edward Island.
How have unionized workers fared? The evidence across the country is
that unions, even in the largest and strongest bargaining units, have
not done better than the workforce as a whole and that public-sector
workers have done worse than private. Were it not for trade unions,
earnings figures for the entire workforce would be even worse than they
are.
In fact, there is evidence that low-wage ghettos like Nova Scotia
actually promote low productivity. Productivity is about companies
efficiently using labour and technology. Relying on cheap labour allows
Nova Scotia companies to continue having among the worst records in the
country in capital intensivity, research and development, innovation and
employer-sponsored training.
Indeed the financial crisis still plaguing us was fuelled by precisely
the growing and vast inequality in earnings, placing unprecedented piles
of capital in the hands of speculators dreaming up ever more unstable
tricks to produce returns.
Nonetheless, it’s always more convenient for the one per cent to change
the channel, ignore the facts, shift the blame and pile onto unions and
the 99 per cent.
Source : http://thechronicleherald.ca
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