Project:Community - We can do more, together

What's Important to Saskatchewan People: Young People

Solidarity

Bill 85 - What's the Rush?

PayWatch: The Clash for Cash

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Overcompensated: CEO Pay Rates Show Growing Inequality in Canada

By 1:18pm on January 2, the first official working day of the year, Canada’s top 100 CEOs will have already pocketed $45,448 - the income that it takes the average Canadian an entire year of full-time work to earn.

The Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives has produced a fact sheet, Overcompensating: Executive Pay in Canada, highlights some key numbers around executive pay in Canada and also includes a list of Canada's highest paid 100 CEOs.
http://www.policyalternatives.ca/publications/commentary/overcompensating

You can also visit their pay clock, The Clash for the Cash: CEO vs. Average Joe, to find out just how much the average worker and top CEO have earned so far.
http://policyalternatives.ca/ceo/

SFL Summer Camp - Best Place on Earth

SFL Labour Issues Campaign

Click here to visit site

The "Other Saskatchewan" - CCPA

Reproduced below is a 2011 Saskatchewan Budget Response by Dr. Simon Enoch, CCPA Saskatchewan:

The “Other Saskatchewan”

A Budget Response by CCPA Saskatchewan

by Simon Enoch

March 24, 2011

If yesterday’s budget was designed to give something to everyone in order to win over voters for the upcoming election, then it is clear where the poorest and most vulnerable in our province rank in the minds of Sask Party electoral strategists.

Despite an obvious and acute housing crisis, this budget offered a paltry $1.7 million for two new affordable housing initiatives while the immediate need for new housing in the province is approximately 3000 units. For those who cannot wait for the construction of new housing, no relief was forthcoming to prevent the regular rent increases that seem to have become the norm in our province.

Despite ranking dead last among the provinces in child-care space, the budget offered to fund the creation of only 500 new child-care spaces when the need is closer to 5000. Currently, Saskatchewan has licensed child-care spots for only 9.1 per cent of children between the ages of zero and five, compared to the 20.3 per cent national average. While we applaud the government for committing to the creation of these new spaces, our province desperately needs a much more aggressive and long-term policy to address our child-care needs.

Despite the desperate need to replace the only psychiatric hospital in the province, this budget offered absolutely nothing for those suffering from mental illness.

In contrast, business owners will reap almost $80 million in tax savings due to the reduction of the small business tax while off-sale beer vendors will enjoy a $5.1 million discount. While the government has made much of it’s low-income tax reduction policy, a tax cut on nothing is still nothing. If we were to measure what constituencies this government covets by the amount of largesse given to them in yesterday’s budget, it is obvious where the poorest in our province rank.

Finance Minister Ken Krawetz stressed that this budget represented the “New Saskatchewan” and that we are no longer “next year country” but “this year country.” Perhaps a better metaphor for the province could be borrowed from the famous American political commentator Michael Harrington; “The Other Saskatchewan.” The “Other Saskatchewan” has not shared in the prosperity that the Sask Party is so quick to claim credit for. The “Other Saskatchewan” includes people who cannot afford spiraling rent increases, food and fuel prices, utility bills and other basic necessities. The “Other Saskatchewan” is experiencing increased homelessness, growing social assistance caseloads, lack of access to quality childcare, increasing unemployment among aboriginal peoples and a woefully inadequate minimum wage.

Finance Minister Ken Krawetz also made repeated mention of the “Saskatchewan Advantage” – obviously borrowing from the oft-used “Alberta Advantage.” Let’s hope that the Sask Party is not intent on also borrowing Alberta’s record of wanton neglect for the poorest in that province as well; the “Other Saskatchewan” simply cannot afford it.

Which of these men?

- stripped workers rights

- assaulted collective bargaining

- froze minimum wage

- refuses to meet with workers organizations

- is in the pocket of the CEOs

Mandy: People for Corporate Tax Cuts

www.peopleforcorporatetaxcuts.ca

When is the last time you got an 843% wage increase?

That's right folks.  You are reading it correctly.  An 843% wage increase. 

That's exactly what the highest paid corporate executive in Saskatchewan gave himself over an 8 year span.  An examination of the Executive Compensation reports from the Potash Corporation of Saskatchewan show that President and Chief Executive Officer, William J. Doyle's compensation package is, in a word, astonishing.

For the 3 year period covering 1999, 2000, and 2001 Mr. Doyle received a grand total of $4,411,556 in executive compensation, or an average of about $1.5 million per year.

For the 3 year period covering 2007, 2008, and 2009 Mr. Doyle received a grand total of $37,174,358 in executive compensation, or an average of about  $12.4 million per year.

That's the equivalent of an increase of more than 100% per year, each year, for 8 years.

(click images for larger view)

Minimum wage increases have a "positive" impact on business

On January 12, 2011 the Saskatchewan Federation of Labour forwarded a supplementary submission to the Saskatchewan Minimum Wage Board.  The Board had asked the Federation to respond to 2 questions in follow-up to a brief that the SFL had submitted at the end of 2010.

The supplementary submission makes a compelling argument for increasing the minimum wage, and for ensuring that a system is in place to guarantee that minimum wage earners do not lose ground to inflation (indexing).

Below are some interesting facts about Saskatchewan's current minimum wage.

Minimum Wage Facts

• Roughly 31,000 Saskatchewan people are paid the province’s lowest permissible wage.
• Nearly 40% of low-wage earners in Saskatchewan are between the ages of 25 and 55.
• 78% of low-wage earners in Saskatchewan work in permanent jobs.
• 60% of minimum wage workers are women.
• Increases to the minimum wage are often followed by an increase in employment rates.
• Viewpoints Research found in December 2010 that 71.9% of Saskatchewan people want to see the minimum wage raised.

You can read the full (12 page) submission by downloading a copy here....

Greedy CEOs earn more in one day than most people earn in a year

Reproduced below is the CCPA's (Canadian Center for Policy Alternatives) news release announcing it's annual study of Executive Compensation in Canada.  Corporate greed is contributing to the dismantling of our just society.

“At this rate of reward, this handful of elite CEOs pocket the equivalent of the average Canadian wage by 2:30 pm on January 3 – the first working day of the year,” says the study’s author and CCPA Research Associate Hugh Mackenzie.

"Canada’s best-paid CEOs ‘recession-proof’: study

National Office                      News Release

January 3, 2011

TORONTO – Canada’s best-paid 100 CEOs breezed through the worst of the recession with earnings 155 times higher than the average Canadian income earner, says a new study by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA).

The study, Recession-Proof, looks at 2009 compensation levels for Canada’s best paid 100 CEOs and finds they pocketed an average of $6.6 million during the darkest period of the recession – a stark contrast from the total average Canadian income of $42,988.

“At this rate of reward, this handful of elite CEOs pocket the equivalent of the average Canadian wage by 2:30 pm on January 3 – the first working day of the year,” says the study’s author and CCPA Research Associate Hugh Mackenzie.

The study shows executive compensation in Canada wasn’t always this rich. In 1998, the best paid 100 CEOs pocketed an average of 104 times more than the average Canadian wage earner, compared to 155 times more in 2009.

“Even that extraordinary number understates the real story,” says Mackenzie. “Thanks to a change in corporate reporting introduced in 2008, we only have a conservative statistical estimate of the stock options that make up about one third of CEOs’ 2009 pay. The public will never know how much most of these CEOs actually got paid in 2009.

“And that’s only half the story. These CEOs are sitting on $1.3 billion of stock options they haven’t yet cashed in. That’s about $2 in future income for every $1 they declared in 2009.”

When the CEOs decide to exercise those stock options, the study reveals Canadians will subsidize that bonus with an estimated average of $360 million in foregone taxes, since stock options are taxed at a lower rate, as if they are capital gains. Among Mackenzie’s recommendations: getting rid of that expensive and unfair loophole.

The study highlights the role that soaring executive compensation plays in the dramatic growth in income inequality in Canada identified in a recent CCPA study by Senior Economist Armine Yalnizyan. Yalnizyan found that fully one third of all income growth in Canada in the past 20 years went to the richest 1% of Canadians.

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For more information please contact: Trish Hennessy at (416) 551-2059 or Kerri-Anne Finn at (613) 563-1341 x306.

Recession-Proof
Canada’s 100 best paid CEOs"
Read the full Report...

Hark! Walmart Flash Mob

Corporate greed is eroding foundations of a just society

The following opinion piece is by John Cartwright, President of the Toronto and York Region Labour Council it was published by the Toronto Star on Saturday, December 11, 2010.

Corporate greed is eroding foundations of a just society
John Cartwright

President of the Toronto and York Region Labour Council


Not long ago, a wealthy stockbroker drives by nine men who have been locked out of their jobs at the First Canadian Place. He stops his luxury car, gets out, and utters the words that explain his attitude to their plight.

“The watch I’m wearing is worth more than you earn in a year. Get out of my way!"

Real estate giant Brookfield Properties decided to reduce the conditions of work for these employees. When they would not agree, they were locked out and put on the street.

This cavalier attitude is not just displayed by one company.

Across the country, corporations are engaging in an unprecedented series of lockouts of their employees, demanding that workers’ standard of living be reduced.

Sears in Vaughan, U.S. Steel in Nanticoke and now Hamilton, St. Mary’s Cement in Bowmanville, Genpack in Peterborough, Cadillac Fairview in downtown Toronto, the list goes on.

Hard-working families are seeing their standard of living undermined by the actions of CEOs whose salaries count in the millions or tens of millions.

Does Brookfield really need to save a few thousand dollars in order to keep its profit margin? Not at all. It’s doing this because it has the power to, and today that’s all that counts.

The 21st century corporate culture demands that pension plans be gutted, benefits weakened and jobs outsourced wherever possible.

While the driving force is made up of international companies that have taken over Canadian icons like Inco, they aren’t the only culprits.

Cadillac Fairview is owned by Canadian pension funds, and it had no qualms about destroying the careers of 61 employees who wouldn’t buckle under to its demands.

Even Mayor Rob Ford promises to outsource city cleaning services to contractors who pay poverty wages. And he claims to be “standing up for the little guy.”

There is clearly something wrong with this picture. For generations, people have come to this country to find a better life for themselves and their families. They have helped build a prosperous nation, where most people had access to a decent job and reasonable income.

Governments created laws that struck a balance between the power of corporations and the rights of working people. Most of us were able to find respect for our skills and knowledge, and to be paid accordingly.

In recent years, however, much has changed. The immense greed that fed the global financial markets has seeped into the core values of Canadian business.

Nowadays companies are only happy if there are tax cuts, subsidized profits and a pliable workforce. The same powerful actors who nearly wrecked the world economy are now shamelessly demanding that governments and workers do their bidding — or suffer the consequences.

There’s no doubt that a lot of these guys wear quality timepieces worth more than the rest of us earn in a year. The gap between rich and poor in this country has grown tremendously in recent times.

And unless something happens, it will only grow wider as mid-level incomes disappear from the reality of many families.

Extreme disparity is nothing new. That’s just how things were for centuries. But after the last Great Depression we learned that tough rules are needed to restrain the worst aspects of corporate greed.

A legal framework was put in place that guaranteed workers some basic rights, and allowed a growing labour movement to play a key role in raising the standards of all Canadians. Now, however, the balance of forces has changed dramatically.

It’s time to review the rules and fix them. Companies shouldn’t be allowed to lock out their employees and bring in replacement workers. Nor should they be allowed to utilize temp agencies to create a new form of indentured servitude where people don’t have a right to a stable job.

Labour laws need strengthening so that ordinary people have a fair chance for collective representation. And the loopholes that allow companies to violate employment standards need to be closed.

How long will it be before governments act on these issues? I don’t know. But one thing is certain. If they don’t find a way to stop the abuse of workers that is quickly becoming the norm, the next generation will be worse off than ours.

In the interim, many decent people will suffer for trying to hold on to what they believe is fair. And Canada will not be the kind of country we were once proud to build together.

Let’s do something about poverty! - Poverty Free Saskatchewan

Check out the Poverty Free Saskatchewan website....

"Let's do something about poverty!

WHO ARE WE?

Poverty Free Saskatchewan (PFS) is a new network of individuals, organizations, governments and businesses working toward poverty elimination. PFS recognizes there have been anti-poverty groups working hard for decades in all regions of our province and we wish to support a province-wide movement.

WHAT DO WE BELIEVE?

 

PFS believes people living in poverty are key to all our work and should be involved in all our decision making.

All regions of the province should be involved because everyone has valuable insights into their own unique situations – from northern First Nation communities to urban neighbourhoods and existing local anti-poverty groups.

Poverty elimination will require involvement and commitment from governments, business, community organizations and individuals. PFS values and promotes respect for all perspectives in its poverty elimination campaign."  more....

read more and please support....

CCPA: The Rise of Canada's Richest 1%

Check out the CCPA's newest publication by Armine Yalnizyan entitled: The Rise of Canada's Richest 1%.

"Richest 1% income shares at historic high

National Office
News Release

December 1, 2010

TORONTO – Canada’s richest 1% are taking more  of the gains from economic growth than ever before in recorded history, says a report by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA).

The Rise of Canada’s Richest 1% looks at income trends over the past 90 years and reveals the  46,000 privileged few who rank among the country’s richest 1% took almost a third (32%) of all growth in incomes between 1997 and 2007.

“That's a bigger piece of the action than any other generation of rich Canadians has taken,” says Armine Yalnizyan, CCPA senior economist and the report’s author.

“The last time Canada’s elite held so much of the nation’s income in their hands was in the 1920s. Even then, their incomes didn’t soar as fast as they are today. It’s a first in Canadian history and it underscores a dramatic reversal of long-term trends.”

Post-war, Canada became more equal with the rise of the middle class but by 2007, the richest 1% reversed equality trends, amassing incomes gains reminiscent of the 1920s."   Read more here....

Download complete report here....

Walmart Lobbies to Keep Factory Wages Under Two Cents | change.org

Reproduced below is an article that appears on www.change.org:

Walmart Lobbies to Keep Factory Wages Under Two Cents

by Amanda Kloer October 14, 2010 02:00 PM (PT) Topics: Slave Labor.

Ever wonder how Walmart can afford to sell a pair of jeans for eight bucks? It's because workers at the factory in Bangladesh where the jeans are made earn a measly one-and-a-half cents for each pair they sew. To make matters worse, Walmart has been lobbying against a government-supported wage increase, which would bump the workers up to 35 cents an hour. It's time Walmart stopped exploiting the workers who make the clothes they sell.

The 2500 workers at the Anowara Apparels factory in Bangladesh spend all day sewing jeans, primarily for the Faded Glory brand of clothes sold at Walmart. They are 90% young women, some with families to support and others trying to simply scrape a living together. The women make between 11 and 17 cents an hour sewing jeans, and they're expected to produce at least ten pairs an hour. That means they make less than two pennies for each pair of jeans they sew. Recognizing the gross underpayment of these workers, the Bangladeshi government has suggested raising the minimum wage to 35 cents an hour. Walmart has responded by lobbying against Bangladesh's efforts to fairly compensate workers and decided to keep their staff living in abject poverty.

The employees of Anowara Apparels can't afford even basic living expenses on their salary of pennies an hour. They live in make-shift shacks, suffer from malnutrition, and have no source of heat other than burning wood. Dozens of workers and their families use a communal water pump for all their sanitation needs, from washing clothes and their bodies to drinking. The extra 17 cents per month would double these workers' salaries, and according to them, make a huge difference in their lives. Yet Walmart is trying to make sure that doesn't happen, so they can keep selling you $8.00 jeans at a high profit margin.

The story of Anowara Apparels is an example of the high price workers often pay for your discounts. Walmart isn't able to sell jeans for $8.00 because they're magical. They are able to sell jeans for $8.oo because they pay the women who make them less than two pennies a pair. So when you see a dirt cheap t-shirt, bargain basement shoes, or any other deal that's too good to be true, remember that it probably is. And what might be a great deal for you often ends up being a pretty raw one for someone else.

Tell Walmart that it's time to stop exploiting factory workers in Bangladesh and start paying them the minimum wage. Because some bargains come at far too high a human price.

Amanda Kloer has been a full-time abolitionist for six years. She currently develops trainings and educational materials for civil attorneys representing victims of human trafficking and gender-based violence.

Two-tier minimum wage discriminatory - young workers oppose training wage

Young workers speak out against a training wage

The Wall government recently implemented the Minimum Wage Board’s recommendation to freeze the minimum wage at $9.25. It will remain frozen until December 31st, 2011 when the next review takes place. So far Minister of Labour Relations & Workplace Safety Don Morgan is silent on one of the other Board recommendations: the proposed introduction of a training wage, set at 10 per cent lower than the current minimum wage. Under the recommendation, new hires would receive the lower wage for the first six months of each new job they start.

Young workers, aged 13 to 16, at the Saskatchewan Federation of Labour Summer Camp took a close look at the training wage recommendation, and produced the following petition and letters to the Minister.

Dear Members of the Legislative Assembly,

We the undersigned believe the recommendation allowing 90 per cent of pay for six months to minimum wage earners violates workers’ rights by discriminating against this group. This recommendation takes advantage of new workers, immigrants and low income families. These groups of people already live below the poverty line. If this recommendation were to pass, these groups would be further impoverished, leading to an increased separation between those who have money and those who do not.

Another problem with this recommendation is that it encourages employers to turn over their staff just before the six month period. The threat of being dismissed or laid off just before the six month period could be abused by the employer.

By putting this recommendation into place, what would our province be telling minimum wage earners? Is their labour less valuable than others? Are they second class citizens? Why do our leaders feel we can further exploit these groups?

By definition, the word minimum is as follows:
Minimum: the least quantity or amount possible, assignable, allowable, or the like.

By offering minimum wage earners less than the lowest possible amount, the Government proposes, by definition, a conceptual impossibility. We have the word ‘minimum’ in place in order to safeguard against lower wages. Please, as the Government of Saskatchewan, honour the standard you have put in place.

Sincerely, Avery and Darby, on behalf of the 53 SFL Summer Campers

Letter 1

Dear Mr. Minister of Labour,

My name is Shelby Z. I am 14 years old and I do not agree with the recommendation to create a lower training wage. I honestly believe that this recommendation could potentially let employers take advantage of new young workers. For example, the employer could hire new workers, wait until just before the six months is over, fire them, and then hire a new group of kids.

Another problem I have with this is the fact that you are going below minimum wage. Last time I checked, minimum is the minimum. It's the bottom. Why is the government going backwards? This recommendation has the possibility of putting off young people from working. Who would work for less than minimum? I know that I sure wouldn't.

What about single parents? It’s hard enough to have to juggle working and having a child. It's even harder to do that with less than minimum wage for the first six months. You also have to consider people looking for just a summer job. Summer lasts three months.

This also greatly affects new immigrants. As of right now, immigrants have a hard enough time living on minimum wage. Don't ask them to live even more poorly.

Please, sir. Consider the position of those whom this recommendation would affect. Don't tell them that the work they do is 10 per cent less valuable than others.
Sincerely, Shelby Z.

Letter 2

Dear Mr. Minister of Labour:
The SFL Summer Camp does not favour the recommendation of the Minimum Wage Board to create a training wage that is 90 per cent of the minimum wage. Minimum wage is minimum and should not be compromised. The wage is called minimum for a reason. The minimum wage was increased in March to meet rising costs in the economy. It should be left alone.
It definitely seems like this recommendation targets young people and/or immigrants working for minimum wage. These people are the most vulnerable because it may be their first job or their lack of English. You’re kicking them while they’re down.
The recommendation would greatly benefit the employer, so what are the employers giving back to the employees? A lot of teenagers are only looking for a summer job and summer is not six months. The proposal may say to some people that they are second-class citizens. It may be an insult to immigrants and young people. I hope you honour these requests, opinions, and ideas from the SFL Summer Camp.
Taylor G.

The young workers at SFL Summer Camp have interesting stories to tell about the kind of training they receive at work. Most had received very little on-the-job training; some had received no occupational health and safety training whatsoever. We know from Workers’ Compensation statistics that our youth are working in dangerous jobs. Thanks to the Wall government, they are also working as young as age 14. Let’s not further exploit our young workers, and our minimum wage earners who are already the lowest paid in the province, by implementing a discriminatory training wage.

Larry Hubich
SFL President

To download a copy of the Petition against the training wage, click here....

Struggles span decades

Struggles span decades

(This is the lead article from the September 2010 issue of the SFL Labour Reporter)

What makes someone stand up for their rights?

For the unemployed men 75 years ago, it was relief camps that offered no ‘relief’. No work, no wages, and little hope of turning around their own situation, the On to Ottawa Trekkers made their way across the country. It was an act borne of destitution, riding on the coattails of courage.

The state resorted to using force to beat back the Trek’s progress, culminating in the Regina Riot. It is still aweinspiring 75 years later to recall the deep roots of workers’ uprising, right here in our province.

Because of workers’ struggles in the past, we can celebrate that we have decent work, and unionized jobs. But does the work pay the bills? Listen to the voices of the workers from Casino Regina, whose strike story reminds us all that an anti-worker government is determined to keep wages low in our entertainment industry and across the public service.

Indeed, public sector workers in healthcare and in all of our Crown corporations are facing substandard wage offers and concessions at the negotiating table. What lessons can we draw from the past about how to turn this around?

Let’s also pay close attention to the voices and experiences of our youth. Thanks to our government’s erosion of labour standards, children as young as 14 and 15 can now work. The teenagers at the SFL summer camp have concerns about getting proper training and working in a place where the employer plays by the rules. As parents, are we confident that our children’s health and safety rights are respected and enforced at work?

Can we count on employers to abide by labour standards, especially in the service industry where so many start out? The stories of our youth should renew our commitment to build the labour movement.

Past, present, future … the workers’ movement continues on. Let’s stand proudly on the shoulders of the workers who faced destitution and violence. Let’s build solidarity between all of us who are fighting a government who puts profit before people. Let’s empower our young workers to create safe workplaces and to advocate for fair and enforced labour standards and living wages for all.

Download complete PDF Version of the September issue by clicking here...