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This study is about the ongoing transformation of neoliberal public policy, precarious work, and public sector unions' struggles against demands for austerity. Situated in long-term historical perspective, I examine to what extent changes in the nature and content of government intervention, social welfare provision, and restructuring of the public sector are structurally-induced, the products of historical and contemporary circumstances, the result of mismanagement, or some combination of other factors. I argue that in addition to reducing the compass of social services, recent expenditure restraint measures have targeted unionized workers in order to lower wages and reduce benefits across the sector. Case studies include original analyses of striking workers at the Canadian Museum of Civilization Corporation, collective bargaining between teaching assistants and contract instructors and Carleton University, and striking civic workers at the city of Toronto. Together the cases break new ground in understanding how neoliberalism is being reconstructed and redeployed in light of the Great Recession and the consequences this has had on public sector workers and services. The three jurisdictions in this study - municipal, provincial, and federal - represent three scales of neoliberal restructuring in Canada. While all three governments have resorted to some form of austerity, the methods used to reduce the deficit and move toward balanced budgets have been differential and multifaceted. These include service delivery restructuring, increasing use of public-private-partnerships, privatization, new user-fees, and/or consumption taxes, as well as public sector worker layoffs, workplace intensification, and the selling of Crown assets. I contend that such measures seek to shift the burden of recession onto the public sector by reducing social services provisioning and seeking concessions from unionized public sector workers. In fact, the state has taken a leading role in narrowing the field of free collective bargaining, suspending trade union rights, and implementing an aggressive program of dispossession. Absent the collective capacities to stop let alone reverse these measures, public sector unions have reached an impasse. Unable to translate militancy into an alternative ideological perspective and a coherent political and economic program, they continue to desperately hang onto previous gains that look increasingly insecure and fragile. I argue that in order for unions to regain their once prominent role in the pursuit of social justice and workplace democracy, they will need to take the risks of organizing working class communities and fighting back while they still have some capacity to do so - else they risk continuing the decades-long labour impasse and union decline. In my view, this necessarily requires an explicitly anti-capitalist perspective, with the aim being to develop both alternative policies and an alternative politics rooted in the working class.
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Following the 2008 global financial crisis, Canada appeared to escape the austerity implemented elsewhere, but this was spin hiding the reality. A closer look reveals that the provinces--responsible for delivering essential public and social services such as education and healthcare--shouldered the burden. The Public Sector in an Age of Austerity examines public-sector austerity in the provinces and territories, specifically addressing how austerity was implemented, what forms austerity agendas took (from regressive taxes and new user fees to public-sector layoffs and privatization schemes), and what, if any, political responses resulted. Contributors focus on the period from 2007 to 2015, the global financial crisis and the period of fiscal consolidation that followed, while also providing a longer historical context--austerity is not a new phenomenon. A granular examination of each jurisdiction identifies how changing fiscal conditions have affected the delivery of public services and restructured public finances, highlighting the consequences such changes have had for public-sector workers and users of public services. The first book of its kind in Canada, The Public Sector in an Age of Austerity challenges conventional wisdom by showing that Canada did not escape post-crisis austerity, and that its recovery has been vastly overstated. -- Publisher's description
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The contemporary living wage movement emerged in the United States through the 1990s. It marked a particularly dramatic response at the local and regional level to the erosion in the quality of employment in the American labour market. In many respects it was and is today a rebellion of urban, racialized service sector workers. What is much less discussed are efforts to establish living wage policies in Canada. The Canadian living wage campaigns are much less movements than a strategy of rational policy advocacy. A variety of legal, political and ideological factors make this so. It is not a judgement but an observation meriting some greater interrogation.
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In a period characterized by growing social inequality, precarious work, the legacies of settler colonialism, and the emergence of new social movements, Change and Continuity presents innovative interdisciplinary research as a guide to understanding Canada's political economy and a contribution to progressive social change. Assessing the legacy of the Canadian political economy tradition — a broad body of social science research on power, inequality, and change in society — the essays in this volume offer insight into contemporary issues and chart new directions for future study. Chapters from both emerging and established scholars expand the boundaries of Canadian political economy research, seeking new understandings of the forces that shape society, the ensuing conflicts and contradictions, and the potential for social justice. Engaging with interconnected topics that include shifts in immigration policy, labour market restructuring, settler colonialism, the experiences of people with disabilities, and the revitalization of workers' movements, this collection builds upon and deepens critical analysis of Canadian society and considers its application to contexts beyond Canada. --Publisher's description.
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