The Perma-Temp Issue

First of all I would like to congratulate and thank the Society for Energy Professionals who have stood with CMG since the beginning of the lockout. In case you haven't heard, after 105 days (15 weeks in case you don't want to do the math) on the line their case was referred to binding arbitration today The CMG isn't the only union facing issues such as outsourcing and perma-temp work ('job is temporary and may remain temporary based on our whims'). Perhaps one of the silver linings of all of this is that with the publicity generated by the CBC lockout, perhaps more Canadians will become aware of the situation. To me this is as an important an issue for Canadians as the future of health care and the CBC itself. It is also, when it's boiled down, one of the things that separates Canada from the United States.

As those of you who know me know, I am an expat, having immigrated to Canada from the US in 2002. The primary reason for the move was that my wife is from here and wanted to come home. But, I had no serious objections. I never got being an American. US culture simply made no sense to me. There are a great many things that separate Canadian and US culture beyond health care and guns.

Now, I hope everyone will forgive the following generalities. No one can say anything is absolutely true about an entire group of people. The following is based on my experiences and observations.

The US is, I think most will agree, in a decline. It has not been helped by 9-11 or hurricane Katrina, but neither of those is the cause of it's problems. Americans in my experience (or at least too many of them) seem to have stopped seeing others as their responsibility, and seem to have lost any sense of the broader societal impact when others suffer. They seem obsessed with personal short term gain at the expense of everything else.

One of the root problems, in my mind, is the near abandonment of the education system, another is obviously health care, but the one I'd like to focus on is Reaganomics. Since the election of Ronald Reagan and the rise of the neo-cons American jobs have been outsourced, downsized, off-shored and perma-temped.

As a result they work hard, they are driven to try to achieve unrealistic expectations so that they won't be downsized, outsourced etc., in the next round. They move, and expect to move, frequently because they have to follow the job market wherever it leads. This has meant the breakdown of extended families as family members move to the farthest reaches of the country following whatever career path they are on. I have seen it, in several cases, result in the breakdown of immediate families (divorces and separations) when spouses are unable to reconcile their particular career paths. It has meant the breakdown of communities and neighborhoods. When no one plans on living in a particular place for very long and everyone works extended hours and/or commutes great distances there is little inclination or opportunity to get to know your neighbors or get involved in your community. To the contrary, people, living in a community of strangers tend to become isolated and are prone to the culture of fear that Michael Moore described so eloquently in 'Bowling for Columbine.' Far from banding together to take back their neighborhoods and stand up against the decline of their society, they throw up walls, and become more defensive and conservative for fear of losing even more.

I hope this is not what Canadians want. I do not think it is what Canadians want, but in this case the long-term consequences of the erosion of decent, secure jobs are not easy to see. Corporate spokespeople make it sound necessary. They use terms like 'efficiency', 'competitiveness' and 'flexibility.' In other words a short sighted attempt to improve the bottom line at the expense of the society that supports that bottom line in the first place. It is 'what's good for me, personally, right now' as opposed to 'what's good for everyone in the long term'.

It is true that permanent, secure, well paid workforce with benefits may be more expensive. It may mean that Canada loses out on a factory now and then. It may mean that the cost of some products is slightly higher, and/or that the government may not be able to cut taxes as swiftly or as deeply. But, the question Canadians must answer, after carefully weighing the pros and cons of each side is 'what kind of country, province, city, neighborhood and household do I want my family to live in?' As I said earlier, the CBC is just one example, the Society for Energy Professionals is another example, there are countless examples and governments, politicians, corporations and individuals are going to have to decide which side of the fence they are on.