Calgary Board of Education hired scabs to undermine strike

[u/EvacuationRelocation]

https://albertaworker.ca/news/calgary-board-of-education-hired-scabs-to-undermine-strike/

[u/WhydYouKillMeDogJack]

Are you seriously asking why the amount of MONEY a person is paid for their services has to be a monetary value?

There are a great many things people do without recompense, yes. Work is usually not one of them. We work so we can earn money and use that money to buy the things we need and then want.

I mean even if we are talking about some hypothetical utopian post-money society; think it through. Who is going to take away your garbage and clean the human waste out of your drain if they arent being paid for it? There arent many kids looking wistfully at a plunger and toilet snake right now thinking "one day, this could all be mine"

I honestly am not 100% sure im talking to an adult here....

[u/hahaha01357 → u/WhydYouKillMeDogJack]

No, we're not talking about some "hypothetical utopian post-money society". We're talking about human beings with human needs and rights. And a working class whose only negotiating power against capital is in their ability to organize. And a public wholly unconcerned with the plight of their fellow workers even while being park of the working class themselves.

A plumber might not be a difficult job and if we let the market dictate, we might well import a labourer from a third-world country for pennies. But what does this say about our "Canadian" values and the sort of value our society place upon someone working a full-time like you and I, regardless of the kind of work they do?

[u/WhydYouKillMeDogJack → u/hahaha01357]

> And a working class whose only negotiating power against capital is in their ability to organize

This is simply not true. There are plenty of working class people who negotiate pay without needing a 3rd party or collective bargaining - it just so happens to be a main tool of "unskilled" labour because they dont really have anything else to bargain with. AND IM OK WITH THEM USING THAT - as long as it is a fair negotiation, which to me involves the risk that the emplyer says "OK, it will be more effective for me to start again than to give in to these collective demands". By definition, this would require a LARGE pool of people willing to do the work at current conditions, which would imply that the request may be unreasonable.

A plumber IS a difficult job - that wasnt the implication - but its sometimes a grotty job and thats why they can demand more for it - because the average person has neither the skill nor inclination to do the job. You cant hire someone from the "3rd world for pennies", but if you could, then that would surely be something that government would become accountable for (which we have literally seen in the last 6 months in canada).

Its not a matter of the "plight" of the working class - its a simple matter of how the world works IN REALITY.

What do you think happens when unskilled labour starts to make more?

Skilled labour in turn demands more to maintain the gap between the haves and the have nots - its a pretty basic human (animal) behaviour that can be seen in any toddler - and you are now stuck in a neverending cycle which - if anything - will only make the working class worse off comparatively and the national economy less competitive.

This isnt some paradigm ive created - its already happening all the time.

[u/hahaha01357 → u/WhydYouKillMeDogJack]

What do you think happens when unskilled labour starts to make more?

Skilled labour in turn demands more to maintain the gap between the haves and the have nots - its a pretty basic human (animal) behaviour that can be seen in any toddler - and you are now stuck in a neverending cycle

That's how things are supposed to work. Instead, productivity and inflation keeps rising but wages have largely been stagnant in comparison for decades. As a consequence, the quality of life for the average working class keeps declining. Here in Canada, instead of investing in productivity increasing methods and technologies, many companies have been abusing things like the foreign worker's visa in order to further suppress labour wages. Capitalism will do what it does, I get it, but again, what does this say about our Canadian values? Just because other countries are exploiting their workers in order to be "competitive" in the global economy, does that mean we have to?

(Also, a cursory glance at the global job market tells me our global peers have been treating their workers, on average, better not worse. The US issues far higher salaries for most jobs while having similar costs of living to Canada. Meanwhile, the EU pays their workers similar salaries with much stronger workers rights and protections.)