Working Class

Even though most of us have to slug it out 5 days a week doing our jobs we are not termed “working class” because we are not doing physical labour and we are educated.  This is according to the Wikipedia article.  I however am considering that while we may not be so defined now in the future we will again revert to working class status because this is how the economy is being driven. 

In my opinion I believe that the political will since at least the 1990’s has been to drive the mass population downwards in economic expectations.  This can be seen by the extreme pressure that was and is brought to bear on the various unions around the world.  In breaking the unions the powers that be have helped keep down the wages of all workers.  In addition a large portion of industry has been shipped outside of Canada and the United States which means thousands of jobs have disappeared.  Here’s a news flash for Mitt Romney and his ilk, consequently there is unemployment in America.  I do not know what is happening in the United States but here in Canada we are allowing immigrants to enter our country because they demand lower wages and will do the menial work that “white folks” won’t do. 

I was told by a business person that their company has been experiencing a crisis with respect to using truck transportation.  The truck drivers barely speak English and more than once they have had the cargo either stolen or abandoned on the road.  I was considerably shocked since I had worked extensively with transportation in my past career and never once in 15 years had I had an issued with my transportation.

In recent weeks we have been experiencing a cross country crisis with our beef industry which has a two-fold reason.  The meat inspection agency is now privatized and the vast majority of workers are immigrants who barely speak English.  If you cannot understand the language how can you possibly understand the regulations required to keep a factory properly sanitized.  I was practically raised on a kill floor since my father frequently brought us children with him to the various meat plants he worked in, I worked my summers in a meat plant, I was the first woman to work on a kill floor as a meat inspector and the first woman in Canada to make the list as a Federal meat inspector.  I was also co-owner of a federally inspected meat plant.  I know whereof I speak. 

I am not attacking immigrant workers, I am questioning why our government feels it is necessary to bring in lower paid workers rather than investigate the need to pay our existing Canadian workers an honest living wage.  Why have our labour standards deteriorated to the extent that it is now acceptable to have stores open 24/7 and yet these same stores have the majority of their employees working less than a 40 hour week?  Thus the stores are not required to pay full benefits to these workers.  If the store cannot afford to give their employees a living wage with full benefits that store should not be allowed to operate.  Let’s face it, these same stores grant bonuses and dividends at the top levels.  I’m sorry but that is not acceptable when the employees cannot by groceries.

In the American election, as well as our own recent federal election, there was a lot of rhetoric but there was very little substance with respect to why there was rampant unemployment.  Those of us who watch a number of different magazine shows and political analysis shows will have a better grasp of what is really happening, but for the average Joe what do they really understand?  Are they so hammered down by their situation that they cannot protest?

If there isn’t a strong protest soon North Americans will lose their middle class ground and again become the working class, in an economic sense.