Midterm Flashcards
How did workers obtain job security and the SER in Post War
- Organized unions
Even when they didn’t have the right to do so
Job security - Strikes
Industrial democracy
Industrial legality
Major manufacturing sectors
Generational Differences in Work
Post World War II - Standard Employment Relationship
- steady employment
- unionized workers = degree of fairness
- permanent employment
- social norms and practices
- investing in workers
- social entitlements
- workers invest in workers
- male breadwinner model
Generational Differences in Work
1975 to the Present - Working without Commitments (WWC)
- Less likely to have benefits, pensions
- New contract = new terms
- Fewer legal rights
- Excluded from workplace social functions
- Less likely to develop relationship in the workplace
- Sometimes unclear who the employer is
The Negative Effects of Precarious Work on Vulnerable Workers
Physical and Mental Health
greater risk of injury and illness
- lack of experience/training; reprisals
effect of low income
- long hours; effect of food and transportation
job insecurity and stress
- no advanced notice; split shifts; on-call
- Job-strain
- Loneliness; job satisfaction
barriers to access medical treatment and medicine
- lack of health benefits and sick days; ignore injury and illness
The Negative Effects of Precarious Work on Vulnerable Workers
Family and Community Relationships
effect of working multiple jobs; unpredictable hours ⍯ family time and socializing
The Negative Effects of Precarious Work on Vulnerable Workers
Training and Education
- lack access to training
- many avaliable only to those on EI
- Time
The Negative Effects of Precarious Work on Vulnerable Workers
Aging
- Lack of savings/pension; need to continue working
- health risks
- women
The Negative Effects of Precarious Work on Vulnerable Workers
Intergenerational Costs
impact of poverty on children
- food and education
- limits on family time
- high rate of intergenerational mobility (20% to 25%)
Bullshit Jobs
- anthropologist, David Graeber
- people work at jobs that aren’t necessary; not productive jobs, but professional, managerial, clerical, service work
- Why does this continue?
- self-fulfilment = consumerism
- market reflects the interests of the 1%
Result: psychological violence = dignity of labour and resentment of workers who actually “make” or “do”
How do our responses ‘fit’ in society?
**Gender **– female/male labour; paid/unpaid/adaptive labour; part- time/full-time work; personal/family circumstances
agency, structure, and resistance
Class –skilled/unskilled; white collar/blue collar; professional/artistic
**Age **– work/leisure; employment/unemployment; work/life balance; experience/inexperience
Race/Ethnicity – good jobs/bad jobs; opportunity/lack of opportunity; diversity/lack of diversity
Defining Precarious Employment
- Ready to break at any time
- A condition defined by factors: low control of labour process, lack of protection from contracts or labour laws, low wages low job security
- Contract work
- Inconsistent hours, pay and overall work
Precarious vs Bad Jobs: What is the Difference?
- precariousness exists on a continuum
- it limited to workers in non- standard employment relationships = full-time
- low income = less than 1.5 times the minimum wage (33%)
- no pension plan (50%)
- small-sized firm (20%)
- no union coverage (75%)
- 33% of jobs in Canada are precarious
- sectors of the labour market that have been stable
universities; unionized manufacturing; self-employment
Identifying Vulnerable Workers
Women and Single Parents
- 68% (2021) of Ontario women employed; but 72% in permanent part-time work
- over represented in lowest income groups
- fast food part-time/temporary work
- choice = family/care responsibilities
- illusory employer/society fail to accommodate
- historical implications = male breadwinner wage
- reliance on men for wages, benefits; permanent relationships
Identifying Vulnerable Workers
Racialized Persons
higher rates of unemployment and employment security (women)
poverty and segregation
Identifying Vulnerable Workers
2SLGHTQI+ Persons
more likely to live in poverty and work low income/low wage jobs ¤ higher rates of unemployment and homelessness (esp. trans workers)
more likely to be the result of abuse
Identifying Vulnerable Workers
Newcomers to Canada and Established Immigrants
- 10% of Ontario workers; 16% temporary workers
- historical implications = high education; low educational requirements (28% men and 44% women) now generational = deskilling
- particularly hard on families; second-class status
- refugee status = more precarious; lasting
- language barriers; workers’ rights and health and safety
Identifying Vulnerable Workers
Temporary Migrant Workers
- 1⁄2 million in Canada; 6,000 in Leamington a year
- skilled, unskilled, seasonal agricultural workers, caregivers
- 8 month contracts
- farmer’s ability to “name workers”
- silences workers rights
- higher risk to: injury, sexual harassment,
exploitative recruitment practices - lack permanent status
Identifying Vulnerable Workers
Indigenous Persons
high rates of unemployment off reserve; widening gap
- youth = educational gap; economic; social and health
Identifying Vulnerable Workers
persons with disabilities
- high rates of unemployment
- temporary, part-time work; lower salaries (not equal to others’ wages $13,000), lack of benefits
- systemic discrimination; little choice but to accept precarity
- Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act = notified of accommodations during hiring
Identifying Vulnerable Workers
Youth (15-25)
- high rates of unemployment; non-standard employment
- 50% part-time; over represented in temporary work
unpaid internships; lower minimum wage ($13.15/hour)
health and safety concerns
Identifying Vulnerable Workers
Non-Status/Undocumented Workers
highly vulnerable; ESA and OHS
Karl Marx and the Theory of Alienation
Alienation from the products of labour
- worker receives wage; employer maintains power
- capitalist production not defined by workers’ needs, but employer’s profits increases
- political and economic divide between workers and capitalists
Karl Marx and the Theory of Alienation
alienation from the work process
cede ability to determine intensity and duration of work employer decides whether or not work will be performed
Karl Marx and the Theory of Alienation
Self-estrangement
there should be purpose in work; a means of self-expression and self-development when work is not; it becomes a means to an end
estrangement of humans from their own essence or nature
humans distinct from all other species in that they have the capacity to both conceptualize and execute work
Karl Marx and the Theory of Alienation
alienation/estrangement from other people
workers must competitively sell their labour to survive; creates divisions within the working class most notably along the lines of sex, age, race, and ethnicity
Karl Marx and the Theory of Alienation
A few notes on Marx’s Theory of Alienation:
alienation always entails a notion of human estrangement
the source of alienation is seen as residing in the social structure, rather than in individual personalities
It’s society,not you!
