More Canadians now working in retail than manufacturing but their hourly wage is far lower
For almost two months, 345 CAW members working at a Zellers warehouse in Scarborough have maintained picket lines after their company tabled a shocking list of take-it-or-leave-it concessions and then refused to negotiate any further with the workers.
In fact, over the past seven weeks there has not been one meaningful attempt to settle this dispute despite countless efforts made by the union bargaining committee to reach out to the employer with proposed solutions.
The company, owned by U.S. private equity firm NRDC Equity Partners, is demanding wage cuts to the tune of $16,000 a year and has tabled contract language that would eliminate severance pay entitlements, undermine seniority provisions and allow the company to convert more jobs to temporary employment, among other concessions.
Their intention is to lower wages and working conditions to levels near or at par with non-union facilities in their chain.
This dispute symbolizes everything that’s gone bad for retail sector workers. Workers (many of them new immigrants, women and young workers) are consistently nickel and dimed by their employers while massive profits and record sales roll in.
Over the past decade, the Canadian retail sector has witnessed major economic growth. Annual sales are fast approaching $1 trillion. Value-added has grown by 40 per cent since 2000 and accounts for $150 billion in the total economy. By comparison, value added for the manufacturing sector has dropped by more than 7 per cent in the same time period.
Retail and wholesale trade is one of the fastest growing employment sectors in the country. Yet over the past two decades the wages of retail and wholesale sector workers have not kept pace. After adjusting for inflation, wages have actually declined by 4 per cent since 2000.
How absurd is it that union-led campaigns aimed at increasing provincial minimum wage rates across the country may be the reason this trend turns around in the coming years – hardly a substitute for decent collective agreements. Today, retail workers earn an average hourly rate of $14, which is substantially less than the 2009 Canadian average of $19.50.
With the country’s unemployment rate rising and the shift away from industrial employment, more Canadians are relying on jobs in the retail sector to pay the bills, feed their kids, pay for school and build workplace skills that will benefit them in their career. But these jobs just aren’t making the grade.
In May 2008, Canadian labour market data revealed that for the first time the retail sector officially topped manufacturing as the largest employment sector in Canada. Today there are more than 1.8 million retail workers in Canada and 1.5 million manufacturing workers, and the difference is growing.
This changing dynamic in Canada’s labour market represents a fundamental shift in our economic makeup. It follows years of job losses in the manufacturing sector, totalling around half a million. Many of these workers were paid decent, family-supporting wages and enjoyed pension and benefit plans. Communities thrived on these jobs. They helped build Canada’s middle class.
The higher levels of unionization (about 25 per cent) in the manufacturing sector are part of the story. Unionizing a critical mass of workers in a sector helps ensure workers’ wages are not factored into the “competitiveness” equation.
Unions help shield workers against a model that turns lower wages into higher profits – exactly what CAW members at Zellers in Scarborough are trying to avoid. By contrast, only 12 per cent of retail workers are unionized – less than half the Canadian average. Quite simply, retail workers do not have the collective voice that workers in other sectors have benefited from and the consequences of this are being felt on the job, in their buying power as consumers and in their ability to afford a decent standard of living.
It’s time all levels of government started thinking more critically and strategically about how they can better support workers in this sector. A crucial first step would be to ensure minimum wage laws are monitored and continuously improved to guarantee that retail workers working full-time will earn a stable and liveable income. We need to look, too, at hours-of-work legislation so that erratic schedules and short weeks don’t continue to plague the sector. This has consequences for everything from child care to EI coverage.
Governments must also ensure retail workers are given the opportunity to unionize free from employer intimidation and influence. This means establishing card-based union certification in all jurisdictions and granting provincial labour boards full power to award automatic certification in the event of employer interference. These critical pieces must fit into a broader sector strategy that improves work standards, invests in skills training and views workers as a valuable long-term resource.
The 345 striking CAW members at the Zellers warehouse are not just taking a stand against the cut-throat concessions demanded by their employer. They are also taking a stand against an industry that has run roughshod over workers for many years. They are speaking out for the retail workers who have no voice in their workplace and who are tired of watching their working conditions slowly deteriorate.
Retail workers simply deserve a better deal.
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