What do you wear?

I am not sure if I am angry, irritated, disappointed, pissed off or just ashamed of my fellow citizens.

For the past few days every news cast on TV has been flooded with horrific pictures of the textile factory's collapse in Bangladesh. We get to see over and over again people being carried out of the collapsed structure and their families crying at the side of the road.  Attached to those pictures are others showing the people of Bangladesh protesting in the streets - demanding better and safer working conditions. However, as appalling as these images are, what I find more upsetting are the discussions that are being attached to the lead story.

Every newscast seems to have a segment showing Canadian shoppers figuratively wringing their hands and suggesting that they didn't know that the people who made their clothes worked in such terrible conditions; that somehow the clothing they bought was made in safe and perhaps even enjoyable working conditions by people who had a choice about where they worked; that the factories that they worked in were regulated and inspected by highly competent public officials. One wonders how they could believed that?

The final piece of this news item is usually a representative from some clothing conglomerate (the Gap for example owns the Gap, Old Navy and Banana Republic (CBC News)) explaining that they are working on the problem. The spokesperson always insist that the various textile contractors in Bangladesh or other such countries are expected to follow safety rules etc. Again according to the CBC there is some doubt as to how hard they are working on the problem or how serious they are about demanding that safer working conditions exist in the factories that produce our clothing.

It is as if this is a new story; that we are just finding out this week that there are people who are working for a pittance in more than horrendous conditions for long hours so that our need to be fashionable is satisfied. Our surprise at these facts is more than a little bit strange given that on a regular basis for at least the past 10-15 years there has been public discussion as to the problem. According to Reuters, not counting the most recent disaster, in the past six years there have been 700 deaths reported in Bangladesh alone that were directly caused because of fire or poorly constructed/maintained buildings. A quick search via Google will find similar statistics from other countries. Anyone who could read knew what was happening in at least some detail;  anyone who watched the news on occasion would have got at least a glimmering of how and where their clothes were made. Certainly I, for at least the past seven years, have discussed the issue in one form or another in many of my classes.

Some people justify the existence of these factories by either saying that the people are so much better off since the factories came to their cities in at least they now have jobs; that no one forces them to work there for low wages. The second argument is that the countries are better off now that there is  western money coming into their countries. And that is the individual country's responsibility to create and enforce appropriate working conditions. Both of these rationalizations  imply that there is a choice. There is not.

There are no other jobs for the individuals to go to, and if there were - the working conditions would be virtually identical. There is no one for them to complain to. The workers have zero protection. There is quite simply not the infrastructure to provide such help. It is true that countries could increase the building standards and demand that factories treat their employees as if they had some value as humans, but doing so would increase the cost of operation for the factories. The western buyers would not accept paying more. They would just negotiate the contract with another factory/country that did not have those standards. The various political forces in each country have unfortunately been convinced that they need what little revenue the textile business earns. They can't afford to lose that revenue.

The terribleness of the "incident" in  Bangladesh will make the news for another few days and then will be replaced by something else.  We in the west will continue, in our usual fashion, to wail at the injustices of someone else's decisions and as always, refuse to accept responsibility for our own. The majority of our clothing that we buy will be made in some other country by men and women who lack the most basic rights of safe working conditions. Rights that we have because of strong unions and a strong economy ¹. And the next time something similar happens - another building collapses, or catches fire or there is a chemical spill that maims people and it will, we will do the right thing and complain- then once again say that we didn't know.

One has to wonder if this moral and perhaps almost intentional ignorance is because we are not very bright, because we are greedy ,or because we just don't care. I don't know which of the three options scares me the most.

question... how many pants or shirt/blouses do you need?

¹if you doubt the connection between a strong economy and strong unions - look at what is happening to unions and our present dysfunctional  economic system. The tighter times get (according to those are making less) the more unions are under pressure to be less active - less demanding.

On being a cynic

It is no fun being a cynic - in fact it is, on occasion, bloody hard work and more than a little tiresome. It would be so much easier if I could just take what people said at face value - but I can't. I seem to be somehow compelled to look at information with just a grain of salt. Although there are times when a box full of the stuff can't get the bad taste from my mouth. Take for example the announcement yesterday that the RCMP had just arrested two terrorists (with ties to the Al Qaeda in Iran) who were planning to blow up a passenger train. On the surface that is great news; it really is. To arrest two international terrorist who were intent upon killing people and disrupting travel is something for which the police services should be congratulated for.  But at the very least one has to wonder at the timing of the arrest.

The investigation of the suspects and their plot to blow up a Via Rail train had been going on for months. According the CBC, amongst other news outlets, CSIS and the RCMP  have followed the two suspects everywhere including overseas. Furthermore there may be other suspects still out there who were not arrested. So why were these two individual arrested now? There does not appear to be any indications that the threat was imminent. We were not a risk and surely one should wait until all of the suspects can be rounded up and charged at the same time.  So what was the rush?

It could be a coincidence that at the same time as the announcement was made about the arrest there was a debate in Ottawa about the government's anti- terrorism bill. The proposed anti- terrorism bill is a draconian piece of legislation that, according the Huffington Post would deprived Canadians of some basic rights including the right to not give incriminating evidence to the police when being questioned. As well people can be arrested and held for three days on the suspicion of being involved in terrorist activities. I am not too sure if there is any reason to believe that such additional police powers are required.   But it is going to be pretty hard to argue against such a piece of legislation when terrorists appear to be banging on our doors.

The debate itself was a bit of a surprise. For at least four months the anti- terrorism bill had been languishing somewhere in the bowels of parliament or wherever such pieces of legislation go when the government has lost interest in them. When the government announced last Friday that the bill was back on the table, everyone including me assumed that the government was trying to avoid the scheduled debate about whether or not parliamentarians should have more independence. But perhaps the Prime Minister knew that the arrest were going to be made on Monday or perhaps even more sinister, someone in the PM's office suggested to the police that now would be a good time to make an arrest. Regardless of how it happened it is hard to believe that it is a coincidence.

It should be noted that according to the CBC I am not the only person who has such cynical thoughts.

We should also be aware that the government has suggested that those environmental activist who wish to protest against government policies can be considered terrorists. And will all of those Idle No More protesters who may be active this summer also be labelled as terrorists?

Beware Canada!!

Blackie and spring -part 2

While it grieves me to say it - I am not always right. In fact if the truth were known - I don't think I am usually right any more than half the time. In terms of decisions about personal things such as relationship issues, I do even worse. But I was right about when spring would arrive in my neck of the woods.

On March 12th, in this blog, I predicted that spring would occur on or about April 14.  It is the 15th of April and spring is here.  How do I know? As I got out of my car this afternoon, I could smell the dirt. I could smell all of those earthy aromas that have lain frozen and dormant for the past few months. I know the next time it rains there will be that fresh smell in the air.

It was a close thing. Given the weather that we had at the end of last week and the weather that parts of the Prairies had earlier in the week, I was not too sure if I was going to be right. I really wondered if this was the year that spring would be a week or two later than I had predicted. At Easter, when we had a few days of delightful sun and fairly warm temperatures I thought maybe that I had missed the signs and spring was about to occur.  But once again Blackie's lesson about the crows has held true. Every year I wonder, given our rapidly changing patterns of weather, how many more years I will get to guess with some accuracy when spring will occur.

But for now I am content. Spring is here. Thanks again Blackie.

Trading jobs

Media sources as disparate as the Calgary Herald and the CBC have both written stories in the past few days about Canada's Foreign Worker Program. They both say the same thing. They have suggested that the program, which was designed to help Canadian companies in the short term find workers for specific jobs for which there were no Canadian workers available, is being used to find cheap labour from other countries in spite of the fact that there are Canadian workers available and capable.

The Foreign Worker program has always made some sense from the perspective of both industry and most Canadians because the imported workers were doing jobs that Canadians generally did not want. Picking fruit is a prime example. The farmer only needs workers for a short period of time, it is hard work and Canadians are generally not prepared to work for low wages and long hours. From the workers point of view however, it has not always been a great deal. Yes they get to come to Canada for a while and make what must seem to them like a fair amount of money; money that they can take home and support their families. But various advocacy groups have argued for years that the working and living conditions are substandard and that in spite of the fact that the foreign workers are obliged to pay into Employment Insurance (what an oxymoron that phrase is!) they are seldom eligible to collect it. As well they may not be eligible for health care depending upon how long they are in the country.  While they may (according to Citizen and Immigration Canada's website) have full access to all of  the protection that Canada offers to its citizens, one wonders how easily the information is available to those whose first language is not English or French and who may not have internet access. However the issues that have been raised most recently are not related to the protection of those temporary workers but rather to the protection of good long term jobs for Canadians. Bank employees and miners have both been affected the Foreign Worker Program.

If I understand the story, the Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) has hired a company to supply IT workers from another country and has required its own employees to train those new workers before being laid off. It would be logical to assume that the bank was doing so because it needed to save money. Not a good reason or even one that is legal but it would be sort of understandable. Except that according to the Huff Post "the personal and commercial banking segment earned a record $1.1 billion, up 11 per cent from the same quarter last year". Nope they don't need the money. They are just being greedy.

On the West Coast, CTV news (amongst other media sources) has discussed the case of 200 miners from China who were allowed to enter Canada on temporary work visas because the owners of the mine (who happen to be Chinese) said there were no suitably trained Canadian miners. That is a bit hard to believe. There have to be 200 miners in Canada who would re-locate to the West Coast. What is unfortunately less hard to believe is that our government allowed this to happen. I think the important question is why?

For the companies in question it is a good deal. They are allowed to pay 15% less to the imported workers. It is also a good deal for both the companies and the government in that it is one more way that unions are being broken.  Quite clearly the message is to Canadians - if you won't work for lower wages - we will import workers who are so desperate for a job that they will accept reduced wages. And these workers will have fewer rights and  may never know that they are allowed to complain about work conditions. Sweet deal if you are a capitalist.

At the end of last year, CBC presented a story about the treatment of foreign workers at Tim Horton's.  Who knew that there were not enough students who wanted to work at Timmies ? It couldn't be because those imported workers would work for less...could it?

There is some good news. According to at least one employee at the Royal Bank, since the story broke he has started to get offers from other departments within the bank offering interviews. Brendan Behan (Irish Author) once wrote - there is no such thing as bad publicity" (The Quotation Page).  It looks like he may have been wrong.