WORKING TOGETHER TO RAISE EVERYONE UP:
IZIDA ZORDE IN CONVERSATION WITH WORKERS’ ACTION CENTRE COORDINATOR DEENA LADD
Izida Zorde: I want to begin by asking you about the Workers’ Action Centre and the organizing that you do.
Deena Ladd: The Workers’ Action Centre is an organization that supports workers who don’t have a union. They could be in temp, contract, part-time or casual types of jobs experiencing violations of their rights or facing discrimination at work. We work with these workers to deal with issues they have in the workplace. But we also do a lot of organizing to improve working conditions systemically across Ontario. We’re trying to involve workers in the broader labour movement
even if they are not connected to any other organization. How can we encourage people not to be victims of wage theft or violations of their rights, but also, through dealing with problems at work, to begin to talk about broader political issues? Why is it that so many workers are facing violations of their rights at work? Why didn’t you get your overtime pay? Why do you feel you will lose your job if you say some- thing about health and safety at work? Through this kind of political discussion we are encouraging people to get involved in the organiza- tion, to become members, and then get involved in campaigns, orga- nizing and educating to build a broader labour movement.
IZ: Why is providing the opportunity for people to get politically involved and make changes that have a tangible impact on their lives particularly necessary in light of the rise in precarious work?
DL: Over the last 20 years, we’ve seen a huge increase in precarious work. We’ve seen jobs move from being full-time and permanent with benefits and pensions to being casual, contract, on call, relief, short-term, with no benefits, no pensions and declining wages. In Ontario, about 1.5 million people make less than $15 an hour. That’s a huge low-wage economy. In addition, people lack access to den- tal care and prescription drugs. Employers are not providing these benefits anymore. We’re seeing workers accessing work through sub- contractors, franchisees, brokers and temp agencies. They don’t have a relationship with their employer. Workers are nervous about orga- nizing. People’s expectations about what they should get in a job are being completely crushed. You talk to anyone who’s looking for a job and if they get a six-month contract they think they’ve hit the jackpot. And if they’ve got benefits? Wow, they’re set. Having a decent job,
8 ETFO VOICE | FALL 2017
with decent wages and benefits, with an employer who is responsible for your working conditions, is now rare. It’s becoming a myth. That’s a concern to us and should be a concern to everyone.
IZ: How do we fight against lowest common denominator thinking when so many people are facing these types of working conditions?
DL: People are asking “Why do you have a pension? I don’t have a pension. Why do you have benefits? I don’t have benefits – that’s not fair.” Should we be grateful for having any type of job? I think what our organizing has done is change the questions to ask instead, “Why can’t we have benefits? Why can’t we have pensions? Why can’t we have decent jobs? Who is making these decisions and is this inevitable?” I don’t think it’s only globalization, technology and the restruc-
turing in the labour market that are the determinants here. I think it’s the steps governments have taken to deregulate the labour market and the fact that businesses want workers to accept that precarious work and low wages are inevitable. We see this when our politicians say “Just get used to it. It’s the wave of the future. You’re going to have five or six careers in your lifetime. You should be constantly training. You should be completely flexible. If your employer wants you, you should be right there. And you shouldn’t say anything because you should be grateful you have a job.” What we’ve been trying to do in our organizing is to say “Absolutely not.” We should have expecta- tions of decent work. We should be able to say “If you’re going to pay me, I should be paid over the poverty line. You shouldn’t be paying me to subsist in poverty. And why shouldn’t I have full-time work? Why shouldn’t I have equal pay for equal work? Just because you’ve hired me through a temp agency, why am I being paid 40 percent less?” Pushing people to critically question what’s going on and move beyond that to action is what the Workers’ Action Centre, labour and community groups have been doing.
IZ: Why is it essential that we work to make sure that everyone’s basic needs are met before we ask them to participate in whatever social movement we’re part of?
DL: When we’re doing community organizing and when we’re asking for support for the issues we’re working on, it’s important we under- stand what power we have and what power the people we’re asking to
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