Justice for Workers Guelph knows there's power in numbers

“I don’t think justice for workers can be achieved under capitalism, because capitalism is based on the exploitation of the majority. So, how can you have justice in an injust system?” Susan Rosenthal

Justice for Workers Guelph members. Photo Credit: Justice for Workers Guelph

Susan Rosenthal is the lead organizer for the Justice for Workers Guelph chapter. She recently sat down with Small Change to talk about the challenges workers face in these neoliberal times.

“Whatever I say is my own personal opinion. I don’t have any authority to speak on behalf of Justice for Workers. We don’t have any particular perspective on the world, other than the demand for decent work,” Rosenthal said.

Rosenthal maintains uniformity in action is more important than conformity of thought.

The Guelph group meets monthly to work together on matters of mutual concern like a much-needed standard of living, reproductive rights, status for all and the housing affordability crisis.

Most Guelph members are young, working-class people who don’t have money to spare. Those young workers are dealing with low wages, precarious work, exploitation on the job, wage theft and discrimination.

Perhaps one of the most prominent disillusionments centers around a misunderstanding, even distrust, of unions.

Rosenthal explains that there are two types of unions -- those that function as a service organization and those unions that are the combined strength of the workers on the job. Only the latter is able to stand up to tyranny collectively on the job site.

Rosenthal’s brother was chief shop steward at Toronto General Hospital in the 1980s. Whenever there was a grievance, he took all of the affected workers to management and told them that no one would return to work until the grievance was solved. The problem was usually resolved right away. That’s an example of the union as the collective strength of workers.

Unions that act as service organizations intercede between workers and management leaving the workers powerless. In these situations, the union has all of the power and what they say goes. That is a very ineffective, disempowering form of union that is not part of the class struggle.

“When building a union, members must see the union as them and not a force standing above, apart and over them,” Rosenthal said.

While union membership has declined significantly in the past five decades, their assets have grown exponentially.

In the United States (US), unions own about $31.6 billion in assets. That’s more than any US foundation with the exception of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation with $48 billion in assets.

That should give unions more power, strength and stamina to ride out difficult negotiations. Unfortunately, that’s not necessarily reality.

One problem lies with the system of contract bargaining that divides unions. Today, bargaining is designed to address workers’ issues on a workplace-by-workplace basis which weakens the strength that comes with numbers.

This system undermines the strides made by industrial unions like the United Auto Workers unions who pushed for wall-to-wall unions so there would be one contract for everyone within the same workplace.

Guelph University (U of G) has approximately 12 separate union and employee groups. That divides workers and keeps each fight separated from the other negotiations and struggles.

These separate contracts make it impossible to bargain based on what’s best for the community or class.

Separate contracts also make workers vulnerable to defeat because employers all follow the same rule book and back each other up.

Rosenthal says this is why workers have lost so much ground over the past 50 years.

Since the late 1970s and early 1980s, neoliberal corporate tax cuts have meant less money in government coffers which set in motion cuts to essential social services.

“When Margaret Thatcher said there is no such thing as society, only individuals and families, what she was saying is that the state exists to serve the business class and everybody else is on their own,” stated Rosenthal.

What followed was a progressive reduction of state funding for all social services including education, medical care, and family supports.

In order to make money, the universities have been exploiting their workers and increasing tuition fees. Most of these institutions would be in financial difficulty without a continuous supply of international students paying outrageously inflated tuition and fees.

According to Rosenthal, the U of G has a billion dollars in assets. They have substantial endowment funds in the form of investment funds acquired from employing precarious labour.

Rosenthal believes, “you cannot have a social system that is also a business and expect it to be effective as a social service because business priorities will always dominate."

All one has to do is look at Ontario’s policies around housing, medical services and social assistance reforms which, under Doug Ford, have been tantamount to social murder.

And, if the lens is laser-focused on university activities, then big pay outs for presidents are very common. McMaster University president Peter George received a golden handshake of nearly $1.4 million after his retirement in July 2010. It took nearly two years for the Hamilton Spectator to gain access to this information.

“That’s a mirror of society in general. Society exists to transfer wealth from ordinary people to rich people. It does it very well and it does it through more and more institutions. It didn’t used to do it through social services, but now it does,” observed Rosenthal.

The business class views money spent in the public sector as a loss and a waste. Only money that’s invested to make more money is of any benefit to the economy.

That’s why it’s so difficult for the business class to see universal public health care as valuable. Or, investing in public education. Or, paying workers a decent standard of living.

And, since government kowtows to business interests, the system prioritizes money over public investment and public good.

In Ontario, this all started under the auspices of PC Premier Mike Harris and it’s continuing on – perhaps much more overtly and savagely – under PC Premier Doug Ford.

“I don’t think justice for workers can be achieved under capitalism, because capitalism is based on the exploitation of the majority. So, how can you have justice in an injust system?” Rosenthal asks.

J4W is fighting for workers to have more control on the job, dignity, respect, rights, money and a say in how things are done. Rosenthal sees it as a fight for human needs.

“It’s a political struggle. What’s going to be more important to society -- meeting human needs or profit?” asks Rosenthal.

She believes the New Democratic Party (NDP) have many good people who are committed to workers rights. However, the problem remains that they would be managing a system that is inherently exploitive of workers.

Rosenthal refers to the current electoral strategy as the Oliver Twist strategy of begging for more from those in power. Instead, she says, workers need to take power by saying if you don’t give us what we need, we’re not going to make a profit for you. In other words, there needs to be a class war.

That fear of fomenting a class war drove Ford to put Bill 28 in place preventing 55,000 Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) members from striking last November. But educational assistants, librarians and custodians still walked off the job for two days forcing Ford to withdraw the legislation.

Yet, Ford remains steadfast in his fight to keep Bill 124, the Protecting a Sustainable Public Sector for Future Generations Act, in place. That bill limited 780,000 public sector workers to a 1 per cent wage increase per year for a three-year period starting in 2019.

A court ruling declared Bill 124 unconstitutional, yet Ford is appealing that decision and so the bill remains in place.

Hospital workers like dietary aides, personal support workers and registered practical nurses are some of the professions affected by Bill 124. They went to arbitration in their latest round of contract negotiations. The arbitrator looked at the average wage increase in similar or comparable sectors to decide that 3.75 per cent for last year and 2.5 per cent for this year on top of the one per cent per year they received under Bill 124.

But even that decision-making process was unfair because if all employers are ensuring no one group of workers gets a wage increase that actually meets inflation, let alone exceeds it, then these workers end up getting a real wage cut.

Inflation was about 2.3 per cent during 2022/23, but the Consumer Price Index (CPI) rose 6.8 per cent in 2022 which was a 40-year high and the largest increase since 1982 when CPI rose 10.9 per cent.

Prices for goods increased 8.7 per cent on average in 2022 with food increasing almost 9 per cent and gasoline close to 29 per cent alone.

Nurses settled in July 2023 for 11 per cent increases over two years and when added to two additional arbitration decisions stemming from Bill 124 being overturned, nurses will receive wage increases that average 16 per cent from March 31, 2023 until April 1, 2024. That translates into an average hourly wage increase of about $5 to $7 which sounds much less impressive than hearing it stated as a 16 per cent increase.

Compare the figures our frontline heroes who had to fight tooth and nail to get $5 to $7 more an hour with the fact that Galen Weston received $11.7 million in compensation in 2022 – a nearly $1.1 million increase, or 56 per cent, from the previous year.

And, we haven’t even touched on the fact that grocery store cashiers lost their $2 per hour hero pay and make minimum wage for performing skilled labour that requires them to stand for their entire shift. Or, that over 70 per cent of grocery workers are part-time and not by choice.

“The system is designed to keep workers down and keep the money flowing from us to them,” Rosenthal says.

“If any group of workers manages to get an increase above inflation, it’s going to open the floodgate and business knows it. The system is rigged in their favour because it’s their system. Workers are trapped in that system. Workers need to be running society.”

Rosenthal is hopeful because she believes this younger generation is extremely radical perhaps because they are living with the reality that they may be the last human generation and they really want to fight to make things different.

“The existing system cannot solve any of the problems that we’re facing. We need to build democratic organizations that are run by the members that are open and responsive. We’re also eager to work with every other organization in Guelph,” Rosenthal stated.

J4W is not affiliated with any political party and welcomes all kinds of political perspectives. J4W grew from the Workers Action Centre (WAC) in Toronto.

WAC remains the main support for chapters by providing literature, buttons, table banners, and the cost of monthly room rentals with individual chapters covering all other costs through donations.

Volunteers doing work for the organization are reimbursed for costs to ensure everyone, regardless of means, can participate and have input on improving the lives of workers.

Here’s a list of upcoming events:

Sunday, September 10, 3:00 pm to 5:30, Guelph Public Meeting, How Can We Solve the Housing Crisis?

Sunday, September 17, 2:00 pm: Day of Action for Migrant Rights, Bloor & Yonge, Toronto.

Thursday, September 21, 3:00 pm to 5:00 pm, U of G, UC Rm 430, "Introduction to Justice for Workers Guelph."

Sunday, September 24, (Online) 12:30 pm to 1:30 pm: Reading and Discussion group.

Sunday, October 22, 3:00 pm to 5:30, Guelph Public Meeting, AI and Automation: Threat or Benefit?

Sunday, November 19, 3:00 pm to 5:30, Guelph Public Meeting on War.