Why I'm glad I immigrated, part N
Jun. 27th, 2014 11:31 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jazzfishSupreme Court rules Wal-Mart must compensate workers at closed Quebec store: "The store shut down a few months after the 190 workers became the first Wal-Mart employees in North America to be unionized in 2004."
(You may, if you wish, compare and contrast this decision with almost any recent decision by the US Supreme Court.)
Something I've noticed: there are unions in Canada that will actually go on strike. Since I've been here I've noticed: the Post Office, a month after we got here. (Ended badly: the union staged 'rolling strikes' of roughly one spot per day to make a statement while not inconveniencing anyone too much, management responded by locking out *all* postal workers and then blaming it on 'the strike,' and the gov't signed back-to-work legislation.); truckers at the Port of Vancouver, sick of making no money while sitting around waiting for the Port to unload/load. (An agreement was reached; the Port is dragging its feet on implementing its end, and the truckers are making more strike noises.); and BC teachers, currently ongoing.
American individualism is American exceptionalism taken to ridiculous extremes. The idea that helping everyone else get ahead means that everyone else is dragging us down may be the most pernicious I've ever heard. It's certainly up there with "the rich deserve their money" and "work good, pleasure bad."
There's certainly some of that attitude up here, but there's still some leftover pushback against it too. It's nice to see.
(You may, if you wish, compare and contrast this decision with almost any recent decision by the US Supreme Court.)
Something I've noticed: there are unions in Canada that will actually go on strike. Since I've been here I've noticed: the Post Office, a month after we got here. (Ended badly: the union staged 'rolling strikes' of roughly one spot per day to make a statement while not inconveniencing anyone too much, management responded by locking out *all* postal workers and then blaming it on 'the strike,' and the gov't signed back-to-work legislation.); truckers at the Port of Vancouver, sick of making no money while sitting around waiting for the Port to unload/load. (An agreement was reached; the Port is dragging its feet on implementing its end, and the truckers are making more strike noises.); and BC teachers, currently ongoing.
American individualism is American exceptionalism taken to ridiculous extremes. The idea that helping everyone else get ahead means that everyone else is dragging us down may be the most pernicious I've ever heard. It's certainly up there with "the rich deserve their money" and "work good, pleasure bad."
There's certainly some of that attitude up here, but there's still some leftover pushback against it too. It's nice to see.
no subject
Date: 2014-06-28 11:37 am (UTC)Wal-Mart makes about $35K in *profit* a minute. So that's about 19 hours of profit. Less than a day's work in penalty, in exchange for being able to spend the last 10 years telling Wal-Mart employees worldwide that if they try to exercise their legal rights and get fair wages or reasonable protections, they're fired *just like those Canadians*?
Even 10 times that much still doesn't sting Wal-Mart like a decade of needing to treat their workers fairly would have. 100 times, maybe, but at that point you're relying on a "arbitrator" to decide that a bunch of minimum wage workers deserve 20 million dollars each.
(Insert standard rant here about how the REAL "tort reform" that's needed is the ability to levy punitive damages that don't necessarily go to the Plaintiff, so that the moral panic about 'but they're getting RICH!' can be removed and appropriate penalties can actually be levied for crimes by rich entities.)