Canada: a workers' paradise? That depends which side of the Canada-U.S. border you're standing on.

Canada: a workers' paradise? That depends which side of the Canada-U.S. border you're standing on. Differences That Matter: Social Policy and the Working Poor in theunited States United States,officially United States of America, republic (2005 est. pop. 295,734,000), 3,539,227 sq mi (9,166,598 sq km), North America. The United States is the world's third largest country in population and the fourth largest country in area. and Canada Dan Zuberi Cornell University Cornell University,mainly at Ithaca, N.Y.; with land-grant, state, and private support; coeducational; chartered 1865, opened 1868. It was named for Ezra Cornell, who donated $500,000 and a tract of land. With the help of state senator Andrew D. Press 230 pagesISBN ISBNabbr.International Standard Book NumberISBNInternational Standard Book NumberISBNn abbr (= International Standard Book Number) → ISBN m9780801444074, hardcover ISBN 9780801473128, softcover Poverty, it turns out, is a problem that can be solved by throwingmoney at it. When collective action and labour unions are strong enoughto increase wages and to push governments to enact appropriate socialpolicy, such as health insurance, community planning, transit, welfare,unemployment insurance and environmental controls, the lives of themajority of citizens improve drastically. The dinning by corporateleaders, the think-tanks they fund and the policy makers they influenceobscure that simple fact. Constantly told that only "themarket" can be trusted to distribute wealth, we tend to forget that"the market" exists to distribute wealth in only onedirection--from working people to bosses. Dan Zuberi, in a rigorouscomparison in Differences That Matter: Social Policy and the WorkingPoor in the United States and Canada, demonstrates that without thecountervailing power Countervailing power is a theory put forward by the esteemed economist John Kenneth Galbraith. In a mixed economy composed of private enterprise and government, there is often a certain level of collusion between large private entities and the government in order to create excess of collective action, labour unions and governmentintervention, the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. It is toZuberi's credit that he has taken on this work; it is to ourcollective shame that his work is necessary. His comparative analysis starts with a simple, fundamentalquestion. Are the working poor better off in Canada with itsinterventionist social policy or in the U.S. where the market reignswith a freer hand? Subsequent questions provide the relevantmeasurements. Who has better access to education, functioningcommunities and health care? Who is better able to endure theirregularities of the labour market, that is, the constant threat ofunemployment and underemployment un��der��em��ployed?adj.1. Employed only part-time when one needs and desires full-time employment.2. Inadequately employed, especially employed at a low-paying job that requires less skill or training than one possesses. ? In which country are the working poormore likely to survive? Few Canadians will be surprised to find that thelives of the working poor are much better here. It may surprise manyAmericans, however, and Zuberi's work is a powerful refutation ref��u��ta��tion? also re��fut��aln.1. The act of refuting.2. Something, such as an argument, that refutes someone or something.Noun 1. tothose in Canada who claim it is necessary to destroy our social policyin order to save it. Zuberi's methodology is straightforward. Unlike manycomparative studies, he does not focus on data at the national level,for comparisons there blur the very real differences within eachcountry. He concentrates on the working poor, because most poor peoplework, and work hard. They are not unemployed or on welfare, and so theirpoverty cannot be blamed on a moral failing. Nor are national averagesuseful. Countries with great disparities between the rich and poor will,on average, appear to be much more equal than they are. The most usefulcomparisons across borders are those among similar people in similarjobs in similar areas, and for these reasons, Zuberi, a sociologist atthe University of British Columbia LocationsVancouverThe Vancouver campus is located at Point Grey, a twenty-minute drive from downtown Vancouver. It is near several beaches and has views of the North Shore mountains. The 7. , compares workers in four hotels inVancouver and Seattle, two cities that are geographically, historically,economically and socially similar. The workers are employed in the sametwo chains in both cities and, in each city, one hotel is unionized andone is not. While this scale of comparison falls short of the scopeimplied by the title, it is a strength--not a weakness--of the study,for it allows Zuberi to control as many variables as possible so he candetermine the effect of different social policies. It is also a strength because while poverty is a systemic problem,it is not experienced in the abstract. It is experienced by individualsand so it is at the level of the individual that the most compellingcomparisons may be made. Zuberi's approach lets him speak directlywith the working poor, and this is crucial, for without understandingtheir experience, we cannot hope to craft meaningful social policy. Forexample, market critics of Canada's healthcare system are quick topoint out that only 15 percent of Americans--about 40 million people--donot have health insurance, and that many U.S. workers receive insuranceas a job benefit. But, as Zuberi demonstrates, the issue of healthinsurance goes beyond having it or not having it. For many Americanworkers, it is tied to the hours they work--a cut in hours means a cutin coverage. Often there is a waiting period of three to six monthsbefore the insurance starts, and often spouses and children are notcovered not coveredHealth care adjective Referring to a procedure, test or other health service to which a policy holder or insurance beneficiary is not entitled under the terms of the policy or payment system–eg, Medicare. Cf Covered. . Many plans are limited in coverage, with ceilings on totalallowable amounts and restrictions on what services and treatments willbe covered. Thus 25 percent of the American workers Zuberi surveyed hadno health insurance while those with coverage had significantout-of-pocket expenses out-of-pocket expensesn. moneys paid directly for necessary items by a contractor, trustee, executor, administrator or any person responsible to cover expenses not detailed by agreement. , faced financial instability due to medical costsand had worse healthcare outcomes, as they could not afford treatmentand preventive care Preventive care is a set of measures taken in advance of symptoms to prevent illness or injury. This type of care is best exemplified by routine physical examinations and immunizations. The emphasis is on preventing illnesses before they occur. See alsoPublic health . As a result, if Americans make higher wages thanCanadians, that wage differential wage differentialn → diferencia salarialwage differentialn → ��ventail m des salaireswage differentialwage n is wiped out by healthcare costs evenif the U.S. workers have health insurance. Similarly, Vancouver workers received more benefits than theirSeattle counterparts, including increased unemployment insurancecoverage, paid maternity leave maternity leaven → baja por maternidadmaternity leavematernity n → cong�� m de maternit��maternity leavematernity n , better workers' compensation workers' compensation,payment by employers for some part of the cost of injuries, or in some cases of occupational diseases, received by employees in the course of their work. ,mandatory vacations, daycare subsidies and cheaper post-secondaryeducation. These benefits do not create the fabled "welfarequeens" or sap people's initiative People’s Initiative or "PI" is one of the modes in which the 1987 Constitution of the Philippines could be amended. The other two modes are via Constituent Assembly or "Con-Ass" and Constitutional Convention or "Con-Con"; which also allow revisions. . Vancouver workers are morelikely to save money for retirement and less likely to have to workseveral jobs at once, which means they have more time foreducation--their own and their children's--and they are better ableto contribute to the community. Canada's social policy providesworkers and their children the resilience to weather the worst economicstorms, the resources to plan ahead with some confidence and the abilityto participate and function more fully in society. Social policy affects community resources as well. As Zuberi putsit, "differences in public maintenance and bread and butterinfrastructure investment contribute to a higher quality of life for theresidents of Vancouver than for those of Seattle." Vancouverworkers have greater access to libraries, public transit, communitycentres, waterfront parks, public swimming pools and museums, and theyuse them more than Seattle workers do. This translates into strongercommunities: Vancouver workers are much more likely to consider theirneighbourhoods safe, pleasant and relatively free of racial tension andcrime. As a result, Vancouver's working poor are much moreconfident and optimistic op��ti��mist?n.1. One who usually expects a favorable outcome.2. A believer in philosophical optimism.op about the future. In short, social policy inCanada provides better lives for individuals, families, communities andsociety. What accounts for the differences in social policy in Canada andthe United States The United States and Canada share a unique legal relationship. U.S. law looks northward with a mixture of optimism and cooperation, viewing Canada as an integral part of U.S. economic and environmental policy. ? It is not, as some (such as Seymour Martin Lipset Seymour Martin Lipset (March 18, 1922 - December 31, 2006) was a political sociologist from the U.S.. Seymour Lipset was a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution and the Hazel Professor of Public Policy at George Mason University. )have argued, because Canada has a tradition of Tory noblesse oblige noblesse o��blige?n.Benevolent, honorable behavior considered to be the responsibility of persons of high birth or rank.[French, nobility is an obligation : noblesse, nobility + thatnudged politicians to alleviate the worst ravages rav��age?v. rav��aged, rav��ag��ing, rav��agesv.tr.1. To bring heavy destruction on; devastate: A tornado ravaged the town.2. of the market whileAmericans had an individualist in��di��vid��u��al��ist?n.1. One that asserts individuality by independence of thought and action.2. An advocate of individualism.in outlook that emphasized the freedom ofthe capitalist. Zuberi's argument is that different social policiesin the U.S. and Canada are largely attributable to the differences inunion density in the two countries. This cannot be traced to a Torytradition. In 1935, U.S. labour legislation was much more progressive;Canada would not have the same legal protections and the union densityuntil the 1940s. By the 1950s, both countries had similar union densityrates, with about 30 percent of non-agricultural workers in unions.Since the 1970s, however, the unionization rate in the United States hasplummeted; today it is around 12 percent, while in Canada it remainsabove 30 percent. Why unionization rates have fallen so dramatically in the U.S. isan ongoing debate. The common assumption, that American workers rejectunions on ideological grounds, is not tenable ten��a��ble?adj.1. Capable of being maintained in argument; rationally defensible: a tenable theory.2. . Surveys consistently showthat they are more likely than Canadians to want to join unions.Instead, Zuberi argues, the Canadian and U.S. labour movements have gonein different directions because changes in U.S. law have made it muchharder to organize workers. With the decline of the labour movement,social policy in the U.S. has also declined as employers have dominatedthe debates and politics. This is seen directly in wages and benefits,and in less direct ways. Unions shield workers from the arbitraryactions of the boss; as one worker put it, without a union, "make alittle mistake, no protection." Unions provide stability: regular,scheduled shifts, for example, let people arrange their lives, while the"don't call us, we'll call you" practice of manynon-union jobs makes it impossible to plan finances or time. Unions givepeople the confidence, skills and tools necessary for collective actionon the job, at the polling booth and in the streets, and so shape socialpolicies beyond the shop floor. Declines in union strength lead todeclines in social policy as well as wages. Thus Zuberi suggests changesthat would bring U.S. social policy up to the current levels of those inCanada. Before American workers form Venceremos Brigades to help us bringin the wheat crop, it is necessary to point out that Canada is far froma workers' paradise. Vancouver's Stanley Park may be a jewel,but its seawall seawall:see coast protection. was largely built by relief camp workers paid 20 cents aday during the Great Depression. The SkyTrain is a substantial publicinvestment in public transit, but its huge cost has dragged down therest of the system. Zuberi holds up B.C.'s anti-scab legislation asa useful protection that Washington workers do not have, but the formerNDP NDP New Democratic Party (Canada)NDP National Development Plan (Republic of Ireland)NDP National Development PlanNDP National Democratic Party (Barbados)government refused to pass sectoral bargaining legislation thatwould make it possible to organize the unorganized in serviceindustries. When the Liberals replaced the NDP in 2001, they eliminatedautomatic union certification based on a majority of workers signingunion cards, a measure that, as Zuberi notes, made it much easier toorganize unions. It has been replaced with mandatory secret ballots.This sounds vaguely democratic, but is actually a gift to employers. Thefirst rule for defeating unions is "delay, delay, delay," andthe government-supervised vote allows employers to stall for time andinterfere with the union drive. Zuberi is also aware that Canadian social policy has declined overthe last 30 years as well. Unionization rates have dropped, especiallyin the private sector. Real wages have declined and the working day hasgotten longer; infrastructure investment, from municipal water tolibraries, has shrunk; welfare and unemployment benefits have been cut.Despite national health care, income is still the greatest predictor ofhealth: For each additional $10,000 in income, we see a considerablejump in health outcomes. Specific policy recommendations forCanada--increase the minimum wage, re-establish previous employmentinsurance coverage, extend universal health care to include vision anddental care and home care, expand day care, reverse tax cuts to the richto fund social programs and reduce post-secondary education tuition--areimportant and well within our capacity to carry out. Zuberi is less helpful when he reflects on who will fight for thesemeasures. His suggestion that the middle class is "the foundationof democracy" is baffling baf��fle?tr.v. baf��fled, baf��fling, baf��fles1. To frustrate or check (a person) as by confusing or perplexing; stymie.2. To impede the force or movement of.n.1. . While workers, including some of thoseZuberi interviews, may consider themselves "middle class," sotoo do the same employers who pay them such terrible wages. Thought ofin terms of income, class is not very useful in figuring out what sideyou are on and who is there with you. But when defined as power in theworkplace, a gulf separates workers from the middle and employingclasses. And there is considerable evidence that workers in Canada andthe United States understand that. Twenty years TWENTY YEARS. The lapse of twenty years raises a presumption of certain facts, and after such a time, the party against whom the presumption has been raised, will be required to prove a negative to establish his rights. 2. ago, at the height ofthe Reagan assault on labour, a book entitled The American Perception ofClass by Reeve Vanneman and Lynn Weber Cannon demonstrated that Americanworkers thought of themselves as part of the working class andunderstood that their interests were opposed to those of theiremployers. They differed from British workers, usually considered veryclass conscious, only in thinking nothing could be done to changethings. It is a terrible irony that citizens of the world'sgreatest democracy were convinced that they were powerless against theiremployers, and it is a harsh reminder that without economic equality,political liberty is largely meaningless. Recently Michael Zweig, in TheWorking Class Majority: America's Best Kept Secret, and the authorsin What's Class Got to Do with It: American Society in theTwenty-First Century, a collection edited by Zweig, have confirmed thatAmerican workers have not become "middle class" incircumstance or consciousness. The furor furor/fu��ror/ (fu��ror) fury; rage.furor epilep��ticus? an attack of intense anger occurring in epilepsy. over Walter BennMichaels's recent book, The Trouble with Diversity: How We Learnedto Love Identity and Ignore Inequality, shows how important the reneweddiscussion over class has become, but Zuberi does not pursue it with theclarity and creativity that characterize the rest of his book. Who should fight is directly related to how the fight should betaken up. Zuberi is right to insist that change to social policy fromthe top is important, and such changes are worth a trip to the ballotbox. At the same time, groups such as the Ontario Coalition AgainstPoverty are surely right to insist that electoral action is often tooremoved, too slow and too fraught with opportunism OpportunismArabella, Ladysquire’s wife matchmakes with money in mind. [Br. Lit.: Doctor Thorne]Ashkenazi, Simchashrewdly and unscrupulously becomes merchant prince. [Yiddish Lit. . Direct action byworkers, poor and otherwise, such as strikes, sit-ins, mass protests andthe like, must accompany--and sometimes take precedence over--politicalparties and election campaigns. Progressive legislation ends in thelegislature, but the battle for it begins outside. That is not just aprescription; it is a lesson from our own history. Furthermore, onceelected, governments of all stripes need to be pushed to do the rightthing, and that push must come from the streets as well as the corridorsof power. Differences That Matter is a necessary tool for contemporarypolitics that matter. Can we share the optimism of the intellect thatinforms the author's optimism of the will? In 1850, only thewildest-eyed utopian would have predicted that serfdom serfdomIn medieval Europe, condition of a tenant farmer who was bound to a hereditary plot of land and to the will of his landlord. Serfs differed from slaves in that slaves could be bought and sold without reference to land, whereas serfs changed lords only when the land in Tsarist Russiaand slavery in the United States The history of slavery in the United States (1619-1865) began soon after the English colonists first settled in Virginia and lasted until the passage of the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. would be formally abolished within 15years. The tear-gassed and beaten men and women of Vancouver's 1938post office sit-in would have found it hard to believe that theirdemands for employment insurance and welfare would soon be met. We havebeen in worse places; we can build a better place. Mark Leier Mark Leier is a Canadian historian of working class and left-wing history. He is the director of the Centre for Labour Studies at Simon Fraser University, where he is also an Associate Professor of Canadian History and the history of Marxism. teaches at Simon Fraser University Simon Fraser University,main campus at Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada; provincially supported; coeducational; chartered 1963, opened 1965. The Harbour Centre campus in downtown Vancouver opened in 1989. . His book, Bakunin:The Creative Passion (St. Martin's St. Martin's or St. Martins may refer to: St. Martins, Missouri, a city in the USA St Martin's, Isles of Scilly, an island off the Cornish coast, England St Martin's, Shropshire, a village in England Press, 2006), was recentlyreviewed in the LRC (Longitudinal Redundancy Check) An error checking method that generates a parity bit from a specified string of bits on a longitudinal track. In a row and column format, such as on magnetic tape, LRC is often used with VRC, which creates a parity bit for each .