Work Ethic

I am sick and tired of the Canadian work ethic being critisized. I have travelled to quite a few parts of the world as a consultant in the railway industry. I can tell you our work ethic is second to none espicially compared to SE Asia.

SE Asia lacks quality control at every level and isn't enforced until there are representatives from the west in place. I worked in Bangledesh where there is a huge garmet industry. A person I met represented a clothing company here in Canada. She would put a mark on the last box loaded under her supervision and inspection. When she arrived next morning she would remove all boxes that had been loaded after she left until she arrived next day.

I asked her why. She replied that the minute she turns her back and walks out the door, quality control goes with her. I heard the same story over and over again with manufacturers in China and other SE Asia countries.

Our workers here are as good or better than most if not all countries including the US in my opinion.

I agree with Camero 409,

I agree with Camero 409, there is basically nothing wrong with Canadian work ethic. What I have observed is that Canadian companies have problems with management skills. Too much micro-management, or people promoted who have poor people skills. I remember a manager telling me back when I was still 'wet behind my ears'; "when a worker screws up it really doesn't affect the company too much and usually can be fixed without any real problems, if a manager screws up it could be the end of that company".

It's not THAT attitude....

"there is basically nothing wrong with Canadian work ethic"

This is true. There is, however, something wrong with Canadian productivity, and here is why.

From the earliest childhood, once we have finished learning how to walk and talk, which we do with a gusto that will likely not be seen again in our lifetime, unless we are uncommonly fortunate in our early environment, We get run onto the track of fitting in rather than progressing. Progress is OK, but it must fit the model others have reached consensus on. Therefore, we are in the box. What box? The one described here:

http://www.rudemacedon.ca/dlp/box/box-intro.html

Having been in the work life for nigh on fifty years, I can bear witness that they don't make them like they used to. And it ain't the fault of the younguns. They respond fabulously to seeing the world outside the box of learned helplessness and hear the magic words: Yes, you can. But they need role models. I can safely say that one-quarter of my work goes into fixing errors of one kind or another, errors that would not happen if everyone had the idea of being 'ultimately responsible' for the work as a whole. But they all come into it with the learned response that they are, after all, 'little people', and some others with somehow magical abilities, like the guys on Wall Street, who have the handle on everything, will fix it and criticize them anyway and keep them in their place no matter how hard they try, so why bother trying?

It is all there, however. You can bring it out again by stubborn insistence on seeing proper standards carried through. On seeing errors made out of ignorance, yours truly never just tsk-tsks at 'the idiots out front'. I ferret out the missing piece and make a copy or a diagram or whatever the deuce it needs and stick it under their noses. Everyone knows me now for an insufferable broken record, who will insist on educating the uneducated, so it does, in time, cut down on error. At least, as the box lady in Bangla Desh observed, as long as I am present.

What I cannot do, of course, is undo the damage of twenty-odd years of bad conditioning. I know they've been through a grinder, where teachers would pick up their crayons for them for expediency and adjust the due date on assignments to fit the slow ones with bullying parents. The resulting paralysis can be repaired, but it takes more than meeting in the work environment. I would, like Helen Keller's miracle worker, have to insist on total dependence.

It ultimately requires political will to turn this as well as any other big, heavy flywheel in the opposite direction. You know what that means.

Optics

You'd think after all the slagging thats been heaped on the Vancouver Convention Center perhaps another facility should have been considered?

THINK LARGE AND MULTI NATIONAL COMPANIES - WHERE THE ROT STARTS

I will probably be at odd with a lot of people, but I say that the bulk of the worlds problems are a direct result of large multinational companies (oil companies, banks, manufacturing, auto etc) and their singularly insulated attitude to profit.

Greed is the motivator - more often at the expense of safety, accountability, responsibility (social or otherwise).

Many large companies export work overseas to save money and get even richer - to hell with the origin of the companies nationalility. End result, US auto manufacturers export jobs and tax dollars - yet get to continue to enjoy US standards when it suits them. Maybe when a company exports job, they should also loose the right to be called a national company. Just a thought.

Getting back to multinational companies - BP is a prime example of doing what is has wanted to do - irrespective of the social, environmental and legal consequences. The company is so big, it feels it can do what it wants and get away with it.

I think those days are quickly diminishing and as a result, new and hopefully, more stringent guidelines will emrge to curd this arrogance.

There is a lot individual governments can do to help save and protect jobs in the work force - should they chose to do so. The opposite it also equally valid - take a look at what Campbell has done and continues to do.

With Gordon (screw everybody) Campbell, we unfortunately have a weird mix of ideological fanaticism and corporate greed, Both work hand in hand in this case - and the biggest losers are the taxpayers as a whole. There is no "in the best interests of British Columbia" - it is all in the best interests of business - who get off "tax free" and load up the taxpayers load. And, of course, what used to belong to British Columbia has now been sold to private business interests (nepotism?)

In another country this would be considered treason and as such, the punishment metered out would prevent further occurances. In Canada, anything goes - right wing politics allows total corrupt to reign unchecked.

Thank you

"Trade and the expansion of

"Trade and the expansion of trade has to benefit more than just business -- it must benefit workers too. We found out a long time ago that trade agreements don't benefit workers and it's time to change that."

We need only look to Sudbury to see what Vale, with the help of our Federal Governement has done to that group of workers.

12 months on strike with the Provincal and Federal Governements sitting on hands proclaiming they can't get involved in a private companies business. Who created the legislation to permit these theiving SOB's into our country in the first place?

DON'T SHOW ANY SKIN!!

Shag the work ethic and productivity rates. There is not a goddamn thing wrong with wanting and getting an abundance of downtime to spend with our families, build communities and social connections, and participate in the exercise of political, and what should be our "economic power" either.

It isn't all about damn "stuff". And I don't give a rat's ass, on this level of the subject, about what THEY do by way of cheap or other labour. If we need to build tariff or any other kinds of barriers to protect of lives, our jobs and way of life, hopefully something other than this GDP and "Labour Intensity" obsessed capitalism, then we should damned well take charge of ourselves and do it. (And all this "productivity crap" really is about just "labour intensity", or how hard and CHEAP they can get us to work, to pour our lives, and that of our communities and families, and cash into THEIR bottom lines, and lifestyles of the rich and famous.) Screw them!! I, for one, ain't gonna do it, and am going to do everything I can to undermine it and them.

When I and my fellows, which includes the gals too, have some REAL say in the running and management of this economy, over THEIR CEO and OWNER salaries and profits, and over my own life and that of my fellows, our families and communities, then we'll have a serious talk about how hard or not, and with what outcomes or not, we should all be working.

And screw the fat cat at home and "international" labour leaders on this score too. (We need a working class revolution there as well. More DIRECT democracy and less layers of bureaucracy.)

We of all the working class "caste orders", from the lowest "untouchables" to "the professionals" , need to rethink seriously our commitment to all these "assumptions" and "diktats" of the ruling class and those who serve them, and to what purpose.

I won't serve their marching orders anymore and, frankly, neither should you. Better we spend our "free time" and "declining purchasing power", getting our own house and lives in order, so we can do a little effective kicking ass, and reorganizing of the economy and society. And getting rid of the layers of real waste at the TOP here, in the economy.

GDP and productivity obsession is what has brought us poisoned and polluted oceans and air, and a sun we can't even safely go out in anymore without layers of sunscreen, clothes and hats. FOR GOD'S SAKE, DON'T SHOW ANY SKIN! KEEP IT ALL COVERED! OR YOU'LL GET CANCER!! Take Vitamin D pills instead, as a sun replacer. We don't really need the friggin' sun.

Is this really the world you want, for yourselves, your kids and your kid's kids??

Think about it.

Compete with this...

There are places and work places in "People's" China right now, working so goddamn hard for so little in return, by way of lives or cash, that the workers are committing suicide in droves You want to compete with that, do you? Is this a New Global World Order, or just a very old one that capitalism is resurrecting again, from the time of the Industrial Revolution in England, dressed up in a shiny coat of poisonous lead paint, to bamboozle us?

I say we are being bamboozled, and this "international labour leader" guy is part of the hype. We need to look after ourselves first, then do what we can to help the third world help itself. Otherwise, we are going down with the ship of capitalism too.

All work and no play, or????

"There is not a goddamn thing wrong with wanting and getting an abundance of downtime to spend with our families, build communities and social connections, and participate in the exercise of political, and what should be our "economic power" either."

No argument there. I was observing that what passes for up-time and actual work should not be one-third running in circles because the person who delivers to you has been thoroughly confused about what the right way to do it was. Once we decide to apply ourselves and call what we do production, it should bloody well be done right, or it isn't fun for anyone at-all. That is a far cry for making work into some kind of austere dogmatic religion.

I am puzzled that you are referring to the good things in life and all the righteous things we should do, and then completely separating them from the work situation and the people there. Are you suggesting that your co-workers are all trashy people beyond redemption and you can do nothing useful with them or during the time you share their life? It has been my experience that a good deal of worthwhile human exchange, networking, mutual learning and even friendship can be part of the working life. I do not think I would be satisfied with fighting for more 'life' and less 'work', as if the two were antithetical to each other. I would and do insist that there must be 'life' as an integral part of 'work'. It takes determination and you can never lose sight of your objective, but the result is so worth the trouble, when you are successful. Are you familiar with Scott Peck's books on community building? The titles and information are here in case you may be interested:

http://www.mscottpeck.com/html/scott-peck-books.php

It sounds like you are/have been settling for work being dead and dull and devoid of human interaction of any quality whatever. As you are determined to defy the norms, why not that one?

BC/Canada needs B Corporation legislation? Part 1

First let me say I am very supportive of Mariner's and Coyoteman's comments, and indeed there is nothing wrong with Canadian work ethic. Management is continually pushing workers to produce more while heaping on more work, cutting wages or benefits, hassling pensioners, using bankruptcy re-organization laws to undermine workers, families and communities.

But beyond that, we need better solutions to the mess created by Capital and State Capitalists like Campbell and Harper. Legislation to promote more economic democracy, more co-operatives, balanced laws pertaining to bankruptcy, pension protection legislation, and perhaps the notion of B Corporation needs to be promoted.

Maryland is the first state to pass Benefit Corporation legislation, but others are quickly following Maryland's lead. Vermont Bill S.263, co-sponsored by Senators Hinda Miller and Peter Shumlin, has already passed the Senate and will be considered by the Vermont Assembly over the next 30 days. Other states considering the legislation include Colorado, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, and Washington.

Benefit Corporation -- Major Provisions

Purpose

•shall create general public benefit

•shall have right to name specific public benefit purposes (e.g. 50% profits to charity, carbon neutral, 100% local sourcing, beneficial product to customers in poverty)

•the creation of public benefit is in the best interests of the Benefit Corporation

Accountability

•directors' duties are to make decisions in the best interests of the corporation

•directors and officers shall consider effect of decisions on shareholders and employees, suppliers, customers, community, environment (together the "Stakeholders")

•not required to give priority to any particular stakeholder

•have discretion to give priority to particular stakeholders consistent with general and any specific public benefit purposes

•standard of accountability is identical for operating and liquidity/change of control decisions

Transparency

•shall publish annual Benefit Report in accordance with recognized third party standards for defining, reporting, and assessing social and environmental performance, including assessment of successes and failures in achieving general and specific public benefit purpose and in considering effects of decisions on stakeholders

•Benefit Report delivered to: 1) all shareholders; and 2) public website with exclusion of proprietary data

Its not a bowl of cheeries

Attitude can affect how I perceive life, but it does not mean that attitude always organizes lifes events.

For example, at the age of 17 (43 yrs ago) I worked as a summer student in an industrial setting where I was exposed to asbestos. My attitude now has to be of acceptance of asbestos within in my body or suffer the consequences of depression. Having this healthy attitude has nothing to with the fact that industry and gov't cared little about my well-being as a worker, even as a youth.

Because of an unhealthy home-life I quit school early and went to work full time for the same company who employed me as a student. Eventually the company decided to move its factory to Mexico, because of cheap labour and lack of regulations.

My point being for most of my life I have existed in a business world that has little regard for people and the environment what I have witnessed proves to me that there is and always has been a decay in ethics that is inflating and ready to burst. I hope it is, because all the good attitude in the world will not stand up to the greed and lack of ethics that dominates the world.

This just in

Former Gen Sec of the Australian Congress of Trade Union Sharon Barrow is set to take the reins of the ITUC. Sharon has a long history of progressive leadership and is a friend our more progressive unions. Also fellow Aussie Paddy Crumlin leader of the Maritime Union of Australia is the odds on favorite to win the next presidency at the Intl Transport Workers Fed.

Could be interesting times ahead.