Today internationally the worlds citizens are demanding reform of their justice system.

This will require more than police and court reform. Measures against racism, the accessibility of proper housing, and strengthening the commitment to social programs are all part of the equation. For discussion lets talk about access to jobs, the conditions of work, and how work is valued. Even more important to understand where we are lets examine the past to determine the course of our future. Keep in mind when we talk about work there are red flag buzzwords.

Entry level, and part time. Means minimum wage and no benefits in most cases. This goes hand in hand with training wage.

In the nineteenth century child labor was considered normal. Kids as young as seven working in mines long hours and starvation wages. Societies conscience ended the practice.
We had a version of it at the beginning of this century with the six dollar an hour training wage. Some employers ate it up. They could pay six dollar an hour, for five hundred hours and stretch it out with part time work. This applied to young people. In some cases as the worker got close to the five hundred hours, and a pay increase their hours were cut more and more. In the end the program was abandoned in favor of a measure of fairness. This practice saw the labor market for some jobs dry up. This and minimum wage hikes saw more and more temporary foreign workers. Here again there have been problems. The biggest being lack of oversight in many cases.

The mirror image of exploitation really reflects an ugly picture of abuse over time. During the era when Charles Dickens wrote his novels, he drew attention to young apprentices being used for cheap labor. We got past that? Have we? In some fields today there are practicums where students are worked for nothing as part of student training. Now the apprentice training programs for the trades is more equitable to be fair,

In the past two hundred years immigrants and many Canadian workers were not treated fairly or with respect which gave birth to the trade union movement.

Yes I have saved the best for last. We often hear the slogan, “Equal pay for equal work” No we are not there yet in many cases. So how did women end up on the short end of the stick?

In the nineteenth century and up until women were recognized as persons, in the early part of the twentieth century, conventional thinking was “Fathers and husbands looked after the primary needs of wives and daughters therefore employers should be able to pay them less.” It was in fact discrimination, but it became part of the norm, so it is no surprise that we as a society have to unlearn what was once conventional wisdom. So how do we fix it? The first step is to recognize our shortcomings. Where to begin is the first paralyzing question.
We have to examine what is normal and match that up with a skewed belief system. Here is but one example.

Overall in society we somehow adopted the idea of trickle down economics where those at the top have lunch and you and I eat leftover crumbs. There is a saying I remember, “When building a foundation, take care of the floor and the walls and the ceiling will take care of itself..”

We need society to rebuild a sound foundation based on economics and social justice. We may not get there in our time but future generations will. It starts with us cleaning up the mess we made and building on the good things we have done.

It should be noted there are a large number of employers who are considerate of employee needs and provide job experience, The job sector is but one slice of the pie. But it is an integral part of building a better future.

Fred Steele