Many of you may or may not know that the city of Toronto, Ontario is in the midst of a garbage strike. The city of Windsor, Ontario has been dealing with a similar situation for months. These strikes are full of controversy. A quick review of reader comments posted on any Toronto newspaper website provides a sense of the anger surrounding both sides of the issue.

Meanwhile, another Canadian strike had a different outcome. Air Canada workers voted to reject an earlier union decision. Brent Jang writes in the Globe and Mail, “Air Canada’s mechanics and ground workers have ratified their tentative labour deal, a crucial move to aid the carrier’s recovery strategy.” As we are all well aware, Air Canada employees are not the only workers who have sacrificed wages or benefits to save jobs. As John Hollon writes in Workforce Management.com, “Here’s one of the distinguishing characteristics of the economic downturn (aka the Big, Bad Recession) that we’ve been slogging through this year: A lot of people are getting paid less than they were before.”

The question then becomes, how much of these strikes represent economic reality clashing with practices that no longer fit the times? All workers cannot help but pause when they read the words of blogger Ann Bares of Compensation Force who says, “As was true with its predecessors, the consequences of this recession and the actions it has prompted by employers will be with us long into the future … and in ways we may not appreciate for some time to come.””

What do you believe? Do you think that workers are making temporary concessions, that working conditions are permanently evolving or that reality lies somewhere between the two? Will those who believe that economic conditions will eventually “return to normal” find in time that normal is illusive?

References:

Bares, Ann. “You Know It’s a Recession if You’ve Taken a Pay Cut.” Workforce Management [www.workforce.com]. July 14, 2009.

Cartwright, John. "Only a fair contract will settle the strike." The Toronto Star. July 14, 2009.

Gee, Marcus. "Could Windsor be a reality check?" The Globe and Mail. July 16, 2009, p. A11.

Jang, Brent. "Air Canada gets all its workers on board." The Globe and Mail. [www.theglobeandmail.com]. July 16, 2009.

Kirby, Jason. "Demanding times." Macleans [www2.macleans.ca]. July 15, 2009.