Reproduced from a Letter to the Editor of News/North.
Everyone has a solution to the "labour shortage" all of a sudden. Stephen Harper thinks it's about money. Joe Handley thinks it's about education. Bob McLeod thinks it's about glossy ads.
I think they're all wrong. People don't want to work here because working here sucks, that's all. Like I've written before, our labour and safety laws are flimsy and grudgingly enforced at best. Wages aren't competitive, especially compared to the cost of living. But that's not the worst. Skilled professionals don't want to work here because we do bad work. Because employers demand that we do bad work. Skilled people come to work here and try to tell you how things "should" be done and get told "this is the North, we do things our way." And "our way" is never as good as the normal way.
Education only makes things worse. You try to tell someone what you've learned and they'll say "we don't need your book learning here, we have EXPERIENCE". Really? Well I wouldn't brag about it if I were you, because you're making the same mistake I was taught not to do my first day of school, and you're doing it every single time, and your work looks like garbage every single time, and yet you keep on doing it. So apparently you're not learning from all your "experience." Beside, we human beings invented something called "writing" thousands of years ago on purpose to share knowledge so everyone wouldn't have to re-learn everything from experience again. So why would skilled, educated professionals want to take orders from someone who hasn't even mastered the use of the written word yet?
Most of the time, this is just laziness, I suppose, but all too often it's downright pathological. Several employers I've worked for have noticeable cognitive-behavioural deficiencies and share their leadership style with Chairman Mao. They care about one thing only: bullying. They're happy to give you blatantly stupid and contradictory orders that are bound to give bad results, just for the pleasure of seeing you scurry to do their bidding. There are vile people everywhere, but this is a haven for them because they're not held to any standard whatsoever.
So you think money will make a difference? No amount of money is enough to work with bullies and idiots. Education? Only makes it easier to go somewhere else. Glossy ads? Well, we knew those were lies anyways. And we've tried all this and it didn't work, so why bother trying again? People work here because they have ties here that they don't want to break. Those who just come for work can do better elsewhere.
What we need to keep people are better wages, better conditions, and better work ethics. The federal government can't do anything about it, it's not even their jurisdiction. The GNWT created these conditions in the first place and has neither the will nor the skill to do anything about it. Well, that leaves one solution: unions. Unions are how Fort McMurray got to be the highest-paying jurisdiction in Canada. Unions are how our public employees got to make 80% more than the rest of us. Unions are how the working class ever rose above squalor and poverty in the first place.
That's what we need. Unions, unions, unions. It won't fix everything, but it's a start. When skilled professionals can come here, do a good job with other skilled professionals, and get respected and paid accordingly, then they'll choose to stay.
Everyone has a solution to the "labour shortage" all of a sudden. Stephen Harper thinks it's about money. Joe Handley thinks it's about education. Bob McLeod thinks it's about glossy ads.
I think they're all wrong. People don't want to work here because working here sucks, that's all. Like I've written before, our labour and safety laws are flimsy and grudgingly enforced at best. Wages aren't competitive, especially compared to the cost of living. But that's not the worst. Skilled professionals don't want to work here because we do bad work. Because employers demand that we do bad work. Skilled people come to work here and try to tell you how things "should" be done and get told "this is the North, we do things our way." And "our way" is never as good as the normal way.
Education only makes things worse. You try to tell someone what you've learned and they'll say "we don't need your book learning here, we have EXPERIENCE". Really? Well I wouldn't brag about it if I were you, because you're making the same mistake I was taught not to do my first day of school, and you're doing it every single time, and your work looks like garbage every single time, and yet you keep on doing it. So apparently you're not learning from all your "experience." Beside, we human beings invented something called "writing" thousands of years ago on purpose to share knowledge so everyone wouldn't have to re-learn everything from experience again. So why would skilled, educated professionals want to take orders from someone who hasn't even mastered the use of the written word yet?
Most of the time, this is just laziness, I suppose, but all too often it's downright pathological. Several employers I've worked for have noticeable cognitive-behavioural deficiencies and share their leadership style with Chairman Mao. They care about one thing only: bullying. They're happy to give you blatantly stupid and contradictory orders that are bound to give bad results, just for the pleasure of seeing you scurry to do their bidding. There are vile people everywhere, but this is a haven for them because they're not held to any standard whatsoever.
So you think money will make a difference? No amount of money is enough to work with bullies and idiots. Education? Only makes it easier to go somewhere else. Glossy ads? Well, we knew those were lies anyways. And we've tried all this and it didn't work, so why bother trying again? People work here because they have ties here that they don't want to break. Those who just come for work can do better elsewhere.
What we need to keep people are better wages, better conditions, and better work ethics. The federal government can't do anything about it, it's not even their jurisdiction. The GNWT created these conditions in the first place and has neither the will nor the skill to do anything about it. Well, that leaves one solution: unions. Unions are how Fort McMurray got to be the highest-paying jurisdiction in Canada. Unions are how our public employees got to make 80% more than the rest of us. Unions are how the working class ever rose above squalor and poverty in the first place.
That's what we need. Unions, unions, unions. It won't fix everything, but it's a start. When skilled professionals can come here, do a good job with other skilled professionals, and get respected and paid accordingly, then they'll choose to stay.
