Premier Christy Clark campaigned on a strong economy with jobs for British Columbians — but those jobs should be “decent, good-paying jobs,” says Jim Sinclair, president of the B.C. Federation of Labour.
The track record of the Liberal government that was re-elected last week hasn’t been very good, added the spokesman for 550,000 mostly unionized B.C. workers.
“Costs have gone up and wages haven’t kept up,” Sinclair said. “We’re hoping for a phone call saying the premier wants to sit down with business leaders and labour leaders and talk about the real challenges we’re facing as a province.
“We need to deal with the skills shortages, we need to create good-paying jobs, we need to deal with keeping our worksites safe and making sure that people aren’t falling off the end of the economic ladder.”
A 30-year overview by Statistics Canada shows that B.C.’s median income has fallen in constant dollars. In 2012, B.C.’s median for all tax filers was $27,500; in 1982, it would have been $31,600 in current dollars.
Nationally, the median income was $28,400 in 1982 and $28,800 in 2010.
“The premier needs to realize that a good-paying job is good for the economy, and that the race to the bottom is a loser’s game. If [creating good jobs] is what she wants to do and the Liberals want to do, then we’ll be with them to do that.”
Sinclair said B.C.’s minimum wage should rise to $12.
Within three days of taking over as premier in March 2011, Clark hiked the minimum wage, which had been frozen at $8 for 10 years. By 2012, it was $10.25.
But Victoria’s Community Social Planning Council says a no-frills quality of life requires at least $18.07 an hour. A couple with both partners earning that amount and working 35 hours a week could adequately feed, clothe and shelter themselves and two children, a 2012 council report says.
Sinclair said he has serious concerns about labour standards, given that in the early days of the Liberals’ rule they dumped the requirement for posting those standards in the workplace and closed 10 of 19 enforcement offices.
Low-paid workers, living paycheque to paycheque, “don’t have any rights without the government enforcing them,” he said.
The B.C. Government and Service Employees’ Union, the second-largest union in B.C. after the Canadian Union of Public Employees, also hopes to meet with government and business leaders to discuss what needs to be done to benefit workers, the public and the economy.
“It’s a brand new and clean mandate so it gives the premier the opportunity to work with everybody” — with input from business, labour and government, said Darryl Walker, president of the 62,000-member union that has 26,200 members in government jobs, including thousands in Victoria.
Walker views the new government as having more of a pro-business agenda but added: “That’s fair — I think it’s important that our economy grows, so we’ll be able to provide for the needs of British Columbia. Quite frankly, we’re expecting to work with and co-operate as much as possible with the new government.”
Walker said public services need improvements for both workers and the public, noting that both social workers and correctional officers are overburdened.
