A Duty of Loyalty and Obedience.

 People are celebrating what is perceived as a "win " for democracy,  in that Trump is gone. (we hope. . .  given that no one has heard from him?) Criticizing Biden can be left for another day (go ahead and cleberate,  the wicked witch IS dead) and so today there is time for reflection. I have been reflecting on democracy for a few days. 

https://www.npr.org/sections/pictureshow/2020/11/08/932646868/photos-after-2020-election-a-nation-divided-reacts

I think the idea that we can work together and, with majority rules, decide most things - although all systems have to figure out what to do with the minority to ensure that their rights are protected, is an OK idea.  I do not have a true vision for anything else - like worker councils and democratic centralism.  But I do undertand how worker co-ops work.  And they have a LOT MORE democracy. Especially worker co-ops where non-"owners" (often there is a delay in getting to be a full share owner) are also represented by a union.   The majority cannot choose to take away rights from minorities.. .   But, again today -- not my point!

I am thinking about democracy at work. . . and why there is for the most part . . . none.   As you read this -- keep in mind I am not talking about how it should be -- this is descriptive NOT prescriptive!! 

My son, who is a law prof,  mid-sentence in a TV interview just happened to say "the duty of loyalty and obedience that workers owe to employers". . . I blanched. . . the what?! I called him. And he pointed out that when you go to work -- you do as you are told.  This might not be micro-management but unless you are in senior management or own the place, it is likely that you will be told what to do and even how to do it. Even many professionals (esp in traditional "female" roles -- e.g. nurses, teachers, midwives etc. are managed this way compared to say physicians and engineers.)    But most people when they leave for work, are not going anywhere where, what they "think", or how they "belive things should be done",  has any impact, or where there is any actual form or forum for feedback or disagreement.  

So workers do owe, in our present legal and regulatory environment, a duty of obedience to their employer. 

I worked for many years for a union and it is the one thing we had to tell workers over and over -- just do your job (even if they are instructing you to do it badly, management are "allowed" to be incompetent, and assholes, as long as they don't violate the Collective Agreement)  -- there are limits to employee "obedience" -- but basically only if you are asked to do something illegal, something that might harm you or another person, or something that is "patently unreasonable" which was described to me as "something a reasonable person, would find unreasonable, given reasonable circumstances!" (My example was always to do with being made to clean floors with toothbrushes or stand in the corner with gum on your nose - but there are much more realistic examples and I only know about the ones where people had unions to fight for them.)   At any rate - most of the time you just have to do what you are told. That is: Obedience. 

Then,  if they want you to do your job inefficiently or badly,  or don't let you look after people the way you think neccessary, especially if you work in healthcare or social services.. .  you must not call them out or whistle blow.  That is why we need special "whistle blower legislation" which allows people to "tell on" their  - esp public sector -  employer without repercussions. (yeah right - some get protection, some do not)   At any rate - you must be publicly loyal.  To call out or criticize your employer publicly,  and/or on social media,  is something you can be fired for. . .and plenty of people have already been terminated, because you have a "duty of loyaty" to the employer which is held up by both unions and the courts (well held up by unions because of the court decisions, to be accurate) 

There is some mitigation of this duty of loyalty, if you have a union, but not much.  It tends to just make the rules clearer. One benefit of course,  the union can speak with a voice when individuals cannot! See for example NSGEU and Long Term Care workers/nurses. So it helps.  But why do we not demand democracy at work?! 

https://democracy-at-work-shop.myshopify.com/collections/all-items/products/richard-wolff-quote-t-

I think that these rules should only be enforceable if employers have a pledge from you,  when you take the job,  to a duty of obedience and loyalty.  (This is mostly a mental exercise, not sure that this would not backfire on me!)  Imagine if people had that put in front of them along with the TD1. People would understand where the power lies, and maybe would resist a little. I do think that people will sign it in order to work, but at least the rules would be clear and people would start to have some idea how they are oppressed at work.  And make no mistake - we are essentially "wage slaves" -- we have no choice,  but, it is to me,  very stark when it is framed as the "Duty of loyaty and obedience" that Canadian workers owe to their employers.   Eastern European/Soviet style Communism always gets the rap for not being "free" but really it is Capitalism that has essentially made people into slaves of their employers. I mean the "loyalty" promise, means that you are controlled even in your "off hours".  As a retiree (and the union never censored me anyway!) I use my real name everywhere and don't worry about repercussions. No employer to owe that loyalty too! 

Joining a union or forming a worker coop can mitigate effects,  but capitalism and its valourization of "ownership" ( I have a piece of paper that says I get all the benefits and you must struggle)  rules the workplace, and so owners and senior management get to set the rules and monitor them. 

Did you know that under Canadian/provincial law you owe a duty of obedience and loyalty to your employer?  What do you think about that? 

Bond GIrls - thoughts on the death of Sean Connery.

 

So Sean Connery died today and I had a few thoughts because he was a bond (ha!) I had with my father and I had a different "Bond" experieince,  I think. . .   Other than what is written here I have no defense for the misogyny but sometimes intentions do not thave the effect or outcome they are supposed to. . . 

Bond girls are always written about, these days, as if they are exploited, objectified  and subservient, and they certainly were to an extent. But my first Bond movie (I think I was around 12, and it was Dr. No) was actually the first time I saw women with any power or authority.

My mother and most of the women that I knew stayed at home and were “home makers”. Some had worked at interesting jobs before they were married, or had kids, but working women were not part of my life generally. Lilly McGrath, whose husband was an RCMP officer, was eventually secretary to Canada’s official languages commissioner, but stayed at home with her kids before they went to school. Jean Roberts was a childless social worker, and there was a woman or two that worked with my father. But most of the women I knew day to day were housewives or home makers – or worked at home – whatever you want to call it – they were “domestic goddesses”. I was not male identified I did not want to be a man but somehow I understood I did not want my life to be like the women I saw around me.

I guess before Bond, there was Mary Poppins and Maria in the Sound of Music. . . both out at approximately the same time. And, even then Maria was just moving from God to a man, and had a traditional – wife/look after children role - though she was unique in her methods and so a “rule breaker”, and Mary Poppins came with magic but still used it to look after children. Still pretty close to the domestic sphere. – But with James Bond - Dr NO, and soon after Goldfinger – Pussy Galore was also a strong woman who could fly a plane. . . changed my view of women for the better. Maybe I did not understand before the movie, that women could be villains, or evil, or not just be trying to “please” a man. But it did make me feel that I could be powerful, as a woman!

In Dr. No, the first woman we see, who appears to be some kind of “agent”, or possibly evil, is a woman taking photographs at the airport. She would have seemed to me “exotic” but also seemed in charge of herself.

In the film we see a dark haired woman (Miss Taro) playing a betting card game – she is the only woman at a table with men, and again seems to be sure of herself – and makes “advances” at Bond and speaks in double entendres. 

 I think, up until then, I thought women had to sit back and wait for men to come to them. The whole "waiting for the phone to ring" trope. Suddenly there is a woman gambling, seemingly suspicious (if not evil) and coming-on to an adult man. Later she invites Bond to her house and expects him to be killed on his way to her. When he arrives safely she is surprised, we now know she is evil, and will try and kill him, but once again she has more agency than any woman I had seen until then.

Although Honey Ryder is “saved” by Bond and is the “good girl” in the film, she is also on her own, (i.e. without a man) on a forbidden island, breaking the rules, free diving for shells and carrying a knife at her waist.

Somehow that film forever changed my view of women and the possibilities. (Note I acknowledge problematically women of colour were "evil" and the very white one was the good girl.  Not sure if that affected my unconscious, but I seem to have successfully grown out of it consciously! Although not denying inplicit bias!) These women were professional, sexual on their own terms and aggressive not passive, and had incredible agency – no man was in charge of them! Suddenly it became clear, I did not have to be a housewife. I did not have to be subservient to, or wait for men to come to me. It was life changing even though “bond girls” are not traditionally thought of as feminist icons!  You had to find your power in odd places in the mid-60's! 

Can we have some more "wins" for the people, please?

When I initially understood that some things about the world needed changing, I was young. The minute I realised it was not “fair” I was very young, and I think it is obvious,  if you are paying attention, that it extends into the wider world. So, people are poor because that's how it is. . . It takes a while, however,  to realise that some things are caused and are not just "natural".  Not natural that some people have so much and others barely enough to survive. 

I was always bold and not afraid – a compliment to my immigrant parents who provided a supportive, nurturing family.  I always thought it unfair if anyone had less than me. It took me a long time to realise that the poor kids at school, and people being beat up by cops and the military ( I was watching civil rights actions in the southern U.S. at 10 and 12 years old) was not just life unfolding as it should but was about changing things to make them fair - that children could go to schools that were not segregated and that were in good repair with excellent teachers etc.  That this was created. . .  inequity and desegregation . . . was a "good thing", they can be changed. But my thoughts were oppressive and patriarchal - I thought of saving people, not liberating them.  And kids dying, literally dying of hunger and preventable disease, in other parts of the world. I bought the “happy noble savage” thing, or thought that they chose to live without running water etc. – til I was in my late teens.

However, I never stopped asking questions.  My proudly devout Catholic father created a monster (In his eyes) when he sang this to me as my lullaby every night (well just the chorus)

Goodbye Little yellow bird I'd rather face the cold 

on a leafless tree than a prisoner be in a cage of gold. 

Goodbye Little yellow bird  I'd gladly wait with you. 
I love you little yellow bird but I love my freedom too.

And the yellow bird is a "boy" and the sparrow a "girl" - so it was the woman refusing to stay locked up for a man. I think I had taken it all to heart by the time I was 4. The rich were not be trusted and I should look after keeping my own freedom regardless of the attractions on the "rich" side. LOL 

It is from Portrait of Dorian Gray. . . Movies (esp black and white)  I remember watching with my father - that one (eventually. . .  he was singing this long before I saw it or we had a TV) and Great Expectations, Treasure Island etc.  

One of the other things it did - and I was pretty old before I realized it is that it made me think of "freedom and personal liberty/independence" as a very  important and laudable goal.  I was shocked later when I discovered that safety and staus quo that made people feel safe were higher desires for most people. 

By 16, though, it was pretty clear to me that racism and sexism were ruining the world. By 20 I understood that capitalism was a problem. But through the years from 1970-2000 I worked on a number of social change (commonly not socialist just reforms) projects that were won.  Social attitudes changed enormously. Many were good - women more equal (at least in law) same with racist laws - but clearly it was not enough. 

THAT is one of the big differences between myself and millennials. I was thinking about it, because a while back, a millennial mentioned to me that I had seen “wins” that they had never seen. That all they had known was capitalism. True, I thought, that's all I have known but I saw neo-liberalism and global capitalism take over in my lifetime. 

 I kept seeing "wins", though, in small ways,  because I worked as a union organizer and saw people organize their work place, join a union, massively increase their power and usually incomes, too. Some were dramatic income changes, and eventually most got benefits and pensions too.  So I keep experiencing "wins", even in the last 20 years but it is very local, not social change.  It came up again because in the last couple of months,through COVID, here in NS and Halifax, we have in fact had some wins. We have had terrible tragedies, however, there are some bright spots. Not huge but they all add up and they give one a sense of momentum that fuels itself.  We could change things if we wanted to, as a people. 

So first 6000 people showed up for a BLM protest/March in downtown Halifax – not a win in itself but a pretty good showing! Again momentum! Then we had the tank purchase by the city, rescinded. Then we had a “secret review” turned into a full up inquiry – which everyone wanted. These are not huge wins but they are wins and they do demonstrate the power of organizing people and having them respond.

When I was young we felt that protesting won the pull out from Vietnam. It felt like protests stopped Canada from entering Iraq with the U.S. I was around for protesting South African Apartheid – the days when knocking over a case of south African wine in the liquor store was an “oops”. . . and then we fought for and got some sanctions, and then – we won. S.A. was no longer an apartheid state.



When I was young, abortion was illegal – I was 16 before birth control was legal. I was part of a group planning for the start of abortion clinics in Vancouver and Toronto and lived through days of having to take women through a gamut of protesters to enter clinics. Now abortion feels normalised though there still are groups trying to take it away,  and access is not guaranteed across the country (esp in NB and PEI) Lots of work to do - still compared to 1969 -  I count it as a win.  Women fought but full credit to Dr. Morgentaler who set up clinics - not secretly but out in the open and defied the gov't to stop him -- which it did - in fact sending him to jail but he never waivered that women should be able to control when and if they wanted to reproduce. This choice was not available to me until I was in my twenties and even then - it was not very available. 

When I had my kids, at home with midwives, it was not “legal”, but only “illegal” if something went wrong. But now midwifery is legal and provided as part of the publicly funded health care system across most provinces in Canada. It is a support and gives women control over what can be a non-medicalized process. (With a system that provides lots of medical support when required.) I fought hard for midwifery (including being the bureaucrat in the gov't of Ontario tasked with making it happen) and getting regulated, funded midwifery seems like a win.  (Although I have had to - over 25 years later -  give evidence for the midwives about their pay as the gov't has never really increased it and they have fallen badly behind other health professions in Ontario. )

There are a myriad of other things that I was involved in that either got organized (daycares/after school care/women’s shelters/housing co-ops/Credit union/  etc. ) and all felt like “wins”. . . not the individual service but the IDEA of having it available, public  and funded at all!!  So, demonstrated!  It is not impossible that we can make demands and have them met. But for the last 30+ years it has felt bleak – until now. . .

Just wanted to say – Hey thanks Millennials!!! I have some optimism that you can make it happen, where there were eventually too few of us to make it happen!~ 

Postscript – It is not all good – we protested and demanded an end to violence against women and it has got worse not better (or at least more of it is public)

The Sense of Community and the Cost of Housing

I just read a tweet from someone complaining about losing their housing, but also their sense of community, as they are driven out of the spaces they know and the people they are connected to, by rent increase.

In the last few years the cost of rental accommodation in Halifax has gone into the stratosphere for most people. The cost to buy does not seem to have increased at the same rate, but is affected by location,  and peninsula Halifax is still very pricey.   The rental rates on the other hand have seen lack of availability and pressure for units which has in turn allowed the landlords (do they collude?) to jack up rents a lot.  The rents have increased, in every area connected by reasonable transit, to downtown.  Once you pass Musquodoboit Harbour, heading east from Halifax, you can buy a house for under $100,000 and, closer to the city, for under $200,000, but that does not help that rents, in the city, where the jobs are, are high - un-affordably high.

House for Sale - Mushaboom - $74,900.

When we moved to Halifax in 2005/6 (it was a process -- took us a year to get it done!) one of the things I said to people was that house prices dropped precipitously once one left the centre, and so you could still buy a house, in the region, for a reasonable price. There were expensive neighbourhoods but there were still also lots of neighbourhoods that were not considered THAT desirable and so were less expensive.   Whereas nothing was affordable for literally 100's of kilometers in southern Ontario!   We were very happy to be able to buy a house in Lawrencetown with an ocean view for far less than downtown.

Not sure why Halifax became more desirable. But the pressure for housing, esp rental housing,  has been rising, and the price rising even faster. Apparently much of it is in migration from other parts of Canada, but also the world, as we attract and keep more Int'l graduates from all the N.S. degree granting institutions. Also - we have almost no public housing with years long wait lists. The private sector tends to build "luxury accommodation" if they build rental, (with high rents and well resourced tenants)  not affordable buildings and they want to make as large a profit as possible from people's housing. THAT is the problem.   So available stock is too low and prices are too high.

A few years ago in Spryfield or Dartmouth North it was not that hard to find a one bedroom apt for something between $500 and $800.  MY grand children and their mother lived in a three bedroom for $800 ($950 when they left, third floor - no elevator - but immediately put up substantially, as there are NO controls on rents here - except it can only be raised once every twelve months on the same tenant.)  Minimum wage has not kept up with increases in rent.   Now around $1100 is about the cheapest until you go into an area that requires a car to get around.  Minimum Wage is $12.55/hr - if you get 40 hours a week (and that leaves out a lot of people who cannot work more than one job at a time, or who have not got child care) - that is about $2175 per month - if taxes are at 30% that leaves you about $1500.  A transit pass is $82.  and rent is going to take $1100 of that (assuming you do not have children and need more than a 1 bedroom.) So that leaves about $200 for food, medicine, school fees, etc etc. If rent was lower, people would not struggle so hard.  Searching today (June 2nd 2020) on Kijiji - there was one apt. for $1095 in Dartmouth (actually looked nice but has been for rent for 40 days so must be some problem - or no one is moving during COVID - also possible)  and literally NOTHING ELSE under $1100!

Just one more thing - rents are now so high that even middle class, but single Mom,  teachers and nurses cannot find or afford to rent these days - not without difficulty - and even in communities on the periphery (that's just FB data as friends look for a place they can afford)

Anyway this is not meant to be about rents and home prices directly. . . instead I was thinking about the people that have to move out of and possibly far away from their neighbourhoods and/or live with large numbers of people in small spaces.

One of the "side effects" of driving people with lower incomes out of neighbourhoods (and in the case of Halifax - I guess low income people will be driven to shelters - cause there is no place to go! and shelters are bad for COVID) - Their/Your neighbourhoods - the place where you may have friends or even family, where you know the people that provide services, where you know you can count on your neighbours to help you - you will have to leave. Whether it is a ride, borrowing items,  or watching the kids for a while, or coming together for holidays and celebrations, just knowing how long you can sit with one cup of coffee, and where to get the best ? . . .    When you have to move because you can no longer afford the rent - you lose not just your housing but potentially all of these other connections as well.  That  can include friends.

So North End Dartmouth (I horn in on that community 'cause mine is a mall and highrises -   on the border) has a real neighbourhood spirit/character.  The neighbourhoods "between the bridges" is for lack of a better word - poor and middle class - but neighbourly, and filled with self-help. 

There is the family centre and the food centre - now called North Grove (recent name change)  The Library and community centre and the Local MLA (Susan Leblanc) is a community focused, very smart, social justice seeking, peach of a woman who helps do it all. 

Last summer there was a "neighbourhood play". . . that wandered through the community.

There are "community gardens" where the food centre grows food - but some boxes are just for anyone from the community to "pick" from. . .


Imagine, then having to move to a different neighbourhood away from your friends, your garden, your weekly get together's (there is a Dartmouth north knitting circle, parenting drop ins, and more!)  and all the things that you have helped build and taken advantage of, in your community. The restaurant you like with reasonable prices and where the serving staff know you and your likes and dislikes.

A community with a lot of low-middle income people.  So now,  it is the closest to "the peninsula" (just a bridge or ferry ride away - think Brooklyn to Manhattan) AND now everyone seems to be contributing to the gentrification of the area. Buying houses and renting all the apts.  On the one hand its great but it drives up rents.   And if it takes a professional to rent an apt. in Dartmouth North - where are the income assistance, low income, working poor etc to go?   It adds pressure to the lack of affordable housing.

Halifax is late to the game of high rents and evictions and renovictions. A word I added to my vocabulary within the last year. With no rent controls,  and no controls  on property speculators, things are booming for the landlords.  In other big cities in Canada like Toronto and Vancouver - they put in controls on property speculation/owner non-residents. The speculators had to find other possibilities. Montreal was first with rents spiking massively once Vancouver and Toronto put in place rules to try and shut down speculators.  We seem to be next.

So I watch in horror as people cannot afford to live any longer in "their community", and often have no idea what happens to people, some who I saw regularly, who got "renovicted". Not friends, necessarily, but other regular folks out and about in the community.  I believe the evictions have stopped for the moment (COVID has meant holding no hearings to make them legal) but I fear for the community post-COVID. Worried landlords are still looking to throw on some paint, raise rents and drive people out of their communities.   The very character that makes those communities attractive will be eroded.  This commodification-writ-large in housing - is simply not sustainable.   We are very quick to complain about healthcare in the U.S. but in Canada, we have healthcare, (some and maybe less on reserve)  but way too many people on the street, in shelters, crowded into small units with too many people, and suffering trauma from the anxiety that you and your children, or your mother, or the love of your life, will have no place to live!  Can I make the rent? IMagine the numbers asking at this time. 

Just a side rant on landlords esp "commercial landlords" who did not take up the loan program to help small business get through the plague shut down - almost no landlords took it - it involved them giving up 25% of the rent, gov't providing 50%  (but getting rent) but most just prefer to to say no - I am owed 100% - blood from a stone?  too bad!   Landlords really are the scum of the earth. (I am not directing this at people who rent out a basement suite to pay the mortgage but hope you are being reasonable in this unreasonable time or you can be a cockroach along with the big commercial outfits!)

We need to remove housing from "markets", and speculation, (same with food and power and internet and phones and water - basically, necessities to live should not be marketed "commodities".   But that is a long way off  -- or maybe not - now's the time!!??) and simply make housing guaranteed for all.

As a start,  we need housing first, rent controls, mortgage backing & down payments for new co-ops, and new public (govt'ment owned and managed) housing. That is - we have to control the rents on what we have, and start building housing - through coops and public housing.  No more subsidies to landlords (except as short term interim til housing is built)  Oh and we better include housing for seniors and improved (single rooms for starters) LTC which means building new buildings. 

Why, when money is available for "job creation" is it always roads and bridges?  Why not daycare and housing?  We need a massive injection into public and co-op housing,  (and LTC),  rent controls,  and to stop housing as a "market commodity."