I waited two weeks for a response by John Clarke, a radical leftist here in Toronto, to reply to my criticism of certain aspects of his analysis of the strike of the Air Canada flight attendants’ strike (see his article https://canadiandimension.com/articles/view/taking-stock-of-the-air-canada-strike). He never responded, so I am copying my critique on the Canadian Dimension page. Radical leftists need to be accountable to workers for what they assert.
The reference to “Mikey” is to the first commentator on Clarke’s article. Mikey criticized the idea of “free collective bargaining.”
Fred Harris 15 days ago John Clarke writes:
“Free collective bargaining is free in name only if striking workers are prevented from deciding whether they want to accept tentative agreements or to continue to struggle for something better.”
Clarke’s reference to “free collective agreement” without any critical appraisal about the nature of free collective bargaining in the context of the exploitation of workers should be criticized, as Mikey does. However, Mikey’s criticism needs to be made more specific.
I will just point out two limitations of Clarke’s “Taking Stock of the Air Canada strike: lack of any reference to management rights and the limitations of “free collective bargaining” and collective agreements, on the one hand, and the lack of any reference to the hidden exploitation that not only Air Canada flight attendants are subjected to but also all Air Canada workers and, indeed all private-sector workers (if not public-sector workers).
Firstly, then, free collective bargaining is certainly better than government interference in direct negotiations between workers and the particular employer. However, Clarke omits to mention that government interference is already implied in even “free collective bargaining.” Thus, we read in the expired collective agreement:
“Agreement Between Air Canada and the Canadian Union of Public Employees, Air Canada Component, Effective April 1, 2022
ARTICLE 3 – RESERVATIONS OF MANAGEMENT
3.01 Subject to the provisions of this Agreement, the control and direction of the employees, including the right to hire, to suspend or discharge for just and sufficient cause, to advance or step back in classification, to reassign, to transfer, to promote, to demote, to lay off because of lack of work or for other legitimate reasons, is vested solely in the Company.
3.02 Any of the rights, powers or authority the Company had prior to the signing of this Agreement are retained by the Company, except those specifically abridged, delegated, granted or modified by this Agreement.
3.03 Article 3 shall not apply to detract from the right of an employee to lodge a grievance in the manner and to the extent herein provided.
3.04 No employee will be unlawfully interfered with, restrained, coerced or discriminated against by the Company on the grounds of race, national or ethnic origin, colour, religion, age, sex, marital status, sexual orientation or political affiliation.”
Why does management have such power? How does a wage compensate for the control over workers’ lives and labour at work? How can any wage be fair in such circumstances? So many questions, but Clarke never answers them. He merely assumes that there is such a thing as a “bargaining” that is “free.”
Secondly, almost all of Clarke’s references refer to the unpaid work of flight attendants. The only place where Clarke makes any reference to the typical hidden exploitation of flight attendants is when he writes:
“Despite the fact that Air Canada’s role as an exceptionally exploitative employer is easy to demonstrate.”
How is that? Because Air Canada does not pay for visible work? But this unpaid visible work forms only part of the total unpaid work that the flight attendants perform.
I calculated the rate of exploitation of Air Canada workers for the year 2019 (posted on October 30, 2020, on my blog http://theabolitonary.ca ). It was 70%.Here is part of what I wrote on that post:
“For every hour worked that produces her/his wage, a worker at Air Canada works around an additional 42 minutes for free for Air Canada.
In a 6-hour work day, the worker produces her/his wage in about 3.5 hours and works 2.5 hours for free for Air Canada. Of course, during the time that the worker produces her/his own wage, s/he is subject to the power of management and hence is also unfree (see, for instance, Management Rights, Part Four: Private Sector Collective Agreement, Ontario and Employers as Dictators, Part One).
In an 8-hour work day, the worker produces her/his wage in about 5 hours 36 minutes and works for 2 hours and 24 minutes free for Air Canada.
In a 12-hour day, the worker produces her/his wage in about 8 hours 24 minutes and works for free for 3 hours 36 minutes for Air Canada.”
“
So, how does Clarke justify his claim that Air Canada is “an exceptionally exploitative employer.” He even claims that it is “easy to demonstrate.” However, he does not demonstrate it in his article, and I could findno such demonstration in general on his blog either.
To demonstrate that Air Canada is ““an exceptionally exploitative employer,” it would be necessary to determine various rates of exploitation of workers in Canada and compare them with the invisible exploitation (and the visible exploitation of flight attendants not being paid until the plane is moving). Since Clarke claims that it is easy to demonstrate, we await his demonstration of that fact.
My own calculation of the rate of exploitation of Air Canada workers could certainly be improved, but so far not one radical leftist has bothered to attempt to correct it.
I invite Clarke, then (or any other radical) to demonstrate how Air Canada is “an exceptionally exploitative employer.” Workers need to be enlightened not only about the visible exploitation of flight attendants, but the invisible or hidden exploitation that is the typical situation of workers who work for a private-sector employer.
Of course, even if workers were not exploited, they would still be subject to oppression (unelected managers), and such oppression applies even when workers are producing the value of their own wage and not just during the time when they are producing a surplus of value (a profit) for the employer.
Should not radicals try to connect up the visible exploitation of workers with the invisible or hidden exploitation of workers typical of the capitalist economy.
As an addendum, I just looked at Clarke’s post again, and under my comment, where there are bubbles for indicating approval or disapproval, there is 1 thumbs down disapproval. Of course, the person who indicated the thumbs down provided no reason for it. Further proof of the lack of a critical point of view of the left.
The Abolitionary 