As we get back into the swing of fall activities - raking leaves, running kids between soccer and skating, attending to various social events and working hard - we are being told that life is not so rosy elsewhere.
I am not referring to war torn and devastated areas of the world but to peaceful areas of Europe where unemployment is now more than one out every four workers, where seniors have had their pensions dramatically reduced and where deflation is happening. This is where the standard of living is dropping significantly.
In Canada, more than 18,000 public servants have been warned their jobs may disappear, and more warnings are expected. The Ontario government is imposing a contract on Ontario teachers, about what our B.C. government effectively did last spring.
Now the B.C. government, realizing royalties from gas will be much lower, is placing a hiring freeze on all parts of the provincial civil service and also freezing compensation despite unionized workers wanting to negotiate a better package.
Meanwhile in the private sector in Ontario, Ford employees have settled just this week and the new employee will be paid significantly less than those already on the payroll. Most recently, the hockey industry is in a lockout as owners try to wrest money back from players.
South of us in the U.S., where the housing crisis is bottoming out, one in five homeowners has zero equity in their house and house prices are down in some areas by more than one-third.
Their big challenge just around the corner is to determine if and how to pay off the massive debt that has been created since the 2007 U.S. financial collapse. If not handled very skillfully, the chance of a new recession is significant.
Here in Delta, this is now the season for labour negotiations with our CUPE employees. Delta has broken away from the area-wide bargaining scheme that has been in place for decades, and for the first time is "going it alone."
So what can we expect here in Delta as the municipality negotiates its first labour agreement with CUPE? I'm told it's too early to know where negotiations are headed.
Like many other situations, will there be wage rollbacks, or lower wages for new hires, or a wage freeze? Will they get the same increase council members gave themselves last spring, which was 7.9 per cent for councillors and 5.6 per cent for the mayor?
What should we say to the Delta negotiating team? No increase in taxes due to wage changes? It's time to talk, write or email Delta council.
