05) REVERSE THE TORY ATTACKS ON EMPLOYMENT INSURANCE
Central Committee, Communist Party of Canada, June 1‑2, 2013
The Communist Party of Canada joins with the labour movement, the Catholic Bishops of Atlantic Canada, and many other voices which have condemned the Harper government's moves to sharply limit access to Employment Insurance benefits, especially by seasonal workers in hard‑hit areas of eastern Canada. Protests this spring have included a march by tens of thousands in Montreal, and many other rallies in Québec and the Atlantic provinces.
During 2012, under the demagogic guise of so‑called "reforms to curb abuses", the Tories tightened regulations to make it virtually impossible for many such workers to qualify for benefits. This includes forcing jobless workers in areas of extremely high unemployment to prove that they are actively seeking work, and to accept any job within 100 kilometres of home, even if the pay is just 70 per cent of their previous salary. While the government claims that the changes will save $12.5 million this year and $33 million next year, Human Resources Minister Diane Finley has admitted that no studies were done in advance to gauge the impact of these changes upon workers. Regional EI offices have been given monthly quotas for slashing EI benefits, and there are media reports that government staff are showing up at the homes of jobless workers to snoop on them.
These "savings" impose a deadly burden on working people and their communities. Over five years into the economic crisis which broke out in the fall of 2008, Statistics Canada reported in April that 1,361,700 were officially counted as unemployed, or 7.2% of the total workforce. In the 15‑to‑24 age group, unemployment stood at 14.5%, and 46.8% of young workers are employed only part‑time. The real unemployment figures are much higher, since those who have given up looking for non‑existent jobs are no longer counted in the active workforce.
Even more shocking, only 13% of unemployed workers in the 15‑to‑24 age group were able to able to qualify for Employment Insurance in 2012, a figure which breaks down into a mere 7.0% of unemployed young women and 17% of unemployed male youth. Clearly, by tightening the EI eligibility rules, the Harper Tories have condemned young Canadians to lengthy periods of utter poverty, even though they pay into the EI fund during periods when they are employed. Overall, only 37% of unemployed Canadians qualify for EI benefits, and there are 5 unemployed people for every job vacancy. As if all this was not enough bad news, on April 1, 250 referees who hear 26,000 EI appeals a year were replaced by just 39 people. Despite overwhelming evidence that the EI cuts and the rest of the anti‑working class Tory agenda are creating huge hardships for working people, PM Stephen Harper has outrageously blamed trade unions for "engaging in a campaign of misinformation about changes to the EI program".
Employment Insurance was a major victory for the working class of Canada, achieved thanks to massive and militant struggles during the 1930s by the Communist‑led Relief Camp Workers Union, the Workers Unity League, and other progressive forces, over the stubborn resistance of Conservative PM "Iron Heel" Bennett. Clearly, similar militant struggles are needed today to block the continued attacks on EI and to force governments to put the interests of working people ahead of corporate profits. The Communist Party of Canada will continue to press for broad, united, militant mass action by the labour movement and its allies, to defend EI and to reverse the entire neoliberal agenda of the Harper Tories.
(The above article is from the June 16-30, 2013, issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $30/year, or $15 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $45 US per year; other overseas readers - $45 US or $50 CDN per year. Send to People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 706 Clark Drive, Vancouver, BC, V5L 3J1.)