MY CO-OP STORY
(First published by the Canadian Worker Co-op Federation) Like most thirty-somethings I've worked in many different fields: from childcare to research, web design to tree planting, book selling to cooking. Though I've never experienced job security, I've earned a living wage, had a pleasant workplace, and had some say the conditions of my labour; but never all in one job. After a decade in the workforce I, ever-naive, was convinced the way to synchronize wages, conditions, and job security was to better myself and my resume through higher education. Seven years and several degrees later I found myself looking for work within a new labour epoch: the “gig economy” – with temporary contracts, for-exposure work, and unpaid (illegal) internships the norm. Here, university professors, engineers, tradespeople, and service industry workers alike attempt to survive on shrinking pay and unreliable work.
In synchrony with this, algorithm, software, and the computers and robots they're built into are rapidly replacing not just relatively low skill labour (the retail workers, bank tellers, factory workers, and truck drivers that make up much of the workforce) but also more skilled professions like designers, journalists, pilots, pharmacists, lawyers and paralegals, and many more. Whole career sectors are evaporating and will not be replaced.
To address these realities, which have been predictable, visible, and growing steadily for thirty years, government and industry are, well, doing virtually nothing. In fact, despite our major institutions and industries reporting record profits year after year (even during dramatic provincial, national, and global recessions), their frequently-stated mandate of creating more and better jobs has just never materialized – though cash hoarding (the antithesis of capitalism), securities and accounting fraud (the new backbone of global banking and finance) and tax evasion (a clear sign of plutocracy) are at pandemic levels.
Rather than cursing the abundant and, frankly, overwhelming dark alone and in defeat, I joined a team attempting to create and light a small candle we call The Grain Exchange.
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