We already know that Premier Wall and his SaskParty government do not have the best interests of women in mind. In not creating gender balance on the board of Enterprise Saskatchewan and in refusing to name a Minister Responsible for the Status of Women, he has made it clear that the status of women is not a priority for his government. And that’s sad, because women continue to be paid unfairly in this province. Despite working equally alongside men, women still earn about 70 cents for each dollar a man earns. But, new research shows that if women are in a unionized job, they will earn about 90 cents on the dollar earned by men.
So, what is the SaskParty going to do about that? Well, with the introduction of Bills 5 and 6, women will see no improvements in the pay gap. The legislation, which has been called anti-union and anti-worker can also be called anti-woman; it will negatively impact women in their workplaces.
Bill 5, the so-called Essential Services legislation, will fundamentally change collective bargaining for public sector workers. It is within the public sector that women have been able to secure unionized jobs, jobs which pay women decent wages, and provide for benefits and pensions. With a union, a woman can contemplate supporting a family.
Bill 6 makes union organizing extremely difficult. In industries where low-wage jobs are often filled by women and workers of colour such as in the retail and service sectors, more unionized jobs are needed in order to address the pay gap. We already know that employers aren’t going to voluntarily raise women’s wages; women have been waiting for that for decades to no avail.
But through their unions, women have been able to secure decent — if not yet fair wages for the work they do. It will be a good day for women when employers recognize the value of women in their workplace and actually pay up!
So, today I’m attending the May Day Rally on the steps of the legislature at noon. I’ll be there to remind the government and the opposition that women are people, too!
See you there!
the regina mom 
Frank W
/ May 1, 2008Regina Mom = Man Hater and Pro-Abortionist… Pathetic
thereginamom
/ May 1, 2008Wow! That’s profound, Frank! Can’t you think of any other names to throw at me? I mean, really, you can surely do better than this, can’t you?
Stan
/ May 1, 2008Uh, do we have a Minister Responsible For The Status Of Men?
Did you read the ruling by a real judge on the whole pay equity nonsense?
Please explain what pay equity actually means. Does it mean comparing people with the same qualifications and experience doing the same job, or is just another socialist scam based on lies?
You might find the answer to that in the real judge’s ruling.
Have you looked at the farce that the Labor Board had become under the NDP? Did you look at the repeated attempts by the Commissionairs to decertify? The last attempt was rejected because they used the company photo copier to copy some of the documents. No agenda or bias there by the board.
Do you even know the rules for certifying a union and holding a vote in Saskatchewan and how they compare to the more prosperous parts of the country?
Oh, and BTW, I’m a shop steward and have been a VP of our local.
The reason unions are losing support is because of all the stupid things they do.
If unions want to grow, they need to grow up and quit doing so much stupid crap.
Lots of hard core union supporters shake their heads and wonder why the union leaders support the idiots in the NDP and their far left moonbat ideas.
Unions can be a valuable counterweight to corporate power, but it’s time a lot of the leaders took there heads out of their asses and had a look around.
detooth the union commies
/ May 2, 2008Support the bills…. Get rid of the unions. The health care pigs are at the trough again. Delcare them essential. Give them a 10 year contract… 0-0-1-1-0-0-0-0-0-0.
Fines for Illegal striking should be 1,000,000 per day for the union and 100,000 per day per person. Ban maternity leave, THEN pay women equally~!
back to the 40 hour week…NO EDO’s…Start government space fillers at minimum wage. Any vandalism to an employer’s property during a strike should be ASSUMED to be union related and the Union held responsible by default.
Fines and penalties incurred during a strike should by law not be permitted to be reduced as part of any resulting agreement.
the regina mom
/ May 3, 2008It appears that the trolls have been let out from under the bridge…
Beijing York
/ May 3, 2008Such profound criticism NOT. It never ceases to amaze me how quick so many are to sacrifice the welfare of women and workers in general.
pale
/ May 3, 2008This is funny. Did someone leave a plate of cookies out within sniffing distance of that bridge again?
I like that one idea though…
Certainly let’s start a ministry for the status of men. We can decrease their perks until they are on the same playing field as women, financially and equality wise.
Geeze that is a BRILLIANT idea!
matttbastard
/ May 3, 2008Aw, RM, you lucky baby-hating commie–what did you do to deserve such loving attention from the conservative intellectuals who regularly opine in the comment threads of The Best Blog in Canada?
Stan, Frank, and–er, detooth, are obviously operating on a level miles above where your pretty little normally head resides. So why don’t you be a good little fetus factory and go roast some fresh goat for the nice wittle trolls?
Stan
/ May 6, 2008Oh well, by all means let’s hear the explanation of what is meant by pay equity.
Does it mean equal pay for an employee with equal experience and qualifications doing equal work, or does it mean something quite different?
C’mon, kick my ass with the real explanation and real numbers, if you can.
But sadly, as we all know, that won’t happen.
Because pay equity doesn’t mean equal pay for equal work by an employee with equal qualifications and experience.
It’s just another politically correct scam.
It’s just greed wrapped in a cloak of lies and stupidity.
Here’s a thought, if women who were as experienced and qualified as a man and were paid only 70% as much, don’t you think some wise woman entrepreneur would take advantage of that fact and hire only women?
Wouldn’t that give her business an automatic 30% cost of labour advantage?
Wouldn’t any business owner or manager, man or woman, also see the same thing and use the same strategy to reduce their labour costs?
As they say, money talks.
So why isn’t that happening?
Because the whole pay equity complaint is bullshit.
Stan
/ May 7, 2008Gee, sure is quiet out there. I thought for sure someone would have straightened me out on the whole pay equity thing by now.
Maybe since I let the cat out of the bag everyone is out starting businesses and hiring only women to get that 30% advantage on their labour costs and are already making millions.
Must be nice.
politics'n'poetry
/ May 7, 2008Trolls get a little tiring after a while and we have work to do. More than you, obviously. So, why don’t you go back to your bridge and think up a new tactic?
thereginamom
/ May 7, 2008Stan will no longer be posting from his current IP address. Sorry, I know some of you wanted to play with he who was labelled a troll, but I don’t have time to deal with his issues.