We're losing the race to the bottom

Don't take it personally; everybody loses in the race to the bottom.

I'm old enough to remember the debate about how much the various levels of government should be prepared to subsidize the proposed Cambridge Toyota plant thirty years ago. Toyota made it clear that they were playing off one jurisdiction against another.

Why should they build their factory in Ontario in return for 50 million in subsidies if Kentucky was offering 100 million and so on.

This has become the norm in the car industry. Why build here if they're going to give us more free money over there? It's the strategy that got Alabama a Mercedes plant. It's the strategy that got anybody any car plant anywhere in the last thirty years.

Originally different communities were prepared to offer those subsidies because of what they got in return; long-term, stable, well-paying jobs.

That has slowly been changing, and the pace of that change will only speed up in the future. Today the car companies want those billion dollar subsidies in return for providing fewer, less stable, mediocre-paying jobs. In a few years they will demand even greater subsidies in return for shit jobs.

We're well on our way.

One of the arguments put forward by Canadian officials is that companies will continue to see Canada as a desirable location because of our well educated work-force. This is a conceit unique to those who have never worked in a car assembly plant. Face it; as anybody who has ever walked that mile will readily attest, you don't have to be particularly bright or particularly well-educated to nail that gig.

Here's a telling quote from Professor Tony Faria, of the Odette Business School at the University of Windsor; " We like to talk about a skilled, educated workforce in Canada... the US workforce is equally as skilled and educated... the Mexican workforce is equal to that in the US."

So where does that leave Canadian autoworkers?

The going wage for assembly line workers in Mexican plants owned by the big three is $3.75 an hour.

Where do you think that leaves Canadian autoworkers?