Frozen out: Young people and the public sector

 Social insecurity

 Time for renewal

 Public Works...

"Sadly, some young people don't think or care much about privatization, they just want a job. This is a sobering thought since this is exactly where employers want us, willing to accept anything that comes along.

"We need to consider young people's precarious position in the workplace today and work to improve their situation. Young people shouldn't have to undercut themselves just to hang onto their jobs. But that's exactly what privatization is forcing us to do."

Justin Schmid, youth activist, CUPE 374

Time for renewal

Governments must act on this crisis now. The public sector must be renewed, restoring funding and support for publicly delivered, publicly owned and operated services. Many benefits of a public infrastructure program would especially help young people. And the environmental, economic and social benefits of immediate public reinvestment will benefit not only young people but also Canadians as a whole.

Public sector reinvestment will create new, environmentally sustainable green jobs. As environmental awareness grows, so does the need to clean up existing problems and create jobs in vital areas such as water treatment, waste management and recycling. Making a cleaner environment a top priority will create jobs for young people that will alleviate pressure on the planet and avoid costly environmental cleanups in the future.

Public sector reinvestment will also relieve workload overload. Front line public service workers are often doing the work of two, carrying staggering amounts of overtime as well as the accompanying stress. Restoring jobs in areas such as education, health care and social services will strengthen these services and relieve the pressure on stressed-out workers. New health care and nursing home workers would help cope with increasing workloads due to Canada’s aging population. Investing in a national child care program would create decent jobs and make a much-needed service more accessible.

New public sector jobs will also be good jobs, opening a whole new range of opportunities for young people. While three-quarters of public sector workers are unionized, only 12 per cent of workers between 18 and 29 are able to find work in the public sector. Broadening young people’s access to decent full-time jobs with adequate wages, benefits, job security and union protection is a key benefit of any public sector renewal and will have a far-reaching economic impact.

Young people are too often invisible in debates about the consequences of privatization. They must move to the forefront of discussions about not only consequences, but also solutions. Every public sector job that vanishes is a decent full-time job that a young person will never have the chance to obtain. Every service that shrinks, disappears or charges new fees is a service a young person will never fully use. It isn’t too late to reverse this dangerous and destructive trend. But the time to act is now if we are to prevent an entire generation — and generations to come — from being condemned to lives of poverty and insecurity.

"Young people today have grown up with a constant, all-out attack on public services like social assistance, education and health care. Many young people have never experienced the advantages of public services and supports.

"Young people are inundated with rhetoric and half-truths about how the private sector is more efficient, and how governments are nothing but wasteful and inefficient. But they know that corporations attack public services in the interest of profit, not quality service. Young people see the consequences of under-funding and offloading every day in their own lives and their families' lives. And that's why young people are fighting back."

Michael Conlon, National Chairperson, Canadian Federation of Students