From: aa319@FreeNet.Carleton.CA (Marita Moll)
Reply-To: aa319@FreeNet.Carleton.CA (Marita Moll)
Newsgroups: can.infohighway
Subject: IHAC report - minority report
Date: Mon, 11 Sep 1995 02:11:19 GMT
Organization: The National Capital FreeNet
Message-ID: <DEpy2v.L7z@freenet.carleton.ca>

Posted with permission from the Toronto Star


The Toronto Star
Wed 30 Aug 95


     CLC leader breaks ranks on report Workers deserve more,
                     Parrot says

                                    By Bob Brehl Toronto Star


   Canadian workers will be information highway roadkill if the
   government follows recommendations from its own appointed panel, one
   of the members says.

   In a minority report, Jean-Claude Parrot, executive vice- president
   of the Canadian Labor Congress, issues a scathing attack on the
   Information Highway Advisory Council's final report.

   Parrot starts out by writing ``that my dissent from the council's
   final report does not encompass the report in its entirety.'' He
   agrees with council's stand on culture, learning and training.

   But then he launches into a frontal assault on the central thesis
   of the report. That theme is that the marketplace, not government,
   should build the highway and make the information economy flourish.

   ``Market-driven solutions to unemployment clearly do not work,''
   Parrot says.

   ``They ignore the responsibility that ought to be shared between
   the private sector and government to create jobs.''

   The council recommendations involving employment are, in essence,
   let the market decide, though the government can cushion the blows
   when technology kills jobs.

   For instance, the council wants government to:

   * Study the social and employment impacts of technology.

   * ``Encourage firms'' to look at job-sharing, shorter work weeks
   and work-at-home programs in place of ``large-scale layoffs.''

   * Promote worker mobility across country. In other words, entice
   workers to go to where the jobs are.

   * Promote ``life-long learning'' for Canadians by using the
   information highway for in-home education courses and creating
   better retraining programs.

   Parrot, the lone labor representative on the council, thinks the
   advisory council does not go far enough.

   ``Obviously, I believe this package falls short of what Canadian
   workers need and deserve,'' he says.

   Parrot wants more, not less, government intervention, both in terms
   of public money spent to create jobs and forcing corporations to
   retrain workers.

   ``In a sea of deregulation, a lifeboat of legislation and
   regulation can still be recognized as necessary to protect
   workers,'' he says.

   Parrot agrees with the 28 council members who call for legislation
   to protect workers from being spied on electronically by employers.

   The council says employers should have to tell employees about all
   overt and covert surveillance and why it is being done.

--
 Marita Moll           Ottawa, Ontario             aa319@freenet.carleton.ca