(The following article is from the May 1-15, 2009, issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $25/year, or $12 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $25 US per year; other overseas readers - $25 US or $35 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 133 Herkimer St., Unit 502, Hamilton, ON, L8P 2H3.)

By Johan Boyden, General Secretary of the Young Communist League of Canada

International workers day is a time to reflect on past struggles, and immediate battles. This May Day, for many young workers that translates as: "will I have a summer job?"

     Prospects look grim. There will be high competition from recently laid‑off workers. The majority of these workers are not able to collect Employment Insurance and are, frankly, desperate.

     "Small headline" stories tell the bigger picture here - like the announcement from Distress Centres of Toronto that calls to their lines have increased exponentially this year from people who've lost their jobs or are worrying about basic needs. Highly distressed or crisis calls including suicide calls have doubled.

     That's not to say the economic crisis hasn't already hit young workers. Among 15 to 24 year olds, unemployment jumped to the highest in eleven years, 14.8% in March. In Ontario it is 17%. Youth have experienced the fastest rate of decline among age groups, with 122,000 jobs lost since October.

     With residence fees, tuition, food, housing, car insurance and day care costs all going up, many are also asking: will I get enough hours this summer? What about teenagers, students, apprentices and others with little to no work experience?

     A few years ago, I wrote an article in People's Voice about the "big, fat, dangerous great Canadian summer job, where you work like a beaver, and get treated like a hoser." After speaking to a number of youth looking for work across the country, the conclusion was that you had to lie about your experience in order to just get an interview.

     With all this considered, I'm not surprised that the plight of industrial workers, who were supposedly making fat pay cheques, seems distant to new job hunters.

     Actually it isn't. A good example is the CAW Save Our Severance and pensions campaign. As Angelo DiCaro with the CAW youth told me, "If these big corporations don't live up to their pension obligations and the government doesn't provide back‑up, what will be left for young workers - if they can retire? Young workers are facing a very bleak future." And if one section of the working class resists concessions and makes gains, youth (and all workers) benefit.

     Over half of the jobs killed in March were in manufacturing, particularly auto and parts, metal and wood processing. Not one CEO has been asked to return a penny of the $3 billion slush‑fund Harper's budget created, but the government dares to demand workers and retirees return pension benefits and slash wages. Youth and students shouldn't fall for divide and rule: our stakes are on the same side of the table as the industrial workers, and diametrically opposed to the CEOs.

     Politicians are playing with fire on these issues. Back in March, Ontario's Premier publicly mused that, after granting corporations one of the lowest tax‑rates in North America, the province couldn't afford to raise the minimum wage. After mass public outcry, Dalton McGuinty did a one‑eighty.

     What else could we get them to turn around on?

     Full‑time minimum wage workers in Ontario still make $3000 below poverty line. And Ontario has the highest minimum wage in Canada, at $9.50, although if you are under 18, you get $0.55 less per hour than general minimum wage. Next year it will be $0.65 less. Huh?

     Visit endstudentminimumwagenow.ca, British Columbia (where the "entry level" minimum is $6 per hour!) now ties with New Brunswick and PEI for the lowest Canadian minimum wage. According to Canada Mortgage and Housing's most recent rental market report, renting a two‑bedroom apartment is $656 in Moncton NB, $660 in Charlottetown PEI, and $1,100 - almost twice as much - in Vancouver.

     For the record: on May 1st Saskatchewan's minimum wage creeps to $9.25, and Manitoba's inches up to $8.75. Newfoundland's reaches $9.00 on July 1, more than Alberta's at $8.80. Quebec's is $8.50, Yukon $8.58 and North West Territories $8.25. And in Trail, BC, Communist candidate Zach Crispin is demanding a living wage of $16 in the provincial election.

     I haven't even mentioned the injuries and deaths young workers sustain. Plus, as People's Voice reported last issue, the Public Service Alliance of Canada is challenging the federal government's definition of employee, forbidding summer students from joining a union. Talk about cheap labour!

     So if youth, employed or unemployed, needed another reason to join the growing fightback, this May Day the signs are loud and clear.