JDS Uniphase, the fibre-optics manufacturer, has reduced its Ottawa
workforce from about 10,000 in early 2001 to about 1,500
currently. More cuts are expected.
A day or so ago, TV journalists interviewed some of the employees who had
been handed pink slips. What I found disturbing was how absolutely
accepting of the situation they were. It seemed to be something that
simply happened, was indeed expected, in that line of business.
Each of the employees appeared to see themselves as being completely on
their own. There was no sense of a possibility of collective
action. In more traditional industries, like the auto industry, they
would have been unionized and would have put up a fight. Not so in fibre
optics. JDS's sales had shrunk hugely and manufacturing operations
have been moved from Ottawa to China. The employees appeared to
accept that firing them was a matter of corporate survival.
Collective bargaining and action continues in industries whose sales
remain fairly constant over prolonged periods and in government, but it does
not seem to have much chance of establishing itself in ephemeral "cutting
edge" industries that can make huge profits one year and huge losses the
next. Moreover, from the interviews, the JDS employees did not strike me
as people who would be very interested in collective action. Even though
they were being laid-off, they still appeared sure of themselves, even able to
take on the world. They were definitely not blue collar types.
Is this going to become the dominant pattern of the future? Are
companies going to keep inventing new things (e.g. fibre optic components),
glutting the market with them, and then getting out fast by rapidly
downsizing? Will the labour force increasingly accept this as the normal
course of things, benignly moving from job to job as each new invention
storms the market? If so, what's it all about? Making huge amounts
of money for a few people and keeping the rest hopping?
Ed
Ed Weick
577 Melbourne Ave.
Ottawa, ON, K2A
1W7
Canada
Phone (613) 728 4630
Fax
(613) 728 9382
