Why Workers Can’t Push Back — Even When They Work Hard

Why Workers Can’t Push Back

After understanding how wages are anchored
and who benefits from Saint John’s industry,
the next question is obvious.

Why don’t workers push back?

Why don’t wages rise?
Why don’t people just leave for better jobs?
Why doesn’t pressure force change?

The answer is leverage.

In places like Saint John,
workers face a concentrated labour market.

That means there are fewer alternative employers,
and many of those alternatives are tied — directly or indirectly —
to the same dominant corporate ecosystem, including J.D. Irving Limited.

When that happens, individual bargaining power collapses.

Changing jobs doesn’t raise pay —
it often leads to the same wage somewhere else.

Speaking up risks hours, schedules, or contracts —
especially in service and contract-based work.

Unionization helps some workers,
but it doesn’t fix a market where
the same buyer sets the contract reference point across sectors.

This creates quiet pressure.

People stay because:
they have families,
they have housing they can’t risk,
they can’t afford gaps in income,
and moving away means losing community support.

So workers adapt.

They take second jobs.
They delay medical care.
They leave the province if they can.
Or they stay — and struggle quietly.

This is why the advice to “just work harder” doesn’t land.

Effort matters — but effort alone cannot overcome
a system that limits what effort can return.

Without competition,
without multiple employers bidding for labour,
workers don’t gain leverage.

And without leverage,
pushing back becomes a personal risk instead of a collective solution.

That’s not weakness.

That’s reality.

This is the Canadian Citizens Journal.
#SaintJohnNB #WorkingCanadians #Wages #Labour #CostOfLiving #EconomicReality #CCJ