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- Info
April 27, 2009
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John Crispo Remembered
We are sad to announce that the founding Director of the Centre for Industrial Relations and Human Resources, Professor John Crispo, passed away yesterday. John joined the Department of Political Economy at UofT in 1961 and established the Centre a short time later, in 1965. He served as its Director until 1971 when he was asked to take on the role of Dean at the Faculty of Management. After his term ended in 1975, he continued to teach industrial relations to generations of both graduate and undergraduate students. He retired from the university in 1996 and became Professor Emeritus.
John remained active as a media commentator and public speaker on many aspects of Canadian life, including free trade, Medicare, and labour-management relations. In 2002, he published his memoirs, titled, Rebel Without a Pause: Memoirs of a Canadian Maverick.
John will be remembered by his many friends, colleagues, and students for his passionate beliefs, boundless energy, great enthusiasm, enormous charm and incredible humour. He is described by current Dean of the Rotman School of Management, Roger Martin, as a “class act” and “great man”-- indeed, a fitting tribute.
JOHN CRISPO: Political Economy Pundit
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Auto Industry in the News
Globe and Mail, April 28, 2009: U.S. reaches key deal with Chrysler bondholders
General Motors Plan:
Globe and Mail, April 27, 2009: GM Canada to shed jobs, dealers: Number of sellers will be slashed by 42 per cent, in line with U.S. restructuring, by Greg Keenan
Toronto Star, April 28, 2009: GM Canada to kill 38,000 jobs; auto graveyard: Blueprint cuts 6,000 more workers, plus 14,000 at dealerships and 18,000 at parts plants by Tony Van Alphen
CBC, April 27, 2009: GM to drop Pontiac in 2010, cut thousands more jobs
Pensions:
“Unionized auto workers will begin making a direct contribution to their own pensions in Canada for the first time, in a historic agreement with Chrysler Canada Inc. that was approved yesterday and will be extended to cover the other two Detroit auto makers.”
Globe and Mail, April 27, 2009: Auto workers agree to historic concession by Greg Keenan
The State of Auto Industry Pensions -- Who’s to Blame?
Andrew Steel’s current blog post blaming the CAW for the states of auto pensions receives numerous postings from autoworkers.
Andrew Steel Blog, April 27, 2009: Searching for the real (pension) killers
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Cutting Pension Benefits and Costs
The most recent edition of “News and Views”, a Moreau Sobeco publication, takes a look at funding relief for DB plan sponsors, Quebec’s draft regulation on pension plan funding, and the impact of the financial crisis on defined contribution pension plans.
News and Views, April 21, 2009 (12 pages, PDF)
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Impact of Work Organization on Job Stress
The current issue of the Health and Safety Report from the Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety features an article on workplace stress and includes information for both employees and employers on coping and prevention. As well, the article contains links to publications on this topic – these links are provided below.
Health and Safety Report, Volume 7, Issue 4, April 2009: Beyond Your Control and Causing You Stress: Impact of Work Organization on Job Stress
Work Organization & Stress: systematic problem approaches for employers, managers and trade union representatives, World Health Organization, 2004 (35 pages, PDF)
Stress at work, ILO SafeWork
Workplace Stress, CCOHS
NIOSH Publication No. 99-101: STRESS... At Work
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The Failure of Disability Policy in Canada
The Caledon Institute has released a paper titled, Paved with Good Intentions: the Failure of Passive Disability Policy in Canada. The author has found that one-size-fits-all benefits, passive income strategies and over-simplified disability concepts have failed to achieve real economic integration of adult citizens with disabilities.
Report, April 2009 (31 pages, PDF)
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Collaborating on Policy Development
The Caledon Institute has released a manual titled, Collaboration on Policy: A Manual developed by the Community-Government Collaboration on Policy. Developed by a group of ten partners, manual provides practical lessons for the establishment and operation of effective government-community collaborations on policy. Though poverty reduction was the lens through which collaboration on policy was viewed, the lessons presented are applicable to any complex problem. The many examples, tools and references provided in the manual are helpful both to those new to policy work and to groups already engaged in collaborations on policy.
Manual, April 2009 (94 pages, PDF)
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Family Work Week Hours Increasing
The most recent issue of Perspectives on Labour and Income features a study on hours of work of families and dual-earners. Although the average work week has been declining, overall family work hours have increased. In 2008, dual-earners accounted for three-quarters of all couples with dependent children, compared with just over one-third in 1976. Over the period, the combined paid work hours of couples increased from an average of 58 hours per week to 65 hours per week.
Perspectives on Labour and Income, April 2009 issue: The Family Work Week (9 pages, PDF)
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National Graduates Study
The National Graduates Survey, jointly undertaken by Statistics Canada and Human Resources and Skills Development Canada presents information on the further education and labour market experiences of graduates in the two years following graduation. For those who did not pursue further education, it also provides information on their student debt both at the time of graduation and two years later. To date, six graduating classes have been surveyed: 1982, 1986, 1990, 1995, 2000 and 2005.
Graduating in Canada: Profile, labour market outcomes and student debt of the class of 2005, April 22, 2009 (79 pages, PDF)
More than 80% of college and university students who graduated in 2005 and did not pursue further studies had found full-time employment by 2007. In general, earnings increased by level of study. In 2007, two years after graduation, just over one-quarter of those who owed student debt at the time they graduated had paid it off.
National Graduates Survey Highlights, The Daily, April 22, 2009
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Book of the Week
Why Work?: the Perceptions of a "Real Job" and the Rhetoric of Work Through the Ages, by Robin Patric Clair ... [et al.] West Lafayette, Indiana. : Purdue University Press, 2008. 196 p. ISBN 978-1-55753-151-5
This book explores the contemporary cultural construction of work, beginning with the expression, "A Real Job." This volume examines "work" in the writings of Aristotle, Plato, Confucius, St. Benedict, Adam Smith, Karl Marx, Booker T. Washington, W.E.B. Du Bois, Mother Jones, Emma Goldman, Emile Durkheim, Max Weber, Frederick Winslow Taylor, and Mary Parker Follett to answer the question, "Can the concept of work be divorced from the thinker's past?" A final chapter re-examines the core issue in light of the vary concept of "work" and ask one more time "why work?" This work is a result of an Honors seminar at Purdue University.
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This publication is protected by Canadian copyright laws and may not be copied,
posted or forwarded electronically without permission. All individual subscriptions,
and complimentary copies for students and alumni are not to be redistributed - organizational
subscription information is available at:
Perry Work Report.
Perry Work Report was named in honour of Elizabeth Perry, founder and editor since 2002, who retired in December 2006.
Questions or Comments: contact us at cirhr.library@utoronto.ca.
For past issues see our
Archives (there is a one month embargo on available issues).
Editor: Vicki Skelton
Designer: Nick Strupat
Copyright © 2008 Centre for Industrial Relations and Human Resources, University of
Toronto. All rights reserved.
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