June 21, 2010

Government Interventions in Labour Disputes Have Unforeseen Costs

C.D. Howe Institute has released a study suggesting that when politicians intervene in labour disputes, they should also consider the long-term, potentially unintended results of such action. Through the investigation of past government interventions the authors, Benjamin Dachis and Robert Hebdon, have found that:

Banning strikes increases public-sector wage levels appreciably. Legislation requiring compulsory arbitration in disputes involving public employees has increased wages by about 1.2 percent per settlement.

Back-to-work” legislation reduces the likelihood of a freely settled contract in the next round of negotiations, perpetuating the cycle of government intervention.

Bans on temporary replacement workers reduce wages, contrary to previous evidence, and increase the likelihood and length of strikes, as do reinstatement rights for striking workers.

Allowing union certification only through a secret ballot decreases the number of strikes and lowers the wage costs of unionized employees.

C.D. Howe Institute, June 17, 2010 (News Release)

Corporate Social Responsibility Report

Corporate Knights Research Group examined the environmental, social and governance performance of Canada's 60 largest public companies and the Globe and Mail reported on the findings.

Report on Corporate Responsibility Overview

Globe and Mail, June 21, 2010: Why Loblaw takes top honours for corporate social responsibility:  Since he became CEO almost four years ago, Galen G. Weston has focused on putting more discipline into the grocery retailer’s social-responsibility efforts. And it’s paid off.

Few Canadian companies disclose environmental practices

Overall Corporate Social Responsibility rankings for Canadian companies

In pictures: Top 10 corporate do-gooders

In pictures: Corporate Canada's 10 green leaders and laggards

Bombardier ranks No. 1 for environmental practices

Discussion: How green are Canada's leading companies?

Methodology: How the marks were determined

Corporate social responsibility by the numbers

Human Resources Trends and Metrics: Valuing Your Talent

The 2010 Human Resources Trends and Metrics report presents survey findings on talent management practices as well as the human resources function. It also explores the economic and demographic trends driving human resources planning. 

The ILO has adopted a new international labour standard on HIV and AIDS

The International Labour Organization (ILO) has adopted a new international labour standard on HIV and AIDS.  This is the first international human rights instrument to focus specifically on the issue in the workplace.

ILO website

Health and Safety in the Shipping Industry

Canada has ratified the Maritime Labour Convention, 2006. This ratification which was approved at the 99th Session of the International Labour Conference in Geneva in Switzerland will enhance health and safety protections for workers on board vessels.

Canada News Centre, June 15, 2010:  Government of Canada adopts Maritime Labour Convention

Consultation on Canada’s Digital Economy

You can participate – there are only 17 days left for you to submit, by email or via a consultation paper, your perspective on Canada’s digital economy –the consultation website also includes changes to Canada’s copyright laws via the Copyright Modernization Act.  To get up to speed in this area check out Michael Geist’s blog (Dr. Michael Geist is a law professor at the University of Ottawa where he holds the Canada Research Chair in Internet and E-commerce Law.)

Digital Economy Consultation main page and How to participate

Labor Law Loophole Prevents FedEx Express Employees unionizing

"Railroaded out of Their Rights" explores the historical anomaly of FedEx's coverage under the Railway Labor Act (RLA), which is uniquely designed to regulate the railroad and airline industry. Similar package-delivery companies are covered by the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA). 
The Leadership Conference's report urges members of Congress to enact the pending FAA Reauthorization Act with the language approved by the House of Representatives, which would bring FedEx Express ground transportation employees under the NLRA and give them the same opportunity that similarly situated employees of other package-delivery companies have to organize. 

Full Report , June 2010 (24 pages, PDF)

Press release and html access, June 2010

What the World thinks of Canada

As Canada prepares to play host to the world’s leaders at the G8 and G20 Summits, a new three part survey commissioned by The Historica-Dominion Institute takes the pulse of the world’s perceptions of Canada and Canadians.

The first part of the survey, entitled Canada and the World in 2010, focuses on the perceptions of Canada as an economic and world power.
The Historica-Dominion Institute, June 21, 2010: New Survey Measures What the World Thinks of Canada and Canadians - Part I: Global Attitudes on International Affairs, Economy and Business –detailed survey results

The second of the three-part survey, entitled Canada and the World in 2010, addresses one of Canadians’ most firmly held perceptions of themselves: their openness to immigration and their embrace of multiculturalism. The survey finds that the rest of the world finds Canada tolerant and welcoming.
 The Historica-Dominion Institute, June 22, 2010: New Survey Measures What the World Thinks of Canada and Canadians - Part II: Global Attitudes on Immigration and Diversity - detailed survey results

Globe and Mail, June 22, 2010: The world would love to be Canadian:  Survey results suggest Canada can thrive in the looming global talent wars

World Congress and G-20 Meetings Focus on New Global Economy

 The Second World Congress of the International Trade Union began on June 22, 2010 in Vancouver. The ITUC Congress will focus its debate on different themes, such as the global financial and economic crisis, and will consider resolutions on peace, youth, human and trade union rights and equality. Delegates at Congress will deal with issues related to labour’s demands for restructuring and reform of the global economy with an emphasis on themes such as workers’ rights, migrant workers, climate change and HIV-AIDS.

Domestic Work: Mobilizing for an ILO Convention

A vital link in the economic chain, domestic work is undervalued and underprotected. Domestic workers, especially women migrant domestics, are exposed in their millions to the risk of exploitation and abuse reaching terrible extremes. In addition to its organising drive, the trade union movement is campaigning for a new ILO Convention: a crucial stage on the road to decent work.

Global Union Federations Demand New Priorities from G8, G20 Summits

Meeting in Toronto on 19 June, 270 national trade union leaders from 50 countries put forward a stern Declaration to the G8 and G20 that a radically changed global social order must occur, one prioritizing security of employment and preservation of the environment. The Declaration, pointed at the G8 and G20 summits this week in Toronto, came from a “Triple Crisis of Sustainability” forum, a meeting of union leaders representing 55 million workers from industrial and manufacturing sectors.

News release, June 20, 2010: International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions

Global trade unions demand sustainability from G8/G20

Why the World Needs G8 and G20 Summitry

Here is a paper by John Kirton of the University of Toronto on why the G8 and G20 Summits are important.

Retrospection on Career Development by Japanese Workers in their Fifties

The Japan Institute for Labour Policy and Training has released a summary report which list findings from a survey of Japanese workers in their fifties. The participants were asked to access their careers from their twenties to their fifties through a series of quantitative and qualitative questions. The research focused on the employees’ objective and subjective careers particularly in their progress in career development. The report notes that career development should be supported at all critical stages of a worker’s employment and contained suggestions for career measures and techniques.

Fired, Let go, Organizational Change?

No matter what it’s called, you end up on the street – a humorous approach to personal tragedy, angst … and sometimes relief.

Book of the Week

Marketing Dreams, Manufacturing Heroes: the Transnational Labor Brokering of Filipino Workers, by Anna Romina Guevarra. New Brunswick, N.J. : Rutgers University Press, 2010. 251 p.   ISBN 9780813546346 (pbk.)

In a globalized economy that is heavily sustained by the labor of immigrants, why are certain nations defined as “ideal” labor resources and why do certain groups dominate a particular labor force? The Philippines has emerged as a lucrative source of labor for countries around the world. In Marketing Dreams, Manufacturing Heroes Anna Romina Guevarra focuses on the Philippines—which views itself as the “home of the great Filipino worker”—and the multilevel brokering process that manages and sends workers worldwide. She unravels the transnational production of Filipinos as ideal migrant workers by the state and explores how race, color, class, and gender operate.

The experience of Filipino nurses and domestic workers—two of the country’s prized exports—is at the core of the research, which utilizes interviews with employees at labor brokering agencies, state officials from governmental organizations in the Philippines, and nurses working in the United States. Guevarra’s multisited ethnography reveals the disciplinary power that state and employment agencies exercise over care workers— managing migration and garnering wages—to govern social conduct, and brings this isolated yet widespread social problem to life.

About the Author:

Anna Romina Guevarra is an assistant professor of sociology and Asian American studies and affiliated faculty of gender and women’s studies at the University of Illinois at Chicago.