Perry Work Report: work&labour news&research, December 12, 2014

December 12, 2014

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Product of Mexico: Hardship on Mexico's Farms

About this four-part series: "Los Angeles Times reporter Richard Marosi and photojournalist Don Bartletti traveled across nine Mexican states, observing conditions and interviewing workers at some of the mega-farms that have powered the country's agricultural export boom."

"The Times found:

  • Many farm laborers are essentially trapped for months at a time in rat-infested camps, often without beds and sometimes without functioning toilets or a reliable water supply.
  • Some camp bosses illegally withhold wages to prevent workers from leaving during peak harvest periods.
  • Laborers often go deep in debt paying inflated prices for necessities at company stores. Some are reduced to scavenging for food when their credit is cut off. It's common for laborers to head home penniless at the end of a harvest.
  • Those who seek to escape their debts and miserable living conditions have to contend with guards, barbed-wire fences and sometimes threats of violence from camp supervisors.
  • Major U.S. companies have done little to enforce social responsibility guidelines that call for basic worker protections such as clean housing and fair pay practices."

Read Part 2 here: "A raid exposes brutal conditions at Bioparques, one of Mexico's biggest tomato exporters, which was a Wal-Mart supplier. But the effort to hold the grower accountable is looking more like a tale of impunity."

Los Angeles Times, December 7, 2014: “Product of Mexico: Hardship on Mexico’s farms, a bounty for U.S. tables,” by Richard Marosi and photography & video by Don Bartletti

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British Columbia's Seasonal Workers

"For the past five years, Ms. [Maria] Carmona, 51, has left her home in Libres -- west of Mexico City, in the province of Puebla -- to work at a cherry-packing plant near Kelowna, saying goodbye each time to her mother and children."

"Women account for a small percentage -- an estimated 3 per cent, or fewer than 1,000 -- of the roughly 30,000 workers who come each year to Canada through the Seasonal Agricultural Workers Program (SAWP)."

"Because of 'proven acute labour shortages' in agriculture, the program was spared some of the reforms Ottawa imposed on the Temporary Foreign Worker Program this year, including a 10-per-cent cap on low-wage TFWs as a percentage of the overall workforce for employers with 10 or more employees."

"SAWP has been described as a model program for the security it provides for workers -- who are covered by provincial employment regulations -- and for employers, who have come to rely on seasonal workers to tend crops ranging from lettuce to grapes for high-end wines."

"But advocacy groups cite flaws in the program, including a system that ties workers to specific employers and can make them reluctant to speak out about problems, such as shoddy housing or pesticide exposure. Women -- because of their lack of economic opportunities in Mexico -- are even more vulnerable to abuse than men, advocates say."

The Globe and Mail, December 5, 2014: “Seasonal jobs at Kelowna plant highly sought-after by Mexican mothers,” by Wendy Stueck

The Globe and Mail, December 5, 2014: “In pictures: Seasonal Agricultural Workers Program a bastion for Mexican migrants seeking refuge from hardships at home”

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Taking the 'Temporary' out of the TFW Program

"The Canadian Federation of Independent Business is calling on Ottawa to replace its controversial temporary foreign worker program with a visa that would provide a path to permanent residence for entry-level employees from abroad."

CFIB president and CEO Dan Kelly says that “small businesses would much rather hire permanent workers, but the immigration system doesn’t allow them to hire people with entry-level skills.”

He adds that the “Canadian economy needs workers at all skill levels” and that “addressing labour shortages is critical to small businesses.”

CBC News, December 1, 2014: “CFIB wants temporary foreign worker program replaced by special visa,” by Lee-Anne Goodman

CBC News, December 1, 2014: “TFW program needs overhaul, but don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater” [video, 8:31 min.]

"CFIB’s proposed new visa would give foreign workers in entry-level categories an opportunity to work with an employer for two years as a defined step towards permanent residency. Other features include:

  • Employer must have 1 Canadian employee at same wage rate to have 1 Intro Visa
  • Ability to switch employers, not sectors or regions, if commitments not kept
  • Strict national and provincial enforcement”

Canadian Federation of Independent Business, December 1, 2014: “Taking the ‘temporary’ out of the TFW program”

Canadian Federation of Independent Business, December 2014: “Taking the Temporary Out of the TFW Program: Breaking myths about the shortage of labour and the Temporary Foreign Worker Program,” by Richard Truscott et al. (38 pages, PDF)

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Canadian Immigrants Are Happy to Be Here, Mostly

"Most immigrant groups in Canada have a higher level of life satisfaction than people in their country of origin, says a new Statistics Canada survey, which compares life satisfaction among recent immigrants in Canada with life satisfaction in their source country."

"Among the 43 immigrant groups ... 38 gave life satisfaction scores that were higher than those of respondents in their source country."

"Immigrants from only three countries (New Zealand, Colombia and The Netherlands) indicated a lower level of life satisfaction in Canada than respondents in their source countries...."

The Globe and Mail, December 10, 2014: “Mostly happier: How new Canadians rate life in their new home,” by Michael Snider and Murat Yukselir

Statistics Canada, December 2014: “Life Satisfaction among Recent Immigrants in Canada: Comparisons with Source-country Populations and the Canadian-born,” by Kristyn Frank, Feng Hou, and Grant Schellenberg

CBC News, November 10, 2014: “Canadian attitudes toward immigrants conflicted, poll says” [click here to see the results of the poll on discrimination]

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BC Federation of Labour Elects a New President

“Election years are always a big deal at Fed conventions. Unions pack the hall, filling as many of their allotted delegate slots as they can muster. With two credible candidates -- and clear divisions between them -- running to take over from Jim Sinclair, there was a record turnout of more than 2,200 delegates. Unions large and small seemed to line up evenly on either side. Adding to the drama is always the dramatic, archaic announcement that they are ‘tiling the doors,’ meaning no one, especially pesky reporters, can enter the hall while voting goes on. After a long count that inextricably stretched past lunch, ‘Landslide’ Lanzinger was declared president of the Fed for the next two years by an itsy-bitsy-teeny-weeny margin of 57 votes.”

The Tyee, December 4, 2014: “A Lonely Labour Reporter’s 12 Insights from the BC Fed Convention: A dozen noteworthy tidbits from the sole scribe on the ground,” by Rod Mickleburgh

BCFed, Convention 2014 [website]

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A Tale of Income Inequality in Five Toronto Neighbourhoods

West Humber-Clairville in northwest Etobicoke, Niagara-Queen-King in the southwest core, Allenby-Forest Hill, Leslieville, and Malvern in northeast Scarborough.

These five Toronto neighbourhoods share a mayor and city council but little else. They are morphing in radically different directions, with increasingly sharp contrasts in income, skin colour, opportunities and more."

University of Toronto professor David Hulchanski’s ‘Three Cities’ research "revealed that Toronto has quickly changed from a mostly middle-income metropolis to the equivalent of three distinct cities -- a prospering high-income core, a shrinking middle-income belt and swaths of suburb with plunging incomes. Underlying causes of the polarization include, Hulchanski says, deliberate tax and social policy changes that redistributed income upward, the disappearance of well-paid, unionized manufacturing jobs, dramatically rising housing costs and racial discrimination.”

"It is the growing separation of rich and poor, white and non-white and similar socio-economic polarizations within Toronto that worry Hulchanski and Mayor John Tory. The healthiest cities with the most opportunities for all, most research suggests, are in nations that have a much smaller income gap and neighbourhoods mixed in many ways."

"Concentrations of poverty, in Toronto’s case in the inner suburbs, can trigger negative impacts on resident’s job prospects, their health and the crime they suffer, and presents challenges for agencies that provide them services."

Click here to see a map of the data.

The Toronto Star, December 8, 2014: “A tale of income inequality in five Toronto neighbourhoods,” by David Rider

The Toronto Star, December 4, 2014: “Precarious work further divides a divided city,” by Sara Mojtehedzadeh

New data on income inequality and poverty from the OECD:

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New Statistics Canada Income Survey, 2012

The new Canadian Income Survey (CIS) means more frustration for researchers (see "Canada’s voluntary census is worthless. Here’s why") as the data is not comparable with data from the Labour and Income Dynamics Survey (SLID) which was discontinued in 2011:

"The 2012 CIS uses a different methodology compared with that used in SLID. Comparisons of CIS and SLID reveal differences in estimates between 2011 and 2012 that are attributable to the two surveys having different methods, rather than a true change in the characteristics of the population. For more information on the differences between CIS and SLID, see the report ‘Note to Users of Data from the 2012 Canadian Income Survey.’”

Statistics Canada’s The Daily, December 10, 2014: “Canadian Income Survey, 2012”

"Here are some trends, based on the snapshot of 2012:

  • Poverty: Nearly five million Canadians were considered low income in 2012. That equates to 13.8 per cent of the country’s population, or 4.7 million people to be exact. (While not comparable, the 2011 SLID showed three million Canadians, or 8.8 per cent of the population, were low income in that year). About one in six children in the country, or 16.3 per cent, lived in low-income status in 2012. Levels are much higher for kids living with single mothers, where the incidence is 44.5 per cent.
  • Median Incomes: For families with two parents and kids, median after-tax income was $84,600, much higher than among families headed by a single mother where the median was $39,100.”

The Globe and Mail, December 10, 2014: “Nearly five million Canadians in low-income status, 2012 research shows,” by Tavia Grant

“Twenty-five years ago today [November 24, 2014], MPs of all political parties voted unanimously in the House of Commons to bring an end to child poverty by the start of a new millennium. Four Prime Ministers later, child poverty has persisted. Today we hear from Ed Broadbent, the man behind the motion and from some people who know all too well about the persistence of poverty.”

CBC News, November 24, 2014: "Child poverty persists 25 years after Canada promised to end it"

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Canada's Work Force Participation Rate at 13-Year Low

"Jobs numbers go up and down, but one measure hasn’t budged in recent months: Many Canadians are sitting on the sidelines of the labour market."

"The country’s participation rate, or the share of the population aged 15 and over in the work force, stayed at a 13-year low last month. At 66 per cent, it hasn’t shifted in four months and is more than a percentage point lower than 2008 levels."

“This is the real reason for a stagnant participation rate; a large proportion of Canadians are aging and exiting the labour market.” -- Andrew Fields, labour market analyst at Statistics Canada

"Over all, the Canadian economy shed 10,700 jobs last month, with the country’s unemployment rate rising to 6.6 per cent from a near six-year low of 6.5 per cent a month earlier, Statistics Canada said Friday [December 5, 2014]."

The Globe and Mail, December 5, 2014: “Canada jobless rate ticks up as labour participation stuck in 13-year low,” by Tavia Grant

"After a gain of 37,000 jobs in October, Ontario posted a loss of 33,900 jobs in November."

“Unfortunately, 80% of those losses were in full-time work."

CCPA Behind The Numbers Blog, December 5, 2014: “A tough month for job seekers in Ontario,” by Kaylie Tiessen

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Labour Force Characteristics of the Metis

Highlights from the 2012 Aboriginal Peoples Survey:

  • The overall employment rate (60.7%) for the Metis population was similar to that of the total Canadian population (61.8%) in 2012.
  • Almost one-third of employed Metis work in sales and services.
  • Job shortages is the most commonly reported barrier to finding employment.
  • Illness or disability the main cause reported for not seeking work.

Statistics Canada’s The Daily, December 9, 2014: “Study: Labour force characteristics of the Metis: Findings from the 2012 Aboriginal Peoples Survey”

Statistics Canada, December 9, 2014: “Labour force characteristics of the Metis: Findings from the 2012 Aboriginal Peoples Survey,” by Thomas Anderson and Lori Hohban (17 pages, PDF)

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Workplace Deaths and Changing Safety Measures in Alberta

"Alberta’s Occupational Health and Safety is investigating the eighth workplace death in the province since the beginning of November."

"According to OHS spokesperson Brookes Merritt there were 51 workplace deaths in the province in 2012 and 52 in 2013. So far in 2014, 52 people have died while on the job."

CBC News, December 5, 2014: “8th Alberta worker killed on the job since Nov. 1”

CBC News, November 27, 2014: “Occupational Health and Safety investigating 4 deaths in last week”

"The definition of an unsafe workplace is about to change in Alberta -- or at least the way the government measures it."
"Beginning next year, the province plans to issue an index for each employer that takes into account a number of factors to determine how dangerous -- or safe -- it is for its employees."

"The new measure will take into account a combination of factors, like the size of the company, the industry they’re working in, the history of workplace accidents and steps they’ve taken to make the workplace safer. These are in addition to the three main measures currently considered: disabling injuries, lost-time claims and fatalities."

"Ranking companies solely on the basis of fatalities, disabling injury rate and lost-time claim rate fails to provide great insight into what is happening on work sites, [Alberta Federation of Labour president Gil McGowan] said."

The Calgary Herald, November 28, 2014: “Alberta to change how it measures workplace danger,” by Darcy Henton

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Employee Survey Determines the Best Places to Work

“This list of Canada’s Best Employers, compiled by Aon Hewitt, a global HR consulting firm, is determined in large part by surveying employees. Their engagement is measured by their views on areas such as leadership excellence, manager effectiveness, supporting productivity, career development and recognition. We asked all 50 organizations (listed alphabetically) what they think earned them such high marks from their staff.”

Canadian Business, November 10, 2014: “Canada’s Best Employers 2015: The Top 50 Large Companies”

The ‘Best Places to Work’ surveys co-published by Media Corp and The Globe and Mail are based upon employer submitted information only.

The Globe and Mail, December 6, 2014: “Best Places to Work in the GTA”

Canada’s Top 100 Employers [website]

More on top employers:

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Sexual Misconduct Complaints Mostly Ignored by Employers

"Most people who experience workplace sexual harassment or non-consensual sexual contact in Canada never report it to their employer, to a large degree out of fear or shame, a new survey suggests."

"For those who do report it, there is a 60 per cent chance their employer won’t take any concrete action or will dismiss their complaint, the findings suggest."

CBC News, December 5, 2014: “Sexual misconduct complaints mostly ignored by employers, survey suggests”

"Twenty-eight per cent of Canadians polled said they’d experienced unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favours or sexually-charged talk at work. Further, 14 per cent said they had experienced unwanted sexual contact at either their workplace or a work function."

"The results -- ‘unsurprisingly,’ Angus Reid noted -- were very different for men and women, with 43 per cent of female respondents saying they’d experienced sexual harassment, compared to 20 per cent of men. For 12 per cent and 9 per cent of women and men, respectively, their experiences went beyond verbal harassment to unwanted sexual contact."

Canada.com, December 5, 2014: “43 per cent of Canadian women have been sexually harassed at work: survey,” by Lauren Strapageil 

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The Cost of Privatization and Government Public/Private Relationships

"Public-private partnerships have cost Ontario taxpayers nearly $8-billion more on infrastructure over the past nine years than if the government had successfully built the projects itself."

The Globe and Mail, December 9, 2014: “Government-managed projects could save Ontario money: Auditor-General,” by Adrian Morrow

"[W]e noted that the tangible costs (such as construction, financing, legal services, engineering services and project management services) were estimated to be nearly $8 billion higher than they were estimated to be if the projects were contracted out and managed by the public sector."

2014 Annual Report of the Office of the Auditor General of Ontario: “Chapter 3: Infrastructure Ontario -- Alternative Financing and Procurement” (25 pages, PDF)

"Privatization always strips citizens of control over their public services, and during an international conference last week in Ottawa, the leaders of the unions that make up that National Union of Public and General Employees (NUPGE) recommitted to fight privatization at every turn."

NUPGE, November 4, 2014: “At the bargaining table and in public debate, NUPGE’s top priority is now fighting privatization industry and its secret deals”

“‘Wages are always important,’ he told the conference delegates. ‘But it’s now more important to make sure that every one of our contracts has clauses that protect public services, our members, and the public interest. If privatization is being contemplated, we want to ensure that any proposals provide for complete transparency, public accountability, and meaningful public consultation before any service can be privatized.’”

NUPGE & the Public Service Foundation of Canada, October 28 - 31, 2014: “International Conference on the New Forms of Privatization Report” (12 pages, PDF)

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Ontario Government Working Toward New Provincial Pension Plan

"The Ontario government is taking the first steps toward setting up a new provincial pension plan -- but is also holding more consultations to work out some details."

"The Ontario Retirement Pension Plan, to be paid for jointly by workers and their employers, is meant to roughly double Canada Pension Plan benefits. It will be mandatory only for people who do not already have a 'comparable' pension through their employer."

The Globe and Mail, December 8, 2014: “Ontario takes first steps in setting up new provincial pension plan,” by Adrian Morrow

“‘Employers worry that by making it more expensive to hire, the new pension plan will negatively impact job creation and hurt Ontario’s competitiveness,’ said [Ontario Chamber of Commerce] president and CEO Allan O’Dette. ‘We need to ensure that any changes to the pension system are made with a full understanding of the impact they will have on Ontario’s business climate.’”

"The Canadian Federation of Independent Business warned that forcing every Ontarian without a workplace pension and their employers to pay premiums each year will result in higher unemployment and lower wages."

“‘When you’re looking at a very fragile manufacturing economy in this province today, it hardly seems the right time to include a payroll tax,’ said PC critic Julia Munro.”

CBC News, December 8, 2014: “Liberals introduce bill to create provincial pension plan”

Legislative and Regulatory Changes Related to Ontario Pension Plans [Financial Services Commission of Ontario website]

Bill 56, Ontario Retirement Pension Plan Act, 2014

Live Poor, Die Young

"An oft-touted answer to the problem of an ageing population is to increase the retirement age. One consequence of this proposal, however, is to exacerbate inequality. The poorer sections of the population tend not to go to university so have longer working lives than the better-off. And they have lower life expectancy as well, so they will also enjoy shorter periods of retirement."

The Economist, December 8, 2014: “Retirement reform: Live poor, die young,” by Buttonwood

New from the OECD on pensions:

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Book of the Week

This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. the Climate, by Naomi Klein. Toronto : Alfred A. Knopf Canada, 2014. 566 p. ISBN 9780307401991 (hardcover)

From The New York Review of Books: "“Klein traces our inaction to a much deeper, structural problem. Our economy has been built on the promise of endless growth. But endless growth is incompatible with radically reduced emissions; it’s only at times when the global economy has gone into free fall that emissions have declined by more than marginal amounts. What’s needed, Klein argues, is ‘managed degrowth.’ Individuals are going to have to consume less, corporate profits are going to have to be reduced (in some cases down to zero), and governments are going to have to engage in the kind of long-term planning that’s anathema to free marketeers. The fact that major environmental groups continue to argue that systemic change isn’t needed makes them, by Klein’s account, just as dishonest as the global warming deniers they vilify. Indeed, perhaps more so, since one of the deniers’ favorite arguments is that reducing emissions by the amount environmentalists say is necessary would spell the doom of capitalism. ‘Here’s my inconvenient truth,’ she writes. I think these hard-core ideologues understand the real significance of climate change better than most of the ‘warmists’ in the political center, the ones who are still insisting that the response can be gradual and painless and that we don’t need to go to war with anybody."

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