Perry Work Report, March 14, 2014

March 14, 2014

work&labour  news&research -- follow us on the CIRHR Library Tumblr and on the CIRHR Twitter

Measuring the Middle Class

"The ‘middle class.’ Most Canadians think they’re part of it, and politicians like that just fine. But who fits under this umbrella term and how are they faring economically? The Globe and Mail’s Brian Milner sits down with Steve Paikin to discuss the middle class classification, its use as a political buzzword, and the health of the Canadian Dream. The Agenda’s Story of the Week, as selected by our viewers."

TVO’s The Agenda with Steve Paikin, February 28, 2014: “Brian Milner: Measuring the Middle Class”

CBC News, February 23, 2014: “Canada's middle class 'mortgaging its future' with debt”

Employment and Social Development Canada, October 15, 2013: "What We Know About the Middle Class in Canada" (26 pages, PDF)

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Unionized Truckers Join Pickets at Port Metro Vancouver

"Up to 400 unionized truck drivers [joined] more than 1,000 non-unionized truckers at pickets and protests outside Port Metro Vancouver container terminals on Monday [March 10, 2014] morning, after their union voted Saturday [March 8, 2014] to reject a mediated back-to-work plan.”

"The [Unifor-Vancouver Container Truckers’ Association] says the average rate of pay for truckers moving containers to or from Port Metro Vancouver is $15.59 an hour, whereas the average rate of pay in the B.C. trucking industry is $23 an hour."
"The union is demanding increased pay rates that would be standardized and enforced across the trucking sector to put an end to undercutting."

CBC News, March 10, 2014: “Unionized truckers join pickets at Port Metro Vancouver”

CBC News, March 4, 2014: “Port Metro Vancouver trucker assaulted amidst labour dispute”
 

"Prime Minister Stephen Harper and British Columbia Premier Christy Clark each offered dire warnings Wednesday [March 12, 2014] that a truckers strike affecting container terminals in the Vancouver region is a threat to the country's economy, but each leader insisted it's up to the other government to actually do something about it."

The Vancouver Sun, March 12, 2014: "B.C., Ottawa urge each other to end truckers strike at Vancouver port"

CBC News, March 12, 2014: "Port Metro Vancouver truckers' strike causes wine shortage"

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Professors Teaching Less? That's Measuring the Wrong Thing...

"The [Higher Education Quality Council of Ontario] report’s tunnel-like focus on productivity leads it to make dubious recommendations based on limited and highly selective evidence. The report only examines 10 of Ontario’s 20 degree granting institutions. The analysis is confined to three disciplines from the hundreds of academic programs and departments housed by our universities. Their sample of professors represents less than 4 per cent of the full-time faculty in Ontario. Extrapolating from this wafer-thin slice of data to make recommendations about every university and university professor in Ontario isn’t just bad research. It’s irresponsible."

The Globe and Mail, March 12, 2014: “Professors teaching less? That’s measuring the wrong thing,” by Kate Lawson
 

"If professors who are not active researchers taught more, the teaching capacity of full-time professors in Ontario’s universities could increase by 10%, equivalent to adding 1,500 additional faculty members across the province, according to a new report from the Higher Education Quality Council of Ontario (HEQCO)."

Higher Education Quality Council of Ontario, March 11, 2014: “Research Summary: Productivity 101: Increase teaching load of university professors who aren’t active researchers”

Higher Education Quality Council of Ontario, March 11, 2014: “Teaching Loads and Research Outputs of Ontario University Faculty: Implications for Productivity and Differentiation,” by Linda Jonker and Martin Hicks (51 pages, PDF)

"Beyond the Traditional Classroom: Teaching and Learning in Contemporary Higher Education also details university initiatives that students would like to see greater university resources directed towards. Overwhelmingly, students identified increased training for professors and teaching assistants as the top area for improvement."

The Toronto Star, March 11, 2014: "Ontario professors should have to teach more courses, reports say," by Louise Brown

Ontario Undergraduate Student Alliance (OUSA), The 2014 What Students Want Report Series, March 11, 2014: "Beyond the Traditional Classroom: Teaching and Learning in Contemporary Higher Education" (20 pages, PDF)

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The Truth About Temp Labor

"Temp labor is one of the fastest growing industries in the U.S. Increasingly, temp workers are part of a business strategy to keep costs down and profits high. From mega-retailers to mom-and-pop shops, temps are hired to do some of the hardest and most dangerous jobs. While more and more of the American workforce is comprised of temporary workers, they’re largely hidden from public view. Many of these workers stay silent, often having their livelihoods threatened if they speak out. Wanting to get a glimpse of this invisible workforce, VICE News traveled across the country, scouring warehouses, temp agencies, and temp towns in search of the people who make our world of same-day delivery possible.”

VICE News, March 10, 2014: “Permanently Temporary: The Truth About Temp Labor - Part 1”

VICE News, March 11, 2014: “Permanently Temporary: The Truth About Temp Labor - Part 2”

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Prostitution is Nothing More Than Work

"The thickets of morality, judgment and history have grown so thick around sex work that it’s hard to hack away the rhetoric and cut to the heart of the issue: How to provide a safe, regulated framework where the sellers and buyers of a commodity can meet and make their exchanges in peace, and where neither party is coerced or exploited."

"The federal government is in the process of drafting new legislation around sex work, after the Supreme Court struck down the laws associated with living off the avails of prostitution and prohibiting brothels. It seems the government may be leaning toward the so-called ‘Nordic model,’ pioneered in Sweden, which leaves sex workers above the law but targets their johns."

"[However, m]any Canadian advocates for sex workers dislike the Swedish approach, saying it would make their job more dangerous because they wouldn’t be able to conduct business openly and screen their clients."

"...[Arguments over models aside,] if you accept that the demand for paid sex isn’t going to magically die with the flutter of a politician’s wand, then the best way to legislate for workers’ safety is to ensure that they can operate in the open, buttressed by human-rights law, without shame or fear.

The Globe and Mail, March 10, 2014: “Prostitution is nothing more than work. Treat it that way,” by Elizabeth Renzetti

A quote from Christina Wilson’s* thoughtful piece for The Globe and Mail regarding her time as a prostitute:

"...I’m done with prostitution. Its costs outweighed its benefits. I have been bartending on and off for years, offering up whatever swill is requested... but the funny thing is that sometimes the drunks treat me more like a whore than the johns did. The irony isn’t lost on me."

*Name changed

The Globe and Mail, March 4, 2014: “With no career prospects and a pile of student debt, I thought prostitution was the easy way out,” by Christine Wilson

The Toronto Star, March 10, 2014: ”Sex workers should get a say on prostitution policy,” by Emily van der Meulen

The Economist, March 8, 2013: " Britain’s prostitution laws are a mess. The proposed alternatives are worse."

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How Finance Gutted Manufacturing

"In the radical downsizing of American manufacturing, changes in corporate structures since the 1980s have been a powerful driver, though not one that is generally recognized. Over the first decade of the twenty-first century, about 5.8 million U.S. manufacturing jobs disappeared. The most frequent explanations for this decline are productivity gains and increased trade with low-wage economies. Both of these factors have been important, but they explain far less of the picture than is usually claimed."

Boston Review, March 11, 2014: “Forum: How Finance Gutted Manufacturing,” debate opened by Suzanne Berger

Opening the Debate: Suzanne Berger

Responding:

Dean Baker
Dan Breznitz
Susan N. Houseman
Nichola Lowe
Catherine Tumber
Joel Rogers, Dan Luria
Gary Herrigel
Mike Rose
J. Phillip Thompson
David Weil

Reply: Suzanne Berger

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The Millennial Survey 2014 -- Big demands and High Expectations/Global Human Capital Trends: Engaging the 21st-Century Workforce

"Deloitte’s third annual Millennial Survey explored what Generation Y wants from Business, Government, and the future workplace. The results revealed that Generation Y wants to work for organizations that foster innovative thinking, develop their skills, and make a positive contribution to society. Join the conversation at #DeloitteDavosLive and #MillennialSurvey."

Deloitte, March 2014: “The Millennial Survey 2014: Big demands and high expectations”

DeloitteDavosLive 2014

"The goal of this research is to give executives insight and perspective, while identifying solutions to help them set priorities for the coming year. We remain convinced that some of the biggest opportunities for companies to improve growth, innovation, and performance center squarely on how business leaders reimagine, reinvent, and reinvigorate human capital strategies -- informed by a deeper understanding of the new 21st-century workforce."

Deloitte, March 11, 2014: “Global Human Capital Trends 2014 Engaging the 21st-century workforce” (146 pages, PDF)

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The Monuments of Tech and the Youngest Technorati

“Facebook, Twitter, and Google: ‘Want privacy? Wear headphones.’”

"When companies feel that they are changing the world as much as these tech enterprises do, they don’t need just offices. They need monuments."

The New York Times, March 1, 2014: “The Monuments of Tech,” by Quentin Hardy

"Economists who study education largely agree that college matters greatly to future financial gain. In general, college graduates find better jobs and earn higher wages than those with only a high school degree, said Sandy Baum, an education scholar at George Washington University, though she acknowledged the economic uncertainty for many graduates. ‘But that’s so much more true of people who did not go to college,’ she said, and to suggest otherwise is ‘misleading a lot of people.’”

“Mr. Walk conceded that there could be a risk of making too much of early tech success. ‘You start to ask the same questions you do about child stars in Hollywood,’ he said. ‘Did they peak at 17, and never have another great app?’”

The New York Times, March 8, 2014:  ”The Youngest Technorati,” by Matt Richtel 

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Is Telecommuting Fast on the Rise?

 “‘No one would disagree that the U.S. work force is increasingly mobile,’ said the Telework Research Network in a 2011 paper on the state of telecommuting. ‘But, beyond that broad statement, we know little about the rate of increase in mobility -- how often people are out of the office, where they are, and what they’re doing. For that matter, there’s no agreed-upon method of defining who they are.’”

"Jennifer Glass, a professor of sociology at the University of Texas, Austin, who has studied teleworking for two decades, said her research shows that much of what managers and professionals call telecommuting occurs after a 40-hour week spent in the office. These people check email, return calls and write reports from home, but in the evenings and weekends."

The New York Times, March 7, 2014: “It’s Unclearly Defined, but Telecommuting Is Fast on the Rise,” by Alina Tugend

National Bureau of Economic Research, Working Papers Series, March 2013: “Does Working from Home Work? Evidence from a Chinese Experiment,” by Nicholas Bloom, James Liang, John Roberts, and Zhichun Jenny Ying (41 pages, PDF)

Monthly Labour Review, June 2012: “The hard truth about telecommuting,” by Jennifer L. Glass and Mary C. Noonan

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CEO Pay -- Higher is Not Better!

"It was the lesson of the best-selling book-turned-movie, Moneyball: Don’t throw money at big-name baseball players or judge future performance by purely physical attributes. Assess them, instead, by more relevant measurements, like their on-base percentage.”

"Wharton professor J. Scott Armstrong and Philippe Jacquart of EMLYON Business School in Ecully, France, say the same principles can be applied to choosing corporate executives. In a recent paper, they challenge the popular belief that higher pay leads to selecting chief executive officers who will outperform their lower-compensated counterparts.”

Knowledge@Wharton, February 3, 2014: “The ‘Moneyball’ Approach to Hiring CEOs”

The Globe and Mail, March 9, 2014: “Forget what you know about hiring a CEO,” by Harvey Schachter

"Our review of the evidence found that the notion that higher pay leads to the selection of better executives is undermined by the prevalence of poor recruiting methods. Moreover, higher pay fails to promote better performance. Instead, it undermines the intrinsic motivation of executives, inhibits their learning, leads them to ignore other stakeholders, and discourages them from considering the long-term effects of their decisions on stakeholders."

Knowledge@Wharton, February 2014: “Are Top Executives Paid Enough? An Evidence-Based Review,” by J. Scott Armstrong and Philippe Jacquart (31 pages, PDF)

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Give Me a Break

"...People are working longer hours, and even on the rare occasions when they step away from their desks, technology has created a work force that is always on.”

"Since consumers’ working habits have fundamentally changed, [Nestle] decided to launch the new campaign to focus on enabling people to take breaks."

"Among the campaign elements will be a mobile application called the Break Assist that will offer “tools” to help workers get away from their desks or from a meeting for a few minutes’ respite."

The Globe and Mail, March 9, 2014: “Nestle urges workaholics to take a break -- and how about a Kit Kat?,” by Susan Krashinsky

YouTube, March 10, 2014: “The Kit Kat Break Assist"

"Longer working hours seem to lead to higher premature mortality. (For stats nerds: the strength of the relationship is significant, with an r-squared of 0.2). The implication that over-work is bad for you chimes with lots of research (such as here, here and here) which links long working hours with poor health. Stress, for example, can contribute to range of problems like heart disease and depression.”

The Economist, January 30, 2014: “Working Hours: Get a life -- or face the consequences”

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Is 75 the New 65?: Rising to the Challenge of an Aging Workforce

"At a glance:

  • By 2020, managing an ageing workforce moves up the HR agenda, from just the number seven issue for today, to a top three concern for survey respondents.
  • As a result of the ageing workforce, almost half (43%) expect greater employee demand for benefits and over a third (35%) expect increased flexible working.
  • Nearly half (43%) of employers also expect employee demand for healthcare and retirement provision to grow.”

"To explore some of the issues that senior executives will have to address as they seek to adapt their organisations to this new world, The Economist Intelligence Unit, on behalf of Towers Watson, surveyed 480 senior executives at companies across Europe. Almost three quarters (71%) of them expect the number of their employees aged 60+ to increase by 2020, including 22% who expect it to increase significantly.”

Towers Watson, February 10, 2014: “Is 75 the new 65?”

The Economist, February 10, 2014: “Is 75 the new 65?”

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Glass Ceiling Index and the EU on Gender Equality

"As it is International Women’s Day on March 8th, The Economist has created a 'glass-ceiling index,' to show where women have the best chances of equal treatment at work. It combines data on higher education, labour-force participation, pay, child-care costs, maternity rights, business-school applications and representation in senior jobs. Each country’s score is a weighted average of its performance on nine indicators"

"To no one’s surprise, Nordic countries come out well on educational attainment and labour-force participation. Women are also relatively well represented in their parliaments; Finland and Sweden were among the first countries to allow women to vote and stand for election. Yet even there women are paid less than men for similar work. In Finland and Sweden the gap is close to the OECD average of 15%, though in Norway it has fallen to 8%."

The Economist, March 8, 2014: “The Glass Ceiling Index: The best -- and worst -- places to be a working woman”

European Commission, March 7, 2014: “Questions and Answers: What has the EU done for women? 50 years of EU action on Gender Equality for One Continent”

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Bangladesh Accord Inspections Prompt Safety Improvements in Garment Factories

"The Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh -- known as the Bangladesh Accord -- was signed in the aftermath of Rana Plaza factory collapse."

"It requires companies to pay up to $500,000 annually to administer inspections, which are backed by labour groups. About 1,500 factories will be inspected this year. Loblaw is its only Canadian signatory."

The Toronto Star, March 11, 2014: ”Bangladesh Accord inspections prompt safety improvements in garment factories,” by Raveena Aulakh

The Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh: Inspection Reports

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Book of the Week

Nothin' But Blue Skies: the Heyday, Hard Times, and Hopes of America's Industrial Heartland, by Edward McClelland. New York : Bloomsbury Press, 2013. 343 p. ISBN 9781608195299.

From the publisher: "The Upper Midwest and Great Lakes region became the 'arsenal of democracy' -- the greatest manufacturing center in the world-in the years during and after World War II, thanks to natural advantages and a welcoming culture. Decades of unprecedented prosperity followed, memorably punctuated by riots, strikes, burning rivers, and oil embargoes. A vibrant, quintessentially American character bloomed in the region's cities, suburbs, and backwaters. But the innovation and industry that defined the Rust Belt also helped to hasten its demise. An air conditioner invented in Upstate New York transformed the South from a sweaty backwoods to a non-unionized industrial competitor. Japan and Germany recovered from their defeat to build fuel-efficient cars in the stagnant 1970s. The tentpole factories that paid workers so well also filled the air with soot, and poisoned waters and soil. The jobs drifted elsewhere, and many of the people soon followed suit. Nothin' but Blue Skies tells the story of how the country's industrial heartland grew, boomed, bottomed, and hopes to be reborn. Through a propulsive blend of storytelling and reportage, celebrated writer Edward McClelland delivers the rise, fall, and revival of the Rust Belt and its people."

Visit the Recent Books at the CIRHR Library blog.

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