Perry Work Report: work&labour news&research, June 26, 2015

June 26, 2015

The Perry Work Report: work&labour news&research will return in September 2015. Continue to follow us on our Tumblr and have a great summer!

Announcement:

Congratulations!

Dr. Travor Brown, a graduate of both the MIR and PhD programs at the Centre for Industrial Relations and Human Resources, University of Toronto, has been a professor of Labour Relations and Human Resources at Memorial University of Newfoundland since 1999. Dr. Brown will be taking up the position of Associate Dean of Research at Memorial University's Faculty of Business in September 2015. Included in the role is the Director of the PhD and MSc programs.

Follow us on the CIRHR Library Tumblr and on the CIRHR Library Twitter.

Pride Toronto 2015

“The labour movement has a long history of making the day-to-day lives of LGBTQ individuals better.”

“During Pride season, we celebrate many of these victories:

  • It was the postal workers who first negotiated same sex health benefits in their contracts.
  • Unions across most industries created committees and working groups to fight against homophobia, transphobia and harassment, and many even changed their own constitution to reflect that.
  • In the early 2000s unions challenged equal marriage.
  • Workers who are transitioning can access special leave because of the work unions have done.
  • We have put diverse clauses in collective bargaining agreements that protect the human rights of LGBTQ workers above and beyond the law.
  • World Pride in Toronto hit a record number of delegate participation by union members last year.
  • The ongoing support of teachers’ unions and federations who hold Gay Straight Alliances (GSAs) in our school boards.”

Canadian Labour Congress, June 10 2015: “Pride 2015: From equal marriage to trans rights"

Pride Toronto 2015 [website]

Media Queer [website] -- Media Queer launched on June 22, 2015. “The goal of the Queer Media Database Canada-Quebec Project is to maintain a dynamic and interactive online catalogue of LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer) Canadian film, video and digital works, their makers, and related institutions."

Pride Needs to Get More Political

“While Pride has its roots in protest, some early gay and lesbian activists worry whether Pride Toronto has lost too much of its political side, becoming overwhelmingly a celebration.”

“Pride Toronto executive director Mathieu Chantelois says Pride ‘absolutely’ needs to stay political, for many reasons. One example he gives is a pile of letters on his desk, received in just the past week.”

“’It’s all hate mail, people telling me I’ll burn in hell, and what I’m doing is absolutely wrong.’ He adds that homophobia, transphobia, and biphobia remain part of Canadian society.” 

The recent promotion of a critic of gay marriage to Ontario’s highest court, the Ontario Court of Appeal, serves as evidence.

CBC News, June 24, 2015: “Does Pride need to get more political about LGBT rights?,” by Daniel Schwartz

Stephen Harper Strikes Again

“The Conservative government chose Justice Bradley Miller, a former University of Western Ontario law professor, for the Ontario Court of Appeal after he spent just six months on the province’s Superior Court.”

In his published work, Justice Miller has argued that “the 1982 Charter of Rights and Freedoms did not explicitly protect gays and lesbians from discrimination, and that therefore the Supreme Court of Canada was wrong to have read such protection into the document.” And that “gay marriage in Canada is a ‘new orthodoxy,’ and anyone who disagrees is treated as a bigot. He also said the ‘only parental defence’ to public school curricula full of positive references to same-sex marriage is to pull children out of the public system.”

“He also wrote in his conclusion to a 2011 essay on gay marriage: ‘To the extent that the conception of marriage that is reflected in the law is morally defective, it makes it more difficult for people to understand genuine marriage and to develop the dispositions and character necessary to participate in it.”

“In the sentence immediately before the conclusion, he lumped gay marriage in with polygamy....”

The Globe and Mail, June 24, 2015: “Another critic of gay marriage ascends to Ontario’s highest court,” by Sean Fine

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Canada's Gay-Straight Wage Gaps

“A study recently published in Gender and Society found that in Canada, gay men with partners earn about 5 percent less than straight men with partners, while coupled lesbian women earn roughly 8 percent more than coupled straight women.”

“Interestingly, the pay-gap trends examined in the Canadian study were especially strong in high-paying jobs. For example, straight men in senior management on average made about $183,000 each year, while the average for gay men was about $121,000. The study, done by two Ph.D. candidates in sociology at McGill University, Sean Waite and Nicole Denier, has one major caveat: It only looked at white men and women, because there are significant employment-related hurdles for people of color that would be hard to control for in the data."

So, what might explain these gaps?

“’One of the arguments that we put forward is that the remuneration practices in some of the most highly paid occupations ... are more dependent on merit and performance pay,’ Waite says. ‘These types of remuneration may allow for more arbitrary evaluation, from both bosses or coworkers, of an employee’s worth. In other words, there may be more avenues for conscious or unconscious bias.’”

The Atlantic, June 17, 2015: “Unequal Pay: The Gay Wage Gap,” by Joe Pinsker

Gender and Society, May 2015: “Gay Pay for Straight Work: Mechanisms Generating Disadvantage,” by Sean Waite and Nicole Denier    

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Missing and Murdered Aboriginal Women: 2015 Update to the National Operational Overview

“Aboriginal women continue to be overrepresented among Canada’s missing and murdered women, says the RCMP in a new report to update Canadians on the force’s efforts to address unresolved cases of missing and murdered native women."

“Other key findings include:

  • As of April 2015, 174 aboriginal women across all police jurisdictions remain missing, 111 of these under suspicious circumstances.
  • A reduction of 9.3 per cent in unsolved cases of missing and murdered aboriginal women reported in the 2014 overview, from 225 to 204 across all police jurisdictions.
  • In 2013 and 2014, 81 per cent of murders of aboriginal women have been solved in RCMP jurisdictions.
  • Within RCMP jurisdictions, offenders were known to their victims in 100 per cent of solved homicide cases of aboriginal women since 2013.
  • Offenders were known to their victims in 93 per cent of solved homicide cases of non-aboriginal women in RCMP jurisdictions in 2013 and 2014.”

“The Assembly of First Nations said today’s findings demand an ‘urgent call’ for action. ‘The numbers of missing and murdered indigenous women cannot remain a mere statistic,’ said AFN National Chief Perry Bellegarde in a written statement.”

CBC News, June 19, 2015: “Aboriginal women still overrepresented among Canada’s missing and murdered women"

Royal Canadian Mounted Police, June 2015: “Missing and Murdered Aboriginal Women: 2015 Update to the National Operational Overview” (21 pages, PDF)

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The Treatment of Migrants with Mental Health Issues: Another Canadian Shame

“Thousands of non-citizens are locked up in detention in Canada -- many of them refugee claimants and asylum seekers -- who come looking for a better life. Even more troubling, migrants with mental health issues are frequently transferred to jails specifically because of these issues. The government maintains these migrants can get better health care in jail, an argument that is refuted by lawyers, independent researchers and detainees who were interviewed for the [International Human Rights Program] report."

University of Toronto, June 18, 2015: “In the shadows of citizenship: #IHRPmigrantrights," by Karen Gross

CBC News, June 18, 2015: “Canada’s ‘paramilitaristic’ border agency locking up more foreigners: report,” by Colin Perkel

Some key findings of the IHRP report include:

  • The Effect of Detention on Mental Health
    • Immigration detention has a significant negative impact on mental health.
    • Detention causes psychological illness, trauma, depression, anxiety, aggression, and other physical, emotional and psychological consequences.
    • Detention can be particularly damaging to vulnerable categories of migrants.
  • The Lived Experience of Immigration Detainees
    • Detainees experience overwhelming despair and anxiety over their immigration status.
    • Detainees report disrespectful treatment by Canadian government officials.
    • Detainees believe they are held in extremely restrictive conditions.
  • The Legal Authority to Detain Migrants and Statutory Scheme
    • The entire legislative scheme is silent on mental health.
    • A detainee’s mental health is rarely seen as a factor favouring release.
    • There is no effective mechanism to legally challenge detention.
  • The Decision to Detain in a Provincial Jail
    • CBSA has complete and unfettered discretion as to the site of confinement.
    • Because detainees held in provincial jails are under both provincial and federal jurisdiction, no single government department is clearly accountable for the conditions of confinement, and health and safety of detainees.
    • There is no effective monitoring of the conditions of confinement for detainees held in provincial jails.
  • Access to Mental Health Treatment in Provincial Jails
    • Mental health support and treatment in provincial jails is woefully inadequate.
    • While detainees with mental health issues that are stereotypically associated with disruptive behaviour (i.e. psychotic disorders) often receive medication; those who suffer from depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, or anxiety often do not receive any treatment at all.

University of Toronto, Faculty of Law, International Human Rights Program, June 18, 2015: “’We Have No Rights’: Arbitrary imprisonment and cruel treatment of migrants with mental health issues in Canada” (129 pages, PDF)

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2015 New Labour Trilogy & Canada Social Report

“The Canadian Foundation for Labour Rights (CLFR) has released its most recent publication entitled 2015 New Labour Trilogy, a report of the CFLR forum held in Toronto on April 9, 2015 and attended by some 50 prominent trade union lawyers, academics, and activists.”

“The 2015 New Labour Trilogy offers valuable and timely material on the current state of labour rights in Canada. It provides a summary of the three January 2015 Supreme Court of Canada decisions on labour rights, as well as a series of short papers from the presenters summarizing the presentations they gave at the CFLR forum. Each of the presenters provided analysis and interpretation of the decisions, as well as insights on how they may be applied in current and future Charter litigation involving labour rights.”

Decisions must be coordinated strategically by labour:

“CFLR Board member and one of Canada’s most respected labour lawyers, Paul Cavalluzzo was one of the presenters at the Forum. He noted that the Supreme Court decisions were 'a great victory for labour.' He cautioned however, that 'they must be used strategically and in a coordinated manner in the future.'"

“There should be a consensus in the labour movement as to what challenges go forward in the future. The impact of these decisions could be diluted by the wrong case being brought forward in an unconsidered way. This new CFLR publication is a must read for any union considering a future Charter challenge against a bad labour law.”

The Canadian Foundation for Labour Rights (CLFR), June 15, 2015: "The 2015 New Labour Trilogy" (54 pages, PDF)

Canada Social Report

“The Canada Social Report is a new initiative being undertaken by the Caledon Institute of Social Policy along with our partners and colleagues.”

“The Canada Social Report ... is a web-based initiative only. As a living document that will evolve over time, new sections and materials will be added as relevant documents and data become available. The Canada Social Report is a public document within the public domain. It is a significant national project.”

Canada Social Report -- About the Canada Social Report [website]

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Unionized Labour -- Mediaplanet's Newest Issue

“With nearly 30 percent of the Canadian population engaged in unionized work, organized labour is a driving force in Canada’s economy. With a special focus on the economy and the role of workplace diversity in Canada, this campaign will inform Canadians on the positive impact organized labour has on the country as a whole.”

Articles include:

Unionized Labour [website]

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Framing the New Canadian Inequality

“This chapter will be published in Income Inequality: The Canadian Story, edited by David A. Green, W. Craig Riddell and France St-Hilaire. The Institute for Research on Public Policy, in collaboration with the Canadian Labour Market and Skills Researcher Network, has gathered some of the country’s leading experts to provide new evidence on the causes and effects of growing income inequality in Canada and the role of policy. Their research and analysis is collected in this volume, the fifth in the IRPP’s The Art of the State series.”

“Canada is currently engaged in a struggle to define or ‘frame’ the changes occurring in the distribution of income and the social stresses they are bringing about. What is happening? Why is it happening? Is it a policy problem? There are multiple answers to these questions, and the result is flux in our policy debates.”

“We examine three frames that contend for attention: an historic antipoverty frame, a more recent top-1-percent frame, and a still contentious middle-class frame. All three call for significant income redistribution, although in different forms. Nonetheless, a move to stronger income redistribution would confront serious constraints in the form of established policy norms and the unequal representation of economic interests in our political system.”

“Only electoral politics can generate the momentum needed to challenge these established norms and interests. The prospects for such momentum hinge on whether middle-class voters see their interests aligned with those of high-income groups or low-income groups.”

IRRP, May 21, 2015: “Framing the New Inequality: The Politics of Income Redistribution in Canada,” by Keith Banting and John Myles (35 pages, PDF)

“Income inequality goes to the heart of who we are as a nation. The issue is preying on Canadians’ minds as the federal election approaches. But it hasn’t crystallized into a clear set of political choices.”

The Toronto Star, June 18, 2015: “Canadians seek leadership on inequality,” by Carol Goar

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Causes and Consequences of Income Inequality: A Global Perspective

“Policies that give more money to the wealthy in the hopes that it will spread through the economy don’t work and hurt the overall economy more in the long run than giving that same money to the poor would have done.”

“That was one of the conclusions of an exhaustive study from the International Monetary Fund released on Tuesday [June 16, 2015] that looked at historical data from 150 developed economies around the world over the past several decades.”

The study also suggests “that as the income share of the richest 20 per cent increases, so too does their political influence, which leads to what the group calls a ‘suboptimal’ distribution of resources.”

“When economically disadvantaged people are denied an equal share of economic growth, that gap widens because those on the bottom of the income scale tend to spend a disproportionately larger share of their income on basic needs like health care, education and even food. Their spending tends to boost economic growth and when they have less money, it drags down growth overall.”

CBC News, June 16, 2015: “Income inequality is bad for everyone, IMF report concludes”

International Monetary Fund, June 2015: “Causes and Consequences of Income Inequality: A Global Perspective,” by Era Dabla-Norris, Kalpana Kochhar, Nujin Suphaphiphat, Frantisek Ricka, and Evridiki Tsounta (39 pages, PDF)

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Canada's Precariat Class

“There is a new class whose voice will soon be at the centre of Canadian life. It is the precariat, the growing mass of Canadians who are in precarious work, precarious housing and hold precarious citizenship....”

“The precariat consists of millions of people struggling to come to terms with lives of unstable labour and unstable living, lacking an occupational identity or career. They rely on money wages, which are stagnant and volatile, putting them in constant fear of unsustainable debt. The politicians have ignored the precariat, which may account for 40 per cent of the adult population in Canada.”

“Governments have turned the welfare state into a messy, terrifyingly complex web of tax credits, means-tested benefits, punitive assessment tests and coercive workfare.”

“It is not just that low-paying insecure jobs are displacing full-time regular jobs. The precariat faces a worse form of insecurity than unstable labour and non-entitlement to non-wage benefits. If they had income security, many would accept insecure jobs. After all, most of the jobs they can obtain are hardly attractive. Most importantly, the precariat has been losing citizenship rights -- civil, cultural, political, social and economic."

“The political challenge is identifying a good society that would appeal to the precariat. [But a]bove all, politicians must address those inequalities most affecting the precariat."

The Globe and Mail, June 13, 2015: “A new class: Canada neglects the precariat at its peril,” by Guy Standing

The Toronto Star, June 15, 2015: “Ontario’s ‘eye-popping’ shift to low-wage work,” by Sara Mojtehedzadeh

“The first of 10 public consultations on the ‘Changing Workplaces’ review took place Tuesday [June 16, 2015] in Toronto.” Issues raised included fair scheduling, temp work, healthy jobs, the right to unionize, and migrant workers.

The Toronto Star, June 16, 2015: “From all corners of the city, lessons on precarious work,” by Sara Mojtehedzadeh

“One of the most dramatic changes at Ontario’s universities over the last quarter century has been a shift towards precarious and casualized work,” said Kate Lawson, President of the Ontario Confederation of University Faculty Associations (OCUFA)”

OCUFA, June 16, 2015:  “Professors challenge dramatic increase in precarious work on Ontario campuses”

Ontario Ministry of Labour -- The Changing Workplaces Review [website]

“... [T]his report draws on Statistics Canada data to track a growing reliance on low-wage, precarious employment in Ontario, and how precariously employed workers have less access to the protections of membership in a trade union. The report also highlights the need to modernize the outdated regulatory laws for workers in Ontario, and concludes there is scope for the province to raise the minimum wage, to require employers to schedule more predictable work hours, to set a higher standard for paid leave, and to make it easier for lowwage workers to unionize.“

Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, June 15, 2015: “A Higher Standard: The case for holding low-wage employers in Ontario to a higher standard,” by Sheila Block [Download a PDF version of the full report here (30 pages)]

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Ontario Gov. Spent Millions on Contracts with Law-Breaking Temp Agencies

“The Ontario government is paying millions of dollars to temporary employment agencies that its own inspections found to have broken the law, the Star has learned.”

“A detailed breakdown of the Ministry of Labour’s 2012 inspection blitz, requested by the Star, shows that more than one-third of the temp agencies used by the government were found to have violated the Employment Standards Act.”

“But that didn’t stop six government ministries, including the Ministry of Labour itself, from last year paying offenders more than $775,000 for temporary help services. A further $2.2 million in unspecified payments was paid to law-breaking agencies, which according to their websites provide a range of additional services including human resource audits and permanent job placements.”

“In total, Public Accounts records show that Ontario’s ministries collectively spent more than $18 million on temp agency services last year. The Star has previously reported on the lack of protections afforded temp agency workers as a result of the province’s outdated Employment Standards Act.”

The Toronto Star, June 24, 2014: “Ontario government spent millions on contracts with law-breaking temp agencies,” by Sara Mojtehedzadeh

Hamilton Spectator, June 24, 2015: “The quiet limits of Ontario’s precariat: Good, secure jobs replaced by low-paying contract work,” by Sheila Block

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Sexism and Harassment: The Jobs Are Different But the Problem Is the Same

Sexual Harassment in Canadian Restaurants

“A harassment case involving three male chefs in Toronto has opened a frank debate about sexism in Canadian restaurants. Chris Nuttall-Smith reports on an industry taking stock.”

“According to that harassment complaint, filed with the Ontario Human Rights Tribunal, pastry chef Kate Burnham’s male bosses groped her breasts and crotch and took turns smacking her rear whenever they passed her in the kitchen, in full view of their colleagues. They badgered her about her sex life, and one of the men stole her phone to search it for explicit pictures. One of the chefs repeatedly propositioned her, threatening her employment when she refused to play along. He routinely sprayed Burnham’s face with a pressurized can of hollandaise sauce after Sunday brunch service, while making ejaculation jokes, her complaint alleges.”

“Worse, when Ms. Burnham, who is 24, went to her superiors for help, one of those chefs decided to ‘wage war’ on her, she said in an interview. ‘All bets were off,’ she said.”

The Globe and Mail, June 19, 2015: “Kitchen fires: The open debate Canadian chefs are finally having about sexism and harassment,” by Chris Nuttal-Smith

Sexual Harassment in the RCMP

“The culture of the armed forces and quasi-military forces like the Mounties promotes hyper-macho behaviour in its young men in the name of unit loyalty and absolute conformity to the chain of command structures. In a grimly ironic side issue, a young woman hired by the prestigious Royal Military College in Kingston to run a workshop on sexual assault and consent said she was greeted by greater hostility by the cadets than she had ever experienced. One officer cadet joked that nobody reports sexual harassment, “Because it happens all the time.”

CBC Radio, The Sunday Edition with Michael Enright, June 20, 2015: “The culture of sexual abuse in the RCMP and Canada’s military - Michael’s Essay”

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Civility at Work

“I’ve surveyed hundreds of people across organizations spanning more than 17 industries, and asked people why they behaved uncivilly. Over half of them claim it is because they are overloaded, and more than 40 percent say they have no time to be nice. But respect doesn’t necessarily require extra time. It’s about how something is conveyed; tone and nonverbal manner are crucial.”

Boors in the Workplace    

"These are the rude behaviors by bosses most often cited in a recent survey, in descending order of frequency."

  • Interrupts people
  • Is judgmental of those who are different
  • Pays little attention to or shows little interest in others’ opinions
  • Takes the best and leaves the worst tasks for others
  • Fails to pass along necessary information
  • Neglects saying please or thank you
  • Talks down to people
  • Takes too much credit for things
  • Swears
  • Puts others down

"These are the rude behaviors people most often admit to seeing in themselves."

  • Hibernates into e-gadgets
  • Uses jargon even when it excludes others
  • Ignores invitations
  • Is judgmental of those who are different
  • Grabs easy tasks while leaving difficult ones for others
  • Does not listen
  • Emails/texts during meetings
  • Pays little attention to others
  • Takes others’ contributions for granted
  • Belittles others nonverbally
  • Neglects saying please or thank you

New York Times, June 19, 2015: “No Time to Be Nice at Work,” by Christine Porathjune    

“Although in surveys people say they are afraid they will not rise in an organization if they are really friendly and helpful, the civil do succeed. [Christine Porathjune's] recent studies with Alexandra Gerbasi and Sebastian Schorch at the Grenoble Ecole de Management, published in the Journal of Applied Psychology, show that behavior involving politeness and regard for others in the workplace pays off. In a study in a biotechnology company, those seen as civil were twice as likely to be viewed as leaders."

Journal of Applied Psychology, March 23, 2015: “The Effects of Civility on Advice, Leadership, and Performance,” by Porath, C. L., Gerbasi, A., and Schorch, S. L. (University of Toronto access here)

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Unions Allied to Thwart Trade Deal

“Depleted by decades of diminishing reach and struggling to respond to recent anti-union laws, the labor movement has nonetheless found a way to assert itself politically by wreaking havoc on President Obama’s trade agenda, a top priority of his final years in office.”

“On Friday [June 12, 2015], stiff labor opposition helped derail a measure necessary to clear a path for an up-or-down vote on a sweeping trade deal that the White House is negotiating with 11 other nations bordering the Pacific Ocean.”

“While a broad coalition of unions and liberal activists can claim credit for beating back the president’s favored legislation, the key to labor’s display of force in Congress, according to supporters and opponents of the trade deal, was the movement’s unusual cohesion across various sectors of the economy -- including public employees and service workers not directly affected by foreign competition.”

“Labor leaders and their rank and file feared that, whatever the overall benefits to the economy, the emerging deal would accelerate the loss of blue-collar jobs that pay well. ‘The pay levels people would have to compete with are obscene,’ said Larry Cohen, a former Communications Workers of America president, who led the coalition. There is evidence that freer trade has reduced the incomes of those without college degrees.”

The New York Times, June 13, 2015: “Labor’s Might Seen in Failure of Trade Deal as Unions Allied to Thwart It,” by Noam Scheiber

What You Should Know About the Trans-Pacific Partnership

“The simple case for the Trans-Pacific Partnership: It would make American companies more successful at selling their goods and services in Pacific Rim countries, leading to a stronger economy, more jobs and higher incomes for American workers.“

“The simple case against the Trans-Pacific Partnership: Trade deals have been advertised as increasing the size of the economic pie, but the benefits accrue mostly to big companies and their shareholders, while working-class Americans see job losses and income reductions as more of the work they once did moves overseas.”

The New York Times, June 12, 2015: “What You Should Know About the Trans-Pacific Partnership,” by Neil Irwin

The New Yorker, June 22, 2015: “Trade-Agreement Troubles,” by James Surowiecki

The Trans-Pacific Partnership & Canada

“Proponents of the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal have called it an historic opportunity for Canada. But critics consider it secretive, dangerous, and even potentially undemocratic. The Agenda unpacks the massive trade deal and examines potential implications for the Canadian economy.”

TVO’s The Agenda with Steve Paikin, May 22, 2015: “The Agenda with Steve Paikin: Deep Pockets Across the Pacific” [video, 22:09 min.]

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California Uber Drivers Should Unionize ASAP

“California’s Labor Commission ruled Wednesday [June 17, 2015] that an Uber driver in the state should be considered an employee. This is a potentially huge blow to the company, as its business model relies on using independent contractors, for whom it does not pay benefits or employment taxes.”

“If it’s ruled that all California Uber drivers are employees, it’s time for them to organize. If they want to protect their jobs, they really have no choice.”

“Here’s why:

  • In the short term, Uber may start shedding employees it can no longer afford.  
  • In the medium term, there’s almost definitely a wage pinch coming. Uber has shown that it has little respect for maintaining its fares -- it keeps cutting them to the detriment of drivers.
  • In the long term, Uber drivers face an automation problem. Driverless cars are coming. Maybe not this decade, but certainly in this lifetime. A union won’t be able to stop that process, but it can be a big help as it happens.”

Business Insider, June 17, 2015: “Why Uber drivers in California should unionize as soon as possible,” Shane Ferro

The New York Times, June 18, 2015: “Daily Report: Uber Ruling Spurs Debate Over Workers”

The New York Times, June 21, 2015: “How Does an Uber Driver Take Family Leave?,” by Simon Isaacs

Uber Must Die?

“Uber and other sharing economy companies are running roughshod over regulations, work standards and workers. This will only embolden other employers and encourage them to adopt some of Uber’s hyper-exploitative practices. This must be challenged not just in the courts, but also in the streets. And ultimately if Uber is intent on ignoring workers’ rights and undermining basic regulations and ruining workers’ lives, then Uber must die.”

rankandfile.ca, June 16, 2015: “Uber must die,” by David Bush

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The Rise of Mobile and Social News

“Consumption of news continues to shift from traditional broadcast and print to digitally native media accessed through mobile devices and social media channels. However, the pathways to a radically altered news future do not appear to be linear.”

The Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism at the University of Oxford has just released its 2015 Digital News Report, which findings include:

  • People in most countries say they are likely to access news via a mobile browser.
  • On average people use a small number of trusted news sources on the mobile phone. We also find that, even though 70% of smartphone users have a news app installed on their phone, only a third of respondents actually use them in a given week.
  • Across all our countries a quarter of our sample (25%) now say the smartphone is their main device for accessing digital news -- up from 20% last year.
  • Americans showed the lowest levels of trust (32%) in news media of any country, and even with respect to respondents’ own go-to news sources, only 56% of Americans said they trusted those outlets.
  • Facebook is becoming increasingly dominant, with 41% [an increase of 6 percentage points over 2014] using the network to find, read, watch, share, or comment on the news each week -- more than twice the usage of its nearest rival.
  • There has been a significant jump in the use of online news video in all countries except Germany and also in the U.S.

Journalist’s Resource, June 17, 2015: “The rise of mobile and social news: Oxford Reuters Institute’s 2015 report”

Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, University of Oxford, June 2015: “Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2015: Tracking the Future of News,” by Nic Newman, David A.L. Levy and Rasmus Kleis Nielsen (112 pages, PDF)

Pew Research Center, April 2015: “State of the News Media 2015,” by Amy Mitchell

Journalist’s Resource, June 17, 2015: “Social media, mobile devices and online news: 2015 data and charts that speak to digital trends"

Content Matters

“The JournalismIS campaign, announced [June 12, 2015] at Ryerson University [Toronto], begins on [June 13, 2015] and will feature advertisements promoting strong journalism and the people who produce it.”

“'All we talk about, as journalists, is the work we’re doing,' said Mary Agnes Welch, a campaign spokesperson and journalist at the Winnipeg Free Press. 'This campaign is meant to enlist Canadians in that conversation.'"

The Toronto Star, June 12, 2015: “Ad campaign puts spotlight on strong, reliable journalism in Canada”

JournalismIS [website]

The New Google News Lab

“Google’s mission is to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful. We created the News Lab to support the creation and distribution of the information that keeps us all informed about what’s happening in our world today -- quality journalism.”

“Today’s news organizations and media entrepreneurs are inventing new ways to discover, create and distribute news content -- and we’re here to provide tools, data, and programs designed to help.”

“News Lab lessons are designed to help you learn the best ways to use Google tools for reporting and storytelling.”

Introducing the News Lab: Tools [website]

Google Official Blog, June 22, 2015: “Introducing the News Lab”

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A World without Work

For centuries, experts have predicted that machines would make workers obsolete. That moment may finally be arriving. Could that be a good thing?

“For much of the 20th century, Youngstown’s steel mills delivered such great prosperity that the city was a model of the American dream, boasting a median income and a homeownership rate that were among the nation’s highest. But as manufacturing shifted abroad after World War II, Youngstown steel suffered, and on that gray September afternoon in 1977, Youngstown Sheet and Tube announced the shuttering of its Campbell Works mill. Within five years, the city lost 50,000 jobs and $1.3 billion in manufacturing wages. The effect was so severe that a term was coined to describe the fallout: regional depression.”

“Youngstown was transformed not only by an economic disruption but also by a psychological and cultural breakdown.”

“Futurists and science-fiction writers have at times looked forward to machines’ workplace takeover with a kind of giddy excitement, imagining the banishment of drudgery and its replacement by expansive leisure and almost limitless personal freedom. And make no mistake: if the capabilities of computers continue to multiply while the price of computing continues to decline, that will mean a great many of life’s necessities and luxuries will become ever cheaper, and it will mean great wealth -- at least when aggregated up to the level of the national economy."

“But even leaving aside questions of how to distribute that wealth, the widespread disappearance of work would usher in a social transformation unlike any we’ve seen. If John Russo [a professor of labor studies at Youngstown State University] is right, then saving work is more important than saving any particular job. Industriousness has served as America’s unofficial religion since its founding. The sanctity and preeminence of work lie at the heart of the country’s politics, economics, and social interactions. What might happen if work goes away?”

The Atlantic, July/August 2015 Issue: “A World Without Work,” by Derek Thompson

Pew Research Center, August 2014: “AI, Robotics, and the Future of Jobs,” by Aaron Smith and Janna Anderson

Oxford University, September 2013: “The Future of Employment: How Susceptible Are Jobs to Computerisation?,” by Carl Benedikt Frey and Michael A. Osborne (72 pages, PDF)

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The Utopia of Rules: Throttled by Bureaucracy

“It is surprising that Graeber doesn’t explore recent British experience, which has seen successive Conservative and Labour governments attempting to import an American model of market-driven competition into public services. The upshot has been a compelling demonstration of his iron law in action. No doubt the NHS [National Health System] as it existed a generation ago was far from perfect. But it wasn’t a monument to wasteful and dysfunctional management, and even in narrow economic terms it operated far more efficiently than the elephantine bureaucracy it has since become. The vast managerial class that stands between the medical profession and patients today didn’t exist then, any more than did armies of low-paid contract workers.”

“... [S]ince the injection of market mechanisms into public institutions, life in Britain has become more invasively regulated than it has ever been. The cult of the market has produced a society throttled by bureaucracy.”

The Guardian, May 21, 2015: “The Utopia of Rules: On Technology, Stupidity and the Secret Joys of Bureaucracy,” by David Graeber

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Holacracy 101: Running a Company without Bosses

“You may have heard about online shoe retailer Zappos’ experiment with the non-hierarchical management approach Holacracy. It hasn’t been without hiccups, as Rachel Emma Silverman reported in the Wall Street Journal in May:

“Earlier this month, Zappos said about 14 percent, or 210, of its roughly 1,500 employees had decided Holacracy wasn’t for them, and they will leave the retailer.”

“Holacracy is the brainchild of former software entrepreneur Brian Robertson, who is now ‘Constitution Steward,’ 'Holacracy Spokesperson,’ 'People & Partnership Lead Link,’ 'Compensation Architect’ and about 20 other things at HolacracyOne, the consulting firm he co-founded to spread the word."

Brian Robertson: “If you think about the way they’re managed today, it looks a little bit like a feudal empire. There’s kings, there’s lords, there’s barons, there’s peasants and serfs. In our societies we’ve seen the shift from top-down management, from feudal systems and dictatorships, to where people have the freedom to pursue their individual purposes within a framework of rules and interconnection and order. I want to see the same benefits that we’ve seen societally, in an organization.”

Interviewer: “So what do you think is the best way to go about organizing that framework in a business?”

Brian Robertson: “That’s the question we explored when we came up with Holacracy. Holacracy is sometimes misunderstood as any system that has no managers. It’s not. It’s a specific system that replaces the management hierarchy with a different framework of rules for how we can work together. Our best answer is captured in the Holacracy Constitution. That itself is evolving. It’s an open-source system.”

Bloomberg View, June 24, 2015: “Running a Company Without Bosses,” by Justin Fox

“Zoe Baird ... worries that Americans today have been grounded. Jobs they’re seeking don’t match with the skills they have, or the degrees they need. A recent study, for instance, showed that 65 percent of job postings for executive assistants call for a bachelor’s degree, when only 19 percent of those in these roles have a B.A. ‘Is that a change in the skills in the job?’ she wondered. ‘Or is that due simply to an inflation -- because people coming out of college don’t have other options?’ Baird has a word for the American workforce. Zappos. ‘Someone can shop for a job the way they shop for shoes.’”

Bloomberg Politics, June 24, 2015: “Why Zoe Baird Thinks the Zappos Strategy Can Save American Jobs,” Emily Greenhouse

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Free to Think: Scholars at Risk Academic Freedom Monitoring Project

“Around the world attacks on higher education occur with alarming frequency. They threaten the safety and well-being of scholars, administrators, staff and students. They undermine the quality and accessibility of academic work and instruction, and in so doing deny everyone the benefits of expert knowledge and scientific and creative progress. Perhaps most importantly, they impede the ability of the sector to function as a place where people representing the widest range of society can go to ask questions about complex and contentious issues and learn to resolve those questions guided by reason, evidence and persuasion, with-out fear of repercussions.”

“This is an inherently democratic function which implicitly challenges any authority rooted in force or intimidation. It is not surprising then that states and other actors who depend on controlling information and what people think go to great lengths to restrict or even silence higher education communities and their members.” 

Scholars at Risk, June 23, 2015: “Free to Think: Report of the Scholars at Risk Academic Freedom Monitoring Project” (48 pages, PDF)

“The culmination of four years of monitoring and analysis by Scholars at Risk staff and researchers around the world, Free to Think demonstrates the pressing need to raise awareness and document attacks on higher education:

  • There is a crisis of attacks on higher education communities around the world.
  • Attacks on universities, scholars and students are early warning signs of political, social and cultural insecurity.
  • Universities and scholars are critical parts of national infrastructure that is essential to rebuilding conflict torn states.”

“The report calls on all stakeholders, including the international community, states, the higher education sector, civil society and the public at large to undertake concrete actions to increase protection for higher education communities, including documenting and investigating attacks, and holding perpetrators accountable.”

Clarke University, June 23, 2015: “Scholars at Risk network, which includes Clark, releases report citing global crisis”

Librarians and Academic Freedom

“The implications of academic librarians using the new communication technologies and social media platforms, such as blogs and networking sites, with respect to academic freedom are examined, as well as, an overview of recent attacks on the academic freedom of academic librarians in the United States and Canada.”

Current Issues in Libraries, Information Science and Related Fields (Advances in Librarianship, Volume 39), 2015: “Librarians in a Litigious Age and the Attack on Academic Freedom,” by Mary Kandiuk and Harriet M. Sonne de Torrens (University of Toronto full-text access here)

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Book of the Week

The Utopia of Rules: on Technology, Stupidity, and the Secret Joys of Bureaucracy, by David Graeber. Brooklyn, NY: Melville House Publishing, 2015. 261 p. ISBN 9781612193748 (hardcover)

From the publisher: "Where does the desire for endless rules, regulations, and bureaucracy come from? How did we come to spend so much of our time filling out forms? And is it really a cipher for state violence? To answer these questions, the anthropologist David Graeber -- one of our most important and provocative thinkers -- traces the peculiar and unexpected ways we relate to bureaucracy today, and reveals how it shapes our lives in ways we may not even notice... though he also suggests that there may be something perversely appealing -- even romantic -- about bureaucracy. Leaping from the ascendance of right-wing economics to the hidden meanings behind Sherlock Holmes and Batman, The Utopia of Rules is at once a powerful work of social theory in the tradition of Foucault and Marx, and an entertaining reckoning with popular culture that calls to mind Slavoj Zizek at his most accessible. An essential book for our times, The Utopia of Rules is sure to start a million conversations about the institutions that rule over us -- and the better, freer world we should, perhaps, begin to imagine for ourselves."

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