Perry Work Report: work&labour news&research, May 15, 2015

May 15, 2015

Announcement:

Annual Conference of the Canadian Industrial Relations Association

The 2015 Annual Conference of the Canadian Industrial Relations Association (CIRA) will be held May 26-27 in Montreal, co-hosted by HEC Montreal and the University of Montreal.  Further information can be found at the conference web page.

 

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A Forgotten History: The Tie Between B.C.'s First Nations & Chinese Workers

“First Nations people and Chinese immigrants have enjoyed a symbiotic relationship since before B.C. joined Confederation. Now, archeologists are chronicling this chapter of history by documenting sites where the two communities lived together.”

“An estimated 15,000 Chinese men worked on the railway in B.C. in the 1880s. They were paid half the wages of the white workers, got no medical care and were typically assigned the most dangerous jobs. Once the work was complete, the European settlers sought to drive the Chinese workers out of the province with a race-based Head Tax. The Chinese were regarded as the temporary foreign workers of their time -- with the last spike in place, they were no longer wanted here.”

“’There is a long history that has been distorted, deliberately suppressed, or erased,’ said [Henry Yu, a professor of history at the University of B.C]. The most concrete remnants of that history are found on the banks of the Fraser River. There, the Chinese built elaborate gold-mining operations among the First Nations communities. Sometimes, the men stayed and married into those communities.”

“The remnants of their organized and skilled labour are still visible. There are deep troughs, tidy hills of rocks sorted by size, lengthy sluices that diverted rivers to separate the gold, and stone-walled buildings.”

“’The significance is not just the physical structure or the artifacts themselves, but the lived history,’ [said NDP MLA Jenny Kwan]. ‘It is a beautiful story we need to know and to honour. ... How, in the face of hardship, these beautiful relationships were created. That bond is part of the rich history we have in British Columbia. I feel so fortunate that the Chinese community, faced with extreme discrimination at that time, found friendship and support from the aboriginal communities.’“

The Globe and Mail, May 9, 2015: “A forgotten history: tracing the ties between B.C.’s First Nations and Chinese workers,” by Justine Hunter

Chinese Canadian Stories [website]

Canadian Museum of History, Research and Collections: Indigenous peoples -- Canada [website]

University of British Columbia, Museum of Anthropology: Online resources [website]

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Histories of Women in the Labour Movement

“On this week’s episode of Talking Radical Radio, [Scott Neigh speaks] with Joey Hartman, the president of the Vancouver and District Labour Council. She talks about the history of women in the labour movement and about the importance of people who are active in movements and communities learning, talking about, and doing grassroots historical work.”

“When Hartman became president of the labour council in Vancouver, she was the first woman to hold that position in its 122-year history. In the early 1980s, she was a daycare worker and a union member who was swept into labour activism by a lengthy strike. After a chance encounter with labour history at a conference, she avidly began to learn more, and soon was regularly doing talks and presentations about labour history both within and beyond the movement. Importantly, her feminist commitments have led her to learn as much as she can about the rich but not always easy history of women in the labour movement and to a commitment to doing what she can to share that history with younger generations of workers, particularly young women workers.”

Click here to listen to the audio directly (28:04 min.).

rabble.ca, May 13, 2015: “Histories of women in the labour movement,” by Scott Neigh

The Globe and Mail, May 8, 2015: “Lives Lived: Julie Diane Davis, 67 Dawn Griffin,” by Dawn Griffin

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Cashing in on Temporary Workers

This story is the second in a four-part series on precarious work from The Toronto Star. Every Monday in May, a new story is released. Click here to read the first story in the series.

Angel Reyes is a university-educated refugee who has been working in a Toronto recycling plant for over half a decade, hired through a temp agency.

“Half a decade and, technically, still a temp. Half a decade earning minimum wage, never having seen a raise. Half a decade, and still paid less per hour than his permanent colleagues for doing the same job. Half a decade, and still no benefits. Half a decade, and still no obligation for his employer to hire him permanently.”

“Under Ontario’s antiquated Employment Standards Act, which is currently under review, there is no limit on how long a company can employ a worker as temporary before giving him or her a permanent job. There is nothing to stop employers from paying temp workers less than their permanent counterparts, nothing to prevent them from hiring their entire workforce on a ‘temporary’ basis if they so choose.”

“Over the past decade, there has been a 33 per cent increase in the number of temporary workers in Toronto, to more than 340,000 in 2014 from 256,000 in 2004, according to Statistics Canada.”

“Figures provided to the Star by Statistics Canada show that the median wage of a temporary worker in Toronto is just $15 an hour, while permanent employees make $22.40 -- a pay gap of 33 per cent. The gap is even wider for male temps in non-unionized workplaces, who make a median hourly wage of just $13.50. Their permanent counterparts make 40 per cent more, at $22.50 an hour.”

“A recent report by the Workers’ Action Centre makes a number of recommendations to tackle the widening disparity between permanent employees and temporary agency workers.”

The Toronto Star, May 10, 2015: “Ontario employers cashing in on temporary workers,’ by Sara Mojtehedzadeh

Workers’ Action Centre, April 31, 2015: “Summary Report: Still Working on the Edge: Building Decent Jobs from the Ground Up” (18 pages, PDF)

Workers’ Action Centre, March 31 2015: “Still Working on the Edge: Building Decent Jobs from the Ground Up” (84 pages, PDF)

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Renewing Canada's Social Architecture

“A group of Canadian think tanks says many of Canada’s core social programs and policies have changed very little since they were introduced in the 1960s and no longer reflect the needs and priorities of the country. Researchers from the Mowat Centre, the Caledon Institute, the Institute for Competitiveness and Prosperity and the Institute for Research on Public Policy today [May 13, 2015] launched social-architecture.ca to release a series of research papers that look at the social architecture -- the suite of social programs and policies familiar to generations of Canadians -- and offer some fresh ideas on how to introduce change and renewal.”

“The researchers released four papers in the series today. The main report outlines the ways our society, economy and labour markets have changed significantly in the last half century and the ways that these changes place pressure on Canada’s social architecture, which was largely built in the 1960s and 1970s. Three other papers examine caregivers, housing, and skills training.”

Reports:

Renewing Canada’s Social Architecture [website]

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Welcome to Modern Shaming, Where an Ill-Considered Joke Can Ruin Your Life

“It doesn’t matter that it happened while they were off the clock. Thanks to social media, two Toronto men who made obscene remarks to a female TV reporter are learning that workplace-harassment rules extend well beyond the office environment.”

“Within the span of just one business day, a video showing two men defending the sexual harassment of CityNews reporter Shauna Hunt at a Toronto FC game went viral, the online profiles of the men were posted on social media by internet sleuths and their employers were forced to address what happened -- one firing their employee, the other promising to ‘address’ the situation.”

The Globe and Mail, May 12, 2015: “How social media brought workplace harassment rules into play for men who lewdly heckled reporter,” by Tu Thanh Ha and Dakshana Bascaramurty

“’Unless he is some sort of senior manager or executive, I don’t think they will succeed in court,’ [said Landon Young, managing partner of employment and labour law firm Stringer LLP]. ‘Just because they have one guy say something offensive, as offensive as it is, I mean, people are still going to pay their Hydro bills.’“

The Globe and Mail, May 13, 2015: “Hydro One’s firing of man for sexist remarks may not hold up in court,” by Jeff Gray

CBC News, May 12, 2015: “Video Online shaming: the return of mob morality,” from Adria Richards to Jonah Lehrer and Justine Sacca, some personal stories

“Say you tweet something you mean to be funny and edgy to your Twitter followers -- all 170 of them -- before boarding a plane to South Africa to visit relatives, something about hoping you don’t get AIDS in Africa, which of course you won’t, because you’re white. You can afford to be funny because you’re not racist -- your relatives are ANC supporters, after all -- you’re merely commenting on racially disproportionate AIDS statistics in Africa. Who would take you literally? Except that you wake up after an eleven-hour flight to find almost a hundred thousand tweets calling you every vicious name imaginable. You’re one of the top worldwide trends on Twitter, the most hated racist on the planet.“

“Twitter users doubtless already recognize the incautious tweeter as Justine Sacco, a thirty-year-old P.R. executive with an online persona that Jon Ronson, the author of So You’ve Been Publicly Shamed, describes as ‘a social media Sally Bowles, decadent and flighty and unaware that serious politics were looming.’ Many thought that Sacco -- the entirety of whose tweet reads, 'Going to Africa. Hope I don’t get AIDS. Just kidding. I’m white!’ -- got what she deserved.” 

“Every tweet she’d ever posted was exhumed and microscopically examined for evidence of further character flaws. There were many to be found, because what had seemed breezy when Justine was tweeting to her friends looked very different now that she’d been established as a moral monster. Welcome to modern shaming, where an ill-considered joke can ruin your life."

Harper’s Magazine, May 2015: “The Deep, Dark, Ugly Thing: Can shame shape society?”

The New York Times, February 15, 2015: “How One Stupid Tweet Blew Up Justine Sacco’s Life,” by Jon Ronsonfeb

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The Price of Nice Nails

“Among the more than 100 workers interviewed by The Times, only about a quarter said they were paid an amount that was the equivalent of New York State’s minimum hourly wage. All but three workers, however, had wages withheld in other ways that would be considered illegal, such as never getting overtime. The juxtapositions in nail salon workers’ lives can be jarring. Many spend their days holding hands with women of unimaginable affluence, at salons on Madison Avenue and in Greenwich, Conn. Away from the manicure tables they crash in flophouses packed with bunk beds, or in fetid apartments shared by as many as a dozen strangers.“

The New York Times, May 7, 2015: “The Price of Nice Nails,” by Sarah Maslin Nir

Along with unfair labour practices, salon workers face unhealthy work conditions. “Some ingredients used in nail products have been tied to cancer, miscarriages, lung diseases and other ailments. The industry has long fought regulations.”

The New York Times, May 8, 2015: “Perfect Nails, Poisoned Workers,” by Sarah Maslin Nir

“Across the country, countless workers in the nail salon industry, mainly immigrant women, toil in misery and ill health for meager pay, usually with no overtime, abused by employers who show little or no consideration for their safety and well-being. It is a world of long days and toxic chemicals, where the usual protections of government have failed, at all levels.”

In shining a light on one ugly industry, a recent report in The Times has also illuminated a far larger problem that occurs wherever greedy employers meet vulnerable workers. Farm laborers, nannies, carwash workers, day laborers, dishwashers, busboys, construction workers, garment workers, janitors -- it’s a sweatshop economy, and Americans have gotten used to its bounty of cheap services and goods, basking in ever-cheaper luxury while ignoring the pain and injustice that make it all possible.“

“What to do? The problem seems overwhelming. The answer is not boycotts or scattershot raids or customers guiltily slipping a little more cash to their manicurists. Cultivating justice in the world of low-wage immigrant labor is going to take concerted attention and serious effort at all levels of government, along with increased support for, and greater involvement by, the workers themselves.”

The New York Times, May 11, 2015: “Justice for Nail Salon Workers”

The New York Times, May 13, 2015: “At Nail Salons, Questioning a Beauty Rite,” by Katherine Rosman

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Workplace Democracy and the Orchestra

“What if you and your colleagues could elect your new boss, choosing from among the finest candidates in the world?”

“For nearly all employees, it sounds like the stuff of fantasy. For the musicians of the Berlin Philharmonic, it’s just part of the job description.”

“Members of the Berlin Philharmonic take democracy seriously. They also vote among themselves to select new musicians and offer input into how the institution is run. For some observers, such participation is the key to their success."

“While the Berlin Philharmonic may be an extreme example of workplace democracy, it’s not the only one. Software firm Haufe-umantis, a Swiss subsidiary of a German company, allowed its more than 100 employees to select its chief executive through a vote in 2013. More recently, the staff of The Guardian newspaper held a ballot in February to indicate their preferred candidate for the next editor-in-chief. (Their choice isn’t binding, however, but more of a recommendation.)”

“In Germany, there is also a long tradition, enshrined in law, of employees giving input into business decisions. At any company with more than five employees, workers can form a ‘Works Council’ -- a forum, that isn’t a union, to communicate suggestions and complaints.”

The Globe and Mail, May 11, 2015: “Berlin Philharmonic deadlocked in vote for new maestro,” by Joanna Slater

What workplace democracy and worker participation can do...

“The Berlin Philharmonic is often associated with positive traits that are considered typically German, like strong technical skills and perfectionism. Is there anything typically German about the “corporate culture” you’re describing?"

“You have to keep in mind that this orchestra is very international. There are many Germans, but also musicians from France, the US, Asia. It’s very global and modern ... I think that our society can learn something from it. In a project I’m currently working on, I have a lot to do with large companies, and I often think of the Berlin Philharmonic. I think that if we had more workers’ participation in decision making, if we gave individuals more responsibility and didn’t just make them employees, then we could expect a lot more from people -- especially when it comes to innovation and passion. And we need those for our future.”

DW, May 8, 2015: “Grube: ‘We can learn from the Berlin Philharmonic'“

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The Ph.D. Pay Gap

“The unequal pay leads to an unequal education.”

“Students with larger stipends or better access to federal grants and other aid, often in the sciences, engineering, and business, are better able to focus on learning and career prospects, while the rest, more often humanities students, spend much of their time preoccupied with making ends meet.”

“Graduate-student activists say the disparity in stipend levels and its repercussions aren’t discussed enough on campuses. Little data exist about how programs compare in offering financial support, limiting graduate students’ negotiating power and ability to know just how big disparities are from university to university, across departments within universities, and even sometimes within departments themselves.”

“Those Ph.D. students whose stipends don’t go far enough usually have two options: Find a job outside the university, or take out loans. Both can be a gamble."

The Chronicle of Higher Education, May 11, 2015: “The Ph.D. Pay Gap: How unequal stipends foster an unequal education,“ by Vimal Patel

If you’re thinking of going to graduate school yourself, The Onion has put together a list of the pros and cons that may help you come to an informed decision.

Pros include: “provides more impressive credentials to parents’ friends” and “undergraduate degree suddenly good for something” while some cons are: “will have to say thesis topic out loud“ and “no money left to frame second degree."

The Onion, April 22, 2015: “Pros And Cons Of Going To Grad School”

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What's It Worth?: The Economic Value of College Majors

“When it comes to earnings, majors matter more than degrees. Over a career, the report finds, college graduates earn $1 million more than high school graduates on average. But averages are misleading: college graduates with the highest-paying majors earn $3.4 million more than the lowest-paying majors.”

“Using Census data, The Economic Value of College Majors analyzes wages for 137 college majors, including the wages of graduates who go on to earn advanced degrees. It also details the most popular majors, the majors most likely to lead to an advanced degree, and the economic benefit of earning an advanced degree by undergraduate major.”

“The report’s major findings are:

  • Eighty percent of college students study a major linked to careers, while 20 percent major in humanities, liberal arts, social sciences, and arts.
  • STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics), health, and business majors are the highest paying, leading to average annual wages of $37,000 or more at the entry level and an average of $65,000 or more annually over the course of a recipient’s career.
  • Of the 25 highest-paid majors, economics and business economics are the only two that are not in a STEM field.
  • The 10 majors with the lowest median earnings are: early childhood education ($39,000); human services and community organization ($41,000); studio arts, social work, teacher education, and visual and performing arts ($42,000); theology and religious vocations, and elementary education ($43,000); drama and theater arts and family and community service ($45,000).
  • Business and STEM majors -- two of the highest paying -- are also the most common, accounting for 46 percent of college graduates.”

Report resources:

Georgetown University, Center on Education and the Workforce, May 7, 2015: “The Economic Value of College Majors”

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Redressing the Gender Imbalance in Academia

“There has been a flurry of press interest about the plight of women in the workplace recently, highlighting issues such as the lack of women on boards, the gender pay gap and the dearth of female leaders. Women reading this article may think ‘Oh no, not another piece portraying us as victims’, while the men may be suffering from neck ache -- from lowering their heads in shame.”

“But it is surprising that in 2015 women are still so under-represented at the top of all kinds of hierarchies, be it in corporations, universities or the public sector.”

So, what can universities and women do?

Universities:

  • Offering the right incentives -- “Universities need to take the conversation about leadership to the office doors of female professors.“
  • Internal v external hiring -- "Women stand a greater chance of being promoted from within an institution.”
  • Succession planning: taking the long view -- "Talented individuals need to be spotted, nurtured, appropriately trained and incentivised over a number of years.”
  • Appropriate management and leadership training -- “Inappropriate training can be hugely off-putting. Academics have little tolerance for managerialism and the jargon that so often goes with it -- but this is frequently ignored.”
  • Coaching -- "Research points to a ‘confidence gap’ between men and women. Coaching -- which is now being offered more regularly in universities -- can have a powerful and positive effect.”
  • Creative pooling of candidates -- "One technique that guarantees a trustworthy process is putting together a shortlist of equally able male and female candidates and throwing a dice to decide the winner. This method offers a natural 'rejection insurance’ ... and there is evidence that random selection may generate more efficient leadership outcomes.”

Women:

  • Flexible working -- “The task of childcare needs to be shared by both sexes. If we want women’s traditional roles to be valued more, then we need more men to perform them. Until this happens, women’s time will always be viewed as cheaper than that of men.”
  • Support groups for future female leaders -- “The evidence suggests that women get a better deal when other women are among the leadership team.”
  • Negotiation and other skills -- “It is said that women are weak negotiators compared with men. Women can do many things about this, one example being to have coaching.”
  • Fine-tuning our networks -- “Women’s networks typically contain fewer highly ranked individuals, and tend to be more emotionally supportive but less instrumental.”

Times Higher Education, May 14, 2015: “Room at the top: how to redress the gender imbalance,” by Amanda Goodall and Margit Osterloh

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Facebook's $15 Minimum Wage

“Facebook is beginning to make sure that its contractors receive important benefits, including a $15 minimum wage, 15 days paid leave, and financial support for the birth of a new child. The conditions apply to people who do ‘substantial work’ for Facebook but are employed by another company, so long as that company is based in the US and has at least 25 employees working with Facebook.”

“Though the new standards don’t cover everyone who does work with Facebook -- nor do they match the benefits one would receive while actually working for Facebook -- they’re still an important step toward dealing with income inequality issues in the US and Silicon Valley.”

“The change isn’t coming strictly from generosity -- this is something contract workers have pushed for -- but it’s a cause starting to spread across Silicon Valley. Microsoft announced in March that it was mandating something similar: that contract workers get 15 days paid leave.”

“Facebook, like Microsoft, says that part of the reason for doing this is that research has shown that ‘adequate benefits’ lead to a ‘happier and ultimately more productive workforce.’”

The Verge, May 13, 2015: “Facebook mandates $15 minimum wage and paid leave for contract workers,” by Jacob Kastrenakes

Minimum Wage around the World

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) recently released a chart which “illustrates the after-tax value of the hourly minimum wage, in US dollars, in the OECD countries that have instituted one.”

“Australia and Luxembourg lead the group with wages over $9 an hour each, and Latvia and Mexico are at the bottom with wages under $2. The US, where the federal minimum wage is $7.25 per hour, or $6.26 after taxes, ranks 11th." Canada ranks 9th.

World Economic Forum, May 8, 2015: “What is the minimum wage around the world?,” by Libby Kane 

OECD, May 2015: “Minimum wages after the crisis: Making them pay" (12 pages, PDF)

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Curbing the New Corporate Power

Opening the Debate: K. Sabeel Rahman: “In contemporary antitrust regulation, however, the central question is whether concentrations of economic and market power enable extractive or unfair consumer prices. On that metric, it is hard to show how Amazon and other Internet companies use power in harmful ways. If these companies lower prices and increase access for consumers, how could they be considered dangerous? Defenders of these companies also point out that they face competitors in the marketplace: Amazon does not control the retail sector; on paper, at least, Google has rivals in search; at the national level, Comcast faces competition in Internet service provision.”

“The kinds of power that Amazon, Comcast, and companies such as Airbnb and Uber possess can’t be seen or tackled via conventional antitrust regulations. These companies are not, strictly speaking, monopolies; Uber and Airbnb, in particular, do not engage in the kind of price-fixing or market dominance that is the usual target of antitrust regulation today. These companies are better understood as platforms or utilities: they provide a core, infrastructural service upon which other firms, individuals, and social groups depend. For instance, the publisher Hachette depends on Amazon to access the book-buying public. This dependency operates in the other direction as well. Consumers depend on the diligence of Airbnb and Uber to ensure that services contracted through them are safe and as advertised.”

Responding:

Reply:  K. Sabeel Rahman

Boston Review, May 4, 2015: “Curbing the New Corporate Power,” by K. Sabeel Rahman

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Book of the Week

Caring on the Clock: the Complexities and Contradictions of Paid Care Work, edited by Mignon Duffy, Amy Armenia, and Clare L. Stacey. New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 2015. 332 p. ISBN 9780813563114 (pbk.)

From the publisher: "A nurse inserts an I.V. A personal care attendant helps a quadriplegic bathe and get dressed. A nanny reads a bedtime story to soothe a child to sleep. Every day, workers like these provide critical support to some of the most vulnerable members of our society. Caring on the Clock provides a wealth of insight into these workers, who take care of our most fundamental needs, often at risk to their own economic and physical well-being. Caring on the Clock is the first book to bring together cutting-edge research on a wide range of paid care occupations, and to place the various fields within a comprehensive and comparative framework across occupational boundaries. The book includes twenty-two original essays by leading researchers across a range of disciplines--including sociology, psychology, social work, and public health. They examine the history of the paid care sector in America, reveal why paid-care work can be both personally fulfilling but also make workers vulnerable to burnout, emotional fatigue, physical injuries, and wage exploitation. Finally, the editors outline many innovative ideas for reform, including top-down and grassroots efforts to improve recognition, remuneration, and mobility for care workers. As America faces a series of challenges to providing care for its citizens, including the many aging baby boomers, this volume offers a wealth of information and insight for policymakers, scholars, advocates, and the general public."

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