Perry Work Report: work&labour news&research, May 1, 2015

May 1, 2015

Announcement:

Nominations for Bora Laskin Award 2015

The University of Toronto's Centre for Industrial Relations and Human Resources is inviting nominations for its annual Bora Laskin Award for Outstanding Contributions to Canadian Labour Law. More information about the Bora Laskin Award can be found at the Centre's website.

The Awards Committee will consider nominations received on or before Friday, May 15, 2015. To submit a nomination, please fill out the online form.

 

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B.C. Teachers Lose Right to Bargain Class Size, Composition

“The B.C. Court of Appeal has sided with the B.C. government, overturning two previous decisions that had given teachers the right to bargain on class size and composition.”

“The decision is a major blow to the B.C. Teachers’ Federation, which won two lower court rulings upholding its bargaining rights. The majority decision written by Chief Justice Robert Bauman and Justice David Harris finds the government acted in good faith when it consulted with teachers leading up to the introduction of Bill 22 -- which took away the B.C. Teachers Federation’s ability to bargain limits on class size, teacher librarian numbers, special needs student ratios, and other elements. ‘Between the consultations and the collective bargaining leading up to the legislation, teachers were afforded a meaningful process in which to advance their collective aspirations,’ the judgement said. ‘Their freedom of association was respected.’”

“The teachers’ union has 60 days to decide whether to seek leave to appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada.”

CBC News, April 30, 2015: “B.C. teachers lose right to bargain class size, composition,” by Steve Lus

BC Teachers’ Federation -- BC Court of Appeal Decision [website]

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Nova Scotia Universities Uncut: What is Bill 100?

“Bill 100, also known as ’Act Respecting Accountability and Sustainability of Universities,’ introduced by the Stephen McNeil Nova Scotia Liberal Government in late April, threatens to undermine collective bargaining rights at Nova Scotia universities and poses a grave threat to the principles of academic freedom and the bedrock of the province’s knowledge economy.” “The bill ignores constitutionally protected collective bargaining rights; threatens academic freedom, a core principle of great universities and undermines Nova Scotia’s universities, the backbone of the knowledge.”

Nova Scotia Universities Uncut: What is Bill 100? (1 page, PDF)

NS universities uncut: Help us stop bill 100: Sign the petition [website]

Status of Bills: Bill No. 100: Universities Accountability and Sustainability Act

Bill 100: Universities Accountability and Sustainability Act: First Reading: April 22, 2015

Bill 100: A Primer -- Statement by Matthew Furlong, Communications Officer for Association Nova Scotia University Teachers (4 pages, PDF)

“’Under the proposed legislation, unions have the opportunity to respond to draft plans, but with the right to strike removed, and the right to enforce existing collective agreements seriously curtailed, meaningful dialogue about the plan cannot really happen,’ said Robinson.”

CAUT, April 24, 2015: “Canada’s profs raise alarm over Nova Scotia bill”

“On Monday [April 27, 2015], the union staged a protest at the Nova Scotia legislature over what it calls the “unprecedented powers” contained in Bill 100, the Universities Accountability and Sustainability Act.”

“The act would allow a university to trigger a revitalization plan in times of “significant operating deficiency.”

“During this 12 to 18 month period, strikes are banned and grievances are stopped, as are new collective agreements on campus.”

“‘You could see the employer slash wages. You could see the employer taking advantage of the worker when they don’t have proper representation,’ said MacLean.”

CBC News, April 27, 2015: “Nova Scotia university law means ‘unprecedented powers,’ warns NSGEU,” by Paul Withers

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Stats Canada's Workplace Survey: Where's the Data?

“The Workplace Survey was an experimental survey conducted in early 2012 by Statistics Canada. The survey was funded by Human Resources and Skills Development Canada, now known as Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC). The goal of the survey was to determine the ability of employers to provide information on a wide range of labour characteristics, including job vacancies and occupations in high demand. Funding of the survey ended on March 31st, 2012, with the completion of collection. This document will provide some background on the survey as well as describe the survey methodology, processing and lessons learned. In addition, some measures of data quality will be provided based on the survey results.”

“WS questionnaire was divided into five sections:

  1. Workforce Characteristics;
  2. Job Vacancies and Labour Turnover (hirings, separations, vacancies, hard-to-fill jobs);
  3. Specific Occupations Filled and Unfilled in 2011 (detailed occupation data);
  4. Future Skill Shortages; and
  5. Final Verifications (used for quality evaluations and combined reports).

From these sections, the goal was to provide a detailed overview of the Canadian workforce, detailed analysis of hiring practices over the 2011 calendar year, as well as very detailed information on which occupations were most in demand in the Canadian job market.”

Statistics Canada, Technical Papers, April 28, 2015: “2011 Workplace Survey Summary and Lessons Learned” (10 pages, PDF)

According to Statistics Canada the Workplace Survey microdata file can be accessed through the Canadian Centre for Data Development and Economic Research

Here is the description of how and (the very few) who may do that:

“Two routes are used to bring researchers into CDER to work on analytical projects that use business or administrative data. The first applies to researchers affiliated with federal government departments. The second process is used for researchers unaffiliated with federal government departments. Note that only research projects making use of multivariate analysis techniques will be considered at CDER. Individuals who which to obtain custom tabulations should contact the appropriate subject matter division at Statistics Canada.”

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Open Data, Government, and Citizen Perceptions

“The push for open government and open data by federal officials, as well as authorities across many states and cities, can seem an unmitigated good. Talk to journalists, however, and there are myriad areas where they believe government at all levels is still being less than transparent -- and less than helpful in revealing facts that the public is entitled to know.”

Harvard, Shorenstein Centre, Journalist’s Resource, April 28, 2015: “Open data, government and citizen perceptions: First national survey, by the Pew Research Center 2015”

“The survey unearthed relatively high levels of broad and simple engagement with government data as people use the Internet to access government services and information,” the authors conclude. “At the same time, the survey shows relatively low levels of public awareness of government initiatives to open the data vaults for the public and entrepreneurs. There is optimism among many citizens that government data can improve government accountability (against some caution that open data can improve government performance), along with some level of concern about government sharing data that may hit too close to home.”

“A 2015 report from the Pew Research Center, ‘Americans’ Views on Open Government Data,’ by John B. Horrigan and Lee Rainie, is based on the first national survey testing how these government openness projects, and the wider movement around them, is filtering down into public consciousness. Pew Research polled some 3,200 persons in late 2014 through Web surveys and mail. The margin of sampling error is plus or minus 2.3 percentage points.”

Pew Research Center, April 21, 2015: “Americans’ Views on Open Government Data,” by John B. Horrigan and Lee Rainie

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In Defense of Baltimore Protesters

On April 19, 2015, Baltimore resident Freddie Gray died from severe spinal injuries which he sustained while in police custody. Upon being arrested Gray was thrown into the back of a police transport van, unseat-belted -- a violation of department policy. Gray was not offered medical attention, despite several requests. Gray’s death has sparked a series of protests against police brutality, some of which have turned violent.

Below John Angelos, Chief Operating Officer of the Orioles, Baltimore’s major-league baseball franchise responds to tweets criticizing protestors for causing traffic congestion problems:

“That said, my greater source of personal concern, outrage, and sympathy beyond this particular case is focused neither upon one night’s property damage nor upon the acts, but is focused rather upon the past four-decade period during which an American political elite have shipped middle-class and working-class jobs away from Baltimore and cities and towns around the US to third-world dictatorships, like China and others; plunged tens of millions of good, hardworking Americans into economic devastation, and then followed that action around the nation by diminishing every American’s civil-rights protections in order to control an unfairly impoverished population living under an ever-declining standard of living and suffering at the butt end of ab ever-more militarized and aggressive surveillance state.”

“We need to keep in mind [that] people are suffering and dying around the US, and while we are thankful no one was injured at Camden Yards, there is a far bigger picture for poor Americans in Baltimore and everywhere who don’t have jobs and are losing economic, civil, and legal rights, and this makes inconvenience at a ballgame irrelevant in light of the needless suffering government is inflicting upon ordinary Americans.”

Quartz, April 28, 2015: “Before you judge the Baltimore protesters, read this Orioles executive’s defense,” by Jake Flanagin

But what does burning down your own neighborhood prove?

“Rioting and looting are not strategic sustained action; they are cries of grief and utter despair. And while I certainly pity any small business owner or retail employee who will suffer as a result, it’s hard for me to feel a sense of moral outrage over some stolen sneakers and hair weave bringing a fleeting feeling of power or pleasure to people who have had their humanity assaulted to the point that they thought to grab sneakers and weave at a time like this.”

“If the sustained psychological terror of being reared in an economically disenfranchised neighborhood, babysat by a failing school, and abused by aggressive police didn’t leave you with the tools to effectively organize against state sanctioned terrorism in a way that society finds ‘respectable' -- in other words, voting and being polite enough to say, 'Please, suh, don’t kill us no mo’!' -- then far be it from me to mourn the loss of Nike socks and Remy bundles and exaggerated reports of violence against police that leave out this week’s violence at the hands of police, and of White counter-protestors who attacked and berated people for the past three days on the city’s streets.”

Ebony, April 28, 2015: “Baltimore Been Burning,” by Jamilah Lemieux

The New York Times Video, April 28, 2015: "Unrest in Baltimore; Baltimore After Freddie Gray: A Young Leader in Baltimore"

Economic Realities of Being Black

“The economic realities facing men like Gray -- and many of the young people who took to the streets after his funeral -- are indeed harsh. The unemployment rate for black men in Baltimore between the ages of 20 and 24 was 37 percent in 2013,the latest data available; for white men of the same age range, the rate was 10 percent.”

”Nor do the prospects for black men improve much as they grow older: Just 59 percent of black men between the ages of 25 and 54 are working, compared with 79 percent of white men. Just 1 in 10 black men in Baltimore has a college degree, compared with half of whites (for ages 25 and up). And the median income for black households, at about $33,000, is little more than half that of whites. Moreover, none of those figures takes into account the high incarceration rate for African-Americans, which makes the disparities even starker.”

FiveThirtyEight, April 28, 2015: “How Baltimore’s Young Black Men Are Boxed In,” by Ben Casselman

And finally, check out this video produced by Brave New Films, which shows just how real racism is and how much of a destructive force it is in our society.

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Moving Manufacturing to Mexico

“You could hear jaws dropping onto factory floors right across Ontario’s auto belt last week. Export Development Canada (EDC) announced a loan of ... about $530-million ... to Volkswagen. The money was not to lure the company -- which this year may rank as the world’s largest auto maker -- to Canada. On the contrary, we’re helping finance Volkswagen’s growth 4,000 kilometres away, with expanded factories in Mexico and Tennessee, and a new plant in Mexico.”

“Even if a Canadian supplier wins a Volkswagen contract, it’s unlikely the work would occur in Canada. But EDC doesn’t mind: Helping Canadian-owned firms open plants in Mexico is part of its strategy. Mexico’s auto industry, powered by cheap labour, a growing supply base and lucrative subsidies, is scooping up virtually all new greenfield auto investment in North America.”

“But watching a Canadian government agency assist that southward migration is incredible. There’s an ugly side to Mexico’s industrial boom. Contrary to promises of prosperity and democracy, its workers remain desperate. Real manufacturing wages have not grown; labour costs are now cheaper there than in China. Trade unionism and other political activity is suppressed, often violently -- evidenced horrifically by last year’s murder of 43 student protesters, in which the local mayor and police have been implicated. The normal institutional forces that, in a free society, would allow Mexicans to win a fairer share of the wealth they produce have been short-circuited.”

The Globe and Mail, April 30, 3015: “You call this an auto strategy?,” by Jim Stanford

However, CBC New’s Kazi Stastna argues that the loss of yet another automobile manufacturer to Mexico does not have to be a lethal blow for Canadian car manufacturing.

“Canada still makes about 2.4 million vehicles a year, about 80 per cent of which are exported, mainly to the U.S. While that’s down from a peak of three million in 1999, auto manufacturing still contributes about $16 billion annually to the country’s GDP and employs 120,000 people directly (plus an additional 280,000 in related industries) -- compared with more than $21 billion and 175,000 workers at its height.“

For one thing, as “Toyota, Honda and other car companies move smaller models like the Corolla south, they’re having to switch Canadian manufacturing plants over to higher-end cars that bring bigger profits.“

CBC News, April 17, 2015: “Loss of Corolla doesn’t have to be lethal blow for Canadian auto production,” by Kazi Stastna

“General Motors says it will cut about 1,000 positions from its Oshawa manufacturing operations this year as the company plans to spend billions of dollars to boost its U.S. operations.”

“The downsizing is being timed to the end of production of the Chevrolet Camaro sports car, now officially scheduled for Nov. 20. The company says it remains committed to Canada, and will continue to produce five other vehicles in Oshawa.”

The Toronto Star, April 30. 2015: “GM to cut Oshawa workforce by 1,000 jobs this year”

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Robotica: Cheaper Robots, Fewer Workers

“This is the first episode in a Bits video series, called Robotica, examining how robots are poised to change the way we do business and conduct our daily lives.”

“Faced with an acute and worsening shortage of blue-collar workers, China is rushing to develop and deploy a wide variety of robots for use in thousands of factories.”

“Waves of migrant workers from the countryside filled China’s factories for the last three decades and helped make the nation the world’s largest manufacturer. But many companies now find themselves struggling to hire enough workers. And for the scarce workers they do find, pay has more than quintupled in the last decade, to more than $500 a month in coastal provinces.”

“Chinese businesses and the government are responding by designing and starting to install large numbers of robots, with the goal of keeping factories running and expanding without necessarily causing a drop in overall employment.”

The New York Times, April 27, 2015: “Faster, Stronger and Cheaper,” by Jonah M. Kessel and Taige Jensen          

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Hell Hath No Fury like Twitter Responding to Sexism

“A peer reviewer’s suggestion that two female researchers find ‘one or two male biologists’ to co-author and help them strengthen a manuscript they had written and submitted to a journal has unleashed an avalanche of disbelief and disgust on Twitter [April 29, 2015] -- and prompted an apology from the publisher of the journal, which media reports have identified as PLOS ONE.”

“Ingleby and Head said they received the rejection with just the single review. ‘Not only did the review seem unprofessional and inappropriate, but it didn’t have any constructive or specific criticism to work on,’ Ingleby wrote.”

“Ingleby’s tweets unleashed an avalanche of disbelief, disgust and, in some cases, weary expectance. Twitter responses include dumbfounded (’NO WAY. I’m actually speechless’), editorial critiques (’Editor should have discarded that pathetic review & got another’), weary familiarity (’I wish I could say this was shocking. Infuriating, but not shocking’), and darkly humorous (’I certainly hope you consulted a man before tweeting this’). In fact, Ingleby noted in one tweet, she and her co-author had run the manuscript by male colleagues prior to submitting it to the journal.”

ScienceInsider, April 29, 2015: “Updated: Sexist peer review elicits furious Twitter response, PLOS apology,” by Rachel Berstein

“Digging the hole even deeper, the reviewer noted that male doctoral students produce more papers than females, and male scientists publish in better journals and work longer hours. But don’t be offended -- it’s due to men’s ‘marginally better health and stamina.’“

Retraction Watch, April 29, 2015: “It’s a man’s world -- for one peer reviewer, at least“

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Game, Set, and Match

“Do men and women behave differently in competitive situations? Recent research suggests the average woman to be reluctant to and generally differ in their attitude towards competitive situations. Especially when trying to explain the persistent gender wage gap -- which is not expected to be closed for another 70 years -- noncognitive skills and attitudes are proving to be important factors. However, most studies analyzing potential gender differences in competitive situations suffer from identification problems or lack information on other, potentially crucial characteristics. For instance, in most labor markets women work alongside men throughout their entire career and training, which makes it difficult to isolate performance measurements and disentangle behavior in the workplace from the influence of male colleagues. Recently, labor markets in the sports world have become prominent laboratories for testing behavior in competitive situations.”

This paper analyzes potential gender differences in competitive environments using a sample of over 100,000 professional tennis matches. The authors focus on two phenomena of the labour and sports economics literature: the hot-hand and clutch-player effects.

"Overall, we find virtually no gender differences for the hot-hand effect and only minor distinctions for the clutch-player effect."

Institute for the Study of Labor, March 2015: “Game, Set, and Match: Do Women and Men Perform Differently in Competitive Situations?,” by Michael Jetter and Jay K. Walker

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Times Higher Education 100 Under 50

“The Times Higher Education 100 Under 50 Rankings 2015 is a ranking of the top 100 universities under 50 years old. It provides a glimpse into the future, showcasing not those institutions with centuries of history, but the rising stars which show great potential. The table employs the same 13 separate indicators as the Times Higher Education World University Rankings, but the 100 Under 50 Rankings 2015 methodology has been carefully re-calibrated to reflect the special characteristics of younger universities, giving less weight to subjective indicators of academic reputation.“

The University of Calgary was the highest ranked Canadian university to make the list, at number 22.

Read the full report here (36 pages, interactive PDF) and more about the methodology here. For in-depth analysis and commentary on the results click here.

Times Higher Education, April 30, 2015: “100 Under 50 Rankings 2015 results“

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Show Them the Money... Or the Door

“Responses from PayScale’s 2015 Compensation Best Practices Report (CBPR) are in line with [Bureau of Labor Statistics] reports. When asked, ‘What is the expectation for your company’s financial performance in 2015?’ 73 percent of respondents said they expected financial performance would improve, and only 5 percent expected it would weaken. In addition, 55 percent of employers said their companies had grown since January 2014."

"And yet, many workers are still waiting for employers to ‘show them the money!’ Last month, the BLS reported that real average hourly earnings for all employees decreased 0.1 percent (5 pages, PDF) from January to February. And according to The PayScale Real Wage Index, U.S. wages are down 6.5 percent since 2006. (The PayScale Real Wage Index tracks the buying power of wages for full-time private industry workers in the U.S.)”

PayScale, Compensation Today, April 28, 2015: “Show them the money: Economy surges, but employee wages slow,” by Crystal Spraggins

PayScale, April 2015: “Attack of the Out-of-Date Comp Plan: 2015 Compensation Best Practices Report” (26 pages, PDF)

Walmart’s Advice to 2,200 Laid Off Workers

“Shoving a vague, generic handout at the thousands of people you’ve just fired is insulting in its own right, but Walmart’s coping literature is so phenomenally and willfully tone deaf, it’s almost impressive. To those who have just lost their jobs and been explicitly told there’s no guarantee of finding one at another store, Walmart advises:”

  • ‘Eat well, exercise, and rest.’-- presumably with the money you no longer have and the time you now have to dedicate to job hunting.
  • 'Avoid caffeine and chocolate!’-- a great way to relieve the stress of no longer being able to pay your bills.
  • 'Seek help if reactions are interfering with job responsibilities.’ -- the last thing you want is for getting fired to interfere with the job you have just been reminded you no longer have.
  • 'Seek professional help.’ -- great advice! Too bad you don’t have insurance.

Gawker, April 28, 2015: “Walmart’s Advice to 2,200 Laid Off Workers: Don’t Eat Chocolate,” by Ashley Feinberg

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Six Web-Based Tools to Help You Communicate Your Research Visually

Timeline JS: “This free, open-source tool helps you build visually attractive chronologies. Designed by Northwestern University’s Knight Lab.”

StoryMap JS: “Another free Knight Lab tool, StoryMap provides a straightforward user interface for marrying visual information with geographical displays -- combining maps, text and pictures in compelling packages."

Chartbuilder: “A free, open application, Chartbuilder was designed by the digital media outlet Quartz so that everyone in that news organization -- not just specialists and developers -- could quickly build data visualizations and embed them on their website.”
Videolicious: “Reporting and communications of all kinds could benefit from this tool, and it’s perhaps the easiest way to shoot, edit and package short videos with a mobile device.”

Piktochart: “Create attractive infographics with this tool. A tip from the research world: If you are trying to discuss controversial subjects or correct misinformation, infographics can help.”

Gephi: “Self-described as ‘Photoshop for data,’ this open platform and graph-drawing software package has a lot of complex data analysis functionality and is used by many researchers, but it can also be deployed relatively easily to create and explore graphs of various kinds."

“Final note: The multimedia aggregation tool Storify, which has been around for a number of years now, remains a very useful platform for pulling together tweets, photos, videos and more into a single stream/collage. Many organizations use it to cover and summarize trends and events.”

Harvard, Shorenstein Centre, Journalist’s Resource, February 25, 2015: “Six Web-based tools and applications that can help you communicate visually”

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Capturing the Solitary Life of a Florida Oysterman

“Even though the oil never made it up to Appalachicola Bay on Florida’s panhandle, much of the area’s once abundant oyster population is in decline, according to a University of Florida report. The delicate blend of fresh and salt water that helps oysters thrive has been out of whack for years, thanks to draught, and illegal catches of juveniles threaten future hauls. Yet third-generation oysterman Kendall Schoeless is unruffled, and soldiers on alone.”

“’It was like being with a Zen monk,’ says videographer Joe Davenport, who spent hours filming Schoeless. He observed Schoeless in ways no one but the oysters do -- from below, in his small boat, shrouded by morning fog. I reached Davenport via email to find out how he brought the story to life for National Geographic.”

National Geographic, April 27, 2015: “Capturing the Solitary Life of a Florida Oysterman,” by April Fulton

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Europe's Underemployed Women

“Part-time work allows for greater flexibility, which some people value. But it also sets unwelcome limits on millions who would like to work more, according to new data from Eurostat. These ‘underemployed’ people number almost 10 million across Europe -- and the majority in almost every European country are women.”

“The data points to a huge untapped resource: people who would like to be more productive and earn more money, but are stuck in jobs that don’t allow them to progress. The worst-affected country overall -- irrespective of gender -- was Greece, where 72% of people working part-time aren’t getting enough hours.”

“The data also pointed to a large untapped workforce across Europe: people who could work but are not looking to, either because they are discouraged or for other reasons (like looking after children). In Italy, for example, 3.4 million people fall into the category of ‘potential additional workforce,’ accounting for more than a third of the 9.5 million Europeans who are available for work, but not seeking it.“

Quartz, April 28, 2015: “Nearly seven million women in Europe wish they could work more hours,” by Cassie Werber

Eurostat, April 2015: “Underemployment and potential additional labour force statistics”

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Book of the Week

The New Scarlet Letter?: Negotiating the U.S. Labor Market with a Criminal Record, by Steven Raphael. Kalamazoo, Michigan: W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research, 2014. 105 p. ISBN 9780880994798 (pbk.)

From the publisher: "Raphael provides a concise overview of the barriers faced by ex-convicts as they attempt to reenter the U.S. labor market. First, he studies the factors that influence the market's supply and demand sides. Next, he presents an empirical portrait of the inmate population, recently released inmates, and the youth who eventually enter the prison system as young adults." How employers use criminal histories in screening job applicants and the empirical research on the effects of a criminal record on labor market outcomes is reviewed and then programs designed to help inmates enter the labor force that show positive results are described. "Raphael concludes with a set of policy recommendations aimed at addressing the concerns of employers and preparing inmates for the labor force as they exit the prison system."

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