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April 19, 2012
- The State of Our Unions
- Air Canada Chaos Continues
- Beyond The Weekend – The Benefits of Unions in the U.S.
- Time To Talk About Overtime in the U.S.
- Selection by Software
- What’s Working At Work
- The Grey Force
- Career Prospects and Goals for Young Workers in the U.S.
- Perspectives on Temporary Immigrant Workers
- And Debate Over Immigration Rule Changes in Canada Continues
- Union Representation in Europe
- It’s 5 O’clock Somewhere ...
- Book of the Week
The State of Our Unions
“Austerity is in the air. Both the federal and provincial budgets indicated cuts are coming to the public sector. The private sector has already started cutting. Where does that leave Canada's unions? As cuts come to the public and private sector, how are Canada's unions faring? The Agenda looks at labour in the time of austerity.”
TVO, April 12, 2012: The Agenda with Steve Paikin: Labour Pains. With guests Anil Verma, Professor of Human Resource Management and Industrial Relations, Rotman School of Management & Centre for Industrial Relations, University of Toronto; Satinder Chera, Vice-President, Ontario, Canadian Federation of Independent Business; Sam Gindin, Packer Chair in Social Justice, York University; Dave Coles, President, CEP; Warren "Smokey" Thomas, President, OPSEU. (Podcast, approx. 38:00 minutes).
TVO, April 12, 2012: The Agenda with Steve Paikin: Sam Hammond: ETFO Walks Away The Elementary Teachers' Federation of Ontario walked away from negotiations after only one hour. ETFO President Sam Hammond tells Steve Paikin why. (Video, 11:37 minutes).
Air Canada Chaos Continues
The Globe and Mail, April 16, 2012: “Air Canada must cleanse ‘poisonous’ culture, expert warns”, by Paola Loriggio
The Toronto Star, April 14, 2012: “Air Canada’s fight plan”, by Vanessa Lu
The Globe and Mail, April 13, 2012: “Air Canada wins order declaring job action by pilots illegal”, by Brent Jang
The Financial Post, April 13, 2012: “Air Canada moves to prevent further illegal sick-outs, flight cancellations”, by Scott Deveau
CBC News, April 13, 2012: “Air Canada pilots' sick calls ruled an illegal strike: More than 70 flights grounded after pilots called in sick”
CBC News April 13, 2012: “Air Canada, by the numbers”
CBC News Posted: Mar 23, 2012: "Air Canada's recent history of strife"
Globe and Mail, April 12, 2012: “Union urges Air Canada pilots to abandon plans for illegal job action”, by Brent Jang
Beyond The Weekend – The Benefits of Unions in the U.S.
American Rights at Work Education Fund has produced and funded five reports “revealing that the benefits of workers' collective action extend far beyond themselves—and even beyond their workplace”. Key findings include:
- Frontline union healthcare workers are collaborating with hospital administrators to find real solutions that improve patient care and control costs.
- Partnerships between union-represented teachers and school administrators are boosting student achievement in schools that serve disadvantaged families.
- Union members’ pensions are funding public and private projects that create good American jobs.
- Building trades unions are partnering with community groups to create new career paths for veterans, workers of color, and women.
- Childcare providers are gaining new skills and resources through their unions to improve how they care for children of low-income families.
American Rights At Work, April 2012: Beyond the Weekend (Full Report, PDF, 8 pages)
Time To Talk About Overtime in the U.S.
“Everyone from pharmaceutical reps to home health care aides to waiters and waitresses in fancy restaurants are sick of working off the clock, and they’re looking to finally punch in. Overtime cases brought by the U.S. Department of Labor jumped to 11,990 in 2011 and netted $140 million in overtime wages, up from 8,788 cases and about $107 million in wages in the previous year, the agency reported Tuesday”.
USA TODAY, April 18, 2012: “More American workers sue employers for overtime pay”, By Paul Davidson,
MSNBC, April 18, 2012: “Off the clock: Employees fighting for overtime pay”
Sacramento Bee, April 18, 2012: “Workers' Legal Team: Ingles Markets Violates Labor Laws”, by Outten
U.S. Department of Labor: Handy Reference Guide to the Fair Labor Standards Act
Selection by Software
“Many job seekers have long suspected their online employment applications disappear into a black hole, never to be seen again. Their fears may not be far off the mark, as more companies rely on technology to winnow out less-qualified candidates.” But “error-prone applicant tracking systems kill 75 percent of job seekers' chances of landing an interview as soon as they submit their resumes, despite how qualified they may be.”
CIO, March 1, 2012: “5 Insider Secrets for Beating Applicant Tracking Systems”, by Meridith Levinson
WSJ Careers, January 24, 2012: “Your Résumé vs. Oblivion: Inundated Companies Resort to Software to Sift Job Applications for Right Skills”
Preptel. “ Preptel provides Candidate Optimization services to improve a candidate’s chances of getting an interview and securing an offer. Preptel is for Career Development Professionals, Recruiters, Outplacement Firms, and Job Seekers. Preptel Candidate Optimization services improve a candidate’s chances of getting an interview, securing an offer, and maximizing their compensation package.”
What’s Working At Work
“Mercer's What's Working survey, conducted among nearly 30,000 employees in 17 markets over the past 18 months, sheds new light on employee views and attitudes toward work. It offers a compelling look inside employees' minds - at current levels of employee engagement and how workers feel about the changing employment value proposition.”
Mercer, 2012: What's Working Around The World: Global insights on employee engagement (PDF, 36 pages). Free registration required.
The Grey Force
“It is argued by some that eligibility for Old Age Security (OAS) and the Guaranteed Income Supplement (GIS) at age 65 discourages older Canadians from remaining in the workforce, and that we need to keep them working longer to avoid present and future labour shortages and a sharp rise in the so-called “dependency” ratio (the ratio of retirees to the working-age population). Accordingly, the federal government proposes to phase-in an increase in the age of eligibility from age 65 to age 67, affecting Canadians who are now 54 and younger. This paper looks at some of the realities of working past age 65, and examines what an increase in the OAS eligibility age will mean for those who will have no choice but to work longer in the future”.
Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, April 16, 2012: “Working After Age 65: What is at Stake?”, by Angella MacEwen (Full Report, 12 pages)
The Globe and Mail, April 12, 2012: “Is 75 the new 65?”, by Wallace Immen
Career Prospects and Goals for Young Workers in the U.S.
“In a reversal of traditional gender roles, young women now surpass young men in the importance they place on having a high-paying career or profession, according to survey findings from the Pew Research Center. Two-thirds (66%) of young women ages 18 to 34 rate career high on their list of life priorities, compared with 59% of young men.1 In 1997, 56% of young women and 58% of young men felt the same way.”
Pew Research Center, April 19, 2012: “A Gender Reversal On Career Aspirations: Young Women Now Top Young Men in Valuing a High-Paying Career”, by Eileen Patten and Kim Parker
WSJ, April 19, 2012: "Women's Growing Economic Clout Shifts Priorities", By Conor Dougherty
Challenger, Gray and Christmas, Inc., April 18, 2012: Annual College Grad Job Outlook: Graduate Job Prospects Slightly Better Than Year Ago. Link provided by IWS Documented News Service.
Perspectives on Temporary Immigrant Workers
“U.S. employers in various industries argue that they need to hire foreign workers to perform lower-skilled jobs, while others maintain that many of these positions could be filled by U.S. workers. Under current law, certain lower-skilled foreign workers, sometimes referred to as guest workers, may be admitted to the United States to perform temporary service or labor under two temporary worker visas: the H-2A visa for agricultural workers and the H-2B visa for nonagricultural workers.”
Link provided by IWS Documented News Service
Congressional Research Service, March 20, 2012: “Immigration of Temporary Lower-Skilled Workers: Current Policy and Related Issues”, Andorra Bruno, Specialist in Immigration Policy (PDF, 42 pages)
March 20, 2012
“There has been a significant expansion in Canada’s Temporary Foreign Worker Program (TFWP) over the past ten years. The Pilot Project for Occupations Requiring Lower Levels of Formal Training (PPORLLFT), a sub program of the TFWP, has been leading this expansion. Drawing upon testimony given to the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration, this thesis examines the development and expansion of the program, since its inception in 2002, and shows that it is connected to the ongoing process of neoliberalisation in Canada”.
Frost Centre for Canadian Studies and Indigenous Studies, Trent University, 2011: “Neoliberalising Immigration in Canada: The Pilot Project for Occupations Requiring Lower-Levels of Formal Training and the Expansion of Canada’s Temporary Foreign Worker Program”, by C. Andrew Cragg (PDF, 120 pages)
The article below "demonstrates that the possibility of a low-skilled guest-worker employment in a higher wage foreign country lowers the relative attractiveness of the skilled employment in the home country. Thus it prevents a fraction of individuals from acquiring human capital. Therefore, even if all individuals who acquired education remain in the home country, the actual number of educated workers in the source economy decreases, and the aggregate level of human capital in this economy would thus be negatively affected. “
CESifo Working Paper No. 3429, April 2011: “Guest-Worker Migration, Human Capital and Fertility”, by Leonid V. Azarnert (PDF, 24 pages)
And Debate Over Immigration Rule Changes in Canada Continues
Law Times, April 16, 2012: “Immigration lawyers [in Canada] reeling: Government moving through system ‘like a stack of dominoes’”, by Kendyl Sebesta
The Globe and Mail, April 13, 2012: “Labour groups welcome changes to immigration rules for skilled workers”
Union Representation in Europe
Approximately (34%) of workplaces with 10 or more employees have a trade union or works council body in place in Europe, but considerable variation exists between countries. “Many of these characteristics are related to the presence or absence of a trade union or works council. Workplace representation is more prevalent in countries where national or sectoral bargaining dominates. It is also higher in countries with more extensive levels of legislative support for workplace representation”.
Eurofound, April 17, 2012: “Workplace employee representation in Europe”, by Alex Bryson, John Forth, and Anitha George. (Full report, PDF, 86 pages) Link provided by IWS Documented News Service
It’s 5 O’clock Somewhere ...
"The TV show Mad Men has won fans for breathing life — and a heavy whiff of bourbon — into the fictional advertising world of 1960s New York. But surely no American company has such a liver-pickling culture in this day and age, right?"
NPR News, April 18, 2012: “Drinking On The Job: Is 2012 The New 1966?”, by Bill Chappell
Book of the Week
The International Handbook of Labour Unions: Responses to Neo-liberalism, edited by Gregor Gall, Adrian Wilkinson and Richard Hurd. Cheltenham, UK : Edward Elgar, 2011. 343 p. ISBN 9781848448629 (hardcover)
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