Perry Work Report, April 26, 2013
work&labour news&research -- follow us on the CIRHR Library Tumblr
- Nominations for Bora Laskin Award 2013
- Armine Yalnizyan on the Business of Outsourcing in Canada
- Temporary Foreign Workers Program Defended by CFIB
- Which Companies are Authorized to use Temporary Foreign Workers?
- Union Communities, Healthy Communities
- U.S. Steel Could not Immediately be Reached for Comment
- Strategic Corporate Research
- Mark Carney and Andrew Jackson on the Same Page
- The Council of Canadian Academies Releases an Expert Panel Report Innovation Impacts
- Canada's Gender Gap, Ontario's Pay Gap
- WINNERS Canada’s greenest employers for 2013
- Income Inequality in Canada
- Black Unions in 2012
- No One, Male or Female, Should Be Ashamed of Leaving the Workforce
- Book of the Week
Nominations for Bora Laskin Award 2013
The deadline of Wednesday, May 1 is fast approaching – but there is still time to submit your nominations for this year's Bora Laskin Award! To submit a nomination, please fill out the online form.
The University of Toronto, 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 award is named after the late Chief Justice Bora Laskin (1912-1984) who, before joining the Supreme Court of Canada, was pre-eminent as a labour law scholar and labour arbitrator.
Nominees will be considered from all fields relating to labour law, including, for example, academia, private practice, courts, tribunals and arbitration. The Awards Committee will consider nominations received on or before Wednesday, May 1, 2013.
This year's award will be presented at a dinner on the evening of Tuesday, October 22 during the Lancaster House Canadian Labour Board Law Conference, which will take place at Le Meridien King Edward Hotel in Toronto on October 22 and 23, 2013.
To submit a nomination, please fill out the online form.
Armine Yalnizyan on the Business of Outsourcing in Canada
"In recent years, Canada has seen an explosion of low-skilled temporary foreign workers. Though outsourcing is not new, the practice is under renewed scrutiny—especially given the recent alleged in-sourcing of workers at RBC and the HD Mining case in British Columbia. On this morning’s episode of CBC Radio’s The Current, CCPA Senior Economist Armine Yalnizyan does a great job of contextualizing the outsourcing problem in Canada and its troubling consequences, including a disappearing middle class.Listen to Armine, here." [CCPA]
Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, April 9, 2013: "Armine Yalnizyan on the business of outsourcing in Canada"
Temporary Foreign Workers Program Defended by CFIB
"Each year on Dec. 1, the Canadian government does a count of how many temporary foreign workers there are in the country. This year there were 338,189, a number that is still considered preliminary. On the same date in 2005, before Stephen Harper came to office, there were 140,668. There are different ways temporary foreign workers can enter the country, but the vast majority (more than 202,000 in 2012) enter via Human Resources and Skills Development Canada’s ‘positive labour market opinions,’ which are approvals after an employer shows it needs a foreign worker to fill a job and that no Canadian worker was available. Here is a breakdown of the types of skills these 202,000 workers have and which industry sectors they’re working in."' [The Globe and Mail]
The Globe and Mail, April 11, 2013: Infographic: Where Canada’s temporary foreign workers are going
“There is plenty of underutilized labour in Canada. The country’s jobless rate as a whole is 7.2 per cent, but the broadest measure of unemployment – which includes the unemployed, part-time workers who’d prefer to be full-time and discouraged people, is 11.2 per cent, Statistics Canada figures show.”[The Globe and Mail]
The Globe and Mail, April 19, 2013: “Temporary foreign worker program lowers wages, thwarts training, economists say,” by Tavia Grant
The Globe and Mail, April 19, 2013: CFIB head defends foreign-worker program
Metcalf Foundation, September 12, 2012: Made in Canada: How the Law Constructs Migrant Workers’ Insecurity
Which Companies are Authorized to use Temporary Foreign Workers?
“The following document shows all employers who have successfully participated in Human Resources and Skills Development Canada’s Labour Market Opinion process, meaning they are legally authorized to hire Temporary Foreign Workers in Canada. The documents reflect all applications made to Ottawa over a two-year period ending June 2012.
Appearing on this list does not necessarily mean that the employer took the additional step of bringing in a foreign worker through the department of Citizenship and Immigration. Instead, it offers a window into how widespread the practice of using temporary foreign workers has become.
Companies on the list include restaurants like Tim Hortons, McDonald’s and Subway, and banks like RBC Dominion Securities, BMO Financial Group and ING Direct Canada.” [The Globe and Mail]
The Globe and Mail, April 22, 2012: Which companies are authorized to use temporary foreign workers? View the entire list
List of Companies legally authorized to hire Temporary Foreign Workers in Canada (PDF 478 pages)
Union Communities, Healthy Communities
“The new attack on unions and its threat to shared prosperity in Canada”
Broadbent Institute, April 22, 2013: ”Union Communities, Healthy Communities: The new attack on unions and its threat to shared prosperity in Canada,” by Andrew Jackson, Senior Policy Adviser to the Broadbent Institute (18 pages, PDF)
Note: Parts of this paper incorporate material from Andrew Jackson, 2009. Work and Labour in Canada: Critical Issues. Toronto: CSPI, Chapter 9; and Andrew Jackson, “Up Against the Wall: The Political Economy of the New Attack on the Labour Movement”, forthcoming in the Spring, 2013 issue of Just Labour
Huff Post Politics, April 22, 2013: Anti-Union Measures: Solution in Search of a Problem, by Rick J. Smith
“Fresh from their bilious campaign against the charitable sector (recall the intemperate claims that environmental groups are “radicals”, “terrorists” and “eco-vandals” emanating from federal Cabinet Ministers and Senators), the muzzling of federal government scientists, and sundry closings of important institutions with the continuing temerity to speak their mind, trade unions are clearly next in the Tory cross-hairs.
In Toronto, Leader of the Opposition Tim Hudak has proposed legislation to make payment of union dues voluntary — even though non-dues paying free-riders would still receive the wages and benefits negotiated by their union, and would still have a legal right to union representation if they were fired or disciplined.
In Ottawa, Conservatives in the House of Commons have passed legislation that would require unions to publicly disclose in minute detail virtually all aspects of their spending, no matter how irrelevant. They propose no such requirements for business and professional associations that similarly represent their members.
And in Regina, the Wall government’s Bill 85 interferes with the rights of employees to belong to the union of their choosing.
In every case, these anti-union measures are a solution in search of a problem. They are a transparent attempt to damage the financial viability of trade unions and they lay bare the hypocrisy of Conservative parties and governments who, while professing a commitment to streamline useless red tape for Canadian businesses, are ideologically driven to create a choking amount of red tape for trade unions.” [Huff Post]
U.S. Steel Could not Immediately be Reached for Comment
"United States Steel Corp. plans to lock out unionized workers at its mill in Nanticoke, Ont., marking the third time the steel giant has locked out workers since it took over the former Stelco Inc. in 2007. The lockout comes after members of United Steelworkers local 8782 at the company’s Lake Erie Works rejected what the company called its final offer, which the union said included a three-year wage freeze, elimination of cost of living adjustments unless inflation is higher than 3 per cent annually, co-payments on prescription drugs and reductions in holidays." [The Globe and Mail]
The Globe and Mail, April 26, 2013: "U.S. Steel to lock out Ontario workers,” by Greg Keenan
Strategic Corporate Research: Looking Inside the Corporate World
"As unions struggle with the globalization of firms and unprecedented employer opposition, it is clear that new approaches, strategies, and tactics are imperative."
The Strategic Corporate Research web site is a project of Tom Juravich, Professor of Labor Studies and Sociology at the University of Massachusetts and graduate students in the UMass Labor Center.
"This approach to conducting corporate research was almost twenty years in the making and weaves together a number of different threads. In the mid-1990s I began consulting to unions on corporate research and I brought back what I was learning to students in the Master’s program in the UMass Labor Center, developing the original 24 question model. J. Michael Davis, Labor Studies Librarian at the UMass Amherst Libraries and Fred Zinn at the UMass Office of Information Technology were instrumental in developing this inital thinking."[Tom Juravich]
Strategic Corporate Research Website -- includes Canadian material
Beating Global Capital: a Framework and Method for Union Strategic Corporate Research and Campaigns, by Tom Juravich (24 pages, PDF)
Mark Carney and Andrew Jackson on the Same Page
The Globe and Mail, April 23, 2013: ”Carney warns against ‘overreliance’ on The foreign workers for low-paying jobs,” by Bill Curry, Kevin Carmichael
“One doesn’t want an overreliance on temporary foreign workers for lower-skilled jobs,” he said. “It is important over a reasonable time period to ensure that the market adjusts, and then there will be productivity and other adjustments that ensure that Canadians are paid more and that we are a more productive economy as a whole.”
The Globe and Mail, April 22, 2013: “Why Canada should welcome labour shortages,” by Andrew Jackson
“Instead, we should do all in our power to bring on low unemployment and rising real wages. These will work to raise productivity, to reduce inequality, and ultimately make us all better off.
Andrew Jackson is the Packer Professor of Social Justice at York University and Senior Policy Adviser to the Broadbent Institute.”
The Council of Canadian Academies Releases an Expert Panel Report Innovation Impacts
"How can the actual and potential outcomes and impacts of Ontario government spending on innovation and scientific activities be measured, including but not limited to the effects on GDP in Ontario, generation and transfer of knowledge; creation of new ventures; and access to seed, development and growth capital?"
The Expert Panel on the Socio-economic Impact of Innovation Investments was chaired by Mr. Esko Aho, Senior Fellow, Harvard University, Consultative Partner, Nokia Corporation, and former Prime Minister of Finland. For a complete list of panel members visit the Expert Panel on the Socio-economic Impact of Innovation Investments page.
The Council of Canadian Academies, April 22, 2013: Innovation Impacts: Measurement and Assessment (126 pages, PDF)
Canada's Gender Gap, Ontario's Pay Gap
CCPA, April 24, 2013: Closing Canada's Gender Gap: Year 2240 Here We Come! by by Kate McInturff (10 pages, PDF)
CCPA, April 9, 2013: 10 Ways To Close Ontario’s Gender Pay Gap, by Mary Cornish (24 pages, PDF)
WINNERS Canada’s greenest employers for 2013
“Each employer was evaluated using the following criteria: 1) the unique environmental initiatives and programs they’ve developed; 2) how successful they’ve been in reducing their own environmental footprint; 3) the degree to which employees are involved and whether they contribute any unique skills; and 4) the extent that their initiatives have become linked to their public identity and whether they attract new people to their organization.” [The Globe and Mail]
The Globe and Mail, April 22, 2013: WINNERS Canada’s greenest employers for 2013
Income Inequality in Canada
"And now, after having adopted a motion introduced almost a year ago by Scott Brison, the honourable Member of Parliament for Kings-Hants, the House of Commons has charged its Standing Committee on Finance to also talk about it: yes, Virginia, Committee hearings on “Income Inequality in Canada” have begun." [Miles Corack]
Economics for Public Policy, Miles Corak, April 26, 2013: How will the House of Commons look at Income Inequality in Canada?
Corak_Submission_to_Finance_Committee
The Globe and Mail, April 24 2013: Committee studying income inequality must find line between politics of envy and privilege, by Miles Corak
Parliament of Canada, House of Commons Committee: Income Inequality in Canada — all submissions available on this page
“In summary, concrete steps can be taken to make our tax system a much more effective vehicle for closing the growing gap in Canada between the very rich on theone hand, and the middle-class and the poor on the other. The priority should be to eliminate poverty by expanding refundable tax credits, especially for the working-poor who fall through the cracks of our current income support system. Our tax system would also be much fairer if we closed special tax loopholes for the veryaffluent, ensured that corporations pay to clean up their own mess and cracked down on tax cheaters” [Ed Broadbent]
Blacks in Unions 2012
A new report released today by the University of California, Berkeley’s Center for Labor Research and Education finds that Black union density — the proportion of Black workers that belong to unions — exceeds the non-Black union density. In 2012, 13.1% of Black workers were in unions; for non-Black workers, the figure was 11.0%.
These differences were magnified when limiting the analysis to the ten most populous metropolitan areas in the United States. Among U. S. workers, Blacks were 19% more likely to belong to unions than non-Blacks; however, among workers in the largest metropolitan areas, Blacks were 42% more likely to belong to unions compared to non-Blacks.
University of California, Berkeley’s Center for Labor Research and Education, (UC Berkeley Labor Center) April 8, 2013: Data Brief - Blacks in Unions 2012 (12 pages, PDF)
No One, Male or Female, Should Be Ashamed of Leaving the Workforce
“The stigma against quitting also has painful results for women. Research suggests that employers tend to discriminate against the long-term unemployed… and one group in our society that is likely to drop out of the workforce for extended periods of time is women. Economist Sylvia Ann Hewlett pointed out in an NPR report this week that women in their 30s in the US often “leave or languish,” dropping out of the workforce because of a lack of childcare options and a general disenchantment with job opportunities in the stagnant U.S. economy.”
“Lots of women have shown, pretty clearly, that if forced to choose between work and family, they’ll quit work. Rather than seeing that quitting as false consciousness or failure, maybe we could learn from it that work is not always more important than family, and that quitting, for women or for men, is not a sin.”
The Atlantic Monthly, April 23, 2013: “No One, Male or Female, Should Be Ashamed of Leaving the Workforce: For some people, regardless of gender, family is more important than career. And that’s fine.” by Noah Berlatsky
NPR, April 22, 2013: “Want More Gender Equality At Work? Go To An Emerging Market,” by Maggie Penman
Book of the Week
Immigration and Settlement: Challenges, Experiences, and Opportunities, edited by Harald Bauder. Toronto : Canadian Scholars' Press Inc., 2012. 311 p. ISBN 9781551304052 (pbk.)
UTLibraries link to catalogue record: http://go.utlib.ca/cat/8237312
Immigration and Settlement: Challenges, Experiences, and Opportunities draws on a selection of papers that were presented at the international conference "Migration & the Global City" at Ryerson University, Toronto, in October of 2010. Through the use of international and Canadian perspectives, this book examines the contemporary challenges, experiences, and opportunities of immigration and settlement in global, Canadian, and Torontonian contexts.
About the Author:
Harald Bauder is Associate Professor in the Graduate Program in Immigration and Settlement Studies (ISS) and the Department of Geography at Ryerson University.
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