December 1, 2011
- Conversation: When the State Rejects Neutrality
- In the News: SCC and Pension Plan Claims; Migrant Workers; First Contract Arbitration
- First Contract Arbitration
- TVO’s Reworking the World of Work
- Women and Work: Special Report
- Global Gender Gap Report
- Board Games in Corporate Canada
- Top Business Thinkers
- Lie-O-Meter
- A Chart of Where All the U.S. Money Went
- Statistics Canada to Make Online Data Free
- Global Competitiveness
- Book of the Week
Conversation: When the State Rejects Neutrality
On Thursday, December 7, 2011 Denis Lemelin, national president of CUPW and Professor Eric Tucker, Osgoode Hall Law School will hold a Conversation about the use of back to work legislation in public sector collective bargaining disputes.
This Conversation will be held from 12:20-1:30 in Ross South 701, Ross Building, at York University’s Keele Campus. All are welcome.
In the News: SCC and Pension Plan Claims; Migrant Workers; First Contract Arbitration
SCC to Decide Insolvent Companies Pension Plan Obligations
“The Supreme Court of Canada will weigh into the high-stakes debate about whether pension plan members have a claim on an insolvent company’s assets to cover shortfalls in their plan.”
Globe and Mail, December 1, 2011: Supreme Court to hear high-stakes pension case by Janet Mcfarland
Charter Rights for Migrant Workers?
“Three migrant workers from Mexico are suing the federal government and their former employer for allegedly breaching their Charter rights, a case that has implications for the tens of thousands of temporary workers who come to Canada every year.”
Globe and Mail, November 28, 2011: Mexican migrant workers sue Ottawa for alleged breach of Charter rights by Joe Friesen
Nova Scotia’s First Contract Arbitration Bill is Controversial
Nova Scotia’s has recently introduced a bill to bring in first contract arbitration legislation -- currently in its second reading.
Bill No. 102: Trade Union Act (amended) An Act to Prevent Unnecessary Labour Disruptions and Protect the Economy by Amending Chapter 475 of the Revised Statutes, 1989, the Trade Union Act
Hearld Business, December 1, 2011: Dexter: Michelin's concerns won't kill labour bill: Tire giant warns first contract legislation could negatively impact investment in N.S.
First Contract Arbitration
“This chapter concludes by suggesting that the practice under Quebec’s "no-fault" model and British Columbia's "mediation intensive" model merit consideration for adoption elsewhere. These models position the FCA process as a mechanism fostering collective bargaining and voluntary agreements, rather than treating it as a remedy for dysfunctional negotiations and as part of the unfair labor practice framework.”
Professor Sara Slinn, Osgoode Hall Law School, York University, a PhD graduate from the Centre for Industrial Relations, University of Toronto has published a paper with Richard W. Hurd, Professor of Labor Studies, School of Industrial and Labor Relations, Cornell University in the Advances in Industrial & Labor Relations Series
Sara Slinn & Richard W. Hurd, “First Contract Arbitration and the Employee Free Choice Act: Multi-Jurisdictional Evidence from Canada” in David Lewin, ed. (2011) 18 Advances in Industrial & Labor Relations Series 41-86 (JAI Press) is available online to University of Toronto community.
TVO’s Reworking the World of Work
“Technology is eliminating steps on the social mobility ladder. Will liberal capitalism survive without a better system of social mobility?”
TVO, November 28, 2011: The Agenda with Steve Paiken: Reworking the World of Work
With: Angelo DeCarlo , Our MIRHR Graduate and now the National Communications Representative, Canadian Auto Workers Union Reworking the World of Work: watch the video
TVO’s Beware the Machines
Machines are increasingly able to perform tasks in which humans were once unquestioned masters. MIT economist and "Race Against the Machine" co-author Andrew McAfee tells Steve Paikin what the robots have in store for us. Then, a debate: Technology is eliminating steps on the social mobility ladder. Will liberal capitalism survive without a system of social mobility?
TVO, November 28, 2011: Beware the Machines and the Future of Social Mobility
Andrew McAfee: The Machines are Coming: watch the video
Slate magazine, November 24, 2011: How Cyborgs Will Change the Fabric of Society By Torie Bosch
Women and Work: Special Report
These stories are in the print edition of The Economist, November 26th – December 2, 2011 as well as online . NOTE: once you have read about five stories The Economist will embargo the content and ask you to subscribe – just log off and startup a new session or switch computers.
“Women have made huge progress in the workplace, but still get lower pay and far fewer top jobs than men. Barbara Beck asks why.”
“Perhaps surprisingly, there is little work on the macroeconomic effect of all the extra women who have entered the labour force over the past four decades, but McKinsey reckons that America’s GDP is now about 25% higher than it would have been without them. Kevin Daly at Goldman Sachs, an investment bank, has calculated that eliminating the remaining gap between male and female employment rates could boost GDP in America by a total of 9%, in the euro zone by 13% and in Japan by as much as 16%.”
The Economist, November 26th 2011: Women and work: Closing the gap
Female labour markets
“The main reason why women do not put in long hours at their jobs is that they work long hours at home. Housework and child care the world over, but particularly in poor countries, are still seen mainly as a woman’s responsibility, whether or not she also has a formal job. Even in the rich world women spend at least twice as much time as men on unpaid work: an average of 33 hours a week, against 16 for men.”
The Economist, November 26th 2011: Female labour markets: The cashier and the carpenter: Men and women do different jobs for different pay
A world of bluestockings
“Crucially, women’s lead at first-degree level does not so far seem to have translated into better job opportunities. In a paper published earlier this year Ina Ganguli, Ricardo Hausmann and Martina Viarengo of Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government concluded that the achievement of educational parity is a “cheque in the mail” that may presage more women joining the labour force, but lots of other factors—such as cultural attitudes and the availability of child care—also play a part. On its own, educational parity—even superiority—is not enough.”
The Economist, November 26th 2011: A world of bluestockings: Women are now more highly educated than men, but they don’t get the jobs to match
Work and family: Baby blues
“Four out of five Finnish new fathers take a month off. All this leave may seem rather expensive for employers, but “we accept it” says Ms. Inkeroinen of the Confederation of Finnish Industries: children are seen as the responsibility of society as a whole. Not all employers are so philosophical.”
The Economist, November 26th 2011: Work and family: Baby blues: A juggler’s guide to having it all
Top jobs
“The debate about women on boards and the use of quotas has generated a lot of heat, but the more important question is how many make it into the top executive suites, because that is where most board members are drawn from, and the picture here is equally dismal.”
The Economist, November 26th 2011: Top jobs: Too many suits and not nearly enough skirts in the boardrooms
Women in China
Hers is another tale of relentless self-improvement. Soon after she joined the private sector she took an executive MBA at the China Europe International Business School (CEIBS) in Shanghai, China’s most highly rated business school, and last year she added a Masters degree in pharmaceutical medicine, all the while heading a team of 120 people in her job with Pfizer. As Ms Kang says, to succeed as a woman in China “you need to be better than a man.”
The Economist, November 26th 2011: Women in China: The sky’s the limit
Looking ahead
“The most egregious gap between men and women is still in the world of work. The World Economic Forum, a Geneva-based think-tank, earlier this month published its latest annual “Global Gender Gap Report”, comparing progress in 135 countries towards sex equality in four broad areas. In health and education, says Saadia Zahidi, head of the WEF’s Women Leaders and Gender Parity Programme, most countries have largely closed the gap in recent years. In the third, politics, the gap is still wide but progress has been relatively rapid. The fourth, economic opportunity, is proving dishearteningly slow to shift, not just in developing countries but in many rich ones too. Ms Zahidi argues that “smaller gaps in economic opportunity are directly correlated with greater competitiveness, so increased equality helps to promote economic growth.”
The Economist, November 26th 2011: Looking ahead: Here’s to the next half-century Here’s to the next half-century It’s taking a long time, but things are getting better
“WOMEN ARE NOT at the top anywhere,” says Herminia Ibarra, a professor at the INSEAD business school near Paris.
Global Gender Gap Report
The sixth annual World Economic Forum Global Gender Gap Report 2011 shows a slight decline over the last year in gender equality rankings for New Zealand, South Africa, Spain, Sri Lanka and the United Kingdom this year, while gains are made in Brazil, Ethiopia, Qatar, Tanzania and Turkey.
World Economic Forum, November 1, 2011: Global Gender Gap Report 2011
Try this! Global Gender Gap Index Google data explorer and to see the Google data explorer's evolution of the Gender Gap Index over the past 6 years in action try this link.
Global Gender Gap Report 2011 (375 pages, PDF)
Board Games in Corporate Canada
“Ten years after its collapse into scandal, the real legacy of Enron lies in the less visible reforms, which have fundamentally changed how companies operate, business leaders say. CEOs rely on boards far more in strategic planning, directors are more demanding in their oversight, and companies increasingly consider broader questions of governance in their social and environmental decisions.”
Globe and Mail, November 28, 2011: (a link to a page full of articles, audio and video presentations)Board Games: Corporate Canada sees a quiet revolution in governance: Tectonic shift in how boards operate is changing the game
Globe and Mail, November 27, 2011: Board Games Winners and losers in Board Games 2011, Janet Mcfarland
Top Business Thinkers
This is a beautiful website! But I am not supportive of the plethora of ‘best this’ and ‘top that’ which amount to media contests perpetuating whatever is the current, ever renewable, mythology of business.
Welcome to the 2011 Thinkers50: The definitive listing of the world’s top 50 business thinkers
Globe and Mail, November 15, 2011: Four Canadians among world’s top 50 business thinkers by Jennifer Lewington
Lie-O-Meter
I would love a lie-o-meter in so many situations. We have the tomatometer on the Rotten Tomatoes website where you can base a decision to watch a movie upon a compilation of reviewers’ assessments – from red to green to splat.
Now at the site PolitiFact.com fact-finders have checked statements made by U.S. politician's against the facts to see how they hold up – the meter runs from “true” to “pants on fire” --have fun!
The Economist, November 26, 2011: Political fact-checking: Fun at the FactFest: Techies talk about how to make the news more reliable
The Truth-O-Meter Says: TRUE: "Every day in the United States, we are losing 15 factories." Betty Sutton on Tuesday, October 25th, 2011 in a speech in the House of Representatives
A Chart of Where All the U.S. Money Went
“A chart of almost all the money: An epic chart from XKCD: Money - A chart of almost all of it, where it is, and what it can do. It's broken out into "dollars, thousands, millions, billions, trillions"...here's just a little snippet of the billions section.”
Kottke.org, October 2011: A chart of almost all the money: just the billions section
Complete Chart by xkcd: webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math, and language: the chart was made based upon 2011 dollars using scholarly and government sources (link to sources is provided).
The chart includes corporate revenues, US household incomes, the federal budget, federal spending, stimulus spending, bailouts, spending on wars – all in glorious visual detail! – data in a poster – intriguing!
Statistics Canada to Make Online Data Free
“If Canada is to morph into a knowledge-based economy, its citizens need better access to reliable, unbiased information. With that in mind, Statistics Canada will make all of its standard data available for free on its website, starting next year. As of Feb. 1, all data known as Canadian Socio-Economic Information Management System (or CANSIM) will be posted freely on the agency’s website. Census and geography data will also become free.”
Globe and Mail Blog, December 1, 2011: Economy Lab: A data wonk's dream: Statscan to drop pay wall, by Tavia Grant
Global Competitiveness
“The report series identify advantages as well as impediments to national growth thereby offering a unique benchmarking tool to the public and private sectors as well as academia and civil society. The Centre works with a network of Partner Institutes as well as leading academics worldwide to ensure the latest thinking and research on global competitiveness are incorporated into its reports.”
World Economic Forum, November 2011: Global Competitiveness website
World Economic Forum, November 2011: The Global Competitiveness Report 2011 – 2012
Book of the Week
Walmart in China, edited by Anita Chan. Ithaca : ILR Press, 2011. 294 p. ISBN 9780801477317
Walmart and "Made in China" are practically synonymous; Walmart imports some 70 percent of its merchandise from China. Walmart is now also rapidly becoming a major retail presence there, with close to two hundred Walmarts in more than a hundred Chinese cities. What happens when the world's biggest retailer and the world's biggest country do business with each other? In this book, a group of thirteen experts from several disciplines examine the symbiotic but strained relationship between these giants. The book shows how Walmart began cutting costs by bypassing its American suppliers and sourcing directly from Asia and how Walmart's sheer size has trumped all other multinationals in squeezing procurement prices and, as a by-product, driving down Chinese workers' wages.
About the Editor:
Anita Chan is Research Professor at the China Research Centre of the University of Technology, Sydney.
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