January 3, 2011
- Academic Capitalism
- Down in the Vale
- Industrial Relations Outlook 2011
- CLawBies: Canadian Law Blogging Aw
- Outsourcing in the Oil Sands
- Defining the Green Economy
- Women in Canada and Gender Wage Gap Narrowed
- CEO pay: Recession-proof
- Towers Watson Global Talent survey
- Tatla Diversity Group
- Macrowikinomics:Rebooting Business and the World
- How Well are Canadians Preparing for Retirement? and Pension Reform
- Economic Outlook from the Canadian Chamber of Commerce
- Public Sector Debt Statistics
Academic Capitalism
“The British universities, Oxford and Cambridge included, are under siege from a system of state control that is undermining the one thing upon which their worldwide reputation depends: the caliber of their scholarship. The theories and practices that are driving this assault are mostly American in origin, conceived in American business schools and management consulting firms…This alliance between the public and private sector has become a threat to academic freedom in the UK, and a warning to the American academy about how its own freedoms can be threatened.”
“The lifetime security of employment that academic tenure provides—and that no longer exists in the UK—gives the senior professors, who in 2007–2008 made up 48.8 percent of teachers in higher education, the power and confidence to stand up to university managers and head off an American version of the RAE. But their success in doing this also points to the dubious bargain that many of them have struck: relatively little teaching, especially undergraduate teaching, is usually required of them, and in return they are left in peace to carry on with their research. The result has been that the burden of academic managerialism in the US has fallen on the teaching rather than the research side of university life, with university administrators achieving collectively what in the UK has been achieved by government fiat."[extracts from NYRB article below]
The New York Review of Books, January 13, 2011: The Grim Threat to British Universities, by Simon Head
Hefce: Higher Education Funding Council for England: Strategic Plan 2006 – 2011.
Down in the Vale
“This article assesses one of the longest private sector strikes in Canadian history — the United Steelworkers (USW) Local 6500 strike at Vale in Sudbury, 2009-2010. It argues that in the context of corporate globalization and the recent financial crisis, Vale took full advantage of its economic power to win major concessions from Local 6500. The USW’s community, political, and corporate campaigns were unable to pressure the company or the federal and provincial government effectively and the result was that a powerful international corporation prevailed in its efforts to erode the material well-being of its Canadian workforce.
Such a defeat, alongside the recent collective bargaining concessions by auto workers in Canada and the United States, is a major blow to the North American labour movement. Trade unions must therefore develop more successful strategies of resistance and begin the process of reforming and rejuvenating themselves as organizations defending workers. If this is not done the future of North American labour is bleak indeed.” [abstract]
“Down in the Vale: Corporate Globalization, Unions on the Defensive, and the USW Local 6500 Strike in Sudbury, 2009-2010,” by John Peters. Labour/Le Travail. (Issue 66) Fall 2010. p. 73 (36 pages)
Available to the University of Toronto community. Here is your link: http://simplelink.library.utoronto.ca/url.cfm/128019Then click on third choice: Full text from: ProQuest 50001997 -
Also of interest:
“Trade unions, coalitions and communities: Australia’s Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union and the international stakeholder campaign against Rio Tinto,” by David Sadler. Geoforum 35 (2004) 35–46.
Available to the University of Toronto community. Here is your link: http://simplelink.library.utoronto.ca/url.cfm/128028Then click on first choice: Full text from: Scholars Portal 1970 volume: 1 issue:1 - 2011 volume: 42 issue:1
Industrial Relations Outlook 2011
With wage settlements expected to be more modest in 2011 than the increases negotiated in 2010, labour and management have placed an increased emphasis on cooperation.
Conference Board of Canada, December 2010: Industrial Relations Outlook 2011: From Conflict to Cooperation? Available for downloading to the University of Toronto community via the Conference Board’s e-Library.
Media release, December 16, 2010
CLawBies: Canadian Law Blogging Aw
This is a very valuable site and the annual awards for the Best Law Blogs will lead you to some great resources – so be sure and save the link or remember the name CLAWBIES to find some of the best resources in Canadian law blogging. Links to some of the best in IR/HR are also provided below.
2010 CLawBies – Canadian Law Blog Awards
LawBlogs.ca: The Canadian Law Blogs List is an open directory with free listings available to any Canadian blogging lawyer, law librarian, marketer, IT professional or paralegal.
Slaw: a cooperative Canadian Weblog on all things legal – “which is widely recognized worldwide as one of the very best law blogs, period.”
The Fodden Award for Best Canadian Law Blog – Michael Geist.
Best Practitioner includes: Human Rights in the Workplace by Donna Seale (an outstanding mix of practical advice and thought-provoking reflections)
Law Librarian Blog Award: Library Technician Dialog
Best New Law Blog Awards runner up: Employment & Human Rights Law in Canada
Law Professor/Law Faculty Blog Award runners up: The Court; Doorey’s Workplace Law Blog
Outsourcing in the Oil Sands
“Within the Canadian energy industry, global trends continue to support the long-term economic potential of unconventional reserves, such as oil sands and shale gas. This potential is stimulating renewed growth in Canadian oil and gas after the economic slowdown. However, unless energy companies are better prepared for the upturn, this growth risks sparking the same issues that confronted the industry in Western Canada (in 2006-2008), including lack of available labor, escalating material and service costs, project delays, and budget overruns.”
“Move select non-core activities away from Fort McMurray; move some activities to Calgary and some activities offshore or to other parts of Canada.” [from the Accenture report cited below]
Accenture, December 12, 2010: Preparing for Growth: Achieving High Performance in the Canadian Energy Industry (44 pages, PDF)
Globe and Mail, December 26, 2010: Oil sands firms look at outsourcing by Nathan Vanderkli
Globe and Mail, December3, 2010: Labour crunch looms in oil sands by Nathan Vanderklippe
Defining the Green Economy
ECO Canada’s latest report “Defining the Green Economy” is the result of a year-long project that included input from national sector councils, a review of green economy publications, and a survey of decision makers representing green organizations across Canada. Future research will look at economic opportunities and the implications for industry as well as focusing on the actual occupations playing the most critical roles in the green economy.
ECO Canada, December 13, 2010: Defining the Green Economy: Labour Market Research Study (70 pages, PDF)
ECO Canada: Environmental Careers Organization website. ECO Canada is a not-for-profit organization that was first established in 1992 under the federal government’s Sector Council initiative.
BlueGreen Alliance: The BlueGreen Alliance is a national, strategic partnership between labor unions and environmental organizations dedicated to expanding the number and quality of jobs in the green economy.
Women in Canada and Gender Wage Gap Narrowed
The 6th edition of Women in Canada: A Gender-based Statistical Report, 2010 – 2011 was released by Statistics Canada on December 16, 2010.
Here is the main page for the publication On the left are the subject areas and access to the tables in the report.
There are two Tables on women in unions:
Chart 5 Percentage of female and male workers unionized, 1976 to 2009
Chart 6 Union density by age group and sex, 2009
You can also access articles by PDF:
Economic Well-being by Cara Williams, December 2010 (34 pages, PDF)
The economic well-being chapter of Women in Canada examines several factors related to well-being of women and compares it to that for men. More specifically, it examines total income and earnings, assets, debts and net worth by family type and age. Information on pension coverage, RRSP contributions, incidence of low income and dual earners is included.
Paid Work by Vincent Ferrao, December 2010 (31 pages, PDF)
The Paid Work chapter of Women in Canada examines the labour market experiences of women and compares it to that of men. In particular, it compares the employment and unemployment trends by age for women and men. It also discusses how part-time work, multiple job holding, unionization, self-employment and the work experiences of mothers have changed over time.
Under Paid Work you can find unionization statistics: Unionization rates higher for women than men
Gender Wage Gap Narrowed
The gender gap in hourly wages narrowed between the late 1980s and the late 2000s. This article analyses the narrowing wage gap according to the changing characteristics of men and women in paid work, the changes in pay received for those characteristics, and the extent to which who works in each period affects the results.
Perspectives on Labour and Income, December 2010: Why has the gender wage gap narrowed? (11 pages, PDF)
CEO pay: Recession-proof
“A new study by CCPA Research Associate Hugh Mackenzie shows Canada's best paid 100 CEOs appear to be recession-proof. The study looks at 2009 compensation levels for Canada’s best paid 100 CEOs and finds they pocketed an average of $6.6 million during the darkest period of the recession – a stark contrast from the total average Canadian income of $42,988.
At this rate of reward, this handful of elite CEOs pockets the equivalent of the average Canadian wage by 2:30 pm on January 3rd – the first working day of the year.”
Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, January 2, 2011: RECESSION-PROOF Canada’s 100 best paid CEOs by Hugh Mackenzie (17 pages, PDF)
Towers Watson Global Talent survey
“The recent financial crisis and subsequent recession have forced organizations out of their “business as usual” mode, both from a strategic perspective and in the way they design and manage their reward and talent management programs.”
Towers Watson, December 2010: Creating a Sustainable Rewards and Talent Management Model: Results of the 2010 Global Talent Management and Rewards Study (28 pages, PDF)
Tatla Diversity Group
“Specializing in workplace diversity and human rights, Tatla Diversity Group is a thought leader in the area of diversity providing organizations with concrete and practical advice, and training and education.”
Corporate Social Responsibility at Loblaw was featured on Tatla blog: Diversity Key Element of Any Successful CSR Plan
Macrowikinomics:Rebooting Business and the World
“Don Tapscott and Anthony D. Williams, are the authors of the newly released bookMacrowikinomics: Rebooting Business and the World. The book is receiving a lot of buzz. Mark Parker, the CEO of Nike, calls it “A masterpiece. An iconic and defining book for our times.” The Economist says it’s “a Schumpeterian story of creative destruction.”
“The book argues that many of the institutions of the industrial age have finally come to the end of their lifecycle, and now being reinvented around a new set of principles and a networked model.
Globe and Mail, November – December 2010: Report on Business: Don Tapscott: The latest opinion pieces from the columnists at The Globe and Mail
How Well are Canadians Preparing for Retirement? and Pension Reform
A recent C.D. Howe Institute study highlights the differing retirement outlooks for Canadians of various age and socio-economic groups, as revealed by LifePaths, a sophisticated simulation tool developed at Statistics Canada.
C.D. Howe Institute, December 2010: Canada’s Looming Retirement Challenge: Will Future Retirees Be Able to Maintain Their Living Standards upon Retirement? By Kevin D. Moore, William Robson and Alexandre Laurin (28 pages, PDF)
Pension Reform
The Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt LLP blog Pensions & Benefits Law is an excellent resource on pension and benefits law in Canada. You can search for articles in your area of interest by clicking on the tags assigned to the articles – for example Pension Reform.
Economic Outlook from the Canadian Chamber of Commerce
“The Canadian economy is chugging along but not at full steam,” says Perrin Beatty, President and CEO of the Canadian Chamber of Commerce. “A number of factors are expected to constrain growth below 2.5 per cent in 2011,”
Canadian Chamber of Commerce, December 27, 2010: 2011-2012 Economic Outlook: Canada’s Economic Engine Is Chugging Along but Not at Full Steam (10 pages, PDF)
Public Sector Debt Statistics
The World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) have launched the online Quarterly Public Sector Debt Database, which offers access to public sector debt statistics for 30 emerging market and developing countries and will be updated every three months.
Online Quarterly Public Sector Debt Database
Press release, December 6, 2010
Book of the Week
Work and Struggle: Voices from U.S. Labor Radicalism, by Paul Le Blanc. New York : Routledge, 2011. 299 p. ISBN 9780415878241
Work and Struggle: Voices from U.S. Labor Radicalism focuses on the history of U.S. labor with an emphasis on radical currents, which have been essential elements in the working-class movement from the mid nineteenth century to the late twentieth century.? Showcasing some of labor's most important leaders, Work and Struggle offers students and instructors a variety of voices to learn from -- each telling their story through their own words -- through writings, memoirs and speeches, transcribed and introduced here by Paul Le Blanc. This collection of revolutionary voices will inspire anyone interested in the history of labor organizing.
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