Perry Work Report for the week of January 24, 2013

Perry Work Report, January 24, 2013

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Remedying Discrimination: A symposium on the Ontario Human Rights Review

Osgoode Hall Law School, the York Centre for Human Rights, the York Centre for Public Policy and Law, the Canadian Forum on Civil Justice and the IFLS are proud to support this symposium organized by Osgoode Professor Bruce Ryder and Osgoode McMurtry Visiting Clinical Fellow Fay Faraday.

RSVP www.osgoode.yorku.ca/research/rsvp Event Code RIGHTS     

PDF Poster for printing & Tweeting to:RemedyingDiscrimination
Resources

  • The website of the (now concluded) Ontario Human Rights Review is here.
  • Find the Report of the Ontario Human Rights Review 2012 by Andrew Pinto here.
  • A Workshop was held at Queen’s Law in November 2012, entitled Adjudicating Human Rights in the Workplace:  After Ontario’s Pinto Report, Where Do We Go Next?  Find more information about that workshop, put together by Kevin Banks, Director, Centre for Law in the Contemporary Workplace and Elizabeth Shilton, Senior Fellow, Centre for Law in the Contemporary Workplace here.
  • Jen Quito and Mary Cornish, Looking Forward: Some Considerations Post Pinto Report on Building a Culture of Human Rights Compliance, here.

Friday, January 25, 2013  Room 1014, Osgoode Hall Law School, York University
PROGRAM Links to papers will be added as papers come in.

Remedying Discrimination: A symposium on the Ontario Human Rights Review, January 25, 2012

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Stats Canada is Blogging

“Today, Statistics Canada enters the world of blogging. The goal of the StatCan Blog is to pull back the curtain to explain some of the agency’s inner workings and to show the links between quality statistics and the lives of Canadians”
“The blog is the latest step in engaging Canadians by using social media, supplementing the agency’s presence on Twitter and YouTube. These social media initiatives reflect the increasingly digital milieu in which Statistics Canada operates. This reality also alters the way that Statistics Canada collects, shakes and stirs data. Door knocks, phone calls and traditional data processing are being replaced with e‑questionnaires, data mining and apps.”

Statistics Canada, January 24, 2013: Charting progress...

   Subscribe to the blog!

 

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Term Ending for Parliamentary Budget Officer Kevin Page

“Replacing Kevin Page is shaping up to be a big headache for Ottawa, as Conservative hopes for a quieter Parliamentary Budget Officer will run up against the fact that few experienced people are expected to want the job.” [Globe and Mail]

“As the first person to hold the position of PBO, the 55-year-old Page has taken his mandate to provide MPs with an independent look at the federal government’s budgets and spending very seriously. His unvarnished reports have put him in conflict with Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s government over deficit projections, F-35 fighter jet costs, the need to change Old Age Security and prison price tags.

The government seems in no hurry to find a replacement, which has raised concerns about whether anyone will be in a position to provide an objective rundown on Ottawa’s most important financial event of the year — the budget in March.” [Toronto Star]

The Globe and Mail, January 23, 2013: “Ottawa may struggle to replace Kevin Page, its outgoing Parliamentary Budget Officer,” by Bill Curry

Toronto Star, January 22, 2013: “Questions raised about future role of Parliamentary Budget Officer after Kevin Page leaves,” by Les Whittington

Huffington Post, January 21, 2013: “Kevin Page Term Coming To An End, PBO Faces Moment Of Truth,” by Julian Beltrame

Huffington Post, January 17, 2013: “Kevin Page, Huffington Post Canada's News Story Of 2012,” by Althia Raj

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Ontario Government Repeals Bill 115

“The Ontario government repealed Bill 115 today, removing from the books controversial legislation that allowed the province to impose labour contracts on public school teachers earlier this month.”

The bill, which limits teachers’ ability to strike, has come to symbolize the bitter dispute between a Liberal government trying to curtail costs and teachers who say their right to collective bargaining has been removed.

Public elementary school teachers staged rotating, one-day strikes across the province in December.

On Dec. 31, Bill 115 came into effect. Days later, Education Minister Laurel Broten used the legislation to impose two-year contracts on teachers while also vowing to repeal the legislation once those contracts were in place.” [CBC News]

CBC News, January 23, 2013: “Ontario repeals controversial Bill 115.”

Toronto Star, January 23, 2013: “Ontario teacher protest: Liberals repeal Bill 115,” by Kristin Rushowy

Toronto Star, January 21, 2013: “Bill 115: Ontario government repealing despised teacher anti-strike law but critics say problems remain,” by Kristin Rushowy

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Leadership, Feminism and Equality in Unions in Canada

“This project on Leadership, Feminism and Equality in Unions in Canada explores the current climate and attitudes to women, feminism, leadership and equality in Canadian unions through the insights, voices and experiences of women union leaders, activists and staff in Canadian unions.

Undoubtedly unions in Canada have played a significant role in promoting women’s equality. And many share the optimistic belief that organized labour can continue to play a critical part in challenging women’s inequality. Yet evidence suggests that equality issues have still not moved into the mainstream of union culture. Some even point to a backlash, suggested by the decline in women’s participation in leadership, fewer resources for equality organizing, and in some cases, outright attacks on advocates. These are disturbing trends.” [York University]

The first stage of the project identified 6 themes: What Are We Finding?

The Union Equity Audit offers a tool to explore the changing patterns on women's equality issues and leadership inside unions. You can fill out and submit it on line: Union Equity Audit

York University: Leadership, Feminism and Equality in Unions in Canada, by Linda Briskin, Sue Genge, Marg McPhail and Marion Pollack

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Deloitte’s Millennial Innovation Survey

“Deloitte has commissioned The Millennial Survey to consider the views of this next generation on business and innovation and the impact both have on society. No one can doubt the importance of innovation in the business world today and its role as a powerful force for change and growth.” [Deloitte]

“The findings endorse the importance of leadership and innovation and the impact business can have on society. This creates opportunities for business leaders – both individually and collectively – and for the long-term success of their businesses. Today's leaders need to think very differently about their role and the expectations of business, if we are to capitalize on the opportunities being shaped by the Millennial generation.” [Deloitte]

Deloitte, January 2013: Millennial Innovation Survey (31 pages, PDF)

Deloitte, January 2013: Press Release

Deloitte, January 2013: Survey Infographic

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Are Passwords Passé?

“Passwords are a cheap and easy way to authenticate web surfers, but they’re not secure enough for today’s internet, and they never will be.

Google agrees. “Along with many in the industry, we feel passwords and simple bearer tokens such as cookies are no longer sufficient to keep users safe,” Grosse and Upadhyay write in their paper.

Thus, they’re experimenting with new ways to replace the password, including a tiny Yubico cryptographic card that — when slid into a USB (Universal Serial Bus) reader — can automatically log a web surfer into Google. They’ve had to modify Google’s web browser to work with these cards, but there’s no software download and once the browser support is there, they’re easy to use. You log into the website, plug in the USB stick and then register it with a single mouse click.” [Wired]

Toronto Star, January 22, 2013: “Google launches pilot project to get rid of passwords,” by Lesley Ciarula Taylor

Wired, January 18, 2013: “Google Declared War on the Password,” by Robert McMillan

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Surprise! Canadian Manufacturing Survives

“Dutch Disease never amounted to much in the Netherlands, and Canada’s petro-infused dollar has likewise had a transitory impact on factories here, says a new study by the Macdonald-Laurier Institute.

With few exceptions, Canadian manufacturers adjusted to the high dollar in the mid-2000s and are now poised to help lead the economy as the U.S. housing and auto sectors rebound, author Philip Cross concludes in Dutch Disease, Canadian Cure" [The Globe and Mail]

MacDonald-Laurier Institute, January 2013: Dutch Disease, Canadian Cure: How Manufacturers Adapted to the Higher Dollar by Philip Cross (16 pages, PDF)

The Globe and Mail, January 16, 2013: “High dollar’s impact fleeting for most Canadian factories, report says,” by Barrie McKenna

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US Manufacturing: A “Renaissance” and Other Developments

“The U.S. manufacturing renaissance is real. But is it real enough to make a big difference to the country’s economic recovery? Probably not.” [The Globe and Mail]

“The factory renaissance faces barriers beyond sluggish economic growth. A recurring concern raised by Mr. Kleinfeld and his fellow panelists was a shortage of qualified workers. Greg Fischer, the mayor of Louisville, Ky., said 12,000 people applied for 1,000 jobs at a new General Electric plant in his municipality. Only about a quarter of the applicants had the skills for the jobs on offer, said Mr. Fischer, who has put an emphasis on training programs geared to employers’ needs.” [The Globe and Mail]

“One key difference between the U.S. economy today and that of 15 or 20 years ago is the labor environment—not just wages in factories, but the degree of flexibility displayed by unions and workers. Many observers would say these changes reflect a loss of power and leverage by workers, and they would be right. But management, more keenly aware of offshoring’s perils, is also trying to create a different (and better) factory environment. Hourly employees increasingly participate in workplace decision making in ways that are more like what you find in white-collar technology companies.” [Atlantic Magazine]

The Congressional Research Service report on Offshoring found that “No comprehensive data exist on the number of production and services workers who have lost their jobs as a result of the movement of work outside U.S. borders. The only regularly collected statistics on jobs lost to the out-of-country relocation of work come from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ (BLS) series on extended mass layoffs.”

The Globe and Mail, January 16, 2013: “U.S. manufacturing renaissance picks up speed,” by Kevin Carmichael

Atlantic Magazine, December 12, 2012: “The Insourcing Boom,” by Charles Fishman

Congressional Research Service, December 17, 2012:  Offshoring (or Offshore Outsourcing) and Job Loss Among U.S. Workers by Linda Levine, Specialist in Labor Economics (9 pages, PDF)

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“A Jobless Recovery? It’s no recovery at all”

“In 2003-4 and again over the last three years, this combination is often passed off as a curiosity: a “jobless recovery” in which the economy gets better but the labor market doesn’t. But that’s not really what’s happening. Job growth is slow because the recovery is slow. From the 1940s through the 1980, recoveries were relatively short and robust—usually adding about 10 percent to GDP in the first two years after the trough of the business cycle. In the 1991-3 recovery, GDP grew only 6 percent. In 2001-3, GDP grew only 5.9 percent. In the first two years of our current recovery (through July 2011), GDP grew only 4.4 percent. That’s not a jobless recovery. It’s no recovery at all.” [Dissent]

Dissent: a quarterly of politics and culture, January 17, 2013: “A Jobless Recovery?” by Colin Gordon

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From Oxfam: Extreme Wealth, Extreme Inequality and the Power of Gender Just Organizations

The richest one per cent has increased its income by 60 per cent in the last 20 years with the financial crisis accelerating rather than slowing the process. Oxfam warned that extreme wealth and income is not only unethical it is also economically inefficient, politically corrosive, socially divisive and environmentally destructive.” [Oxfam Press Release]

Oxfam, January 19, 2013: The cost of inequality: how wealth and income extremes hurt us all (5 pages, PDF)

“Since 2009, Oxfam Canada has been working with partners to adapt, innovate, and strengthen its model of organizational capacity building to advance women’s rights and gender equality. Synthesizing the important and sometimes surprising lessons learned since then, Oxfam Canada is pleased to publish The Power of Gender-Just Organizations.”

 
   Publication Date:  November 5, 2012, Oxfam Canada
 

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Global Survey of Chief Executives Released at Davos

“A flat-lining economy, the government's austerity programme, red tape and a lack of skilled workers have made Britain's business leaders less optimistic about the future than their counterparts abroad, according to a global survey of chief executives released in Davos on Tuesday.

The annual snapshot of the mood of boardrooms to mark the start of the annual World Economic Forum, held in the Swiss alpine town, found that only 22% of the people running UK companies were very confident about growth prospects over the next 12 months.

The survey by the consulting firm PWC showed that 36% of the chief executives sampled globally were upbeat about 2013, with the most upbeat being in the leading emerging-market countries.” [The Guardian]

The Guardian, January 22, 2013: "Davos 2013: British CEOs among world's most downbeat, says survey," by Larry Elliott

The Globe and Mail, January 23, 2013: "Davos bosses hunt for $5-trillion new revenue in low-growth world," by Ben Hirschler

World Economic Forum website

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ILO’s Global Employment Trends 2013

The International Labour Organization has released its annual Global Employment Trends report for 2013. It finds “Global unemployment rising again but with significant differences across regions. Five years after the outbreak of the global financial crisis, labour markets remain deeply depressed. Unemployment has started to rise again as the economic outlook worsens.”

ILO, January 2013: Global Employment Trends 2013 (239 pages, PDF)

ILO, January 2013: Executive Summary (9 pages, PDF)

ILO January 2013: Press Release

The Globe and Mail, January 22, 2013: "World jobs growth slowing, youths suffering the most: report," by Tavia Grant

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Naming and Shaming Awards: Goldman Sachs and Shell win

"Goldman Sachs receives the jury award and also has a large share of the public vote. This US banking firm is a key player in financially driven globalisation. It profits from exploding inequality and the impoverishment of broad social strata. Be it mortgage crash, banking crash or euro crash,Goldman Sachs rakes in significant earnings in almost every larger crisis. The managers of Goldman Sachs are masters of the revolving door: they secure future business for the bank via changes in political and public offices. This bank is one of the main financial players responsible for the crisis involving Greece and the euro.

The online voters have given Shell something to think about by handing this Dutch-British corporation the public's naming and shaming award. Shell is always involved in particularly controversial, risky and dirty oil production projects. Thus, under the leadership of Switzerland's Peter Voser, this corporation is also taking a particularly aggressive approach to the highly risky search for fossil fuels in the fragile Arctic."

The Public Eye Awards : All the speeches from our press conference in Davos can be found online on our website here. If you want to read our liveticker from the press conference, please have a look at this site.

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Book of the Week

Negotiating Risk, Seeking Security, Eroding Solidarity: Life and Work on the Border, by Holly Gibbs, Belinda Leach and Charlotte A.B. Yates. Halifax, N.S. : Fernwood, 2012. 147 p. ISBN 9781552665275

UTLibraries link to catalogue record: http://go.utlib.ca/cat/8702283

Through a series of interviews with workers in the automotivepartsindustry, this study argues that the restructuring of labormarkets and welfare states, paired with firm-level work and managementreorganization, has exposed working-class families to greater levels of job risk and insecurity. Focusing on workers inCanada and Mexico and using a gender and race analysis, this bookpaints ableak portrait of the lives of working people, whereworkers and their families continually renegotiate the effects ofneo-liberaleconomic and social change. These changes see individuals workin gharder, longer and travelling further from home to keep their jobs,while straining familial and community relationsand eroding the basis for worker solidarity and collective action.

Visit the Recent Books at the CIRHR Library blog.

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Questions or comments: cirhr.library@utoronto.ca

Editor: Vicki Skelton and Melody Tacit
Designer: Nick Strupat

Copyright © 2010 Centre for Industrial Relations and Human Resources, University of Toronto. All rights reserved.

 

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