Perry Work Report for the week of June 14, 2010

June 14, 2010

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Feeling Bullied?

A recent article in the Globe and Mail reviews provincial legislation and statistics from across the provinces on harassment complaints once anti-harassment legislation was put in effect. “If an employer is not willing to enforce the policies and set consequences for harassers, the bad behaviour will continue.” – Calgary-based consultant Valerie Cade, author of Bully Free at Work.  Bulling can be very subtle but so many experience it!  On June 15, 2010, Bill 168, which amends the Ontario Occupational Health and Safety Act to add workplace violence prevention-related provisions, takes effect

Globe and Mail, June 12, 2010: Keeping the bullies and brutes at bay:  Starting next week, Canada’s most comprehensive workplace anti-harassment and anti-violence legislation takes effect in Ontario. It follows several other provinces that have strengthened protections at work. Are such rules effective?

Wall Street Journal, May 26, 2010: For Businesses, Bully Lawsuits May Pose New Threat

What is Workplace Bullying? (YouTube)

What Can I Do About Workplace Bullying? (YouTube)

How Can I Get Them To Listen? (YouTube)

Don't Wait Too Long to Deal With Workplace Bullying! (YouTube)

Bully Free At Work: The Facts on Workplace Bullying (YouTube)

Bully Free at Work: Global TV: Workplace Bullying (YouTube) – this one has workplace answers!)

Bully Free at Work: NW Weekly: Workplace Bullying (YouTube)

 

FAQ’s on Bill 168

On June 15, 2010, Bill 168, which amends the Ontario Occupational Health and Safety Act to add workplace violence prevention-related provisions, will take effect, and Canadian Occupational Safety wants to help you get a head on your compliance efforts with a new series of FAQ’s on Bill 168 and a webinar that discusses the salient points of this new legislation.

Canadian Occupational Health & Safety Magazine, June 7, 2010: Bill 168 FAQ Series: Challenges of complying with Bill 168 (Part 1 of 3) 

Webinar: COS Webinar Series: Bill 168 Preventing Workplace Violence Norm Keith / Cathy Chandler, Gowlings 

Ontario OHS inspectors talk Bill 168: Posted by Ross Arrowsmith on Thursday, June 10th 2010 under Workplace Violence   Ontario’s Ministry of Labour has released a video to help employers understand their responsibilities under Bill 168, Ontario’s new workplace violence and harassment legislation.(YouTube)

 

New Freedom of Association blog

In February 2010 experts in international law, Canadian constitutional and domestic law as well as representatives from labour, business and government were convened at the University of Saskatchewan to discuss the implications of recent court decisions and international developments. The presentations of all 21 speakers were transcribed and, based on the transcriptions, the speakers were asked to review and finalize their comments. Those talks have now been posted online at:

Freedom of Association:  Continuing the dialogue and discussion: a follow-up to the Freedom of Association conference at the University of Saskatchewan in February 2010.

 

Summer Labour Shorts

Wal-Mart Summit 

United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) International Summit:  WALMART: THE FACE OF GLOBAL GREED on Monday June 21, 2010, Best Western Primrose Hotel, Toronto.  The summit brings together internationally acclaimed speakers from academia, social justice activists and unionists to share their insight on the Wal-Mart phenomenon and it actual effect on the lives of the citizens of the world.

China Honda Strike ends 

New York Times, June 13, 2010: With Concessions, Honda Strike Fizzles in China By Keith Bradsher — A strike at a Honda auto parts factory here in southeastern China collapsed on Monday morning, as Honda’s hiring of hundreds of replacement workers on Sunday prompted most of the strikers to return to work.

New York Times, June 14, 2010: New Strike Threats at Honda Parts Plant in China

New York Time:  June 13, 2010: What Do China’s Workers Want? [Room for Debate]

Wall Street Journal Online, June 14,2010: Labor Unrest in China Leads to Rethinking

USW, Vale Canadian Mine Talks resume June 19th and Vale 

“Four days of earnest talks between United Steelworkers (USW) Locals 6500 and 6200 and Brazilian mining company Vale in Canada were adjourned on 7 June, but only because the schedule of mediator Kevin Burkett could not permit a continuance. Fresh hopes, however, to settle the now 11-month strike at nickel and copper mines, a smelter, and production facilities in Sudbury and Port Colborne, Ontario, rest in resumption of talks that will take place 19 June in Toronto.”  [continue reading this article by clicking on the link below]

International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions, June 14, 2010:  Hope Reigns Anew in USW, Vale Canadian Mine Talks

Will the (Vale )Strike Ever End? 
“It's been almost one year since Vale workers went on strike in Sudbury, Port Colbourne and Voisey's Bay NL. Northern Life columnist Stan Sudol will be here to tell us if there is any light at the end of the tunnel.”  TV Ontarios’ Steve Paikin interviews Stan Sudol a columnist with Northern Life, and a blogger for Republic of Mining.  

TVO The Agenda Monday June 14, 2010  (link to video may be available by Wednesday June 16, 2010)

 

CAW and OFL Together again and Laying it on the Line nomination

“The Canadian Auto Workers union has quietly rejoined the Ontario Federation of Labour after a 10-year absence that weakened the province’s labour movement.” [Toronto Star] CAW delegates lost the right to vote in district labor councils, provincial labor federations, and other Canadian Labour Congress bodies in 2000 over raiding charges by the Service Employees International Union (SEIU). In 2001 the CAW was readmitted to the CLC and all provincial federations except the Ontario Federation of Labour (OFL)

Toronto Star, June 11, 2010: CAW rejoins Ontario Federation of Labour

CONTACT  2001  June 10, 2001 Volume 31, No. 21:  CAW-CLC-SEIU Agreement: The CAW reached an agreement with the SEIU recently, that allows for the remaining bargaining units of the eight local unions who originally voted to leave SEIU and join CAW, if they still desire, to have a vote on whether or not they wish to join CAW.

“Globalization is Largely a Fraud”

Buzz Hargrove’s Laying It on the Line: Driving a Hard Bargain in Challenging Times was one of five books nominated for Canada’s 2010 National Business Book Award. The award was established in 1985 to recognize the outstanding talent in Canadian business writing. The $20,000 prize is sponsored by PricewaterhouseCoopers, BMO Financial Group and media partner The Globe and Mail. Jeff Rubin’s Why Your World is About to Get a Whole Lot Smaller: Oil and the End of Globalizationwon the award on June 9, 2010 [from the G&M article sited below]

Globe &Mail, June 9, 2010:  Award-nominated book:  Buzz Hargrove: 'Globalization is largely a fraud' 'The members of the CAW didn’t need a world financial crisis to prove the truth of this idea,' writes the former CAW president in his award-nominated, Laying it on the Line

 

Canadians' Unhealthy Rushed Lifestyle

CBC June 15, 2010: More Canadians pressed for time June 15, 201(article) You can also watch the video here

Canadian Index of Wellbeing called Caught in the Time Crunch: Time Use, Leisure and Culture in Canada (38 pages, PDF)

Globe and Mail, June 15, 2010: Canadians’ leisure time shrinking:  Odd work hours, increased care giving responsibilities are to blame for unhealthy, rushed lifestyles, report says

 

An Open Canada

The Canadian International Council (CIC) is a non-partisan, nationwide foreign policy council established to strengthen Canada's foreign policy. It promotes research and dialogue on international affairs issues through a national network that crosses academic disciplines, policy areas and economic sectors.  The CIC has released the paper Open Canada: A Global Positioning Strategy for a Networked Age.
“The global balance of power is shifting. Old powers are failing; new powers are rising. What Canada decides now will determine our position in the 21st century. We need to be open to ideas, open to investment, and open to the world. “

Canadian International Council, June 2010:  Open Canada: A Global Positioning Strategy for a Networked Age (98 pages, PDF) click on Download Report on right side of the page

Canadian International Council:  link to papers

Globe and Mail, June 10, 2010:  Open Canada to the world’s new ways:  The game has changed. Let’s reposition ourselves at the centre of the action by Edward Greenspon

 

The End of Men

“Earlier this year, women became the majority of the workforce for the first time in U.S. history. Most managers are now women too. And for every two men who get a college degree this year, three women will do the same. For years, women’s progress has been cast as a struggle for equality. But what if equality isn’t the end point? What if modern, postindustrial society is simply better suited to women? A report on the unprecedented role reversal now under way— and its vast cultural consequences, By Hanna Rosin”[from the June/July issue of the Atalntic

Atlantic Magazine, July/August 2010 : The End of Men

Globe and Mail, June 12, 2010: The new heavyweight champions:  Women are out-studying, out-working and out-earning men. And all evidence suggests the shift is permanent by Margaret Wente

 

Diversity Leadership in the GTA

Just 14 per cent of leaders in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) are visible minorities (relative to 49.5 per cent of the population studied), up marginally from last year’s 13.5 per cent, finds a research report which measures diversity in leadership by Ryerson University’s Diversity Institute on behalf of DiverseCity: The Greater Toronto Leadership Project.

Ryerson Diversity Institute, June 10, 2010: DiverseCity Counts: A Snapshot of Diverse Leadership in the Greater Toronto Area (54 pages, PDF)

News brief, June 10, 2010 (2 pages, PDF)

 

Accessibility means economic gain

A study from the Martin Prosperity Centre commissioned by the Government of Ontario looks at the economic impact of increased accessibility on individuals, markets, and social units.  The study finds that there are economic gains in enabling more Canadians to participate, particularly in workplaces and schools.

Martin Prosperity Centre, June 14, 2010: Releasing Constraints: Projecting the Economic Impacts of Increased Accessibility in Ontario (72 pages, PDF)

Martin Prosperity Centre, June 14, 2010: Executive Summary: Releasing Constraints: Projecting the Economic Impacts of Increased Accessibility in Ontario

 

Are Pension Guarantees a Thing of the Past? and possible increase to CPP payments

In May, the Institute for Research on Public Policy (IRPP) held a symposium entitled “Avenues for Reforming the Canadian Retirement Income System”, its highlights which are now published in a released rapporteur report. According to participants of the symposium, absolute pension guarantees are likely a thing of the past. Experts are questioning the viability of employer-sponsored and public pension programs in the face of the recent financial crisis. Research has forecasted that “half of individuals born between 1945 and 1970 who are in the middle 50% of the earnings distribution in their prime working years can expect a decline in their standard of living after retirement of at least 25%”.  The report observes that the danger lies in the lack of opportunity for nongovernment voices to weigh in on the various proposals in the decision-making process.

IRRP, June 7, 2010 (News Release)

Report (36 pages, PDF)

Provinces urged to increase mandatory CPP premiums

Globe and Mail, June 13, 2010:  Flaherty pushes for expanded CPP:  Finance minister wraps up meetings with provincial counterparts Monday but rules out union-supported plan of doubling benefits

PSAC delivers pension petition with 100,000 signatures to Jim Flaherty in Charlottetown

Toronto Star, June 14, 2010: Why higher CPP payments might not fly “Not a road we want to go down”

CBC News, June 2010: Flaherty lays out pension reform plan

Flaherty letter to provincial counterparts (June 10, 2010)

 

Assisting Newcomers through Employment and Support Services

The final results of an evaluation of the New Americans Centre demonstration project in Arkansas and Iowa are presented in a report by the Urban Institute titled Assisting Newcomers through Employment and Support Services: An Evaluation of the New Americans Centers Final Report. The project, funded by the U.S. government through a three-year grant, was developed to promote stability and rapid employment with living wages for individuals or family members who were without work or were in need of new work, speed the transition of new immigrants into their communities, assist employers, and enhance the economic development opportunities of these communities. The report finds that many U.S. states and localities share a considerable interest in assisting immigrants seeking employment and notes that the strength of the New Americans Centers are their flexibility to meet local needs  and respond to changing demands of individuals, families, employers and the community.

Report (128 pages, PDF)

 

Annual Survey of Violation of Trade Union Rights

The ITUC report notes that 2009 was the 60th Anniversary of the ILO Convention 98 on the Right to Organize and Collective Bargaining, which has still not been ratified by countries such as Canada, China, India, Iran, the Republic of Korea, Mexico, Thailand, the United States and Vietnam. Thus, approximately half of the world’s economically active population is not covered by the Convention.
“This year’s ITUC survey shows that the majority of the world’s workers still lack effective protection of their rights to organize trade unions and bargain collectively. This is a major factor in the long-term increase in economic inequality within and between countries. Inadequate incomes for much of the world’s workforce helped cause the global economic crisis, and is making it much harder to put the economy on a path of sustainable growth.” 

International Trade Union Congress (ITUC): Annual Survey of Violation of Trade Union Rights, 2010: Forward with links to countries on left sidebar –click on country in sidebar for report

Annual Survey of Violation of Trade Union Rights: Canada

Press Releases: 101 Trade Unionists Murdered in 2009; Pressure on Workers’ Rights Grows as Crisis Hits Jobs

 

We may be ready for the i-Pad -- but really, is it ready for us?

As many Perry Work Report readers are researchers, students, or academics, as well as thoughtful readers, a recent article titled, “What the iPad Can’t Do,” from the New York Review of Books Blog, finds that the new electronic reading devices lack what most readers/researchers need.
 “sharing or saving (for research) passages and notes from books — that is, books read on the iPad Kindle app or iBooks -- is clumsy. "Not disastrous — but quite disappointing that a device that holds so many advantages for reading fails to take advantage of even established ways to integrate digital content into one's own workflow."

New York Review of Books Blog, Roving thoughts and provocations from our writers June 8, 2010: What the iPad Can’t Do by Sue Halpern

 

Book of the Week

The Unfinished Revolution: How a New Generation is Reshaping Family, Work, and Gender in America, by Kathleen Gerson. Oxford ; New York : Oxford University Press, 2010. 297 p.   ISBN 9780195371673

The Unfinished Revolution: How a New Generation is Reshaping Family, Work, and Gender in America (Oxford University Press, 2010), addresses a new generation’s experiences growing up amid changing families and blurring gender boundaries. The Unfinished Revolution shows how irreversible but incomplete change has created a growing clash between new egalitarian ideals and resistant social institutions. Although young women and men hope to fashion flexible, egalitarian gender strategies, they are falling back on less desirable options that are fostering a new gender divide between “self-reliant” women and “neo-traditional” men. The solution to these 21st century conundrums is to finish the gender revolution by creating more flexible, egalitarian workplaces and more child-supportive communities.

About the Author:

Kathleen Gerson is Professor of Sociology and Collegiate Professor of Arts and Science at New York University. Her work focuses on the connections among gender, work, and family life in post-industrial societies.

 

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