Perry Work Report, June 27, 2013
Have a great summer! The PWR will return in September 2013
Keep following us on our blog: work&labour news&research
Thanks to the generous support of Jeffrey Sack, and his colleagues at Lancaster House in Canada, and of Steven Willborn the International Society for Labour and Social Security Law has launched its new website.
Harpers Magazine, June 22, 2013: "On Bad Mayors and Good Cities: The real problem with Toronto mayor Rob Ford isn't that he's a venal, possibly crack-smoking bully; it's that he's not the kind of venal, possibly crack-smoking bully who makes his city better," by Mark Kingwell
(Kingwell is a Canadian professor of philosophy and associate chair at the University of Toronto's Department of Philosophy. He specialises in theories of politics and culture.)
- 2013 Bora Laskin Award Recipients
- Statistics Canada Releases "Portrait of Canada's Labour Force"
- Labatt Brewery Strike Escalates as Union Launches Boycott
- A New Spin: Information Services Staff has Grown 15% Under Harper
- The Cost of Ontario's Skills Gap
- C-Suite Survey: Cyber-Security and Income Inequality
- Income Inequality, Equality of Opportunity, and Intergenerational Mobility
- Income Inequality: New Report and Links to Resources
- Hard Times: College Majors, Unemployment, and Earnings
- Survey: College Students' Mental Health a Growing Concern
- Unpaid interns of the world! Get up and leave the office. You have nothing to lose. Literally.
- Half of First Nations Children Live in Poverty
- Pragmatic Pathways: New Approaches to Organizational Change
- Austerity Has Failed but it is not too Late to Change the Course
- Call for Nominations! 2014 Public Eye Awards
- Book of the Week
2013 Bora Laskin Award Recipients
“Bernard Adell and Donald Carter have been chosen by the Selection Committee as the 2013 recipients of the Bora Laskin Award. This award, named in honour of the late Chief Justice Bora Laskin, has been established by the University of Toronto to honour those who have made outstanding contributions to Canadian labour law.”
Lancaster House, June 19, 2013: “Bora Laskin Award”
Statistics Canada Releases "Portrait of Canada's Labour Force"
Portrait of Canada's Labour Force
This National Household Survey analytical document presents key findings emerging from the analysis of data on Canada's labour force in 2011. The analysis focuses on various levels of geography, including Canada, the provinces and territories.
Statistics Canada, July 26, 2013: Portrait of Canada's Labour Force (PDF or html available)
Education in Canada: Attainment, Field of Study and Location of Study
This National Household Survey analytical document presents key results from the analysis of data on education in Canada in 2011. The analysis focuses on the highest certificate, diploma or degree, the field of study and the location of study for the population aged 25 to 64 years for various levels of geography, including Canada, the provinces and territories, and the census metropolitan areas (CMAs).
Statistics Canada, July 26, 2013: Education in Canada: Attainment, Field of Study and Location of Study (PDF or html available)
Census Concerns
"Smith admitted that the voluntary survey has had some problems: About half of Saskatchewan communities were left out of the first batch of data due to low response rates, while Canada's Filipino population appears to have been over-counted."
Huffington Post, June 25, 2013: "Wayne Smith, StatsCan Chief: Harper's Census Changes A 'Success' Despite Failures"
Labatt Brewery Strike Escalates as Union Launches Boycott
“A union representing workers at a Labatt brewery in St. John’s has launched a boycott campaign, asking the public to refrain from buying a large number of brands manufactured at the site. About fifty employees (NAPE Local 7004) have been on a legal strike since April, following a brief wildcat strike that was prompted by the company’s request for the unionized workers to train their replacements. The request was made days before the expiration date of the workers’ collective agreement.”
Rabble.ca, June 19, 2013: “Labatt brewery strike escalates as union launches boycott,” by Cory Collins
“The boycott outside of Newfoundland only targets Labatt’s imported products in order to prevent the brewing company’s other unionized employees in Canada from experiencing any loss of work. The following products are those to avoid: Stella Artois, Stella Artois Light, Beck’s, Brahma, Hoegaarden, Leffe, Staropromen, Boddingtons, Bass, Lowenbrau, and Ozujsko Pivo.”
“In Newfoundland, people are being urged to boycott, in addition to those listed above: Budweiser, Bud Light, Labatt Blue, Labatt Lite, Blue Star, Alexander Keith’s, Labatt Maximum Ice, Jockey Club, Michelob and Kokanee.”
National Union of Public and General Employees, June 20, 2013: “NUPGE delegates unanimously support striking NAPE members: vow to boycott Labatt imports”
More information:
LabourStart campaign
Labatt’s position is a cold one: Billions in profit, cuts for workers
A New Spin: Information Services Staff has Grown 15% Under Harper
“The federal government [now] employs nearly 4,000 communications staff in the public service, an increase of 15.3 per cent since the Conservatives came to power in 2006...”
“Calvin Sandborn, the legal director of the Environmental Law Centre at the University of Victoria, has a more jaundiced view [of this news]. His group helped document repeated cases of scientists being muzzled by government communications rules and staff, a report that convinced the federal information commissioner to take a deeper look.”
“‘We’re laying off people that are producing scientific information and increasing the number of people that are being used to spin it,’ Sandborn said when told of the rising numbers of ‘information services’ staff.”
“That doesn’t seem to be a very good democracy trend line, to me.”
CBC News, June 23, 2013: “Information services staff has grown 15% under Harper”
MacLean’s, May 3, 2013: “When science goes silent,” by Jonathan Gatehouse
Democracy Watch & Law Clinic of the University of Victoria, January 2013: A report on the lack of freedom of federal government scientists to speak with the public and journalists (126 pages, PDF)
And although information services staff numbers have grown, “nearly 300 positions at Veterans Affairs Canada are being eliminated as a result of measures in the 2012 federal budget. The Public Service Alliance of Canada, the union representing the federal workers, was served with a letter June 17 notifying it that 297 positions are ‘affected’ by the reorganization. Of those 224 jobs will actually be cut, as opposed to being reallocated.”
The Ottawa Citizen, June 21, 2013: “Veterans Affairs cuts 300 positions”
Carol Linnitt on Harper's Attack on Science:
“Science -- and the culture of evidence and inquiry it supports -- has a long relationship with democracy. Widely available facts have long served as a check on political power. Attacks on science, and on the ability of scientists to communicate freely, are ultimately attacks on democratic governance.”
“It’s no secret the Harper government has a problem with science. In fact, Canada’s scientists are so frustrated with this government’s recent overhaul of scientific communications policies and cuts to research programs they took to the streets, marching on Parliament Hill last summer to decry the ‘Death of Evidence.’ Their concerns -- expressed on their protest banners -- followed a precise logic: ‘no science, no evidence, no truth, no democracy.’”
Academic Matters, May 30, 2013: “Harper’s attack on science: No science, no evidence, no truth, no democracy,” by Carol Linnitt
CAUT: Get Science R!ght: "Federal government policy and funding decisions are threatening Canada's future in science and research."
The Cost of Ontario's Skills Gap
“The gap between companies’ hiring needs and workers’ skills is costing Ontario more than $24-billion in lost economic activity and is robbing the province of $3.7-billion annually in potential tax revenue, according to a new study by the Conference Board of Canada.”
“The review concludes that there has been a long, slow decline in employment for less-educated workers while employers are reporting growing difficulties filling certain key jobs, and argues that the gap is costing the province billions in forgone economic growth.”
The Globe and Mail, June 21, 2013: “Ontario’s worker skills mismatch tabbed with $24-billion price tag,” by Janet MacFarland
The Conference Board of Canada, June 2013: “The Need to Make Skills Work: The Cost of Ontario’s Skills Gap”
Accenture, April 10, 2013: “Solving Canada’s Skills Gap Challenges: What Businesses Can Do Now,” by Janet Krstevski (12 pages, PDF)
C-Suite Survey: Cyber-Security and Income Inequality
“The latest C-Suite survey of business leaders shows that cyber-security is not a serious worry for a majority of those sitting in the nation’s corner offices... Only 40 per cent say they are very or somewhat concerned about cyber-security threats to their companies.”
The Globe and Mail, June 24, 2013: “Dealing with cyber threats: Is corporate Canada ready?,” by Richard Blackwell
The Globe and Mail, June 24, 2013: KPMG Analysis: “Viewing cyber security as a ‘whole business’ issue,” by Kevvie Fowler
The Globe and Mail, June 24, 2013: Analysis: “An alignment of sorts with forecasts in sync from West to East,” by David Herle and Alex Swann
The Globe and Mail, June 24, 2013: Infograph: “Highlight’s from the Q2 2013 C-Suite survey”
From the Gandalf Group: “The C-Suite Survey, conducted quarterly by the Gandalf Group, seeks the opinions of chief executive, chief financial and chief operating officers in Canada’s largest companies. The survey focuses on pertinent business issues and opinions. It is intended to inform and shape public policy and to facilitate a dialogue among business leaders.”
The Gandalf Group, June 2013: “The 31st Quarterly C-Suite Survey: Cyber-Security and Income Inequality” (36 pages, PDF)
Income Inequality, Equality of Opportunity, and Intergenerational Mobility
“The summer issue of the Journal of Economic Perspectives will feature a collection of articles on inequality and the top 1%, some of which are now being circulated by the authors. The paper by Tony Atkinson and his coauthors, “The top 1 percent in international and historical perspective,” is available in this post... [and] Greg Mankiw has also posted a copy of his paper, “Defending the One Percent“, on his blog. My contribution to the collection is based on the notion that the inequality literature has paid little attention to the intergenerational consequences of increasing top income shares...” [Miles Corak]
From the conclusion: “While the imagined prospect of upward mobility for those in the lower part of the income distribution shares little in common with the generational dynamics of the top one percent, the latter may well continue to be an important touchstone for those in, say, the top fifth of the US income distribution... For them the ‘American Dream’ lives on, and as a result they are likely not predisposed, with their considerable political and cultural influence, to support the recasting of American public policy to meet its most pressing need, the upward mobility of those at the bottom.”
Economics for Public Policy blog, June 18, 2013: "Income Inequality, Equality of Opportunity, and Intergenerational Mobility," by Miles Corak
Journal of Economic Perspectives, June 18, 2013: “Income Inequality, Equality of Opportunity, and Intergenerational Mobility,” by Miles Corak (28 pages, PDF) [All issues of the Journal of Economic Perspectives (1987 - present) are now publicly accessible online at no charge, compliments of the American Economic Association.]
Income Inequality: New Reports and Links to Resources
“Poverty and inequality around the world have evolved in disparate ways over the last two decades. The number of people living below the poverty line has been cut in half, primarily due to robust growth in the emerging economies. Meanwhile, poverty is on the rise in both Europe and the United States, especially among children. While inequality across countries is on the decline, inequality within countries has grown in both the developed and the developing world, with the notable exception of Latin America. In developed countries, deindustrialization, lower levels of unionization, declining wage shares of national income and the financialization of the economy are largely responsible for the increase in inequality. In developing and emerging economies, unbalanced growth between the cities and the countryside, and within urban and rural areas, is mainly behind the trend. As a result, a rising global middle class of consumers, centered in China and India, is developing, although in most countries the uppermost segment of the income distribution is also growing relative to the rest.”
Joseph H. Lauder Institute of Management & International Studies, 2013: “Poverty & Inequality: Persistent Challenges and New Solutions” (30 pages, PDF)
New York Times, Times Topics: Income Inequality
Check out the Income Inequality Chronology, and the Income Inequality Navigator: a list of resources from around the Web about income inequality as selected by Journalist’s Resource, a project of the Shorenstein Center at Harvard.
The New York Times: News about Income Inequality, including commentary and archival articles published in The New York Times.
Also, follow The Great Divide “a series on inequality -- the haves, the have-nots and everyone in between -- in the United States and around the world, and its implications for economics, politics, society and culture”
Hard Times: College Majors, Unemployment, and Earnings
“In the past, a college degree all but assured job seekers employment and high earnings, but today, what you make depends on what you take. In Hard Times 2013, we show differences in unemployment and earnings based on major for BA and graduate degree holders. We show that STEM -- Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics -- majors typically offer the best opportunities for employment and earnings, while unemployment is higher for graduates with non-technical degrees.”
“Here are some of our major findings:
1. Even as the housing bubble seems to be dissipating, unemployment rates for recent architecture graduates have remained high (12.8%). Graduate degrees and work experience did not shield these graduates from a sector-specific shock; graduates with experience in the field have the same jobless rates as the economy overall (9.3%).
2. Unemployment is generally higher for non-technical majors, such as the arts (9.8%) or law and public policy (9.2%).
3. People who make technology are still better off than people who use technology. Unemployment rates for recent graduates in information systems, concentrated in clerical functions, is high (14.7%) compared with mathematics (5.9%) and computer science (8.7%).
4. Unemployment rates are relatively low for recent graduates in education (5.0%), engineering (7.0%), health and the sciences (4.8%) because they are tied to stable or growing industry sectors and occupations.
5. Graduates in psychology and social work also have relatively low rates (8.8%) because almost half of them work in healthcare or education sectors.”
Center on Education and the Workforce (Georgetown University), May 31, 2013: “Hard Times: College Majors, Unemployment, and Earnings” (17 pages, PDF)
Survey: College Students' Mental Health a Growing Concern
“Ninety-five percent of college counseling center directors surveyed said the number of students with significant psychological problems is a growing concern in their center or on campus, according to the latest Association for University and College Counseling Center Directors survey of counseling center directors. Seventy percent of directors believe that the number of students with severe psychological problems on their campus has increased in the past year.”
American Psychological Association, June 2013: “College students’ mental health is a growing concern, survey finds” (191 pages, PDF)
American College Health Association, June 2013: Executive Summary: ACHA-National College Health Assessment II, Canadian Reference Group (19 pages, PDF)
Canadian Association of College and University Student Services & Canadian Mental Health Association, June 2013: “Post-Secondary Student Mental Health: Guide to a Systemic Approach” (36 pages, PDF)
National Alliance on Mental Illness, 2012: “College Students Speak: A Survey Report on Mental Health” (24 pages, PDF)
Resources:
Canadian Mental Health Association
Healthy Campuses: a Canadian mental health and substance abuse resource for university students
ULifeline: a website providing mental health resources for college students
Unpaid interns of the world! Get up and leave the office. You have nothing to lose. Literally.
“The common defense of the unpaid internship is that, even if the role doesn’t exactly pay, it will pay off eventually in the form of a job. Turns out, the data suggests that defense is wrong, at least when it comes to college students.”
“For three years, the National Association of Colleges and Employers has asked graduating seniors if they’ve received a job offer and if they’ve ever had either a paid or unpaid internship. And for three years, it’s reached the same conclusion: Unpaid internships don’t seem to give college kids much of a leg up when it comes time to look for employment.”
“In the end, thanks to a spate of lawsuits and a landmark court ruling last week, it’s possible that unpaid internships are headed for the dustbin of labor history. That might not be much of a loss.”
The Atlantic, June 19, 2013: “Do Unpaid Internships Lead to Jobs? Not for College Students,” by Jordan Weissmann.
And if you’re looking for a summer stint, you might want to avoid Bell, as “[t]wo former interns have filed complaints with government against Bell Mobility, alleging the telecom giant broke labour laws by not paying them for work they did for the company.”
CBC News, June 24, 2013: “Bell accused of breaking labour law with unpaid interns”
The Globe and Mail, June 24, 2013: “Waitressing is better than any unpaid internship,” by Simona Chiose
The Globe and Mail, June 14, 2013: “New Yorker, W magazines named in intern suits as tide turns on unpaid labour,” by Sam Hananel Washington
The New York Times, February 12, 2013: Debate: “Do Unpaid Internships Exploit College Students?”
National Association of Colleges and Employers, May 29, 2013: “Class of 2013: Paid Interns Outpace Unpaid Peers in Job Offers, Salaries"
Watch this mini-documentary, attempting to expose the unglamorous world of unpaid internships in Canada: Please Don’t Feed the Interns. Also, read an interview with Jackie Whiting, a co-producer of the film, here.
Half of First Nations Children Live in Poverty
“Half of status First Nations children in Canada live in poverty, a troubling figure that jumps to nearly two-thirds in Saskatchewan and Manitoba, says a newly released report.”
“The poverty rate is staggering. A 50 per cent poverty rate is unlike any other poverty rate for any other disadvantaged group in the country, by a long shot the worst,” said David Macdonald, a senior economist at the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives and co-author of the report.”
“The study released late Tuesday by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives and Save the Children Canada found that the poverty rate of status First Nations children living on reserves was triple that of non-indigenous children.”
CBC News, June 19, 2013: “Half of First Nations children live in poverty: Rate rises above 60% in Saskatchewan, Manitoba”
CCPA, June 19, 2013: “Poverty or Prosperity Indigenous Children in Canada,” by David Macdonald and Dan Wilson (43 pages, PDF)
No Child Born Without a Chance
Pragmatic Pathways: New Approaches to Organizational Change
“This paper seeks to show how organizations can achieve large-scale transformations in a series of smaller, pragmatic steps. Through new technologies, practices, and other parties in their business ecosystem, organizations can make success more likely by decreasing initial investments and increasing their initiatives’ velocity... We call this new change methodology ‘Pragmatic Pathways,’ and have defined three separate approaches that can be deployed depending on circumstances and organizational cultures:
- Metrics that matter is a pathway to focus deployment of a disruptive tool or practice in order to trigger cascades of adoption and rapid performance improvement.
- Scaling edges is a pathway to transform the core of the business by focusing on low-investment, high-growth-potential opportunities ‘edges’ -- with fundamentally different business practices.
- Shaping strategies is a pathway to restructure markets and industries using platforms to bring people together and mobilize large ecosystems with positive incentives by creating a compelling view of the future.”
Deloitte University Press, March 4, 2013: “Pragmatic Pathways: New approaches to organizational change,” by John Hagel III, John Seely Brown, Christopher Gong, Stacey Wang, and Travis Lehman (26 pages, PDF)
Austerity Has Failed but it is not too Late to Change the Course
“Austerity has failed. It turned a nascent recovery into stagnation. That imposes huge and unnecessary costs, not just in the short run, but also in the long term: the costs of investments unmade, of businesses not started, of skills atrophied, and of hopes destroyed.”
“The right approach to a crisis of this kind is to use everything: policies that strengthen the banking system; policies that increase private sector incentives to invest; expansionary monetary policies; and, last but not least, the government’s capacity to borrow and spend.”
“Failing to do this, in the UK, or failing to make this possible, in the eurozone, has helped cause a lamentably weak recovery that is very likely to leave long-lasting scars. It was a huge mistake. It is not too late to change course.”
The New York Review of Books, July 11, 2013: ”How Austerity has failed,” by Martin Wolfe
Call for Nominations! 2014 Public Eye Awards
From the Public Eye Awards' website:
"The Public Eye Awards mark a critical counterpoint to the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos. Organized since 2000 by Berne Declaration and Friends of the Earth (in 2009 replaced by Greenpeace), Public Eye reminds the corporate world that social and environmental misdeeds have consequences - for the affected people and territory, but also for the reputation of the offender."
"Whether exploitative working conditions, environmental sins, intentional disinformation, or other disregards of corporate social responsibility: At the forefront of the World Economic Forum (WEF) the most evil offenses appear on the shortlist of the Public Eye Awards. And those firms placed in the pillory will feel the heat: Our renowned naming&shaming awards shine an international spotlight on corporate scandals and thereby help focused NGO campaigns succeed."
The deadline is August, 15, 2013. Nominee submission information can be found here.
Also, check out their Hall of Shame, and the 2013 "winners".
Book of the Week
Brave Girl: Clara and the Shirtwaist Makers' Strike of 1909, written by Michelle Markel ; pictures by Melissa Sweet. New York : Balzer + Bray, 2013. 32 p. ISBN 9780061804427
When Clara Lemlich arrived in America, she couldn't speak English. She didn't know that young women had to go to work, that they traded an education for long hours of labor, that she was expected to grow up fast. But that did not stop Clara. She went to night school, spent hours studying English, and helped support her family by sewing in a factory. Clara never quit. And she never accepted that girls should be treated poorly and paid little. So Clara fought back. Fed up with the mistreatment of her fellow laborers, Clara led the largest walkout of women workers in the country's history. Clara had learned a lot from her short time in America. She learned that everyone deserved a fair chance. That you had to stand together and fight for what you wanted. And, most importantly, that you could do anything you put your mind to.
Click here to browse inside Brave Girl.
About the Author:
Michelle's stories and opinion pieces were published in The Wall St. Journal, The Los Angeles Times, and other newspapers and magazines. When her daughters were young, she started writing for children. Michelle's books span a variety of genres: fiction, nonfiction (alphabet and biography), and creative nonfiction. Today Michelle and her husband, an anthropologist, live in West Hills, California with their two sweet cats. Michelle is a founding member of The Children's Authors Network and teaches classes in writing for young people for UCLA Extension's Writer's Program.
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