Perry Work Report for the week of May 30, 2011

May 30, 2011

Injured Workers Day - June 1, 2011 and Injured Workers’ History Project

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​What Canada can learn from the Voisey Bay Labour Dispute

Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives’ senior economist, Armine Yalnizyan, provides a succinct analysis of what the Roil report—the final report of Newfoundland and Labrador’s Industrial Inquiry Commission on its recent labour dispute—can teach Canada’s policy-makers about doing business with large, foreign multinational companies. The Roil Report, argues Yalnizyan, shows Canadian policy-makers and workers that we have a choice when negotiating business arrangements with multinational corporations and points to the Report’s “jewel”, a submission by Professor Gregor Murray discussing the options “when…dealing with huge multinationals.” Most importantly Yalnizyan reminds us that “These companies are our guests” and that Canadians should ask “What do we want out of the bargain?”

Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, May 20, 2011: “21st Century Globalization: What Newfoundland and Labrador Can Teach the Rest of Canada”, By Armine Yalnizyan, -- a longer version of the analysis found in the Globe and Mail.

Globe and Mail, May 20, 2011: “Newfoundland has a lesson for Canada on globalization”, By Armine Yalnizyan

 

“The Vale strike was an especially painful lesson in how global corporations can use their diversity and geographic reach to undermine the wages and conditions of workers in any particular country. It’s not just the workers who suffer, but entire communities lose their ability to get fair value from the resources which they own. Faced with such a lopsided bargaining relationship, government must intervene to level the playing field.”

Newfoundland and Labrador Federation of Labour, May 19, 2011: Implement Voisey's Bay Inquiry Report

Below also reported in the Perry Work Report, Week of May 9, 2011

Labour Relations Agency: Industrial Inquiry Commission the Final Report, May 11, 2011

Newfoundland Labrador, Labour Relations Agency, Updated May 11, 2011: Full overview of the Voisey Bay Industrial Inquiry, including Reports, Stakeholder Submissions and News Releases

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Tweets Worth Twittering About

G8/G20 police raked in bonuses http://www.cbc.ca/news/story/2011/05/29/g20-police-bonus-pay.html(CBC, May 30, 2011)

Report: Test-based incentives don’t produce real student achievement - The Answer Sheet - TheWashington Post http://wapo.st/jI1bJz (Washington Post, May 28, 2011)

Back in the green: CEO pay jumps 13 per cent http://t.co/2ifVLSW -- where is their wage freeze? (Globe and Mail, May 30, 2011)

Ontario PCs conjure images of chain gangs http://t.co/OCE40I8 (Globe and Mail, May 29, 2011)

Public Employees Are the Solution. More Examples. http://t.co/E1yj5qL  (SEIU May 25, 2011)

Women expect less pay from the start http://tgam.ca/C0vv (Globe and Mail, May 20, 2011)

California prison judgment shines light on human indignity http://t.co/ISdl99N (Globe and Mail, May 26, 2011)

Why employees should think before they tweet http://t.co/RVcF6zL (Globe and Mail, May 24, 2011)

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Supreme Court decides Fraser case – boundaries set on Charter's protection of collective bargaining

“In a decision that some argue narrows its landmark 2007 declaration in B.C. Health Services – in which it ruled that collective bargaining is a fundamental right protected by the guarantee of freedom of association in s.2 (d) of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms – a majority of the Supreme Court of Canada has defined the limits of the right to collective bargaining under the Charter. According to the Court, it means that employers are required to consider, in good faith, the union's demands, but does not mean that legislatures are constitutionally required "to enact laws that set up a uniform model of labour relations imposing a statutory duty to bargain in good faith, statutory recognition of the principles of exclusive majority representation and a statutory mechanism for resolving bargaining impasses and disputes regarding the interpretation or administration of collective agreements.”

Lancaster House, May 25, 2011: Supreme Court decides Fraser case – boundaries set on Charter's protection of collective bargaining

An audio discussion of the implications of the Fraser case by leading academics and prominent counsel will take place on Friday, May 27 at 12:30 p.m. EDT, and will be replayed daily for the following week from 9 a.m. until midnight. Full conference and registration information can be found by visiting the Lancaster House Fraser audio conference webpage.

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Bob Dylan Sets Legal Precedence and Turns 70 Years Young

“By nature, lawyers and judges are storytellers.”

“Judges at all levels in the United States judicial system have cited Bob Dylan far more often than any other popular music artist….Perhaps more than any other popular artist, Dylan’s lyrics are well-suited for the task of legal persuasion. The use of metaphor and vivid imagery is a common technique in judicial opinion writing. From the fruit of the poisonous tree to unclean hands to the marketplace of ideas, metaphors populate the legal lexicon. When used efficiently, metaphors enable readers “to understand one phenomenon in relationship to another” and to assist in understanding. They can, in the words of one author, “trigger powerful, recurring frameworks of meaning and patterns of belief, and set in motion deeply rooted folk images, archetypes, and story lines.”

SSRN Paper, May 10, 2011: The Freewheelin’ Judiciary: a Bob Dylan Anthology by Alex B. Long*: This paper, presented as part of a symposium on Bob Dylan and the Law at the Fordham University School of Law, explores the ways in which judges have used the lyrics of Bob Dylan in their opinions.

Rolling Stone, May 25, 2011: The Best Bob Dylan 70th Birthday Tributes: Check out these essays, lists and videos honoring the living legend [in honour of his 70th Birthday on May 23, 2011]

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Feminists@law – an open access journal of feminist legal scholarship

“Feminists@law is a peer-reviewed online journal [from Kent Law School in the UK] which aims to publish critical, interdisciplinary, theoretically engaged scholarship that extends feminist debates and analyses relating to law and justice (broadly conceived). 

The journal publishes material in a range of print and multimedia formats and in English and other languages.  The journal is committed to an international perspective, to the promotion of feminist work in all areas of law and justice, and to making that work widely available through open access publishing.”

feminists@law, Vol.1, no. 1, 2011: inaugural issue – “Feminism and Open Access: What's Feminist About Open Access? A Relational Approach to Copyright in the Academy”; “Reflections on 'Beyond Accommodation”; “Current and Future Agendas for Feminist Legal Studies”. From Kent Law School in the UK

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UTFA’s Trade Union Status Resolved

On March 17th, 2011, the University of Toronto Faculty Association (UTFA) was accepted as a trade union under the Labour Relations Act by the Ontario Labour Relations Board (see attached PDF for the decision)

The Catholic Register, March 23, 2011: Labour board ruling gives St. Mike's profs union status

The Varsity, March 14, 2011: USMC staff vote to unionize: USMC voted to unionize after a wage freeze recommended by provincial legislation in March 2010.

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Working Without Commitment

Canadians in short-term jobs describe their experiences in a study about the stresses of having to regularly find new work. “It’s not a healthy way to live,” concluded McMaster University professor Wayne Lewchuk, co-author of the study which became the basis for a new book, Working Without Commitments: the Health Effects of Precarious Employment.  But precarious employment is a growing trend. At least 1.8 million Canadians – or one in eight in the labour force – are in temporary work, including contract, seasonal or casual jobs with terms no more than a year, according to a Statistics Canada report last November” (Study: Temporary employment in the downturn  1997 to 2009).

Globe and Mail, May 18, 2011:  Boxed in: The stifling effects of short-term contracts by Wallace Immen

Work, Employment & Society, September 2008, vol. 22 no. 3, 387-406 : “Working without commitments: precarious employment and health”, by Wayne Lewchuk, Marlea Clarke and Alice de Wolff (available free online to the University of Toronto community)

University of Windsor, Centre for Studies in Social Justice, March 1, 2010: Working Without Commitments, Wayne Lewchuk, one hour video presentation (a very slow start but worth watching!He is a great lecturer)

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Will the Conservative government puts Canada’s “biggest, oldest and most stable collective bargaining unit” to rest?

Established in 1935, Canada’s Wheat Board (CWB) is Canada’s largest farm marketing board and collective bargaining body representing an estimated 75,000 farmers. In The Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives Saskatchewan office’s recent report “Prairie Strong No Longer?”, the authors discuss the Conservative government’s plan to “give farmers more grain marketing options” by limiting the CWB’s monopoly on grain marketing. According to the report, there are many benefits to having “single-desk selling power”—getting the “best possible prices, transportation rates, and quality premiums for its producers.”

As a recent Globe and Mail article on the topic states, without the CWB farmers will “look to pure economic considerations” when marketing their grain which, in effect, translates into contracts with large processors who are able to offer “better pricing terms and services.” The Report argues that farmers, in dealing with large grain companies, will be “restricted to the company’s varieties, their chemicals, their prices and conditions.”

Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, Saskatchewan, May  2011: “Prairie Strong No Longer?” By Helen Forsey and Simon Enoch, May 2011 (4 page PDF)

CBC News, May 3, 2011: “Expect Wheat Board changes: vote winners”, May 3, 2011

Globe and Mail, May 19, 2011: “Big upside seen for Viterra if wheat board monopoly broken”, By Darcy Keith, May

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The Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives Launches New Blog

During Canada’s federal election, the CCPA tracked election developments on their blog Making It Count. The blog was so successful that the Centre has adapted it into a permanent blog namedBehind the Numbers. The blog will deliver “timely, progressive commentary on issues that affect Canadians, including the economy, poverty, inequality, climate change, budgets, taxes, public services, employment and much more.”

Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, May 25, 2011:  Behind the Numbers: A blog from the CCPA

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Work Absences in 2010

“Absenteeism, a term used to refer to absences that are avoidable, habitual and unscheduled, is a source of irritation to employers and co-workers. Such absences are disruptive to proper work scheduling and output, and costly to organizations and the economy as a whole. Although absenteeism is widely acknowledged to be a problem, it is not easy to quantify. The dividing line between avoidable and unavoidable is difficult to draw, and absenteeism generally masquerades as legitimate absence.”
This study looks at absenteeism by:

  • recent trends—2000 to 2010
  • variations in absence rates in 2010
  • demographic differences
  • industry and sector        
  • occupation
  • union coverage, job status, workplace size and job tenure

 Perspectives on Labour and Income, May 25, 2011: Work Absences in 2010, by Sharanjit Uppal (11 pages, PDF) or in (HTML)

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The Three Day Weekend: a dream deferred

“As the long weekend comes to an end, people head back to work and ponder over ‘What is so sacred about the five-day workweek?’ In an age of high-tech efficiency and higher productivity, why isn't the working world organized to provide us with more leisure time?” [Globe and Mail, May 21, 2011]

In a report produced by the new economics foundation (nef) the subject of having a 21 hour work week could help to address a range of urgent, interlinked problems: overwork, unemployment, over-consumption, high carbon emissions, low well-being, entrenched inequalities, and the lack of time to live sustainably, to care for each other, and simply to enjoy life.

Globe and Mail, May 21, 2011: The three-day weekend: a dream deferred

New economics foundation, February 2010: 21 hours: Why a shorter working week can help us all to flourish in the 21st century (40 pages, PDF)

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Social Media Works

In a time when companies are rebounding, rebuilding, and looking to engineer business growth, ensuring their employees can communicate, connect, and share information efficiently is of fundamental importance. Luckily, the skills that many already possess from their personal use of social media can aid in doing this. Companies that use social media to improve knowledge transfer will see employees benefit from more informed thinking, better ideas, and big steps forward in innovation.

The Conference Board, New York, May 2011: It’s Not Just Your Children's Facebook Anymore (10 pages, PDF) this report is accessible to the University of Toronto community via your Conference Board of Canada e-library account

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2011 Summit on the Future of Pensions and Change Management 2011

Changing employment markets, regulations, pension strategies, and globalization have combined to make the last decade a challenging one for all pension professionals. This Conference e-Proceeding examines the pension issues that affect your organization, focusing on the steps you can take to leverage the current environment and impending reforms. Topics covered include: The Conference Board’s Pension Funds Outlook, The results of Towers Watson’s Annual Pension Risk Survey, The importance of Pension Sustainability, Mergers and Acquisitions, and The future of Pensions in Canada.

The Conference Board of Canada, May 2011: Conference e-Proceedings – this is not a publication but a recording of Conference proceedings – available to the University of Toronto community via the Conference Board e-library

2011 Summit on the Future of Pensions and Change Management 2011: Leveraging Culture, Engagement, Community

The Conference Board of Canada, May 2011 Conference e-Proceedings: This Conference e-Proceedings will help you deal with change by focusing on three keys to change management success – culture, engagement, and community. available to the University of Toronto community via the Conference Board e-library

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OECD’s New Better Life Index

Create Your Better Life Index: “There is more to life than the cold numbers of GDP and economic statistics – This Index allows you to compare well-being across countries, based on 11 topics the OECD has identified as essential, in the areas of material living conditions and quality of life.”

Globe and Mail, May 24, 2011: “There's more to life than gross domestic product”, by Chris Giles

Globe and Mail, May 24, 2011: “Pursuit of happiness: Canada scores high on OECD index”, by Michael Babad

YouTube: Better Life Initiative: Your Better Life Index

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Book of the Week

The Routledge International Handbook of Globalization Studies, edited by Bryan S. Turner. New York : Routledge, 2010. 702 p. ISBN 9780415458085 .

The Routledge International Handbook of Globalization Studies offers students clear and informed chapters on the history of globalization and key theories that have considered the causes and consequences of the globalization process. There are substantive sections looking at demographic, economic, technological, social and cultural changes in globalization. The handbook examines many negative aspects – new wars, slavery, illegal migration, pollution and inequality – but concludes with an examination of responses to these problems through human rights organizations, international labour law and the growth of cosmopolitanism. There is a strong emphasis on interdisciplinary approaches with essays covering sociology, demography, economics, politics, anthropology and history.

About the Editor:

Bryan S. Turner was Professor of Sociology at the University of Cambridge (1998–2005) and at the National University of Singapore (2005–09). He is currently the Alona Evans Distinguished Visiting Professor of Sociology at Wellesley College USA and the Director of the Centre for the Study of Contemporary Muslim Societies, University of Western Sydney, Australia. He has published The New Medical Sociology (2004) and The Body & Society (2008).

Visit the Recent Books at the CIRHR Library blog.

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This publication is protected by Canadian copyright laws and may not be copied, posted or forwarded electronically without permission.

Questions or comments: cirhr.library@utoronto.ca

Editor: Vicki Skelton with a big thank you to special guest editor Yasmin Hartung, a student at theUniversity of Toronto iSchool working at the CIRHR Library for the summer of 2011.
Designer: Nick Strupat

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

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