Assorted content to end your week. – Sadly (if perhaps unsurprisingly), the Trudeau Libs’ vote with the Harper Cons against civil rights has received relatively little notice compared to the two parties’ attack ad posturing. But there’s still plenty worth reading on the subject – including another post from pogge,
Continue readingTag: labour.
Accidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Andrew Simms and Stephen Reid note that the corporatist dogma that everything is done more efficiently in the private sector has no apparent basis in reality: The myth of private sector superiority says that the private sector is efficient and dynamic, the
Continue readingThe Canadian Progressive: Thatcherism: A grand, failed economic experiment
By: Andrew Jackson | Broadbent Institute Admirers and detractors of Margaret Thatcher can agree that she will be remembered as one of the key political architects of our times. Along with her soulmate, U.S. President Ronald Reagan, she broke decisively with the post-war Keynesian welfare state and ushered in the still-enduring age
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – George Monbiot discusses the fallout from decades of corporate-controlled governments abdicating their responsibility to consider the public interest: In other ages, states sought to seize as much power as they could. Today, the self-hating state renounces its powers. Governments anathematise governance. They declare
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – The Broadbent Institute’s “Union Communities, Healthy Communities” report discusses the significance of the labour movement in achieving positive social outcomes. And Rick Smith concurrently writes that the right’s attacks on unions represent a solution in search of a problem: (W)hen unions are
Continue readingThe Canadian Progressive: Catholic Teachers donate $43,000 to support striking Porter workers
By: Ontario English Catholic Teachers’ Association | Press Release: TORONTO, April 22, 2013 – The Ontario English Catholic Teachers’ Association (OECTA), together with local OECTA units, have donated over $43,000 to support striking Porter Airlines employees. The workers, who are members of the Canadian Office and Professional Employees Union (COPE) Local 343, have been on
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Sunday Morning Links
Assorted content for your Sunday reading. – I wouldn’t go as far as Haroon Siddiqui in suggesting that all temporary foreign worker programs be shut down entirely (at least absent some concurrent change to encourage a flow of new workers who are able to set down roots in Canada). But
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Afternoon Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading. – Daniel Cohn theorizes that the only real problem with RBC’s outsourcing of Canadian jobs is that they called attention to the government policies which facilitated that outcome. But for those of us who think there’s actually a problem with an economy designed around
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Morning Links
Assorted content for your Friday reading. – Julian Beltrame writes about the reality that Canada has multiple workers available to fill every job – with an assist from Erin Weir: The case for job shortages in Canada became thinner Tuesday with the most recent data showing vacancies actually fell to
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Thomas Walkom points out that banks are far from the only corporations who are conspicuously moving jobs offshore to the detriment of Canadian workers and citizens: Unions are being ground down; wages are being ground down. Jobs are being ground out of existence.
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – George Monbiot comments on the outsized influence of advertisers on children: How many people believe this makes the world a better place? A company called TenNine has hung hoardings in the corridors and common rooms of 750 British schools. Among its clients
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material to start your week. – Peter Gillespie discusses the problems with tax cheats (and the overseas tax havens which encourage them): Multinational corporations and banking and financial institutions routinely use tax havens to lower or eliminate their tax obligations, avoid regulation, and shield themselves from liability. Tax havens
Continue readingwmtc: unpaid labour used to be called slavery. now it’s an internship.
Image found at Youth and Work blog In recent years, I’ve been very disturbed by the proliferation of so-called unpaid internships, more properly called unpaid labour, previously known as slavery. A while back, I had a disturbing conversation with an unpaid editor at The Mark. She was highly skilled, an
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Morning Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading. – Thomas Walkom offers an insider’s look at outsourcing: Arlene says any outsourcing scheme begins with the institution’s senior management. Usually, she says, the aim is to transfer about 60 per cent of the affected jobs — often in back-shop areas like information technology
Continue readingThe Canadian Progressive: Temporary Foreign Worker Scandal: RBC Issues “Open Letter To Canadians”
By: Obert Madondo | The Canadian Progressive: According to a list recently obtained by the Alberta Federation of Labour, the Royal Bank of Canada, (RBC) is one the thousands of Canadian employers fingered in the unraveling Temporary Foreign Worker scandal. The document shows that scandals at RBC and other high-profile employers are “just the
Continue readingThe Canadian Progressive: United Steelworkers legally challenge RBC temporary foreign worker plan
By: United Steelworkers | Press Release: TORONTO, April 11, 2013 – The United Steelworkers (USW) is legally challenging the federal government’s approval for RBC and/or iGate to hire temporary foreign workers to replace existing employees. “We have applied today to the Federal Court to challenge the federal government’s decision,” said Ken Neumann, the USW’s National Director for Canada.
Continue readingThe Canadian Progressive: United Steelworkers: Diane Finley Must Resign Over Temporary Foreign Worker Scandal
By: United Steelworkers | Press Release: TORONTO, April 10, 2013 – The United Steelworkers (USW) is calling for the resignation of Diane Finley, Minister of Human Resources and Skills Development, over her mishandling of the Temporary Foreign Worker Program. The recent disclosure that RBC is replacing Canadian employees by outsourcing jobs to
Continue readingThe Canadian Progressive: Alberta Federation of Labour Demands Inquiry Into Temporary Foreign Worker Program
List of ‘accelerated’ TFW approvals reveals widespread abuse of program By: Alberta Federation of Labour | Press Release: EDMONTON, April 9, 2013 – A list of fast-tracked temporary foreign worker applications shows that scandals at Royal Bank and HD Mining are just the tip of the iceberg. The document, obtained by the Alberta
Continue readingThe Canadian Progressive: Use of Federal Temporary Workers Undermines Canadian Jobs and Wages
By: United Steelworkers Union | Press Release: TORONTO – “The news that RBC is replacing 45 of its employees with workers from India is just further proof that corporations and the Harper government intend to use the Temporary Foreign Worker Program to lower wages across Canada,” said Ken Neumann, National Director of the
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – Linda McQuaig tears into the Cons for exacerbating the gap between the too-rich-to-pay-taxes class and the rest of us: Ordinary citizens diligently spend hours calculating their income and deductions and meticulously filling out forms, fearful of the probing eye and relentless reach
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