Media and Video Coverage of New PowerShare Report: “Bargaining Tech”
The Centre for Future Work recently released the third major paper in its PowerShare project, titled “Bargaining Tech: Strategies for Shaping Technological Change to Benefit Workers,” by Jim Stanford and Kathy Bennett.
The report was launched with a special webinar, held in conjunction with the recent (online) convention of the Canadian Labour Congress (CLC). The webinar featured presentations by the authors, who were joined by two Canadian union leaders who have confronted the challenges of new technology with innovative collective bargaining strategies: Jan Simpson, National President of the Canadian Union of Postal Workers, and Bob Dhaliwal, Secretary-Treasurer of ILWU-Canada (representing longshore workers and other transportation and logistics industries). The webinar was chaired by Barbara Byers, former Secretary-treasurer of the CLC.
Here is a one-hour video with highlights from the webinar; it is a useful educational resource for unions and other groups campaigning around technology and workplace issues.
Written versions of remarks from Jan Simpson and Bob Dhaliwal are also available:
Their experiences on how to educate and mobilize union members to negotiate better protections against harmful effects of technological change, and ensure that workers share in the upside of new technology, are crucial input for other unions and other advocates working for a more equal and inclusive high-tech future. Their specific case studies are included among 300 other examples of technology-related collective agreement language negotiated by Canadian unions in the detailed Appendix tables in the full report.
The launch of the new PowerShare report was also featured in several media outlets, including:
- Feature story in the National Post.
- An in-depth cover story dealing with technology and workers’ voice in Our Times, Canada’s labour magazine.
- Feature radio interview on The Pulse.
- Radio debate and national call-in show on the Evan Solomon show.
- A video panel on technology and the future of work with journalist Kevin Carmichael of the National Post.
Jim Stanford also wrote about the main themes of the paper in this commentary article in the National Post.
Jim Stanford
Jim Stanford is Economist and Director of the Centre for Future Work. He divides his time between Sydney, Australia and Vancouver, Canada. Jim is one of Canada’s best-known economic commentators. He served for over 20 years as Economist and Director of Policy with Unifor, Canada’s largest private-sector trade union.