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The Importance of Unions in Reducing Racial Inequality
The Centre for Future Work has released new research regarding union coverage and wages across different racialized categories of Canadian workers. The report also contains a review of efforts by Canadian unions to improve their representation of Black and racialized workers, and recommendations for strengthening the union movement’s practices.
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Short Film Explores Benefits of Workers’ Collective Voice for Workplaces and the Economy
The Centre for Future Work is proud to announce the release of a new animated film dramatizing the many ways workers with collective voice, representation, and bargaining power can make workplaces safer, more productive, more stable, and more fair.
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Calling Canadian Energy Workers: Take Our Survey on Future Job Transitions
As part of our PowerShare research project on planning effective and fair transitions for workers through the coming transformation of energy systems, the Centre for Future Work has designed a survey for people currently working in any fossil fuel industry in Canada: including oil and gas production, oilfield services, coal mining, petrochemicals, natural gas distribution, and related sectors. The survey takes about 5 minutes, and gathers information on energy workers’ priorities for what types of policies would best support a gradual, supported labour transition – and what stakeholders (governments, fossil fuel companies, unions, or others) are best placed to lead and fund such a transition. If you work in a…
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Our Times Feature Article on PowerShare Voice Report
The Spring 2021 edition of the Canadian labour magazine Our Times features a cover article on workers’ voice: how Canadian workers can express their concerns, and win meaningful change, in their workplaces. The article is based on the recent Centre for Future Work report, Speaking Out, Being Heard, Making Change: The Theory and Practice of Workers’ Voice in Canada, by Jim Stanford and Daniel Poon. That report was published earlier this year as part of our PowerShare project. With the kind permission of Our Times, we are reposting the feature article here. Please see the 5-page article, which is a useful resource for union educationals, train-the-trainer sessions, and other uses:…
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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…
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Bargaining Tech: Shaping New Technologies to Improve Work, not Devalue It
The Centre for Future Work has published another major paper in its PowerShare project, dealing with the impact of new technology on the quantity and quality of work in Canada – and strategies for ensuring that new technology produces more benefits for workers. The paper is entitled Bargaining Tech: Strategies for Shaping Technological Change to Benefit Workers, co-authored by Jim Stanford and Kathy Bennett. It provides an overview of the complex, contradictory ways that technological change is affecting jobs in Canada. It also discusses how technology could be better managed and implemented to achieve better, fairer, more inclusive high-tech outcomes. The report reviews recent debates about whether new technology will…
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Media & Video Coverage of New Report on Workers’ Voice
The Centre for Future Work recently released a major report on the theory and practice of “workers’ voice,” as part of its ongoing PowerShare project. The report is titled Speaking Up, Being Heard, Making Change: The Theory and Practice of Worker Voice in Canada Today, was co-authored by Jim Stanford and Daniel Poon. The full report is available here. The report was launched with a special 50-minute webinar featuring presentations by: Shannon Daub, B.C. Director of the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives Co-authors Jim Stanford and Daniel Poon Christine Maclin, Director of Human Rights for Unifor, speaking on that union’s new Racial Justice Advocate program Pamela Charron, with the Worker…
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Strengthening Workers’ Voice in the Future of Work
The Centre for Future Work has published a major new report on the economic and social benefits of workers’ voice. There is abundant evidence that jobs are better when workers can provide input, express opinions, and influence change in their workplaces. Providing workers with regular, safe channels of “voice” increases their personal motivation and job satisfaction. It benefits their employer, too, through reduced turnover, enhanced productivity, and better information flows. And it contributes to a range of positive economic and social outcomes: from stronger productivity growth, to less inequality, to improved health. Given the dramatic changes occurring in Canadian workplaces (including automation, digital employment platforms, climate change, and pandemics), the…
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Second Wave of COVID Job Losses Just as Unfair as the First
Commentary on January 2021 employment data by Jim Stanford: With most of Canada fighting a bigger, deadlier second wave of COVID infection, labour markets in most provinces are suffering the consequences. Employment began to shrink in December. But jobs data for January released by Statistics Canada confirm that the economy is sliding into a second dip, to match the second wave of the pandemic. Both the scale of job loss, and their painfully unfair distribution, are heartbreaking. And the new numbers reinforce findings from our first PowerShare report: 10 Ways the COVID Pandemic Must Change Work for Good. The worst impacts are being felt by workers in lower wage, insecure…
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Global Manifesto to Democratize Work
The COVID pandemic has painfully reminded us of the lack of genuine power that most workers have in their working lives. As soon as COVID began to spread, it was immediately obvious that workplaces were very vulnerable to contagion – yet employers and government regulators were very slow to address the threat with adequate and meaningful protective measures. Compelled by economic necessity, and lacking organized voice and bargaining power, workers literally risk their lives to continue performing their duties – often for poverty-level wages, in dangerous conditions. If workers had real say over how their workplaces operate, they could demand and win obvious and important changes to make their jobs…