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The article reviews the book, "Continentalizing Canada: The Politics and Legacy of the Macdonald Royal Commission," by Gregory J. Inwood.
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The article reviews the book, "Public Enterprise Revisited: A Closer Look at the 1954-79 UK Labour Productivity Record," by Christafis H. Iordanoglou.
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The construction industry accounts for 18 per cent of Canada’s greenhouse gas emissions. There is extensive evidence that this can be reduced significantly by implementing aggressive net zero building practices. However, the way the industry is organized impedes this achievement because it fails to promote the development of a broadly based, highly qualified, climate-literate workforce. Successful low carbon construction requires enhancement of workers’ knowledge, skills, and competencies because it requires much higher energy performance standards than traditional construction practice. Yet the industry remains wedded to the current system of low-bid, low-quality construction to cut costs. The organization of much construction work reflects a Taylorist approach, with extensive piecework and subcontracting that relies heavily on precarious, unskilled, and semi-skilled workers. Most employers avoid investing in trades training, leaving it to governments, unions, and individual workers to fund workforce development. Committed to a deregulated market with minimal government interference in their profit-making activities, many contractors oppose tougher building and energy regulations while lobbying against higher labour standards, occupational certification requirements, and union organizing. To meet their net zero targets, governments must recognize that market forces are inadequate to create the well-trained, highly skilled workforce needed. Major policy interventions are required to force industry to make the necessary changes in vocational education and training (vet) and employment practices – changes designed to upskill the construction workforce and give workers and unions a greater voice in shaping climate-informed building practice.
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Book review of: "Capitalism Rebooted: Work, Welfare and the New Economy" by Dave Broad & Wayne Antony (eds.)
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A major demand of public sector unions in recent years has been for greater control over their members’ pension plans. Recently, several provincial governments, most notably British Columbia, have agreed to joint trusteeship, a development which gives union trustees a voice in investment policy. This article focuses on the implications for union trustees of investments in Public Private Partnerships (P-3s) and related privatization initiatives. Examples of such investments include: transportation infrastructure projects, hospitals and health services, schools, municipal water and sewer systems, electrical utilities, and other projects that, historically, have been within the public sector. It argues that trustees should be wary of such investments. Public sector unions have criticized privatization initiatives as a threat to public sector jobs and services. P-3 investments are problematic because they may threaten the jobs of their union’s members, undermine the credibility of their union’s public policy objections to privatization and, in the end, may prove far more risky than P-3 promoters contend.
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What does a cash-strapped government do when the collective agreements for almost a quarter million of its unionized employees expire simultaneously while wishing to maintain a respectful relationship with its labour supporters? In 1997, the Premier of British Columbia (BC), Canada, Glen Clark, thought of an imaginative solution. It was to offer unions an opportunity to participate with the government in developing policies on issues affecting their members and the services they provide. This was BC’s public sector policy Accord process. The goal was to establish a different, more collaborative relationship with unions, one in which they had a voice in shaping policy solutions. This parallel process – entirely separate from collective bargaining - would also avoid the adversarial relationship that so often characterizes a government’s relations with its unions, by recognizing the positive role unions and their members could play in contributing to improving BC’s public programs and services. The authors, who worked on the Accord process with Premier Clark, provide an insider’s story of the intensive three-year period, during which the parties negotiated 35 policy accords across the entire provincial public sector. The Accords covered a wide range of issues, including pension trusteeship and portability, early retirement, provincial school class size, benefits trusts, government procurement policy, hospital laboratory services, workforce training, pay equity, creation of a health and safety agency and numerous smaller policy fixes. The accord process demonstrated that it was possible for a government to initiate a new and more collaborative relationship with its unions by inviting them into the policy process. The accords definitely improved relations with the government and contributed to collective bargaining settlements within the government’s money mandate. --Publisher's description
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The Construction of the $1.2 billion Vancouver Island Highway Project provided an opportunity for the building trades unions and the Government of BC to negotiate an innovative collective agreement that included union membership, training for local residents and members of equity groups, new employment opportunities for members of designated equity groups and a comprehensive health and safety program. The Project implemented the most comprehensive system of tracking progress in employment equity in BC’s history. By its completion, women, First Nations, persons with disabilities and visible minorities accounted for just under 20% of total hours worked in an industry where 2% representation is the norm. Over 94% of payroll went to local residents, ensuring their communities the benefits of this major capital project. Finally, the health and safety record was significantly better than on any comparable construction project. Far from being an impediment to the efficient and timely completion of this major construction project, the collective agreement made it possible to deliver training, employment opportunities and regional development
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[Analyzes] the impact of both climate change and climate policy on employment in the energy sector. --Editor's introduction
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