Collaboration between unions in a multi-union, non-exclusive bargaining regime: What can Canada learn from New Zealand?

The Canadian union certification system guarantees workers rights to organise, bargain collectively, and strike only when a majority of co-workers favours unionisation. This contravenes International Labour Organisation standards, in which the freedom to associate is unqualified by majority support. In recent years, the Supreme Court of Canada has drawn on ILO principles to interpret constitutional rights as covering organising and collective bargaining activities related to freedom of association under section 2(d) of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. However, it has not as yet ordered Canadian governments to enact labour relations laws consistent with these new constitutional rights. Neither has there been a general call for such legislative change. Instead, many fear that statutory support for non-majority unionism would lead to multi-union representation and intensified inter-union competition, but fail to consider that sharing the workplace might actually promote inter-union cooperation against a common adversary in management. This study addresses this shortcoming by looking at the extent and nature of inter-union collaboration in New Zealand, where non-majority, non-exclusive representation exists already. Collaboration was found to be common, not only over bargaining and lobbying, but also in organising. Implications for Canada are explored

Gender Equity in the Workplace: A Comparison of Canada and Sweden

This paper argues that New Zealand needs a coherent approach to gender equity and that the experiences of other countries provide some evidence of which policies work and in what circumstances. For this purpose, the Canadian and Swedish approaches to gender equity are compared. Swedish policy is found to be more effective than Canadian policy, but only in narrowing the gender pay gap. Furthermore, it is argued that the ideological incompatibilities of Swedish social democracy and Canadian liberalism would make it difficult for Canadians to emulate even this one dimension of Swedish success. The remainder of the paper examines the common failings of both Canadian and Swedish approaches to gender equity, and, on this basis, makes suggestions for future Canadian reforms which might also prove valuable to New Zealanders in establishing their own approach to gender equity

Gender Equity in the Workplace: A Comparison of Canada and Sweden

This paper argues that New Zealand needs a coherent approach to gender equity and that the experiences of other countries provide some evidence of which policies work and in what circumstances. For this purpose, the Canadian and Sli1edish approaches to gender equity are compared. Swedish policy is found to be more effective than Canadian policy, but only in narrowing the gender pay gap. Furthermore, it is argued that the ideological incompatibilities of Swedish social democracy and Canadian liberalism would make it difficult for Canadians to emulate even this one dimension of Swedish success. The remainder of the paper examines the common failings of both Canadian and Swedish approaches to gender equity, and, on this basis, makes suggestions for future Canadian reforms which might also prove valuable to New Zealanders in establishing their own approach to gender equity

Unemployment Reduction in Canada: Lessons from Japan and Sweden

Le taux de chômage canadien a été plus élevé que ceux de la plupart des pays de l'OCDE depuis deux décennies. L'expérience de ces pays peut suggérer des indices sur les moyens de réduire ce problème persistant au Canada. Le Japon et la Suède ont constamment gardé leurs taux de chómage relativement bas et les raisons de leurs succès devraient intéresser les Canadiens. Les Japonais ont réussi à garder leur taux de chómage bas en instaurant un système d'emploi à vie où les emplois sont habituellement protégés mais où les heures de travail varient selon les fluctuations de la production. Les Suédois, eux, ont réussi pareille performance grâce à des programmes actifs de marché du travail pour la formation, le placement et la mobilité qui, ensemble, accélèrent la transition entre le chómage et l'emploi.Le Canada pourrait réduire ses problèmes de chómage en copiant les politiques japonaises et suédoises. Cela, cependant, pourrait être difficile vu que chaque politique est implantée dans un type de marché du travail unique à chaque pays. La politique active de marché du travail est le reflet de relations hautement coopératives entre des fédérations très centralisées d'employeurs et de syndicats. Le système d'emploi à vie vise à embrigader les travailleurs de façon à endiguer la menace révolutionnaire des syndicats communistes et socialistes. La configuration des intérêts sur le marché du travail canadien ne reflètent aucune de ces deux situations. Les relations employeurs-employés au Canada sont conflictuelles et décentralisées et découlent de l'emphase dominante libérale sur les intérêts individuels et de l'hétérogénéité de la main-d’œuvre. Il faudrait alors modifier les systèmes japonais et suédois pour les implanter avec succès au Canada.Le Canada pourrait importer ces systèmes de deux façons. On pourrait faciliter la coopération entre le travail et le capital de façon à ce que les deux travaillent ensemble à l'implantation de programme de formation et de placement au niveau de l'industrie. Ou encore, on pourrait offrir des incitatifs fiscaux ou des subventions pour encourager une ou plusieurs des parties au marché du travail à offrir certaines composantes de chaque politique. La première option fonctionnerait mieux dans des secteurs oligopolistiques ou monopolistiques où la prise de décision centralisée et les relations coopératives existent déjà. Par exemple, on pourrait retrouver des tribunaux de formation dans les industries de l'automobile, des télécommunications, de la forêt et de l'acier. La deuxième option serait plus appropriée dans des secteurs compétitifs caractérisés par la décentralisation et l'action indépendante. Une combinaison d'approches aiderait le Canada à réduire tant l'incidence que la durée du chómage sans exiger de transformations fondamentales de son système de relations industrielles.L'analyse du système de l'emploi à vie et de la politique active de marché du travail démontre la faisabilité de l'importation de politiques du travail étrangères après que les adaptations nécessaires auront été faites. Sans ces adaptations cependant, l'efficacité de tels emprunts sera douteuse.The active labour market policy has been used to reduce the duration of unemployment in Sweden. The lifetime employment System has been used to lower the incidence of unemployment in Japan. Will the adoption of similar policies in Canada produce comparable reductions in unemployment? Emulating Japan and Sweden could prove difficult, since their policies reflect and reinforce employment interests that are uery different from Canada's. As a result, neither lifetime employment nor active labour market policy is transferable to Canada without major modifications to suit the stakeholder interests of Canadian unions, employers, and employees

Big data analyses reveal patterns and drivers of the movements of southern elephant seals

The growing number of large databases of animal tracking provides an opportunity for analyses of movement patterns at the scales of populations and even species. We used analytical approaches, developed to cope with big data, that require no a priori assumptions about the behaviour of the target agents, to analyse a pooled tracking dataset of 272 elephant seals (Mirounga leonina) in the Southern Ocean, that was comprised of >500,000 location estimates collected over more than a decade. Our analyses showed that the displacements of these seals were described by a truncated power law distribution across several spatial and temporal scales, with a clear signature of directed movement. This pattern was evident when analysing the aggregated tracks despite a wide diversity of individual trajectories. We also identified marine provinces that described the migratory and foraging habitats of these seals. Our analysis provides evidence for the presence of intrinsic drivers of movement, such as memory, that cannot be detected using common models of movement behaviour. These results highlight the potential for big data techniques to provide new insights into movement behaviour when applied to large datasets of animal tracking.Comment: 18 pages, 5 figures, 6 supplementary figure

Chemical immobilization of adult female Weddell seals with tiletamine and zolazepam: effects of age, condition and stage of lactation

BACKGROUND: Chemical immobilization of Weddell seals (Leptonychotes weddellii) has previously been, for the most part, problematic and this has been mainly attributed to the type of immobilizing agent used. In addition to individual sensitivity, physiological status may play an important role. We investigated the use of the intravenous administration of a 1:1 mixture of tiletamine and zolazepam (Telazol(®)) to immobilize adult females at different points during a physiologically demanding 5–6 week lactation period. We also compared performance between IV and IM injection of the same mixture. RESULTS: The tiletamine:zolazepam mixture administered intravenously was an effective method for immobilization with no fatalities or pronounced apnoeas in 106 procedures; however, there was a 25 % (one animal in four) mortality rate with intramuscular administration. Induction time was slightly longer for females at the end of lactation (54.9 ± 2.3 seconds) than at post-parturition (48.2 ± 2.9 seconds). In addition, the number of previous captures had a positive effect on induction time. There was no evidence for effects due to age, condition (total body lipid), stage of lactation or number of captures on recovery time. CONCLUSION: We suggest that intravenous administration of tiletamine and zolazepam is an effective and safe immobilizing agent for female Weddell seals. Although individual traits could not explain variation in recovery time, we suggest careful monitoring of recovery times during longitudinal studies (> 2 captures). We show that physiological pressures do not substantially affect response to chemical immobilization with this mixture; however, consideration must be taken for differences that may exist for immobilization of adult males and juveniles. Nevertheless, we recommend a mass-specific dose of 0.50 – 0.65 mg/kg for future procedures with adult female Weddell seals and a starting dose of 0.50 mg/kg for other age classes and other phocid seals

The thin(ning) green line? Investigating changes in Kenya's seagrass coverage

Knowledge of seagrass distribution is limited to a few well-studied sites and poor where resourcesare scant (e.g. Africa), hence global estimates of seagrass carbon storage are inaccurate. Here, we analysed freely available Sentinel-2 and Landsat imagery to quantify contemporary coverage and change in seagrass between 1986 and 2016 on Kenya’s coast. Using field surveys and independent estimates of historical seagrass, we estimate total cover of Kenya’s seagrass to be 317.1 ± 27.2 km226 , following losses of 0.85% yr-1 since 1986. Losses increased from 0.29% yr-1 in 2000 to 1.59% yr-1 in 2016, releasing up to 2.17 Tg carbon since 1986. Anecdotal evidence suggests fishing pressure is an important cause of loss and is likely to intensify in the near future. If these results are representative for Africa, global estimates of seagrass extent and loss need reconsidering