What Do Unions Do to Innovation? An Empirical Examination of the Canadian Private Sector

This article uses Canadian national data to examine the union effect on product innovation, a firm outcome which is widely researched in the management literature but has been less prominent in Industrial Relations scholarship. Using a longitudinal sample from the employer survey of the Canadian Workplace and Employee Survey, the union effect on a firm’s ability to create or improve a product is examined. According to the commonly held view that unions impede firm performance, the results should point to a negative relationship between unions and product innovation. Interestingly, a strong negative effect is not observed. In fact a small statistically significant positive union effect is reported. This result is considered to be robust. Across various specifications the presence of a union and the intensity of the presence (firm union density) have significant and positive effects on a firm’s ability to innovate new products over a seven year period (1999-2005).The results of this study do not imply that the presence of a union is an important determinant of product innovation. The results are noteworthy because they do not identify a negative relationship between unions and a measure of firm performance: product innovation. In this regard, the results give weight to the observation that there is very little empirical support for the popular argument that unions impede firm performance.In Canada the demise of organized labour is often justified as a necessary adjustment to increasingly competitive markets. Indeed the signing of the 1993 NAFTA has put unions under greater scrutiny for their impact on Canada’s ability to compete internationally. That unions make firms less competitive is commonly accepted as a reasonable assessment. The results of this study and a review of the empirical literature on the union effect on other key firm outcomes such as productivity, labour costs, employment growth, sales and profitability, suggest that the popularly held negative assessment of unions is not based on a conclusive body of literature.Cet article utilise des données nationales canadiennes pour examiner l’effet des syndicats en matière d’innovation en matière de produits dans les entreprises, sujet abondamment traité dans la littérature managériale mais moins présent dans les travaux empiriques en relations industrielles. À partir d’un échantillon longitudinal de la composante « employeur » de l’Enquête sur le milieu de travail et les employés (EMTE) de Statistique Canada, l’effet de la présence syndicale sur la capacité de l’entreprise à créer de nouveaux produits ou à améliorer ses produits déjà existants est étudié. Selon un point de vue communément admis à l’effet que les syndicats agiraient plutôt comme un frein sur la performance de l’entreprise, les résultats de l’étude devraient indiquer une relation négative entre la présence syndicale et l’innovation en matière de produit. Or l’étude ne révèle aucun lien négatif fort. Au mieux seul un faible lien positif est observable d’un point de vue statistique. Et ce résultat est considéré comme robuste. En poussant les analyses selon diverses spécifications de la variable syndicale (mesurée selon la densité syndicale ou la présence syndicale), celle-ci est associée à des effets forts et positifs sur la capacité de l’entreprise à innover avec de nouveaux produits sur une période de sept ans (1999-2005).Les résultats de l’étude n’impliquent pas que la présence d’un syndicat est un important déterminant en matière d’innovation de produit. Mais ils méritent d’être retenus parce qu’ils ne soutiennent pas l’existence d’une relation négative entre syndicats et performance de l’entreprise en matière d’innovation de produits. À cet égard les résultats donnent du poids à l’observation qu’il existe très peu de soutien empirique à l’argument populaire que les syndicats sont un frein à la performance des entreprises.Au Canada l’opposition au syndicalisme est souvent justifiée comme un ajustement nécessaire des entreprises à des marchés de plus en plus compétitifs. À cet égard la signature de l’Accord de libre-échange nord-américain de 1993 (ALENA) a mis davantage de pression sur les syndicats dont on étudie de plus près l’impact sur la capacité du Canada à concurrencer sur le plan international. Affirmer que les syndicats rendent les entreprises moins concurrentielles est communément accepté comme une évaluation raisonnable. Les résultats de la présente étude et la revue de la littérature empirique sur l’effet des syndicats sur d’autres extrants clé de l’entreprise comme la productivité, les coûts du travail, la croissance de l’emploi, les ventes et la profitabilité, suggèrent que la perception populaire négative à l’égard des syndicats ne repose pas sur un corps de littérature concluant.Este artículo usa datos nacionales canadienses para analizar el impacto sindical sobre la innovación del producto, un resultado empresarial que es ampliamente investigado en los estudios científicos de gestión pero que ha sido menos destacado en las investigaciones en relaciones industriales. Se utiliza una muestra longitudinal de empleadores proveniente de la Encuesta Canadiense del medio laboral y del empleado para examinar el efecto sindical en la capacidad de una empresa para crear o mejorar un producto. Según el punto de vista muy generalizado que los sindicatos impiden el rendimiento empresarial, los resultados deberían indicar una relación negativa entre sindicatos e innovación del producto. Sorprendentemente, no se observa un fuerte efecto negativo. En realidad, se observa un ligero efecto positivo estadísticamente significativo. Este resultado es considerado consistente. A través varias especificaciones, la presencia de un sindicato y la intensidad de su presencia (densidad sindical de la empresa) tienen efectos significativos y positivos en la capacidad de la empresa para innovar productos, y esto dentro de un periodo de siete anos (1999-2005).Los resultados de este estudio no implican que la presencia de un sindicato sea un determinante importante de la innovación de productos. Los resultados son remarcables porque no identifican una relación negativa entre sindicatos y una medida de rendimiento empresarial: la innovación de productos. En este sentido, los resultados respaldan la observación que hay muy poca sustentación empírica al argumento popular que los sindicatos impiden el rendimiento empresarial.En Canadá, la desaparición de la organización laboral es frecuentemente justificada como un ajustamiento necesario a la competitividad creciente de los mercados. Es más, la firma del TLCAN en 1993 puso los sindicatos bajo un mayor escrutinio en cuanto a su impacto sobre la capacidad de competición internacional de Canadá. Que los sindicatos hacen que las firmas sean menos competitivas es generalmente aceptado como una apreciación lógica. Los resultados de este estudio y una revisión de la literatura empírica sobre el impacto sindical sobre otros resultados claves de la empresa como la productividad, los costos laborales, el crecimiento del empleo, las ventas y las ganancias, sugieren que la apreciación popular ampliamente negativa de los sindicatos no está basada en un contenido concluyente de estudios científicos

Interprovincial Enforcement of Maintenance Orders: New Principles, New Approaches

The author points out that the existing legislative scheme for interprovincial enforcement of maintenance orders is premised on common law rules which have nowbeen rejected by the Supreme Court of Canada. Those same Supreme Court decisions have opened the door for new legislative approaches to intra-Canadian enforcement of these obligations. This paper surveys a variety of new responses based on models in other federal states and on conventions implementing international maintenance enforcement schemes. It examines the pros and cons of each and concludes that any one of them would be superior to the scheme now in force in Canada

Electromagnetically induced transparency-based slow and stored light in warm atoms

This paper reviews recent efforts to realize a high-efficiency memory for optical pulses using slow and stored light based on electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) in ensembles of warm atoms in vapor cells. After a brief summary of basic continuous-wave and dynamic EIT properties, studies using weak classical signal pulses in optically dense coherent media are discussed, including optimization strategies for stored light efficiency and pulse-shape control, and modification of EIT and slow/stored light spectral properties due to atomic motion. Quantum memory demonstrations using both single photons and pulses of squeezed light are then reviewed. Finally a brief comparison with other approaches is presented

Jurassic calcareous nannofossils and environmental cycles

Calcareous nannofossils are microscopic remains of the calcite-secreting nannoplankton, a marine phytoplankton group which originated in the Late Triassic (Bown & Young 1998a). The ecology of the extant representatives of this group is reasonably well known, and the vastly abundant, geographically extensive and stratigraphically continuous fossil record of these organisms thus provides much in the way of palaeoceanographic, as well as biostratigraphic, information. This thesis considers the distribution of nannofossils through three British Jurassic hemipelagic mudrock formations: the Black Ven Marls (Sinemurian), the Belemnite Marls (Pliensbachian) and the Oxford Clay (Callovian-Oxfordian). All three formations exhibit sedimentary cyclicity; the Belemnite Marls and the Oxford Clay are thought to record orbital (Milankovitch) periodicities (Weedon & Jenkyns 1999; Hudson & Martill 1994; Coe pers. comm. 1998), whilst the Black Ven Marls contains putative sequence cycles (Hesselbo & Jenkyns 1998). However, the processes linking environmental change and sedimentation in Jurassic epicontinental marine settings remain enigmatic, largely due to a paucity of detailed investigations. In this study high-resolution, quantitative nannofossil assemblage data were collected and subjected to various statistical analyses. Absolute abundance and diversity fluctuations are compared to lithological evidence, and interpreted in terms of palaeoenvironmental processes. Responses to palaeoenvironmental fluctuations allow suggestions to be made concerning the little-known ecological preferences of the early nannoplankton. The Belemnite Marls dataset is of sufficient length for time-series analysis (Weedon 1993, in prep.); the presence of regular cycles is detected, and located within the Milankovitch spectrum using Weedon & Jenkyns' (1999) cyclostratigraphic time-scale for the formation. In addition, the unusually high resolution of the nannofossil datasets allows the biostratigraphy of all three formations to be reconsidered. This study reaffirms the potential for nannofloral investigation of the cyclostratigraphic record (Young et al. 1994). It is the first to apply time-series analysis to Jurassic nannofossil cycles