The National Union of Public and General Employees (NUPGE) has redesigned its Labour Rights are Human Rights campaign website. The site will now serve as the website of the Canadian Foundation for Labour Rights (CFLR), a body established in May 2010 and sponsored by NUPGE.
CFLR aims to boost public awareness of the organic link between labour rights and human rights, promote the strengthening of labour legislation and fundamental labour standards in Canada, and monitor attempts to undermine progressive labour laws.
The Canadian Union of Public Employees has released a draft version of its Strategic Directions 2011-2013 policy paper entitled "A Blueprint for the Future." This document contains a number of important ideas, among them the need for a class perspective as a basis for understanding the challenges facing unions today, and advancing workers' interests in a difficult climate.
Bill C-317 was dropped from the Commons order paper last week, but south of the border, financial reporting requirements imposed on American unions by the George W. Bush administration continue to attract debate. Since the disclosure requirements contemplated by Bill C-317 were largely patterned on US reporting rules, some of the literature examining the impact of the US rules is worth a look.
The current director of the US Department of Labor's Office of Labor-Management Standards, which oversees union financial reporting, also happens to be one of the leading academics on union financial disclosure. John Lund, erstwhile Professor at the the School for Workers, University of Wisconsin-Extension, has published a series of thoughtful analyses of US and comparative (including Canadian) legislation and caselaw on union financial reporting.
In one of his publications, Lund finds that the benefits of a more complex and extensively detailed reporting burden "are virtually impossible to identify, much less quantify."
At a March 2011 House of Representatives subcommittee hearing on union disclosure requirements, Professor John Logan summarized Lund's research and provided the results of his own.
Finally, Scott Lilly at the Center for American Progress produced an fascinating background report on the Bush-era rules.
All food for thought on an issue that's certain to remain in play in both Canada and the United States.
A new CCPA study argues that we need a fundamental rethinking of where Canada is going in its energy policy.
Climate Change and the Canadian Energy Sector: Implications for Labour and Trade Unions, by John Calvert and Marjorie Griffin Cohen, makes the case for a 
comprehensive strategy that would base its priorities on the urgent need to address global warming. The strategy should include a much stronger government role in shaping Canada’s energy future. It should also include a larger role for industrial policy and a comprehensive training and employment program. Trade unions, as well as environmentalists and civil society have much to contribute. They need to be included in the development of a more environmentally responsible approach to addressing climate change, one that does not rely simply on furthering the individual market-based decisions of the corporate sector.
Click here to read the full report.
This study argues that we need a fundamental rethinking of where Canada is going in its energy policy. The country needs a comprehensive strategy that would base its priorities on the urgent need to address global warming. The strategy should include a much stronger government role in shaping Canada’s energy future. It should also include a larger role for industrial policy and a comprehensive training and employment program. Trade unions, as well as environmentalists and civil society have much to contribute. They need to be included in the development of a more environmentally responsible approach to addressing climate change, one that does not rely simply on furthering the individual market-based decisions of the corporate sector.
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