Faith Agostinone-Wilson
CENTRE FOR THE STUDY OF EDUCATION AND WORK – UPDATE 30th JULY 2013
EVENTS
AERC (ADULT EDUCATION RESEARCH CONFERENCE) 2014 CALL FOR PROPOSALS
June 5-7, 2014
Harrisburg, PA
Pre-Conferences on June 4, 2014
Paper Proposals: Papers are reports of completed research and will be published in the conference proceedings. There are three categories for papers: (a) empirical research, (b) model or theory development, and (c) theorizing from the literature. The time allotted for each session is 50 minutes. Audience participation, as a principle of adult education, is stressed.
Symposium Proposals: A symposium presents diverse or conflicting perspectives on a compelling topic or issue that is or should be of concern to adult education practitioners. A symposium should NOT be merely a presentation of a related set of papers. Symposia will be published in the conference proceedings. The time allotted for each session is 90 minutes.
Audience participation is encouraged.
Deadline for receipt of proposals is September 23, 2013. Send proposals via email as an attachment to aerc2014@yahoo.com.
For more details go to the AERC website at http://adulterc.org/
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MAKING THE YOUTH COUNT IN CANADA’S FUTURE: THE STRUGGLE OF YOUNG WORKERS IN THE AGE OF AUSTERITY AND NEOLIBERAL GLOBALIZATION
August 3, 2013
United Steelworkers’ Hall
25 Cecil Street, Toronto
Registration fee is $15 (includes meals and conference materials)
In Ontario, youth unemployment is at 16.2% as of March 2013. As the province with the highest tuition fees in the country, ballooning student debt coupled by a labour market characterised by the general decline of secure and meaningful full-time jobs, the youth have little choice but to accept ‘flexible/contractual’ jobs, often in the low-wage sector, despite high levels of educational attainment.
As part of the Congress of Progressive Filipino Canadians (CPFC), the Filipino Canadian Youth Alliance/Ugnayan Ng Kabataang Pilipino sa Canada–Ontario (FCYA/UKPC-ON) cannot accept a future or fate that can only be left up to the fluctuations of the market economy. For FCYA/UKPC-ON, it is imperative that we expose and oppose the current neoliberal agenda and all its manifestations here in Canada to counter the attacks being imposed on us, and make the youth count in Canada’s future.
Registration for this conference is now available online: http://www.magkaisacentre.org/2013/04/18/maketheyouthcount/
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WORKERS’ HISTORY OF SPADINA
Workers’ History of Spadina Heritage Toronto walk.
Jul 31, 6:30 pm; Aug 11, 10:30 am.
Free/pwyc. Location provided upon registration
Pre-register at http://www.heritagetoronto.org
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SOCIAL PLANNING TORONTO FORUM – ORGANIZING FOR CHANGE: CONNECTING THE EVERYDAY WITH POLICY CHANGE INITIATIVES
Thursday, August 22
9:30am-11:30am
Social Planning Toronto
Suite 1001, 2 Carlton Street, Toronto
There is a growing need for the social service sector to engage in policy change initiatives. As the gap between the rich and poor increases and the austerity agenda requires the community to do more with less, concerted effort must be made to address both immediate adversities, as well as the structural and systemic issues that create them.
Join us at our Member Forum to explore ways of connecting daily occurrences with policy change initiatives, and the presentation of new SPT report entitled “Linking Community Organizing with Policy Change Initiatives: Implications for Future Community Practice in Toronto”.
Guest Speakers:
– Kuni Kamizaki, author of Linking community organizing with policy change initiatives
– Rob Howarth, Executive Director, Toronto Neighbourhood Centres
– Deena Ladd, Coordinator, Workers Action Centre
Registration: Visit http://augustmemberforum-eorg.eventbrite.ca/ or contact Sharma Queiser at squeiser@socialplanningtoronto.org or 416-351-0095 ext.227.
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NEWS & VIEWS
WALMART TRIES—AND FAILS BADLY—TO PUSH BACK AGAINST WORKERS’ AWFUL STORIES
By Laura Clawson, Daily Kos Labor
Walmart is not happy. After Gawker’s Hamilton Nolan posted stories emailed in by Walmart workers, the company put up a post on an internal website asking current employees to send Nolan cheery stories of how amazing and wonderful it is to work at Walmart. While some people complied, others responded directly to the boss’s request, on the Walmart employee website, with comments like:
“Sadly, the Gawker stories match my Walmart experience.”
(http://gawker.com/wal-mart-employees-rip-the-company-on-its-own-internal-755057616)
The initial stories, by the way, included reports of rats and health violations, sexual harassment, and, of course, low pay and unpredictable part-time scheduling (http://gawker.com/and-now-a-few-more-stories-from-wal-mart-employees-721527870).
And that’s what Walmart workers are saying directly to the company, on an internal website, matches their experiences.
All of this is happening against the backdrop of Walmart’s threats to pull out of Washington, D.C., if the city follows through on instituting a $12.50 wage for workers at stores with more than $1 billion annual corporate sales and more than 75,000 square feet. The city council passed the Large Retailer Accountability Act with just short of a veto-proof majority, and Mayor Vincent Gray has hinted he might veto the ordinance. Urge Mayor Gray to give big box workers a living wage (http://campaigns.dailykos.com/p/dia/action3/common/public/?action_KEY=472).
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CAMPAIGN TO RAISE THE MINIMUM WAGE!
Ontario workers are struggling to get by working 2 or 3 low paying jobs. No one should work full time and yet still live in poverty.
The minimum wage has been frozen at $10.25 for three years. It’s time for an increase!
We need a minimum wage of $14 in 2013 to bring workers and their families 10% above the poverty line – and a commitment to annual cost-of-living adjustments.
Contact us at raisetheminimumwage@gmail.com to get connected to local actions, or to get support to start-up a minimum wage campaign in your community.
Follow actions and updates from across Ontario by liking the Raise the Minimum Wage facebook page here: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Campaign-to-Raise-the-Minimum-Wage/376591935781724?ref=hl
The Campaign to Raise the Minimum Wage is coordinated by ACORN, Freedom 90, Mennonite New Life Centre, OCAP, Ontario Campaign 2000, Parkdale Community Legal Services, Put Food in the Budget, Social Planning Toronto, Toronto and York Region Labour Council and the Workers’ Action Centre.
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STUDENT DEBT AND THE AMERICAN DREAM: INTERVIEW WITH SAM GINDIN
By Álvaro Guzmán Bastida, The Bullet
This interview is part of a larger piece on the student debt crisis in America the author wrote as an assignment for one of his classes at the Graduate School of Journalism at Columbia University. The piece offers a longform, narrative, character-driven tale of three indebted students and how being in debt jeopardizes their personal development, their career prospects and their ability to pursue their dreams and even be free. Following them throughout the process of getting loans, accumulating debt and meeting (or not meeting) payments, the article gives the whole story and history of student debt: its political and financial ramifications, the consequences it has on students and society as a whole and the different approaches to tackling the crisis.
Read more: http://www.socialistproject.ca/bullet/847.php
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BARISTAS RISE UP IN HALIFAX
From RankAndFile.ca
The low wage service sector is one of the most difficult sectors for workers to form unions. The small workplaces’ lack of union tradition, high staff turnover and aggressive anti-union managers and owners in the sector have meant that most unions have stayed away from organizing places such as coffee shops.
In Halifax, Nova Scotia coffee shop workers at several workplaces have started to come together to try to transform the low wage, precarious work of baristas into something better by forming unions with the Service Employees International Union Local 2. Organizing in this sector is necessary if the union movement is to remain vibrant and relevant.
Read more: http://rankandfile.ca/2013/07/18/baristas-rise-up-in-halifax/
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NURSES AT RISK: EXPLORING GENDER AND RACE IN WORKPLACE ILLNESS, INJURY AND VIOLENCE
The webinar recording is now online! View the webinar here (55 minutes): https://cwhn.adobeconnect.com/_a844234029/p8dc7coyiks/?launcher=false&fcsContent=true&pbMode=normal
Moderated by Prof. Pat Armstrong, York University Sociology and Women’s Studies
Presented by Prof. Jacqueline Choiniere and Prof. Judith MacDonnell, York University School of Nursing
Introduced by Anne Rochon Ford, Canadian Women’s Health Network’s Executive Director
Canadian nurses face mounting workplace health and safety problems. Reports detailing precarious employment, work-related illness, injury, disability and violence are multiplying.
In this webinar, Jacqueline Choiniere and Judith MacDonnell explore findings from two stages of their qualitative research for the SSHRC-funded project, Nurses at risk: Exploring gender and race in workplace illness, injury and violence, (Pat Armstrong, PI, with Co-Investigators Hugh Armstrong, Jacqueline Choiniere, Tamara Daly, Walter Giesbrecht and Judith MacDonnell).
Informed by a feminist political economy lens, researchers were concerned that despite this growing evidence, there was a paucity of analysis linking these problems to broader social and political structures, including gender, race, ethnicity, and the changes in how nurses’ work is organized.
They discuss interviews with key informants who illustrate the everyday and complex nature of the violence that diversely-situated nurses face, and focus specifically on nurses working in the mental health sector.
By attending to the ways that intersections of gendered, racialized and neoliberal dynamics reproduce social inequality, these findings point to the importance of addressing not only individual nurses’ experiences of violence in order to create effective support, but also the structural violence that underpins the conditions and environments in which nurses work.
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Article: Credit Where Credit is Due in Non-Credit Adult Education
By Mike Newman
The author sings the praises of non-credit adult education, and enlists a number of philosophers to help in the chorus. He examines the motives people might have for enrolling in non-credit courses, and makes the following claims: that good non-credit adult education can give us a purpose, provide some order in our unpredictable lives, encourage us to reason freely, nurture our consciousness, foster a civil society, protect valuable elements of our lifeworld, and teach us to assert ourselves.
(Michael Newman writes about adult education and social and political action.)
Read the article: http://concept.lib.ed.ac.uk/index.php/Concept/article/view/235
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JOBS/INTERNSHIPS
TRAINING & EDUCATION COORDINATOR, THE BROADBENT INSTITUTE
The Broadbent Institute is a national non-profit organization, based in Ottawa and Toronto, which is dedicated to developing and supporting individuals, organizations and policies that advance a progressive vision of compassionate citizenship.
Position Summary & Core Expectations
The Broadbent Institute is seeking a highly-organized and good-humoured Training & Education Coordinator located in Montreal or Quebec City to execute the logistics of a national training and education program for the organization.
Responsibilities
Working with the Director of Training & Education, support the delivery of a training program focused on furthering democratic engagement, deepening political literacy, and training a new generation of progressive leaders. The program will involve the development of new curriculum, the creation of on-line delivery tools, and the organization of events across the country.
For more info: http://rankandfile.ca/2013/07/17/job-posting-training-education-coordinator-the-broadbent-institute/
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ANDREW JACKSON PROGRESSIVE ECONOMICS INTERNSHIP
A joint internship with the Alternative Federal Budget and the Growing Gap Project (Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives-CCPA)
About the Alternative Federal Budget
The Alternative Federal Budget (AFB) is one of the CCPA’s longest running projects, now entering its 20th year. It consists of 27 chapters written by over 90 contributors. Each chapter examines a different federal issue and progressive policy prescription for each. All policy recommendations are fully costed and paid for within a larger macro-economic framework. The implications of AFB measures on the federal debt, deficit and employment are also determined.
About the Growing Gap Project
The Growing Gap team tracks the changing nature of Canada’s economy, work and income trends, and policies that help or worsen the problem of income inequality. The research to date has been clear: Governments have a strong role to play in implementing policies that help keep a lid on growing inequality, to make sure Canada’s economy works for everyone, not just a privileged few.
The CCPA is an independent, non-partisan research institute concerned with social, economic and environmental justice. For more information, visit http://www.policyalternatives.ca
Job Responsibilities
– Research and review relevant academic and policy literature concerning income inequality in Canada;
– Organize meetings with various AFB writers and contributors;
– Review individual AFB chapters and the macro-economic framework;
– Assist with other data analysis and report writing, as required. Some of this will be generic research assistance to David Macdonald.
For more info and to apply: http://rankandfile.ca/2013/07/23/andrew-jackson-progressive-economics-internship/
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NETWORK ORGANIZER AT LEADING CHANGE NETWORK
The Leading Change Network is a global community of practice of some 100 organizers, researchers and educators. Initiated by Marshall Ganz, Harvard Kennedy School, and others, its purpose is to support its participants in developing the leadership, building the organizational capacity, and improving the ability of democratic organizing to meet the critical challenges of our times. At present, for example, participants in 11 countries work on topics that range from immigration reform, human rights, gender equity, and economic justice to climate change, public health, and domestic violence. The demand, however, far exceeds our current capacity to respond, indicated by a growing data base of over 2000 interested persons in more 25 countries who would like to engage with us. The purpose of our search is to find a person who can enable us to respond.
We seek a proactive, creative and “well organized” online organizer to work with a diverse leadership team to build the network, grow the network, and manage network infrastructure (database, web site, social media, etc.)
For more info and to apply: http://www.leadingchangenetwork.com
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LABOR EDUCATOR, UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA
The Labor Education Service (LES) at the University of Minnesota is seeking a full-time labor educator to join our teaching staff.
Job responsibilities include leading labor education courses for working adults, designing customized curriculum, and coordinating and implementing educational programs, often in collaboration with other staff. The position requires teaching expertise using diverse methodologies, substantial experience with labor unions and organizing, and effectiveness at relating with a wide variety of worker organizations.
Duties include:
– Developing, teaching, and administering labor education courses and programs for a variety of unions and related organizations throughout the state of Minnesota.
– Designing and developing curriculum and course materials, with particular attention to the changing needs and growing diversity of the labor movement.
– Collaborating with LES staff and others on program development and coordination, including conferences and special events.
– Fostering and maintaining productive relationships with labor organizations and other community groups committed to economic and social justice.
Application Deadline: August 23, 2013
How to apply:
All applicants must apply online through the University of Minnesota website at https://employment.umn.edu/applicants/jsp/shared/Welcome_css.jsp
Applications must include a letter of interest, a resume or CV, and names and contact information for three references.
Questions? Email Mary at LES@umn.edu or phone the LES office, 612-624-5020.
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ABOUT CSEW (CENTRE FOR THE STUDY OF EDUCATION & WORK, OISE/UT):
Head: Peter Sawchuk
Co-ordinator: D’Arcy Martin
The Centre for the Study of Education and Work (CSEW) brings together educators from university, union, and community settings to understand and enrich the often-undervalued informal and formal learning of working people. We develop research and teaching programs at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (UofT) that strengthen feminist, anti-racist, labour movement, and working-class perspectives on learning and work.
Our major project is APCOL: Anti-Poverty Community Organizing and Learning. This five-year project (2009-2013), funded by SSHRC-CURA, brings academics and activists together in a collaborative effort to evaluate how organizations approach issues and campaigns and use popular education. For more information about this project, visit http://www.apcol.ca
For more information about CSEW, visit: http://www.csew.ca
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Cold Hands & Quarter Moon, ‘Stagnant’ at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YkP_Mi5ideo (new remix, and new video, 2012)
‘Cheerful Sin’ – a song by Victor Rikowski: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tIbX5aKUjO8
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