This Magazine articles from January 1998

This Magazine archives from January 1998

How to succeed in business without really trying (glossary).
January 1, 1998... DURING THE EIGHTIES, business-people adopted TLAs (three-letter acronyms) in an attempt to sound smarter and to obfuscate their intentions. But after a while, even they couldn't tell the difference between BPR and TQM, and before long, these...

True lies (integrity test).
January 1, 1998... NOT LONG AGO, I RECEIVED a congratulatory phone call informing me that I had been short-listed for a part-time job with a private health services company in Halifax. Confident that I would outshine all comers and secure the post with my winning...

Would you like benefits with that?
January 1, 1998... WHEN McDONALD'S CAUGHT wind of a union drive at its St. Hubert, Quebec, franchise last February, the fast food giant barely blinked. Having successfully derailed earlier unionization attempts in Orangeville, Ontario, and Longueuil, Quebec, the...

Seoul food.
January 1, 1998... THE WEEK BEFORE SOUTH Korea's presidential election, my roommate and I were sitting in a Lotteria fast-food joint eating the shrimp burgers Mr. Cho had bought for us in exchange for conversation. He was hungry for our views on the Korean...

Maximun title, minimum wage.
January 1, 1998... A legion of expertly trained staff bearing unlikely and exceedingly grand titles are taking over retail. But are these sales associates and certified agents receiving benefits and job security to reflect their highly specialized skills? We did...

Where to make a killing (work abroad and human rights abuses).
January 1, 1998... SINCE IT WAS PUBLISHED IN 1994, Colin Campbell's Where the Jobs Are has become standard reading for Canadians looking for work abroad. More and more jobs will move to developing nations, Campbell explains, as factors such as "political...

Well it worked in other APEC countries.
January 1, 1998... When it was announced that Vancouver would host the 1997 APEC Summit, there was considerable division on the left over strategy: fight to get labour and human rights on the APEC agenda, or oppose this unholy alliance of corporations and...

Case of the purloined passport.
January 1, 1998... It had all the makings of a James Bond film -- secret agents, groovy gadgets, murky terrorists. For the Canadian media, the "Passport Affair" was a convenient distraction from talking about the real issues in the Middle East. So what else is...

Second wind: old-style labour militancy is back in Ontario.
January 1, 1998... AN INNIS MEMORIAL COLUMN BY MEL WATKINS IF YOU BELIEVE THE mainstream press, unions seem barely to exist. Except when they go on strike and risk being portrayed as trouble-makers interfering with the smooth operation of the economy. We are...

Work issue: "Going crazy?".
January 1, 1998... I get asked this all the time. By friends, colleagues, even my own family. In fact, I ask them, too. It's a rhetorical question. The latest version of "How's it going?" I don't expect a real reply. It's just an attempt to acknowledge their busy...

Stupid jobs are good to relax with.
January 1, 1998... STUPID JOBS ARE THE BEST WAY TO AVOID THE MIND-NUMBING IDIOCY OF FULL-TIME EMPLOYMENT. THE BEST WAY TO STAY SMART. THE ONLY WAY TO STAY SANE. JOIN THE REVOLUTION. SLACK OFF. A RADICAL MANIFESTO Springsteen kicked off his world tour at...

Between a rock and a hard place: ... miners of Cape Breton.
January 1, 1998... THEY started to gather early in the morning outside the mining building on Union Street in Glace Bay, Nova Scotia. Miners and their wives kept arriving until there were about 75 people congregated in the pale light of a cold February day. ...

How to talk to your kids about unions (Union Summer).
January 1, 1998... UNION SUMMER WAS SUPPOSED TO REVITALIZE THE AMERICAN LABOUR MOVEMENT BY GETTING COLLEGE KIDS AND YOUNG ACTIVISTS IN ON THE ACTION. BUT IT WON'T DO MUCH OF ANYTHING IF THE CULTURE OF UNIONS DOESN'T CHANGE RADICALLY It's 3 o'clock on a humid...

Skinny on Starbucks.
January 1, 1998... RETAIL jobs are no longer just an after-school stop on the road to better things. Starbucks employees at nine Vancouver outlets made this point vividly last summer when they brought in the first Starbucks collective agreement in North America....

Temp: ... welcome to the new corporate order: temp CEOs.
January 1, 1998... When Paul Stern was hired as chief executive officer of Northern Telecom in 1990, industry observers hailed him as a dynamic, young hero. He didn't know much about telecommunications; in fact, his last top job had been running a computer...

Long way home: ... Sayisi Dene.
January 1, 1998... Ila Bussidor tells stories that leave me gasping for breath. In a quiet level voice, she talks about a memorable Christmas Eve. She and her sister had just returned to Churchill, Manitoba, from the highschools they were attending in southern...

Togolese artistic.
January 1, 1998... The mighty war is raging. Angry red streaks are pounding the earth. Hundreds of bombs land and explode. The hospitals are burning. The children's schools are burning. The farm animals are screaming and birds turn to ash in the sky. Thousands...

Assault and pepper.
January 1, 1998... SIX HUNDRED TIMES HOTTER than cayenne pepper, pepper spray is pure pain. The initial sting is followed by an agonizing burning sensation in your eyes and lungs. If you have asthma, it can cause permanent damage. On November 25, 1997,...