In recent years, Canada has experienced the mass popularity of social media — blogs, Facebook, and Twitter to name a few. Canadians are among the world’s most prolific social media users, with an estimated 48 per cent of us on Facebook. By 2014, it is projected that 68 per cent of Canadians will visit social networking sites, according to the latest reports.

Stock options are a common component of employee compensation packages, but they bring some tricky issues when it comes to termination of employment. Employers are increasingly being challenged by allegations that wrongfully dismissed employees are entitled to damages on account of unexercised stock options. The value of stock-option liability often dwarfs the damages that flow from lack of notice of termination.

In the face of a losing battle on the Employee Free Choice Act front, U.S. President Barack Obama’s administration has turned to a more subtle, but no less effective strategy to move American labour policy to the left.

The emerging joint global strategy of domestic unions and their international counterparts promises to be increasingly consequential for North American companies.

 

Many U.S. businesses doing or seeking to do business in Canada are initially attracted to the country due to its cultural similarities with, and close geographic location to, their own.

General Motors, Chrysler, and the United Auto Workers were hit hard by the global economic crisis. To confront bankruptcy, the car companies reached agreement with the UAW for wage and other concessions. In return, the UAW’s Voluntary Employee Benefits Association agreed to exchange billions in unpaid contributions for 17.5 per cent of GM’s shares and 67 per cent of Chrysler’s.  

 

There is renewed debate about labour law reform in the United States with the reintroduction of the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) in the U.S. Congress. The EFCA stalled in the U.S. Senate in 2007, but the political tide shifted with the election of President Barack Obama and a Democratic majority in Congress.