The Geography of Skill: Mobility and Exclusionary Unionism in Canada’s North

Resource type
Author/contributor
Title
The Geography of Skill: Mobility and Exclusionary Unionism in Canada’s North
Abstract
This paper explores the spatial politics of racism and inter-worker competition through a case study of Indigenous employment during the construction of the Voisey’s Bay mine in northern Labrador. Over the course of construction, the building and construction trades unions (BCTUs) sought to restrict the hiring of local Inuit and Innu workers by challenging the legitimacy of place-based entitlements to work. Inuit and Innu workers had preferential access to employment as a result of unresolved land claims and the ensuing Impact and Benefit Agreements (IBA) between the Voisey’s Bay Nickel Company and both the Innu Nation and the Labrador Inuit Association. IBA provisions that local Inuit and Innu be hired preferentially ran counter to the unions’ organizational structures and cultures, which privileged worker mobility and skill. The BCTUs used the geographic incompatibility between the scale of Indigenous claims and that of construction worker organization to justify a competitive approach to unionism and to veil racist portrayals of Innu and Inuit workers. By drawing out the relation between skill, racism and beliefs about entitlements to work, this paper explores how workers selectively use place-based and mobile identities to participate in inter-worker competition, reifying colonial patterns of labour mobility and labour market segmentation.
Publication
Environment and Planning A: Economy and Space
Volume
51
Issue
3
Pages
724-742
Date
2019
Journal Abbr
Environ Plan A
Language
en
ISSN
0308-518X
Short Title
The Geography of Skill
Accessed
7/18/19, 4:52 AM
Library Catalog
SAGE Journals
Citation
Mills, S. (2019). The Geography of Skill: Mobility and Exclusionary Unionism in Canada’s North. Environment and Planning A: Economy and Space, 51(3), 724–742. https://doi.org/10.1177/0308518X18801025