Your search

Laboring for Rights: Unions and Sexual Diversity Across Nations, edited by Gerald Hunt, is reviewed.

This paper investigates the role of women's issues in the decision to join unions by examining a successful organizing drive in a predominantly female workplace. The main focus of the discussion is the identification of women's issues where they were not immediately apparent to workers and union representatives. The theoretical question raised by this case study is the extent to which women workers' relationship to unions is similar to or different from men workers'. Contemporary industrial relations discourse tends to emphasize the similarities between women and men, without taking into account well-documented differences in women's paid and unpaid work and union experiences. From a feminist perspective, the conclusion that gender is unimportant in organizing campaigns often rests on an inadequate analysis of what constitutes women's workplace/union issues.

The article reviews the book, "Success While Others Fail: Social Movement Unionism and the Public Workplace," by Paul Johnston.

It is argued that labor's rights have been effectively the rights of working-class men because only men were constructed as family breadwinners for whom collective bargaining was both necessary and legitimate. Working-class women, by contrast, were defined as non-working wives and mothers, so had no claim to steady jobs at good wages or to union representation in their own right. Secondly, PC 1003 accorded rights to men (but not women) inasmuch as it codified an industrial model of workers' rights. Thirdly, PC 1003 supported and encouraged the growth of a male model of collective bargaining. The implications of a gendered analysis of PC 1003 for the study of industrial relations are discussed.

The need to reexamine academic orthodoxy in the light of recent feminist scholarship is particularly pressing in the case of industrial relations. A study focuses on industrial relations as conceptualized and practiced by academics in Canadian business schools where systems theory remains the predominant analytical paradigm. The purpose of the study is to show that industrial relations so constructed is profoundly gender-biased. As a discipline, industrial relations is growing out of touch, not only with the changing realities of the workplace, but also with academic discourse in the social sciences. While some attention is paid to the so-called women's issues - maternity leave, sexual harassment policies, pay equity, and other issues - attention is limited. What is missing from industrial relations as presently defined and practiced is an analysis of gender relations as power relations.

The article reviews the book, "United Apart: Gender and the Rise of Craft Unionism," by Ileen A. DeVault.

In this paper I challenge the prevailing theoretical framework [of study in industrial relations] that marginalizes women by examining how unpaid work on and off the job is and is not analyzed in the literature and by demonstrating its importance to issues as central to the discipline as wages, job allocation, and industrial conflict. In the section entitled, "Unpaid Work on the Job," I argue that the concept of the "effort bargain"— how unpaid work is currently studied in industrial relations — obscures pay discrimination against women because it is more likely to implicitly recognize as work the tasks associated with jobs traditionally performed by men than many of the tasks associated with jobs performed by women. Under the heading, "Unpaid Work in the Household," I argue that unpaid work in the home determines, in part, how paid work is allocated and, in particular, how the social construction of women as non-workers/wives and mothers by researchers naturalizes women's place in the secondary labour market and reifies men's access to "breadwinner jobs." Finally, I conclude by arguing that incorporating unpaid work into the study of industrial relations is necessary to move women from the margins to the centre of discourse. --From author's introduction

The author addresses the questions of why industry-wide bargaining was developed in the Canadian meat-packing industry and why it suddenly collapsed.

This paper examines how the recent amendment to the Labour Relations Actestablishing compulsory first contract arbitration in Ontario fits within the existing legal framework.

What role the law should play in encouraging the growth of trade unions is a matter of considerable controversy in Canada, the United States, and the United Kingdom. Limits to growth in other sectors of the economy coupled with heightened employer hostility to unionism have made the extension of collective bargaining to the tertiary sector the most pressing task for unions in the 1980s. In a limited way, the Canadian procedure for certifying and recognizing unions is being considered as a model for labour law reform. And there is much to recommend the Canadian system. It is far more efficient than its American counterpart. There are fewer delays, fewer unlawful interventions by employers, and a substantially higher likelihood that newly organized unions will be granted certification. Even so, unions have failed to break into the trade, finance, and services industries that are so critical to their future. Taken as a whole, Canadian labour law tends to block rather than promote the growth of unions in the unorganized sectors of the economy. The certification procedure is only one aspect of a legal regime that has as its primary purpose the preservation of industrial peace, not the encouragement of union growth. By shaping bargaining structure and regulating bargaining tactics, Canadian labour law tilts the balance of power in favour of employers. Small, fragmented unions are frequently pitted against large corporations and as there is nothing to stop antiunion employers from using their overwhelming strength to frustrate the collective bargaining process, efforts to organize the tertiary sector have failed.

[E]xamines what types of issues unions should pursue in an effort to mobilize what is, at present, a largely a complacent or indifferent union membership. ...[The author] argues convincingly that the future survival of the labour movement lies with improving the lot of the most disadvantaged. --Editor's introduction

This article elaborates the concept of knowledge activism as a way of understanding effective health and safety representation within the current Ontario legal regime of internal responsibility. Based on interviews with unionized health and safety representatives in the auto industry, we suggest that knowledge activism is a form of political activism by worker health and safety representatives that is organized around the strategic collection and tactical use of technical, scientific and legal knowledge. We argue that knowledge activism is more effective with reference to larger scale changes in work processes, workplace organization and technologies, and with reference to occupational health issues. Knowledge activism is conceptualized as an effective adaptation to a legislative regime which involves worker representatives in decisions without providing substantive power or proactive enforcement support.

[This book] is a collection of original papers that presents a vision of an invigorated and vibrant labour movement, one that would actively seek the full participation of women and other traditionally excluded groups, and that would willingly incorporate a feminist agenda. This vision challenges union complicity in the gendered segmentation of the labour market; union support for traditionalist ideologies about women's work, breadwinners, and male-headed families; union resistance to broader-based bargaining; and the marginalization of women inside unions. All of the authors share a commitment to workplace militancy and a more democratic union movement, to women's resistance to the devaluation of their work, to their agency in the change-making process. The interconnected web of militancy, democracy, and feminism provides the grounds on which unions can address the challenges of equity and economic restructuring, and on which the re-visioning of the labour movement can take place. The first of the four sections includes case studies of union militancy that highlight the experiences of individual women in three areas of female-dominated work: nursing, banking, and retailing. The second and third sections focus on the two key arenas of struggle where unions and feminism meet: inside unions, where women activists and staff confront the sexism of unions, and in the labour market, where women challenge their employers and their own unions. The fourth section deconstructs the conceptual tools of the discipline of industrial relations and examines its contribution to the continued invisibility of gender. --Publisher's description. Contents: Foreword / Judy Darcy -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction: The Feminist Challenge to the Unions / Linda Briskin and Patricia McDermott. Part 1. Women on Strike. The Eaton's Strike: We Wouldn't Have Missed It for the World! / Patricia McDermott -- Alberta Nurses and the 'Illegal' Strike of 1988 / Rebecca Coulter -- Reflections on Life Stories: Women's Bank Union Activism / Patricia Baker. Part 2. The Politics of Gender within the Union Movement. Union Women and Separate Organizing / Linda Briskin -- Trade Union Leadership: Sexism and Affirmative Action / Carl J. Cuneo -- Women Working for Unions: Female Staff and the Politics of Transformation / Jane Stinson and Penni Richmond -- Black Women Speak Out: Racism and Unions / Ronnie Leah -- Unionism and Feminism in the Canadian Auto Workers Union, 1961-1992 / Pamela Sugiman. Part 3. Unions and Women Workers. Patterns of Unionization / Julie White -- Collective Bargaining and Women's Workplace Concerns / Pradeep Kumar -- The Gendered Dimension of Labour Law: Why Women Need Inclusive Unionism and Broader-based Bargaining / Judy Fudge -- Can a Disappearing Pie be Shared Equally?: Unions, Women, and Wage 'Fairness' / Rosemary Warskett -- Unions and Women's Occupational Health in Québec / Karen Messing and Donna Mergler -- From the DEW Line: The Experience of Canadian Garment Workers / Armine Yalniziyan -- Professions, Unions, or What?: Learning from Nurses Pat Armstrong. Part 4. Studying Women and Unions. A View from Outside the Whale: The Treatment of Women and Unions in Industrial Relations / Anne Forrest.

In this edited collection, Leslie Nichols weaves together the contributions of accomplished and diverse scholars to offer an expansive and critical analysis of women’s work in Canada. Students will use an intersectional approach to explore issues of gender, class, race, immigrant status, disability, sexual orientation, Indigeneity, age, and ethnicity in relation to employment. Drawing from case studies and extensive research, the text’s eighteen chapters consider Canadian industries across a broad spectrum, including political, academic, sport, sex trade, retail, and entrepreneurial work. Working Women in Canada is a relevant and in-depth look into the past, present, and future of women’s responsibilities and professions in Canada. Undergraduate and graduate students in gender studies, labour studies, and sociology courses will benefit from this thorough and intersectional approach to the study of women’s labour. Features include tables, case studies, a glossary of key terms, and chapter introductions and conclusions to assist with student comprehension encourages further learning by concluding each chapter with discussion questions, a list of additional key readings, and an extensive reference list provides a broad portrait of women’s work in Canada with contributions from over 20 scholars. --Publisher's description. Contents: Women, work, and intersectionality: An introduction */* Leslie Nichols -- Unions are definitely good for women—but that’s not the whole story / Anne Forrest -- Women’s occupational health and safety / Katherine Lippel and Stephanie Premji -- Unemployed and underemployed women in Canada / Leslie Nichols -- Immigrant women’s work: Paid and unpaid labour in the neoliberal economy / Leslie Nichols, Vappu Tyyskä, and Pramila Aggarwal -- “Not just a job”: Disability, work, and gender / Esther Ignagni -- Young women: Navigating the education-employment divide / Leslie Nichols -- Childcare: Working in early childhood education and care in Canada / Susan Prentice -- Minoritized faculty in Canada’s universities and colleges: Gender, power, and academic work / Sandra Acker and Linda Muzzin -- Black women’s small businesses as historical spaces of resistance / Melanie Knight -- Black women in Canadian university sports / Danielle Gabay -- The public women of Canada: Women in elected office / Jocelyne Praud, Alexa Lewis, and Jarod Sicotte -- Women, aesthetic labour, and retail work: A case study of independent fashion retailers in Toronto / Deborah Leslie and Taylor Brydges -- From the woman’s page to the digital age: Women in journalism / Andrea Hunter -- Equity shifts in firefighting: Challenging gendered and racialized work / Susan Braedley -- Women in manufacturing: Challenges in a neoliberal context / June Corman -- The nonprofit sector: Women’s path to leadership / Agnes Meinhard and Mary Foster -- Understanding the work in sex work: Canadian contexts / Kara Gillies, Elene Lam, Tuulia Law, Rai Reece, Andrea Sterling, and Emily van der Meulen.