Your search

This paper argues that we need to look again at hours of work. One out of every five Canadians is working more than 40 hours a week as their regular hours, while one out of ten work over 50 hours. On top of this, overtime is excessive - paid overtime alone is the equivalent of 225,000 full-time jobs. A major study by the CEP in the pulp and paper industry has shown that overtime may be more expensive than hiring additional workers and that workers are willing to reduce overtime in order to save or create jobs. On reducing regular hours of work, the CEP has found that additional days away from work, once negotiated and experienced, are extremely popular. While more time off is about job creation, better health and safety and improving family and social life, it opposes the lean and mean approach of business corporations.

Sisters & Solidarity provides a clear and well-researched overview of the position of women in relation to the labour movement across Canada. After surveying the development of the labour movement at the turn of the century, the author traces the increasing influence of women members in the Canadian labour movement. Sisters & Solidarity considers not only what unions have negotiated with employers, but the position of women inside the union movement itself. Based on interviews with unions and labour centrals across the country, Julie White examines the representation of women in union executives, committees, conventions and staff. She describes the development of women's committees and examines the responses of unions to demands for change concerning family responsibilities, harassment, and union education. Using new data the author analyzes who are the unorganized, where they work, and why it is difficult to organize them. Three case studies examine the attempts to unionize homeworkers and cleaners and new labour relations legislation in Ontario. Sisters & Solidarity also considers the position of racial minorities, disabled persons and gays and lesbians in the Canadian union movement and the steps unions and labour centrals have taken to meet the needs of these workers. --Publisher's description

[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.

Women's activism in unions has increased dramatically in the last decade, creating a sense of renewed vitality and excitement in the trade union movement. Union Sisters is a attempt to document the struggles and victories of the movement of union women as well as to provide some direction to women and unions as they fight to defend the interests of working people. --Introduction, Contents: Acknowledgments -- Introduction / Linda Briskin and Lynda Yanz -- Part 1: Background. Women at Work in Canada / Lynda Yanz and David Smith -- Women and Unions in Canada: A Statistical Overview / Linda Briskin -- No Proper Deal: Women Workers and the Canadian Labour Movement, 1870-1940 / Ruth Frager. Part 2: Union issues. Out of the Ghettos: Affirmative Action and Unions / Jackie Larkin -- "Action Positive" in the Quebec Trade Union Movement / Hélène David, translated by Daina Green -- Under Attack: Women, Unions and Microtechnology / Marion Pollock -- Part-time Work and Unions / Julie White -- Sexual Harassment: An Issue for Unions / Susan Attenborough -- Coercion or Male Culture: A New Look at Co-worker Harassment / Debbie Field -- Lesbians and Gays in the Union Movement / Susan Genge -- The Right to Strike / Judy Darcy and Catherine Lauzon -- Bargaining for Equality / Jane Adams and Julie Griffin. Part 3: The Challenge of the Unorganized. Why Are So Many Women Unorganized? / Laurell Ritchie -- Triple Oppression: Immigrant Women in the Labour Force / Alejandra Cumsille, Carolyn Egan, Gladys Klestorny, and Maria Terese Larrain -- Domestic Workers: The Experience in B.C. / Rachel Epstein -- Organizing Freelancers in the Arts / Joanne Kates and Jane Springer. Part 4: Inside Unions. Women's Challenge to Organized Labour / Linda Briskin -- Working, Mothering and Militancy: Women in the CNTU [Confederation of National Trade Unions (Quebec)] / Nancy Guberman -- Women's Committees: The Quebec Experience / Françoise David, translated by Daina Green -- The Dilemma Facing Women's Committees / Debbie Field. Part 5: The Power of Alliances. Free Universal Day Care: The OFL Takes a Stand / Susan Colley -- Wives Supporting the Strike / Arja Lane -- From Ladies' Auxiliaries to Wives' Committees / Meg Luxton -- Trade Union Women and the NDP / Janis Sarra -- Building Links: Labour and the Women's Movement /Carolyn Egan and Lynda Yanz. Part 6: Resources. Women, Work and Unions: A Cineography / Dinah Forbes  -- Trade Union Resources on Women /  Linda Briskin -- Women and Unions: A Selected Bibliography / Lynda Yanz.