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This article examines Pierre Elliott Trudeau's relationship with labour and social democratic organizations, 1949-1959. Using historiographic works, reflections from contemporary historical figures, and Trudeau's archival fonds, this essay demonstrates that his connections to labour and the left were motivated by his desire to enrich liberal democracy in both Quebec and Canada. Supporting labour unions and the provincial/federal Cooperative Commonwealth Federation during the early 1950s was imperative, as labour was a force for change and democratic renewal, and the CCF was the party with the strongest commitment to popular democracy, especially when contrasted with a Liberal Party and Union Nationale, which were dominated by regressive and financial interests. Using various theoretical approaches, including Ian McKay's Liberal Order Framework and Antonio Gramsci's concept of "trasformismo," I seek to show how Trudeau's leftist forays were informed by the desire to transform liberalism and capitalism in such a way that maintained their essences while inoculating them from their core flaws. This process of liberal transformation and hegemony is further emphasized in the later stages of the 1950s, as Trudeau began to reject social democratic and labour parties, arguing that they put their goals aside and join forces with liberals to fight for democracy first.

Considers the current regulatory environment for temporary employment workers in Quebec. Concludes that the legislative failure to regulate has resulted in abusive practices that undermine labour law.

Compares the legal regimes of British Columbia and Manitoba for employment agencies that recruit women from the Philippines to work as caregivers in Canadian homes. Concludes that the Manitoba regulatory framework is much more effective in protecting caregivers from the abusive practices of these agencies.

This article reconsiders the shift in Canada from an exclusively government-regulated occupational health and safety system to the Internal Responsibility System (IRS). The IRS gives workers rights, or “voice,” to manage, know about, and refuse unsafe working conditions. I present new evidence that worker voice and the IRS have weakened with the decline of unions and the rise of precarious employment. Survey data are analyzed from Ontario workers who rated the likelihood that raising a health and safety concern with their current employer would negatively affect their future employment. My analysis models how workers’ sex, race, unionization, sector, and degree of employment precarity affect their probability of exercising voice. Results of a logistic regression suggest the most precariously employed are the least likely to use voice. Consequently, I argue that the IRS should be supplemented with more external oversight in sectors where employment is most insecure.

[Examines] the prevalence of both precarious and stable employment in the labour market stretching from Hamilton in the west to Whitby in the east, and centred on the City of Toronto. [The report] expands the discussion of the social consequences of Canada’s polarizing income distribution by examining the effects of precarious employment on people’s lives. It explores how employment precarity and income together shape social outcomes. What makes this issue all the more important is our finding that barely 50% of people in our study are in jobs that are both permanent and full-time. --Website description. Contents: Background -- Part 1: The rise of precarious employment -- Part 2: The characteristics of the precariously employed -- Part 3: Precarity and household well-being -- Part 4: Precarity and the well-being of children -- Part 5: Precarity and community connection -- Part 6: Options for change -- Appendix A: How we collected our data -- Appendix B: Defining individuals in precarious employment -- Appendix C: How we determined low, middle, and high household income brackets -- Bibliography.

This paper focuses on the contradictory nature and sometimes unintended consequences of workers' efforts to defend particular communities against the ravages of capital restructuring. In the past decade, pattern collective bargaining in the highly unionized British Columbia pulp and paper industry has faced enormous strains due to intense industry restructuring. Our analysis focuses on the repercussions of actions taken by union locals in two British Columbia towns-Port Alice and Port Alberni-to try to secure the survival of their pulp and paper mills and, even in the case of Port Alice, the continued existence of the community. Our analysis resonates with recent debates surrounding worker agency as well as writing in the 1980s which addressed the often contradictory and problematic nature of workers' struggles to 'defend place'; writing largely neglected in more recent work in labour geography.

English/French abstracts of articles in the Spring 2013 issue.

English/French abstracts of articles in the Fall 2013 issue.

The Canadian Association for Work and Labour Studies (CAWLS) is an academic association for scholars interested in work, workers, and labour. --Website

Class, Race and Corporate Power is an academic journal examining the politics of corporate power. This includes an analysis of capital, labor, and race relations within nation-states and the global economy. We encourage contributions that explore these issues within holistic frameworks that borrow from a range of scholarly disciplines. --Website description

The Global Labour Research Centre (GLRC), based in the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies, engages in the study of work, employment and labour in the context of a constantly changing global economy. The Centre’s work is organized around five major themes: Work, Employment, and Labour Rights; Migration, Citizenship, and Work; Gender Relations in Work and Labour Movements; Revitalization of Workers’ Movements; and Work and Health. The GLRC acts as hub for pan-university research collaboration on global labour, and promotes research that engages with a wide range of labour and community partners. --Website description

Mobility for work is not new, but it is changing. Across the world a wide range of people are mobile for work – women and men, citizens and temporary foreign workers, new workers and those near retirement. From hours-long daily commutes, to travel that takes workers away from home for days, weeks, months and even years; from mobility within work (truck driving, shipping and others) to mobility to get to and from work; from cars and buses, to trains, ships and planes; from highly-paid top executive jobs, to minimum-wage service jobs; from natural resource dependent industry to natural wonder dependent tourism – the types of mobility are many and changing. The On the Move Partnership is a multi-year national scale research program with international links, investigating employment-related geographical mobility and its consequences for workers, families, employers, communities, and Canadian municipal, provincial and federal governments. --Website description

[Press Progress is] an independent, nonprofit newsroom that produces original reporting, critical analysis and educational information on important matters of public interest. [Their] work has been cited as a reliable source by every major news outlet in Canada. PressProgress is a media project launched by the Broadbent Institute in 2013. [They] mainly focus on investigative reporting, fact-checking, analyzing data and keeping tabs on underreported issues – work that requires time and resources many news outlets in Canada can no longer afford to do. [They] aim to break original stories that Canada’s big news outlets miss and advance stories on issues that matter to [their] progressive readership. --Website description

The Workers Arts and Heritage Centre was started over 25 years ago by an ambitious and dynamic group of labour historians, artists, and union and community activists who saw a need for a community museum that could celebrate the history of workers and labour. Over the years, we have expanded our vision of work to include both paid and unpaid work, and to be as inclusive as possible of the experiences and histories of the least visible work and workers. WAHC is housed in the heritage-listed Custom House building. In 1995, after intense work by a volunteer board of directors, the (Ontario) Workers Arts and Heritage Centre purchased the historic Custom House in the north end of Hamilton. The building stood deserted until WAHC was able to purchase it. Over $1.5 million went into the restoration of this majestic historic building. As a community museum and arts centre, we offer a diverse array of exhibitions, workshops, educational programs, digital projects, and community events that explore perspectives in labour history, social justice, and contemporary labour issues. WAHC also has a permanent collection of artifacts that relate to labour history and workers’ experiences. We bring together members of our community, unions, local arts organizations, workers’ groups, and artists to share and celebrate the stories of working people. Ours our collaborative ventures. [The website was launched on November 12, 2013.] --Website description ("About us," 2023-09-22)

La vie professionnelle : âge, expérience et santé à l’épreuve des conditions de travail, edited by Anne-Françoise Molinié, Corinne Gaudart and Valérie Pueyo, is reviewed.

The article reviews and comments on the books "They Saved the Crops: Labor, Landscape, and the Struggle Over Industrial Farming in Bracero-Era California," by Don Mitchell, "Braceros: Migrant Citizens and Transnational Subjects in the Postwar United States and Mexico," by Deborah Cohen, and "Pineros: Latino Labour and the Changing Face of Forestry in the Pacific Northwest," by Brinda Sarathy.

Ce texte propose une relecture du débat sur l’action syndicale à l’international entre la construction de coalitions globales et le développement de réseaux locaux. Il se base sur le récit des représentants syndicaux du secteur minier au Ghana et au Mexique. Les stratégies syndicales sont saisies sous les trois dimensions analytiques que sont les espaces de l’action syndicale à l’international, les modes d’interaction et le cadre de référence. L’objectif de l’article vise à comprendre comment les syndicats nationaux naviguent entre le local et le global, et les facteurs qui les poussent et les attirent vers les espaces transnationaux.Alors que les deux syndicats sont engagés dans un processus de renouvellement de leur action, leur stratégie transnationale diffère : les Ghanéens sont engagés dans le développement de nouvelles aptitudes et de nouveaux savoir-faire et les Mexicains dans la construction des coalitions. Ces constats suggèrent que l’action syndicale à l’international est fonction des contingences nationales. Primo, le syndicat ghanéen intervient surtout au niveau continental africain et privilégie le développement des compétences locales et nationales. De son côté, le syndicat mexicain est présent aussi bien au niveau continental nord-américain que transnational, notamment dans des campagnes de solidarité. Secundo, les Ghanéens entretiennent de faibles liens avec les autres syndicats. De l’autre, les Mexicains sont engagés dans un large répertoire d’action avec les syndicats nord-américains et les fédérations internationales. Tertio, les Ghanéens conçoivent leurs intérêts sur la base d’une forte identité clanique et définissent leur engagement international en termes de ressources. Pour leur part, les Mexicains bâtissent des coalitions transnationales sur la base d’une identité de classe.Allant au-delà de la dichotomie entre le local et le global, les stratégies syndicales à l’international sont socialement construites et localement enracinées. Elles s’expliquent par la dynamique de l’économie politique dans laquelle se trouvent insérés ces syndicats et les structures d’opportunité transnationale à leur portée.

Labour relations statutes across Canada generally use one of three stand- ing models for regulating essential service strikes - the "unfettered strike," "designation" and "no-strike" models. An ad hoc variant of the unfettered strike and designation models - what the author calls the "instant back-to-work" model - has recently been used several times by the federal government to circumvent the designation model in the Canada Labour Code. After reviewing these models, the author moves to the question of whatforms of strike regulation might be held to infringe freedom of association in section 2(d) of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, and therefore to need justification under section 1 as a reasonable limit on that freedom. Pierre Verge, like Brian Langille, has argued that a constitutional right to strike should simply require governments to respect the common law freedom of employees to withdraw their services without incurring criminal or tort liability, in the absence of a section 1 justifi- cation for any infringement of that freedom. This approach, the author suggests, would require excessive recourse to section 1, and would be of value mainly to strategically placed employees because it would offer no protection against employer reprisals for strike action. In his view, a right to strike should instead be held to flow from the Charter-based right to collective bargaining adopted in B.C. Health and Fraser. This would leave legislatures with significant discretion to regulate industrial conflict, but would require that employees who are not allowed to strike must have access to a truly independent means of resolving col- lective bargaining disputes. To that end, the Supreme Court of Canada should reinstate the trial judgment in the Saskatchewan Federation of Labour case, which held (1) that the right to collective bargaining includes a limited right to strike; and (2) that this right was unjustifiably breached by a statute which gave the provincial government the unilateral right to designate those public sector employees who could not strike, and also denied those employees access to an alternative independent dispute resolution process.