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This study describes the difficulties and challenges that instructors encounter when implementing structured training sessions to teach apprentices how to debone meat on the production line of an SME in the agri-food sector. The results obtained through our ergonomic approach showed that, in order to organize learning situations, the instructors, who were experienced employees, had to consider physical, material, and organizational conditions and choose between "what they would have liked to do" and "what they could really do." The results also showed that the work group can contribute to the training activity. The observations made in our study can serve as food for thought for anyone interested in workplace training conditions.

Introduces articles in the issue including on the Knights of Labor in Quebec, a 1913 protest by Jewish students against antisemitic remarks at Aberdeen School in Montreal, and a tribute to the labour activist and organizer, Madeleine Parent.

A eulogy is provided for the Canadian labour leader and social activist Madeleine Parent.

The article reviews the book, "Sojourning for Freedom: Black Women, American Communism, and the Making of Black Left Feminism," by Erik S. McDuffie.

What constitutes proletarianization? The conventional answer to this seemingly simple question often stresses waged labour. Yet many workers, past and present, are routinely unable,to secure paid employment, in part because of the persistence of capitalist crises of various kinds. This study of indigent workers in Toronto from the 1830s to the 1930s is premised on an understanding of proletarianization as dispossession, on the one hand, and, on the other, of the ways in which capitalism necessarily produces recurrent crises, leaving many workers wageless. It addresses how wagelessness and poverty were criminalized through the development of institutions of ostensible charitable relief, such as the Toronto House of Industry, in which those seeking shelter and/or sustenance were required to chop wood or, more onerously, break stone in order to be. admitted to the ranks of those 'deserving' of such support. By the end of the nineteenth century-resistance to such "labour tests" was increasingly evident. Protests took place in Toronto, where the black flag was carried in demonstrations demanding "work or bread." Refusing to "crack the stone" and demands that relief be administered differently were common features of mobilizations of the wageless in the opening decades of the twentieth century, in which socialists often took the lead. By the time of capitalism's devastating collapse in the Great Depression of the 1930s, Toronto's wageless were well situated to mount an outcasts' offensive.

The article presents a speech delivered by the Canadian labor leader Madeleine Parent at the 50th Anniversary of Paul Robeson's Concert at the Peace Arch at the border of Blaine, Washington and Douglas, British Columbia on May 18, 2002. Parent discusses several issues, including peace activism in the U.S., peace in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the persecution by the U.S. Senator Joseph McCarthy and a call for the international unity of the labour movement.

The article reviews the book, "Down But Not out: Community and the Upper Streets in Halifax, 1880-1914," by David Hood.

Despite acute labour shortages during the Second World War, Canadian employers—with the complicity of state officials—discriminated against workers of African, Asian, and Eastern and Southern European origin, excluding them from both white collar and skilled jobs. Jobs and Justice argues that, while the war intensified hostility and suspicion toward minority workers, the urgent need for their contributions and the egalitarian rhetoric used to mobilize the war effort also created an opportunity for minority activists and their English Canadian allies to challenge discrimination. Juxtaposing a discussion of state policy with ideas of race and citizenship in Canadian civil society, Carmela K. Patrias shows how minority activists were able to bring national attention to racist employment discrimination and obtain official condemnation of such discrimination. Extensively researched and engagingly written, Jobs and Justice offers a new perspective on the Second World War, the racist dimensions of state policy, and the origins of human rights campaigns in Canada. --Publisher's description

From factory workers in Welland to retail workers in St. Catharines, from hospitality workers in Niagara Falls to migrant farm workers in Niagara-On-The-Lake, Union Power showcases the role of working people in the Niagara region. Charting the development of the region's labour movement from the early nineteenth century to the present, Patrias and Savage illustrate how workers from this highly diversified economy struggled to improve their lives both inside and outside the workplace. Including extensive quotations from interviews, archival sources, and local newspapers, the story unfolds, in part, through the voices of the people themselves: the workers who fought for unions, the community members who supported them, and the employers who opposed them. Early industrial development and the appalling working conditions of the often vulnerable common labourer prompted a movement toward worker protection. Patrias and Savage argue that union power – power not built on profit, status, or prestige – relies on the twin concepts of struggle and solidarity: the solidarity of the shared interests of the working class and the struggle to achieve common goals. Union Power traces the evidence of these twin concepts through the history of the Niagara region's labour movement. --Publisher's description

Light and shadow have the capacity to move us emotionally and create atmospheres that allow us to better understand stories. This thesis explores how light and shadow can propel the design of a music hall and museum space to commemorate the miners that lived and worked in the former industrial landscapes of Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, Canada.

Boom, Bust, and Crisis addresses...how work has changed across Canada, from the auto and steel industries of Ontario, to the tar sands of Northern Alberta and First Nations casinos in Saskatchewan. This edited collection explains the massive lay-offs in unionized manufacturing industries, the expansion of low-wage work and the rise of increasingly aggressive employers by critically examining Canada’s political economy and assessing the impact of government policy and labour market deregulation on Canada’s workers. The book also explores the recent policy changes to employment standards and health and safety protection in the context of neoliberal globalization. Written by leading political scientists, sociologists and journalists in concise, accessible language, this volume provides a rich and vibrant assessment of why some businesses have boomed while others have failed and why, through it all, Canadian workers have paid the price. --Publisher's description. Contents: Pt.1. The shifting political landscape. Free markets and the decline of unions and good jobs / John Peters -- The spoils of the Tar Sands: profits, work and labour in Alberta / Diana Gibson and Regan Boychuk -- Boom, bust, and bluster: Newfoundland and Labrador's "oil boom" and its impacts on labour / Sean T. Cadigan -- Steel City meltdown: Hamilton and the changing Canadian steel industry / Stephen R. Arnold -- Pt.2. Deregulation and changes in provincial labour market policy, politics and institutions. The biggest roll-back of worker rights in Canadian history: the Campbell government and labour market deregulation in British Columbia / David Fairey, Tom Sandhorn and John Peters -- Whither the Quebec model? Boom, bust and Quebec labour / Peter Graefe. Pt.3. New challenges facing labour organizing, health and safety. Indigenous workers, casino development and union organizing / Yale D. Belanger -- Precarious employment and occupational health and safety in Ontario / Wayne Lewchuk, Marlea Clarke and Alice de Wolff.

Docments the rising inequality, financialization of the economy, erosion of the manufacturing sector, the growth in resource industries and construction, changes in the workforce, and ithe decline in union density in the context of the neoliberal poltiical climate in Canada. Concludes that unions must contribute to a broader working class organization that redresses the balance.

Annotated photographs of migrant farmers in Ontario from 1984 to 2009, drawn from the author's book, "Harvest Pilgrim's" (Between the Lines, 2009).

The article reviews several books including "What’s Left of the Left," edited by James Cronin, George Ross and Jame Shoch, "Social Democracy After the Cold War," edited by Bryan Evans and Ingo Schmidt and "The Labour Party in Britain and Norway," by David Redvaldsen.

This thesis constitutes the first full-length study of Polish Communists in Canada, a group that provided a substantial segment of the countries [sic] socialist left in the early 20th century. It traces the roots of socialist support in Poland, its transplantation to Canada, the challenges it faced within an ethnic community heavily influenced by Catholicism, the complications caused by its links to the Comintern, and its changing strength and decline. It offers a deeper understanding of the ways in which the Communist party was able to appeal to certain ethnic groups, such as through cultural outreach, as well as its complicated and often arguably counter-productive relationship with the Comintern. It also furnishes important information on the efforts of the RCMP and Polish consulates to maintain control over the communists, as well as how generally improved material conditions among Poles, especially following the Second World War, along with the influence of the Cold War, accounted for a rapid decline in support. The thesis is primarily based on sources generated by the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs or, more precisely, by the Polish consulates in Winnipeg, Montreal and Ottawa. One the Canadian side, the thesis took advantage of RCMP records, Canadian security bulletins, immigration records and Polish-language newspapers printed in Canada. By utilizing these sources, this study not only analyses the interaction of the Polish Canadian communist movement with other segments of the Polish community in Canada, but it also moves beyond the introverted approach that has characterized most studies of ethnic organizations in Canada by placing the movement within a "Canadian" context to analyze its relations with the government, broader segments of Canadian society, and the Communist Party of Canada (CPC).

An analysis of the impact of the Supreme Court of Canada decision in Fraser on protection of freedom of association in the collective bargaining context in Canada, with particular emphasis on the different approaches taken by the Court, including the dissenting reasons of Justice Rothstein, and what those reasons reveal about the Court's disagreement over the scope of freedom of association in the collective bargaining context.

The article reviews the book, "Militant Minority: British Columbia Workers and the Rise of a New Left, 1948-1972," by Benjamin Isitt.

The article reviews the book, "In the Shadows of the State: Indigenous Politics, Environmentalism, and Insurgency in Jharkhand, India," by Alpa Shah.

[Provides] a critical examination of Canada's Temporary Migration Programs for agriculture. I show how migrants are positioned to be relatively more vulnerable than other workers within the country's food agricultural system owing to their position at the bottom of the occupational hierarchy, their precarious immigration status as temporary "foreign" workers, and their racialization as non-Whites from the global South. Moreover, I illustrate how changes to policies of temporary migration have constituted farm work as an even more precarious form of employment for migrants in particular, but also Canadians.... Finally, while recognizing that TMPs may contribute to aspects fo economic development, enabling participants to access income and assets formerly out of their reach, I call for greater attention to the rights, welfare, and dignity of migrants when considering temporary migrations programs.

The article reviews the book, "Risques psychosociaux : quelle réalité, quels enjeux pour le travail ?," edited by François Hubault.