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This article reviews "Liberating Temporariness?: Migration, Work, and Citizenship in an Age of Insecurity," edited by Leah F. Vosko, Valerie Preston, and Robert Latham, "When Care Work Goes Global: Locating the Social Relations of Domestic Work," edited by Mary Romero, Valerie Preston, and Wenona Giles, and "Producing and Negotiating Non-Citizenship: Precarious Legal Status in Canada," edited by Luin Goldring and Patricia Landolt.

This book predicts the decline of today's professions and describes the people and systems that will replace them. In an Internet society, according to Richard Susskind and Daniel Susskind, we will neither need nor want doctors, teachers, accountants, architects, the clergy, consultants, lawyers, and many others, to work as they did in the 20th century.

The Canadian automotive industry underwent substantial restructuring between 2005 and 2014. This article draws on establishment-level data to examine these changes as they relate to both automotive assembly and automotive parts manufacturing. It also elucidates the limitations of using official government statistics to study the automotive industry. In addition to analyzing changes to the structure and composition of the industry, our data demonstrate that the industry employs far more people than are reported in official government statistics. We conclude that improvements to data collection methods are important for policy-makers to develop effective supports for the automotive industry.

This article provides a brief overview of the development of the Canadian approach to nonunion employee representation. For a century or more, nonunion representation vehicles have been used by workers and employers, without the attention, oversight and statutory regime that characterizes union-management relations. Nonunion representation rarely intersects with the law, and usually does so only when there is a collision between nonunion vehicles and trade unions during union organizing. Otherwise, the law is silent about nonunion representation. In the aftermath of the Supreme Court's contemporary analyses that commenced in 2001 with Dunmore, and moved through B.C. Health, Fraser, MPAO, and Meredith, the status of nonunion representation has not changed; these vehicles remain lawful. But there is considerable uncertainty about future directions. Might nonunion representation vehicles now be protected as collect- ives under the Charter, or will their somewhat sub-rosa nature remain? Should policy-makers and courts respect their maneuverability, or regulate them as inferior to unions? Certainly the Supreme Court has expressed distaste for these vehicles, as in the 2015 MPAO decision, but to what extent will this opprobrium find its way into Canadian law? We are at a crossroads, and if there is a legal challenge involving the status of nonunion collectives, there is no way of pre- dicting the outcome. In this article, the author discusses how an argument might be made that nonunion associations' activities could achieve Charter protection, and raises questions to which there are no clear answers.

Depuis plus d’un siècle, l’évolution de la recherche concernant la santé publique, en général, et les risques du travail, en particulier, est largement dominée par les besoins et stratégies des industriels. Ceux-ci interviennent, non seulement dans le financement des études menées, mais aussi dans leur conception, parvenant à faire subsister le doute là où la mise en danger est manifeste. L’un des principaux points d’appui de cette incertitude indéfiniment reconduite réside dans l’invisibilité des pathologies liées au travail, en particulier les cancers professionnels.S’appuyant sur des enquêtes pluridisciplinaires en sciences sociales et sciences de la vie — qui mettent en question le modèle dominant monocausal de compréhension des liens entre cancer et facteurs de risque — la première partie de cet article démontre comment une interprétation réductrice de la causalité du cancer permet cette incertitude indéfiniment reconduite, inscrite dans le « paradigme du doute », tout en faisant obstacle à la connaissance et à la reconnaissance des cancers professionnels. Deux études de cas dans le secteur minier français illustrent ensuite la remise en cause, toujours possible, de la dangerosité de cancérogènes parfaitement identifiés, et le déni de droits à la reconnaissance en maladie professionnelle des travailleurs atteints, les maintenant dans l’invisibilité. Ainsi, le paradigme du doute, qui domine la santé publique, permet-il aux industriels, mais aussi aux acteurs étatiques — aujourd’hui comme hier — de s’appuyer sur l’incertitude pour envisager favorablement la réouverture de sites miniers dans des régions habitées, sans prise en compte des enjeux sanitaires. L’épidémie de cancer ne cesse de progresser atteignant, en France, une incidence estimée de 385 000 nouveaux cas par an en 2015 (contre 150 000 en 1984). Mais le doute entretenu sur les effets sanitaires de risques industriels, dont les dangers sont pourtant avérés, favorise encore actuellement la poursuite des conditions de production de cancers futurs, en particulier chez les premiers concernés par l’exposition aux cancérogènes, à savoir les travailleurs.

Thiis article reviews the book, "Hell’s History: The USW’s Fight to Prevent Workplace Deaths and Injuries from the 1992 Westray Mine," by Tom Sandborn.

The article reviews the book, "Income Inequality: The Canadian Story," edited by David A. Green, W. Craig Riddell and France St.-Hillaire.

This article discusses beauty contests held by the Communist Party (cp) in British Columbia during World War II. It presents two arguments. First, the article argues that the beauty contests symbolized the Communist Party's viewpoint on the role of women in left movements, and in society in general. Thus, cp beauty pageants possessed a two-sided nature. On one level, cp women appropriated these pageants to present a hybrid version of the beauty contest where women could present leftist views. On the other hand, the pageants show that the cp only held marginally more progressive views on women than the mainstream. Second, the article suggests that Communist women and men had contrasting ideas about what the pageants meant to the party. cp men used women's bodies in pageants in order to promote and raise money for the party; in effect, Communist men saw these pageants as related to women's physical beauty. Communist women, by contrast, did not view the pageants as related to beauty at all. Indeed, these women saw the pageants as simply a way to promote the party's political program of higher wages and better working conditions. The article concludes that leftist men and women had different ideas about what constituted beauty, and that seemingly conservative cultural productions, like beauty pageants, can have radical goals.

Welcome to Winnipeg's Have-a-Life housing project... better known as Half-a-Life. Meet eighteen year-old Lucy and flamboyant Lish, two of the single moms who live there. Lucy has no idea who the father of her son is. Lish has four girls, and though she says she doesn't want a man around, she still pines for the father of her twins, a fire-eating busker who was just passing through town. Every Friday is "Deadbeat Dads" visiting day, but otherwise fathers aren't around much at Half-a-Life. Life at Half-a-Life has its ups and downs. The welfare regulations are endless and the ratfink neighbours won't mind their own business. Wagons and cheap strollers are the only way to get to and from the grocery stores, and it's hard enough to make ends meet without the welfare minister trying to take away the child tax credit. So when Lish decides they should go to Colorado to find the fire-eater, Lucy can't help but be excited. They borrow a van held together with coat hangers and electrical tape, load it up with kids and hit the road. Lucy knows they'll never find the fire-eater, but she doesn't know this will be the summer of her amazing luck. --Publisher's description

The article reviews the book, "Polarity, Patriotism, and Dissent in Great War Canada, 1914–1919," by Brock Millman.

The gig economy describes forms of contingent work arrangements that require digital platforms, representing an evolution in contingent work, both in moving up the educational scale and in increased visibility. It has engaged many workers who are highly educated and might previously have been in traditional employer–employee relationships, and appears to increase their vulnerability to wage theft, independent contractor misclassification, job insecurity, and lack of occupational health protections. As occupational health physicians, our need to develop, evaluate, and implement interventions to address the needs of workers in non-traditional employment relationships is growing.

The Christian Labour Association of Canada (clac) has historically had a relatively small presence in Canada's labour movement. Increasing interest in clac over the last decade is due to its expanded membership, largely in western Canada and Ontario: the union claims to represent 60,000 workers. Further, the tactics used to achieve this growth have been controversial within organized labour. In fact, clac was expelled from central labour bodies for its employer accommodationist strategies. This article expands the understanding of clac beyond a characterization of classic "company" unionism. In this article we find that clac integrates elements of populism into a specific geographic strategy for expansion in ways that complicate analysis. We focus on labour board records of disputes between clac and other unions, a recent case where the union backed employer-friendly legislation in Ontario, and the union's rhetorical devices and propaganda.

This critical review draws on existing literature on the discourse of precarious work within the Canadian nation-state. The goal of this research work is to critically examine the impact of precarious work on the lives, well-being and mental health of immigrants with a specific focus on immigrant women. Given that most research works have been mainly focused on the way in which precarious work creates health inequalities, this paper aims to throw light on the way in which precarious work can affect mental health. Also, the paper will examine the Canadian public policy response to this issue. The paper argues that Canada’s policy response is a reflection of the dominant political ideology within this nation-state. The dominant political ideology of neoliberalism seeks to justify minimal state intervention in policies that directly affect health and more broadly citizen’s life. The following principal questions will guide this critical review. 1) Why are immigrants, particularly immigrant women of color disproportionately situated in precarious forms of labour within the Canadian nation-state? 2) How does precarious work affect the mental health of immigrant women? 3) How and to what extent has capitalism and neoliberalism within the Canadian nation-state helped to perpetuate precarious working conditions for racialized immigrant women? By interrogating Canada’s neoliberal policy agenda as it affects immigrants through entrenched legislations of immigrant classes, the primary goal of this paper is to advance the construction that immigrants/migrants exist for economic exploitation and gain. The main theoretical framework that will guide this analysis is based on a post-colonial feminist scholarship that analyzes how inequities grounded on gender, race, class, and migratory status intersect to create complex and diverse labour market results for racialized immigrant women in Canada. A common theme that emerged throughout the critical review of several scholarly and grey literatures is that more women than men are situated in precarious work, and of those women in precarious forms of employment, women who identified as members of a visible minority group were even more disproportionately situated in precarious forms of work. Also, it was observed that the Canadian nation-state has to date failed to respond appropriately to this social and economic situation. Since employment and working conditions, unemployment and employment security -- described as some of the most crucial social determinants of health -- are significantly correlated to income and its security, allowing precarious work has only served to reinforce high-levels of income inequality, income insecurity and poverty within Canada.

The global weakness of collective bargaining and state regulation has spawned growing interest in employment protection though private governance. However, scepticism about the efficacy of unsupervised codes of conduct has triggered debate about external discipline through state regulation. This article seeks to contribute to debates about the processes that shape the nexus between private governance and state regulation.It is based on an empirical study of Australian harvest workers who formally benefit from state regulation of pay and occupational health and safety (OHS). However, industry changes have undercut standards. Product market pressures from supermarkets squeeze growers’ capacity to pay. Also, the labour market is increasingly supplied by vulnerable Asian temporary migrants (including undocumented workers), often supplied to growers by unscrupulous temporary work agencies. While pay and OHS practices vary, many harvest workers are exploited. Nor is private governance (which extends to horticulture through the codes of conduct of supermarkets and peak temporary work agency bodies) effective. All codes draw their standards from minimum legal employment conditions, and all possess loopholes allowing breaches to escape attention and rectification.In 2015, media and political attention fell on the working conditions of temporary migrants in horticulture. Government inquiries found evidence of exploitation, but were divided over solutions. Progressive politicians (influenced by unions) favoured stronger state enforcement powers and temporary work agency licensing. Conservative politicians (influenced by business lobbies) claimed these steps would fail, and favoured the status quo. Political reform therefore stalled.This study illustrates the importance of political processes in shaping the nexus between state regulation and private governance. In this case, a political stalemate leaves both regulation and governance deficient. Lacking protection from either source, harvest workers remain exposed to exploitative employment conditions.

Canada depends on Temporary Foreign Workers (TFWs), also known as migrant workers, to fill labour shortage in agriculture, hospitality, construction, child/senior care, and other low-skilled occupations. Evidence shows that TFWs, especially women live-in caregivers (LC), constitute a vulnerable population. Their health is compromised by the precarious and harsh working and living conditions they encounter. There is a paucity of research on the mental health of LCs, their support systems and access to mental health services.

This paper explores ongoing tensions in the Canadian common law of employment between two key principles: the obligation of a constructively dis- missed employee in some circumstances to remain in the employment where it is reasonable to do so in order to mitigate damages, and the possibility that the employee's decision to advance a legal claim alleging constructive dismissal may, in and of itself be treated as a repudiation of the contract so as to disentitle the employee from damages. As explained by the author, this tension reflects the competing influences on employment law of different theories of contract - the classical, the neoclassical, and the relational - and is further complicated by the friction in the case law between the "elective" and the "automatic" theories of contract termination in employment, i.e. can the agreement be terminated only on the election of the innocent party or does any repudiatory breach auto- matically result in the agreement's termination? As a practical matter, these unresolved conflicts make it difficult to predict the outcome of a particular case, and force employees and their legal counsel to make an unnecessarily convo- luted series of decisions in attempting to determine the appropriate course of action. The author argues that many of these issues would be greatly simplified if the courts embraced relational contract law theory in the constructive dis- missal context. This would enable employees to "stand and sue," that is, obtain a determination of a claim without having to resign and without risking loss of the employment in the event that the claim was ultimately unsuccessful.

Introduction and annotated text of two poems written in 1932 by "Red Malcolm" Bruce that lampoon the Canadian Communist labour leader, Harvey Murphy. Both were in prison at the time serving five-year sentences for sedition under section 98 of the Canadian Criminal Code, which banned "unlawful associations" such as the Communist Party of Canada. Includes brief biographies of Murphy and Bruce.

[E]xamines a Communist union’s struggle to survive in the post-Second World War environment of anti-Communism and anti-trade unionism that marked one of the most violent periods in the history of the Canadian labour movement. In 1943, Local 480 of the International Union of Mine, Mill and Smelter Workers in Trail, British Columbia, was nearing the end of a six-year battle for certification as the legal bargaining agent for about 4,000 smelter workers. After it achieved that goal the following year and for the next decade, it faced new battles with the employer, the powerful Consolidated Mining and Smelting Company of Canada (CM&S) with its paternalistic president S.G. Blaylock. The local also faced an array of other opponents: a workforce suspicious of a Red-tainted union with a radical past, a company union that had been established by Blaylock after the First World War, a company-loyal newspaper, and a divided community situated in the rural West Kootenay district near the Canada- United States border. Among the local’s most vigorous adversaries were the local churches, the federal government with its secret service police, and the Canadian Congress of Labour (CCL). By the 1950s, it had been purged from the CCL, shunned by the Cooperative Commonwealth Federation (CCF), and victimized by cold warriors bent on its destruction. To survive it needed to win the support of a substantially immigrant workforce with a strong alternative culture to the dominant Anglo-Saxon one. It had to address the concerns of the hundreds, perhaps thousands, of women war workers who had been hired at lower wages to replace enlisted men. And it fell into the middle of an ideological clash between the region’s two dominant left-wing political parties. Its greatest strength and potential weakness was an unabashed Stalinist named Harvey Murphy. He had been a fugitive from justice and was incarcerated in a war-time internment camp as a threat to national security, but he became an influential leader of the provincial labour movement and an outspoken advocate of workers’ rights who was hated by some and respected by others. “Divided Loyalties” begins with a victory, but Local 480’s survival for the duration of the twelve-year period of this study was far from assured.

This article critically assesses the compliance model of employment standards enforcement through a study of monetary employment standards violations in Ontario, Canada. The findings suggest that, in contexts where changes to the organisation of work deepen insecurity for employees, models of enforcement that emphasise compliance over deterrence are unlikely to effectively prevent or remedy employment standards violations.

Thiis article reviews the book, "L’activité en théories. Regards croisés sur le travail,," edited by Marie-Anne Dujarier, Corinne Gaudart, Anne Gillet and Pierre Lénel.