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The late 19th and early 20th centuries evidenced extreme changes in industry and urbanization which fueled the movement of people worldwide. Included in this movement was an African Diaspora migration up and out of the Caribbean Basin and into the United States and elsewhere, as people sought to escape economic hardships within the region. Some took the opportunity to make their way to Sydney, Nova Scotia, where they labored for the Dominion Iron and Steel Company. The story of their migration to Cape Breton is of interest because they have remained a footnote in Canadian migration history. This thesis offers an opportunity to look at the lived experiences of these African Caribbean migrants and the community they created in Whitney Pier. This community served to spread notions of racial uplift and Black nationalism, evidenced by its involvement in the then growing Garvey movement.

L’évolution de l’emploi au Québec et au Canada est marquée par la multiplication des statuts d’emploi, la précarisation et la résurgence du phénomène des travailleurs et travailleuses pauvres. Après un rapide rappel des transformations marquant un glissement vers des politiques néolibérales survenues à la fin des années 1970, nous examinons les récentes transformations de la politique sociale liée au travail à l’ère de l’austérité. Pour ce qui est du gouvernement fédéral, nous examinons le programme d’assurance-emploi ainsi que les programmes concernant les travailleurs migrants temporaires. Pour ce qui est du gouvernement du Québec, nous nous attardons surtout sur les politiques d’aide sociale, ainsi que sur les services de garde à l’enfance. Nous traitons ces programmes en tant que politiques d’emploi et mettons en relief le rôle joué par l’État dans l’approfondissement du virage néolibéral amorcé il y a maintenant près de quarante ans.

Cet article vise, en s’appuyant sur L’Enquête Conditions de travail (2013), à construire une typologie des professions relevant d’un statut « ouvrier » ou « employé » à partir du niveau et du type de qualité de l’emploi qu’elles induisent. Cette approche de la qualité d’emploi par les professions apparaît importante pour trois raisons complémentaires : d’abord, parce que la nature de la profession s’avère déterminante au-delà des caractéristiques des individus qui l’occupent pour expliquer les écarts en termes de qualité de l’emploi; ensuite, du fait de l’importance de la nature des professions dans la détermination des règles encadrant le travail; et, enfin, en raison du rôle joué par les politiques publiques dans le soutien de la qualité dans certaines professions.

The objective of this article is, through an empirical study, to further understanding of the actions and decisions taken in the context of Lean implementation projects carried out under joint regulation (Lévesque and Murray, 1998) agreements. We, therefore, attempt to identify factors that may facilitate the organizing work involved in joint regulation of Lean projects to allow workers to develop a broader range of health-minded work methods and habits. Our assumption is that factors which influence joint regulation, such as the union’s capacity for action, management’s attitude and the purpose of the change, also influence the occupational health outcomes of Lean projects. We believe that the organizing work involved in joint regulation (actions and decisions) has an impact on these factors and influences the occupational health outcomes. Our research question is therefore this: What are the actions and decisions involved in joint regulation of Lean implementation projects that lead to closer correspondence with enabling organization criteria? This empirical study was exploratory in nature and had a multiple case study design. Two cases of lean projects were documented through eight individual interviews and the collection of documents. The main results indicate that, while joint regulation appears essential in terms of meeting enabling organization criteria, it alone is insufficient to explain the health effects of Lean projects. All stakeholders need to define the project goals, modes of assessment and management rules, both cooperatively and transparently, and through their involvement in decisions regarding all processes.

The article reviews the book, "The Fight for $15: The Right Wage for a Working America," by David Rolf.

This article reviews the book, "Just Work? Migrant Workers' Struggles Today" eds. Aziz Choudry and Mondli Hlatshwayo.

This article provides a focused review of the history of seasonal and “foreign” farm labour migration in Canada, and in particular the Canadian Seasonal Agricultural Workers Program (SAWP). It underscores how Mexican migrant workers in particular have been portrayed in Canadian narrative discourses, drawn primarily from political and journalistic sources in Canada in the postwar period.  Extended to Mexico in 1974, the SAWP has a longer history of managed agricultural migration in Canada that is also introduced. The article discusses leitmotifs linked to the history of temporary migration between Mexico and Canada: the fundamental place of family and gender relations; the trope of the male migrant as “breadwinner” (despite the later emergence of women migrants in the program); Mexican officials based in Canada and their role in mitigating labour disputes and unionization efforts among the seasonal migrant class in Canada; and the subjective, “subaltern” stories of migrant workers uncovered through an oral history case study carried out in British Columbia and Manitoba from 2012–2015. It introduces other thematic problems including exclusion/invisibility, human rights, patterns of remuneration, and “complementarity” in farm work, in a context of prior reliance upon the managed internal migration of First Nations’ harvest workers in both Ontario’s and Manitoba’s agricultural sectors.

This article reviews the book, "Tax, Order, and Good Government: A New Political History of Canada, 1867–1917" by E.A. Heaman.

The article reviews the book, "Griffintown: Identity and Memory in an Irish Diaspora Neighbourhood," by Matthew Barlow.

This article reviews the book, "Migration and Agriculture. Mobility and change in the Mediterranean Area" by Alessandra Corrado, Carlos de Castro et Domenico Perrotta.

This transnational history of the Jewish Labour Committee of Canada (JLC) retraces the organisations narratives, networks, and practices of diaspora solidarity, from the moment of its establishment and into the post-war period. The JLCs activists refracted their solidarities through the lens of a diasporic Jewish identity. At a time when Canada imposed strong barriers against refugees, the JLC worked to send aid to the anti-fascist resistance in Europe while participating in a series of immigration schemes to bring Jews from displaced persons camps over to Canada. It was in this unique moment that the JLC could also launch pioneering human rights and anti-racism campaigns within the labour movement. Representing one section of the organised Jewish community in Canada, the JLC proved a critical part of the transformation of the countrys treatment of refugees and minorities in the following decades.

David Chariandy's Brother is his intensely beautiful, searingly powerful, and tightly constructed second novel, exploring questions of masculinity, family, race, and identity as they are played out in a Scarborough housing complex during the sweltering heat and simmering violence of the summer of 1991. With shimmering prose and mesmerizing precision, David Chariandy takes us inside the lives of Michael and Francis. They are the sons of Trinidadian immigrants, their father has disappeared and their mother works double, sometimes triple shifts so her boys might fulfill the elusive promise of their adopted home. Coming of age in The Park, a cluster of town houses and leaning concrete towers in the disparaged outskirts of a sprawling city, Michael and Francis battle against the careless prejudices and low expectations that confront them as young men of black and brown ancestry--teachers stream them into general classes; shopkeepers see them only as thieves; and strangers quicken their pace when the brothers are behind them. Always Michael and Francis escape into the cool air of the Rouge Valley, a scar of green wilderness that cuts through their neighbourhood, where they are free to imagine better lives for themselves. Propelled by the pulsing beats and styles of hip hop, Francis, the older of the two brothers, dreams of a future in music. Michael's dreams are of Aisha, the smartest girl in their high school whose own eyes are firmly set on a life elsewhere. But the bright hopes of all three are violently, irrevocably thwarted by a tragic shooting, and the police crackdown and suffocating suspicion that follow. With devastating emotional force David Chariandy, a unique and exciting voice in Canadian literature, crafts a heartbreaking and timely story about the profound love that exists between brothers and the senseless loss of lives cut short with the shot of a gun. --Publisher's description

La reconnaissance du travail ménager occupe les féministes depuis des décennies. Mais qu’ont à dire celles qui en ont fait leur gagne-pain, les travailleuses de l’ombre par excellence? Dans ce livre, Catherine Charron examine le travail domestique rémunéré au Québec entre les années 1950 et 2000. Elle expose les parcours d’une trentaine de femmes de la région de Québec et leur donne la parole. Dans un contexte où le marché du travail subit de profondes transformations, les boulots domestiques, loin de disparaître, se reconfigurent et continuent d’occuper une part non négligeable de la main-d’œuvre féminine. Tandis qu’une proportion croissante de femmes ont un meilleur accès à la scolarisation et au salariat, de nombreuses autres se trouvent refoulées dans diverses filières d’emplois domestiques: la garde d’enfants, l’aide à domicile pour les personnes âgées, les travaux d’entretien ménager. Les trajectoires des femmes interrogées par Catherine Charron, nées entre 1914 et 1958, illustrent le rapport changeant des femmes à l’emploi et à la famille à partir des années d’après-guerre ainsi que leurs réalités hétérogènes. À l’intersection du public et du privé, le travail domestique rémunéré s’exerce dans la continuité du travail gratuit assigné aux femmes au sein de la famille et de la communauté, ce qui contribue à le rendre invisible. Aux marges de l’emploi révèle cette face cachée de l’économie marchande et domestique, incontournable dans toute réflexion sur le travail, et rend justice à celles qui l’incarnent. -- Publisher's description

This article reviews the book, "Blood, Sweat, and Fear: Violence at Work in the North American Auto Industry, 1960–80" by Jeremy Milloy.

This poem describes the conditions that lead to the Great October Socialist Revolution that took place in Russia in the year 1917. The Russian Revolution was foundational to the labour and social reforms that took place in Canada in the same era (Winnipeg general strike) and over the course of the next 100 years (healthcare, unions, and credit unions).

This article reviews the book, "The Equity Myth: Racialization and Indigeneity at Canadian Universities" by Frances Henry, et al.

In 2016, nearly 7,000 Mexican men and women arrived in BC under the federally-administered Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program (SAWP). While all farmworkers face similar workplace hazards, women farmworkers face unique barriers to their reproductive health and wellbeing such as intense surveillance, sexual harassment, and unwanted pregnancies. The reproductive health of women in the SAWP is under-researched. Even less is known about women’s experiences in the interior of British Columbia. Based on insights gained in the field and through community-based research and advocacy efforts, this paper outlines what is currently known about women SAWP workers’ struggles to attain full reproductive justice. We discuss the unique factors that affect the reproductive health and sexual experiences of SAWP workers in particular. Ultimately, we argue that women SAWP workers face disproportionate barriers when accessing reproductive healthcare and that their sexual behaviour is heavily controlled through a variety of legal and extra-legal mechanisms. We conclude with a discussion on how migrant women creatively resist restrictions imposed upon them, and we make recommendations aimed at improving the experiences of women SAWP workers attempting to achieve reproductive justice in BC.

This chapter examines the campaign to unionize one workplace within [an] organizing wave: VICE Canada, a subset of VICE media, a privately held business who’s youth oriented properties spend a range of news and culture websites a magazine and advertising agency to TV channels and a record label. --Authors

This chapter explores the consequences of a particular set of management strategies deployed at John Deere Welland Works plant between 1998 and 2009. This chapter examines the interplay of tiered pay systems with team bonus incentives in the context of seniority-based bidding for jobs. This case study demonstrates how these management strategies foster divisions and dissension among the workers creating a legacy of inequality and strong undercurrent of anti-union sentiment among unionize workers at the plant. --Authors