Your search

This dissertation examines Pierre Elliott Trudeau’s relationship with labour unions and the Cooperative Commonwealth Federation-New Democratic Party of Canada from 1945 to 2000. Trudeau was an extremely influential historical figure, both as prime minister (1968-1984), but also before his entry into formal politics, when he traveled and studied around the world, became deeply influenced by leftist movements and intellectuals, and sought to modernize Quebec, which in his view was falling behind English Canada in terms of technological, social, and democratic development. In essence, Trudeau sought to forge a liberal democracy he thought absent in Quebec, and found his staunchest allies to be trade unionists and socialists. In the end, however, Trudeau largely abandoned those movements because he felt winning liberal freedoms required the shelving of socialist objectives. This would, in turn, be his justification for joining the Liberal Party in 1965. As Prime Minister, Trudeau opposed the objectives and philosophies of his former left allies, even as he maintained his image as a progressive. So while many saw his Just Society, his approach to public and Canadian ownership of energy, his New Society, and his Charter of Rights and Freedoms as left-wing initiatives, I argue that Trudeau’s actions were undertaken not to challenge capitalism, but to strengthen it, primarily through the empowerment of business and the disempowerment of unions and the economically-disenfranchised. Ultimately, this dissertation asserts that Trudeau cannot be classified as a socialist, but must be seen as a liberal preoccupied, not with liberty and equality, but with the continued pre-eminence of capitalist property relations.

This article reviews the book, "Frank Underhill and the Politics of Ideas," by Kenneth C. Dewar.

The article reviews the book, "Teardown: Memoir of a Vanishing City," by Gordon Young.

In the framework of the so-called “on-demand/gig economy,” the number of on-demand companies matching labor supply and demand is on the rise. These schemes may enlarge opportunities for people willing to find a job or to top up their salaries. Despite the upside of creating new “peer marketplaces,” these platforms may also be used to circumvent employment regulation, by operating informally in traditionally regulated markets. The literature showed how, by 2009, millions of worker accounts have been generated within these frameworks. Productivity may be fostered but, at the same time, a new version of Taylorism is disseminated (i.e., the fragmentation of labor into hyper-temporary jobs – called microtasks – on a virtual or local assembly line), strengthened by globalization and computerization. All these intermediaries recruit freelance or casual workers who are labelled as independent contractors even though many indicators seem to reveal a disguised employment relationship. Uncertainty and insecurity are the price for extreme flexibility. A bulk of business risk is shifted to workers, and potential costs such as benefits or unemployment insurance are avoided. Minimum wages are often far from being reached.

This essay looks at the ways Frederick Winslow Taylor's distinctly modern theories of scientific management (i.e. Taylorism) transformed Canadian workplaces in the early 20thcentury. In particular, it shows how Taylorism negatively impacted Canadian workers' lives, and examines the various ways that workers consequently resisted Taylorist methods. The essay argues that though workers were unable to stop the widespread implementation of Taylorism and its normalization in Canadian workplaces, their resistance to Taylorism still played an important role in unionist and radical political movements which gradually gained important concessions and rights for Canadian workers during the first half of the 20thcentury. Additionally, the essay argues that resistance was significant as an outlet for workers to retain bodily autonomy in work environments which increasingly aimed to make workers more machine-like. Ultimately, the essay highlights important ways that the Canadian working class has exercised historical agency via solidarity and perseverance.

This article reviews the book, "Darcus Howe: A Political Biography," by Robin Bunce and Paul Field.

In order to advance an argument addressing whether or not ethical and empowering care work is possible within the context of neoliberalism and managerialism, this article draws on international comparative, qualitative case-study data to ask whether processes and practices of radical care and emancipation already exist in nonprofit long-term care and social service work. If so, what do they look like, and what factors hinder or nurture social justice-based care practices? Given that paid and unpaid care continues to be a highly gendered and increasingly racialized realm of feminized struggle, it warrants further theorization and greater centrality within emancipatory projects and strategies.

The overarching theme of this paper is whether future retirees are likely to have an adequate standard of living in retirement, and related policy issues. The author begins by outlining Canada's three-pillared retirement income sys- tem, and by identifying the similarities and differences between defined benefit (DB) pension plans and defined contribution (DC) pension plans. Given the relative imprecision of these terms, the author cautions against treating pension plan design as a binary choice between DB and DC. The dimensions of the ongoing shift from DB to DC plans are measured by reference to information from Statistics Canada. The paper goes on to consider the capacity of DB and DC plans to generate pension income, through an examination of comparative data on contributions, rates of return and expenses. The paper also asks whether participants in DB plans enjoy an advantage over participants in other types of plans, in terms of accumulation of retirement wealth. As a corollary to this question, the author reviews several studies that attempt to map the range of benefit outcomes in DC plans. In sum, the author concludes that the switch from DB to DC increases the unpredictability of retirement income, manifested as both unpredictable retirement ages and unpredictable levels of income. Recent attempts have been made to enhance the predictability of contributions and benefits by creating plan designs which incorporate elements of both DB and DC, i.e. target benefit plans. However, the author points out, of almost equal importance to the issue of plan design is the issue of identifying appropriate organizational platforms for the delivery of pension benefits.

This paper applies a statistical analysis to quantify the impact of the ongoing shift in Canadian workplaces from defined benefit pension plans to defined contribution pension plans. The basis for the analysis is Statistics Canada's LifePaths model, which aims to simulate the life experiences of "synthetic individuals" to whom are assigned characteristics which are rep- resentative of the Canadian population, as identified by census, survey and administrative data. The authors conclude that the shift from DB plans to DC plans has a significant negative impact on pre-tax registered pension plan (RPP) income. The losses are considerably smaller when the focus of analysis moves to total income and net after-tax income. However, because much of what reduces the larger gross effect of lost RPP income is lower personal income taxes, the trend from DB to DC involves a fiscal impact, by generating upward pressure on public expenditures. The authors emphasize that the results of this study reflect the attributes of DC plans as they have existed until now, and not as they might exist in a reconceptualized form.

The article reviews the book, "Citizens of Asian America: Democracy and Race during the Cold War," by Cindy I-Fen Cheng.

This study uses a Delphi analysis to identify significant barriers to the development of sustained and meaningful pressure on the Alberta government to increase the enforcement of its laws regulating the employment of teenagers. In addition to general employment laws (e.g., wage payment, occupational health and safety) that appear to go broadly unenforced, Alberta also appears not to enforce laws specifying the hours during which teens may work, the occupations in which they may work and the job tasks they may perform. The result is wage theft, workplace injury and illegal forms of employment among teens. The seven Delphi panelists—a mixture of academics, trade unionists and staff members in not-for-profit agencies with an interest in employment matters—identify a tight business-government relationship as an important limit on the political opportunities available to insurgents seeking change. Insurgents must also grapple with a framing that minimizes concerns around teen employment, i.e. by framing illegal or injurious work as an educational rite of passage and complaints as whining. Together, these barriers significantly limit the opportunities to pressure the state to enhance enforcement. Panelists also noted that there is no mobilizing structure in place that teenage workers and their allies can access. Alberta’s labour movement has had limited success organizing the service sector (where most teens are employed). Some panelists suggested leveraging the widespread sexual harassment of female teen workers as a way to access existing networks and resources in feminist and labour organizations. Other panelists argued that focusing on sexual harassment would emphasize individual employers’ misbehaviour and obscure the class-based nature of inadequate enforcement. Most panelists suggested that highlighting the socially inappropriate nature of the death or serious injury of teen workers would be the best way to destabilize the existing barriers to better enforcement of employment laws. The opportunity to do so is (fortunately) rare and may be difficult to leverage. Indeed, research on high profile occupational fatalities in Canada (e.g., the Westray Mine disaster) suggests that such fatalities do not have a significant effect on state enforcement efforts. In the meantime, advocates such as organized labour and community groups may also work to alter conventional views of teen employment by supporting educational or artistic endeavours that problematize teen employment. This could include identifying the risks and consequences of the non-enforcement of laws regulating the employment of teens (such as injury and wage theft) as well as highlighting the reasons why teen workers warrant the enforcement of their workplace rights by the state.

Prior to May 2015, the oil-rich jurisdiction of Alberta had, for over four decades, been a one-party state. During that time, the rule of the Progressive Conservatives essentially went unchallenged, with critiques of government policy falling on deaf ears and Alberta ranking behind other provinces in voter turnout. Given the province’s economic reliance on oil revenues, a symbiotic relationship also developed between government and the oil industry. Cross-national studies have detected a correlation between oil-dependent economies and authoritarian rule, a pattern particularly evident in Africa and the Middle East. Alberta Oil and the Decline of Democracy in Canada sets out to test the “oil inhibits democracy” hypothesis in the context of an industrialized nation in the Global North. In probing the impact of Alberta’s powerful oil lobby on the health of democracy in the province, contributors to the volume engage with an ongoing discussion of the erosion of political liberalism in the West. In addition to examining energy policy and issues of government accountability in Alberta, they explore the ramifications of oil dependence in areas such as Aboriginal rights, environmental policy, labour law, women’s equity, urban social policy, and the arts. If, as they argue, reliance on oil has weakened democratic structures in Alberta, then what of Canada as whole, where the short-term priorities of the oil industry continue to shape federal policy? In Alberta, the New Democratic Party is in a position to reverse the democratic deficit that is presently fuelling political and economic inequality. The findings in this book suggest that, to revitalize democracy, provincial and federal leaders alike must find the courage to curb the influence of the oil industry on governance.--Publisher's description.

In this case study, we examine why the use of Temporary Foreign Workers increased in Alberta, how the former Conservatives government of Alberta encouraged and justified the use of migrant workers, and how a petroleum-based economy affects labour markets and the democratic health of a region. This study also explores how Alberta’s use of migrant workers is consistent with labour-market dynamics in an oil-exporting economy. --Authors' introduction

The winter of 1932-33 saw the small interior town of Princeton, BC divided. Charges of outside agitators and charges by mounted provincial police into picket lines of workers, Ku Klux Klan threats and a beating and cross-burning, the kidnapping of legendary labour organizer Slim Evans who was bundled onto the next train out of town (though he returned soon enough) — Princeton's few thousand citizens saw much of the human drama of the Great Depression play out right in their own lives over the course of just a few months. A ten percent paycut, in the depths of the Depression, galvanized the miners working Princeton's three coalmines into unionizing, and they brought in Arthur "Slim" Evans from the Workers Unity League to help them. Meanwhile, north of town, one of the federal government's Relief Camps had opened up, and soon Canadian Labour Defence League organizers were at work there. "Outside agitators" became the by-word as the town's merchants and propertied establishment rallied around the cause — to defeat the "Communist menace" that threatened the prospects of their little town. They were given voice by the colourful local paper the Princeton Star, whose archives provide the source material for much of Jon Bartlett and Rika Ruebsaat's engrossing history. Soviet Princeton provides an interesting sidebar as well to Canadian left-labour history, as two years later, one of the main actors in the Princeton drama, Slim Evans, led the On-to-Ottawa Trek of homeless and unemployed protesting the relief camps and their conditions. --Publisher's description

The article reviews the book, "The Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters: C.L. Dellums and the Fight for Fair Treatment and Civil Rights," by Robert L. Allen.

In January 2003, the Caledon Institute of Social Policy published the first comprehensive analysis of minimum wages in Canada, Minimum Wages in Canada: A Statistical Portrait with Policy Implications. The report plotted trends in adult minimum wages in Canada’s ten provinces and three territories1 from 1965 through 2001, and investigated the size and key characteristics of the minimum wage workforce nationally and in each province. Caledon updated its 2003 study with a 2011 version, Restoring Min- imum Wages in Canada. That paper tracked trends in minimum wage rates from 1965 through 2010. The current study, Minimum Wage Rates in Canada: 1965-2015, up- dates the data to 2015. It will be annually updated from now on.

Un paysage sombre, un sol noirci par les poussières industrielles et un horizon saturé par la fumée crachée par les usines. Au centre de ce tableau, quatre salariés entendent planter un arbre et insérer une infime touche de vert au coeur de cette obscurité. Telle est l’image que découvrent les lecteurs du journal Le Travail (publication de la Confédération des syndicats nationaux, CSN), en octobre 1965. Cette illustration visait à représenter la pluralité des professions organisées dans le mouvement syndical. Elle acquiert une signification nouvelle, lorsque nous l’observons dans le contexte d’intensification de la crise écologique. Elle apparaît comme une métaphore de l’action menée par les syndicalistes, dans un Québec soumis aux retombées environnementales de l’industrialisation. --Introduction

Constituée à la fin des années 1990, l’Union syndicale Solidaires a pris une part importante dans les mobilisations sociales. Au travers de ses syndicats SUD, elle apparaît comme l’une des composantes radicales du mouvement syndical en France, tout comme l’un des acteurs majeurs dans la contestation des effets de la crise économique et des politiques de rigueur. Cet article montre que, tout en jouant un rôle important dans la contestation sociale, l’Union syndicale Solidaires (USS) est également engagée dans un processus de reconnaissance de sa représentativité et de sa place dans le système de relations professionnelles. Pour faire vivre le syndicalisme combatif qu’elle entend défendre, l’organisation est, en effet, obligée de gagner en audience et en visibilité. Tout en contestant les règles du système de relations professionnelles, tel qu’elles bénéficiaient aux acteurs dominants au sein de ce dernier, Solidaires réclamait un changement de celles-ci. La réforme des règles de représentativité, lancée en 2008, a été de ce point de vue plutôt positive pour l’Union. Cependant, elle a engendré des dynamiques ambivalentes en son sein : elle a facilité les conditions d’implantation de ses syndicats dans le secteur privé, tout en l’obligeant à rationaliser ses structures, mais aussi ses pratiques, dans un souci d’efficacité. Une tension existe ainsi entre, d’un côté, une stratégie de développement syndical pensée d’une certaine façon « à froid », non plus dans les phases de mobilisation sociale, mais davantage en lien avec les opportunités créées par le nouveau régime de représentativité et, de l’autre, l’importance de certains référents identitaires très présents dans l’organisation (reconnaissance de l’autonomie des structures de base, refus de toute centralisation, critique des permanents syndicaux).

Bien qu’étant de plus en plus étudié dans le champ des comportements organisationnels positifs, de nombreuses zones d’ombre entourent encore le bien-être au travail. Notre ambition est de montrer l’intérêt de l’appréhender de manière différenciée plutôt qu’au travers d’un score global, afin de décrire les relations qu’il entretient avec des attitudes positives et négatives. Cette approche centrée sur les personnes est rendue possible par la multi dimensionnalité du concept. Cette particularité autorise le regroupement des participants à l’enquête en profils, c’est-à-dire en fonction de la composition des scores exprimés sur chacune des dimensions constitutives du bien-être. L’analyse en profils latents — Latent Profiles Analysis — d’un échantillon de 865 personnes fait apparaître cinq regroupements distincts. Le premier est celui des personnes qui rapportent les plus faibles scores alors que le second est celui des scores voisins de la moyenne de l’échantillon sur les quatre dimensions constitutives du bien-être. Ils sont respectivement nommés profils de bien-être « déficitaire » et de bien-être « de référence ». Le troisième est un segment de population caractérisé par une relation très positive au manager et à l’environnement physique de travail. Ces deux dimensions symbolisent l’organisation, c’est pourquoi nous le nommons profil de bien-être « organisationnel ». Le quatrième est qualifié de bien-être « complet », car aucune dimension constitutive du bien-être ne manque à l’appel. Enfin, le cinquième est un bien-être « social », puisqu’il est d’abord défini par la qualité des relations aux collègues. Sur ces bases empiriques, une régression logistique multinomiale révèle que les relations les plus positives entretenues avec des variables exogènes recherchées, telles que l’implication organisationnelle affective et la satisfaction au travail, concernent d’abord le profil de bien-être au travail « complet », puis, dans l’ordre, les profils trois, cinq, deux et un. L’association à l’intention de quitter est inverse. Ces résultats invitent les managers à différencier leurs pratiques incitatives en fonction du profil auquel les salariés appartiennent. Ils montrent également que les différentes dimensions du bien-être au travail ne sont pas gouvernées par un jeu de compensations entre elles. // Title in English: Well-being at Work: Contributions of a Person-centred Study. (English). Despite growing interest in organizational behaviour and, especially, in well-being at work, this concept still lacks clarity. Our aim is to show that it is more informative to study it in a differentiated manner than through a global score, in order to describe its links with positive and negative attitudes. The multidimensionality of well-being at work makes this person-centred approach possible. Thus, people can be clustered in profiles based on the composition of the specific score they gave on each dimension of well-being at work. A latent profiles analysis conducted on a large sample of 865 people reveals five distinct profiles. The first profile includes people who reported the lowest scores of the sample, whereas the second is close to the average of the four dimensions. We named them “lack” well-being and “benchmark” well-being profiles, respectively. Very positive relations with the supervisor and material environment characterize the third profile. These dimensions symbolized the organization. We therefore called it “organizational” well-being profile. We called the fourth one “full” well-being due to the highest positive relations recorded on all dimensions. The last profile is “social” well-being because of the high quality relations with coworkers. Based on these first empirical results, a multinomial logistic regression shows that the most positive links with expected exogenous attitudes, such as affective organizational commitment and satisfaction at work, involve the “full” profile, then, in order of magnitude, the “organizational,” “social,” “benchmark” and “lack” profiles. The association with intention to quit is the reverse. These results call for managers to differentiate their encouraging practices based on the well-being at work profile to which employees belong. They also show that the dimensions of the concept are not concurrent.

The campaign to free imprisoned anarchists Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti ignited mobilization the world over in the 1920s. In Canada, the solidarity movement was split into three groupings: anarchists, syndicalists, and communists. The anarchists were largely represented by a small group surrounding Emma Goldman in Toronto. Syndicalists were organized by the One Big Union and Industrial Workers of the World, largely in Winnipeg and the Lakehead respectively. The Communist Party of Canada, and its adjunct, the Canadian Labour Defence League, were active across Canada. All three groupings, depsite their ideological differences, mounted campaigns that culminated in information pickets, mass demonstrations, calls to action, and even a strike. Although ultimately unsuccessful, the examination of the Canadian Sacco and Vanzetti solidarity movement gives critical insight into the radical left in the 1920s.