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This thesis examines the experiences of pupils-cum-inmates who attended the Ontario Institution for the Education of the Blind (OIB) during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Customary assessments of segregated education, which investigate administrators’ campaigns to implement pedagogical or curricular advancements, have characterized institutionalization as educational and emancipatory. Instead, this project challenges identity-centric, rights-based narratives by reframing the OIB as constitutive of Ontario’s carceral apparatus. Drawing upon first-person testimony gathered during four investigations into the OIB conducted by the Government of Ontario, the analysis demonstrates that capitalist development dispossessed blind Canadians from waged labour, generating an underclass of precarious and oft-wageless proletarians. Institutionalization socialized the workers-in-training within a prison-like environment where punishments like whippings and beatings, solitary confinement, and material deprivation were commonplace. Educational opportunities were haphazard and irregular, while living and working conditions were uncomfortable, bordering on intolerable. Biomedical understandings of blindness rationalized the mistreatment of inmates, as administrators attempted to reintegrate graduates into waged labour. Children and adolescents survived by developing cultures of delinquency and transgression; inmates, especially working-class inmates, organized popular resistance movements that challenged institutional authority. Educational authorities responded by overseeing the repression of working-class culture. By funneling graduates into either working-class occupations or “gentlemanly” and “learned” professions, institutionalization fomented processes of class formation, creating, first, an underclass of labourers and musicians and, second, a vanguard of capitalists and professionals.

The COVID-19 pandemic led to renewed discussion of decent work for people at the margins of the labour market. This article explores public policy on platform workers across three liberal market economies, namely the United Kingdom, Canada and Ireland, taking the pandemic as a focal point. Liberal market economies are generally difficult environments for unions, and we examine the nature of union political pressure on the state to enhance protections for platform workers and the extent to which policy has changed in each state. We find uneven levels of such union pressure, with the most limited attention afforded by Irish unions. In the United Kingdom, the unions did exert some influence through strategic litigation, creating a policy problem for the government. More progressive policies are evident in Canada, where the government recognises that platform workers’ precarious position has undesirable consequences for the state.

The article reviews the book, "Regards croisés sur la grève d'Amoco à Hawkesbury, une histoire ouvrière de l'Ontario français," by Andréane Gagnon.

In 2019, Regina’s Co-op Refinery Complex (CRC), a subsidiary of Federated Co-operative, locked out Unifor Local 594 after collective bargaining negotiations failed. CRC used the transition to a “low carbon” future as the justification for concessions on working conditions and reducing the workers' pension plan. The lockout demonstrates what a “just transition” means to fossil fuel corporations: rollbacks of collective bargaining, worker rights, cooperative spirit and environmental justice. In the name of a new future, Federated Co-operative and the Saskatchewan government trampled all over important worker rights — the right to strike and picket, occupational health and safety, pensions and collective bargaining. It also highlights the sorry state of co-operative values in Canada. As corporations and governments are poised to make a transition that will be detrimental to workers and communities, this books argues that solidarity between unions and community movements is absolutely necessary to make the transition away from fossil fuels a just one. -- Publisher's description

Scholarship on the development of slavery in the colonial Maritimes region during the pre-Loyalist period remains scarce, with even fewer studies examining slave ownership. By situating the expansion of slaveholding in the region (that makes up present-day Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Prince Edward Island) within the Atlantic world socio-economic context, I show how Maritime society reproduced anti-Black attitudes and slaving practices found in West Indian slave societies. Through trading and social relationships with New Englanders, the region’s colonisation became tethered to the Caribbean. New England’s commercial dependence on West Indian plantations beginning in 1637, and expanding thereafter, fostered intra-regional mercantile and military ventures, bringing their Caribbean partnerships into the Maritimes after the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713. The social aspects of these commercial interactions reveal how settling New Englanders transplanted their ideological, interpersonal, and familial connections to the Caribbean and their slaveholding norms to the Maritimes. By comparing Maritime slave-owning practices to those found in the West Indies, we see Maritime slaveholding to be, in many ways, a mere extension of the plantation regime.

There have never been more favourable conditions for drawing Indigenous workers into the unionized building trades. The construction industry needs to replenish and diversify its overwhelmingly white, male, and aging workforce to meet skilled labour demands in the next few decades, when major civil infrastructure, mining, and green energy developments are expected to occur in northern Indigenous territories. These projects will be mandated by impact benefit agreements to employ a significant number of Indigenous workers who will first need to be trained. At the same time, Indigenous peoples are the fastest-growing population in Canada and have shown a propensity for pursuing trades education. In recent years, Ontario's largest building trade unions have taken significant steps to recruit, train, and employ northern Indigenous workers, including in Nunavut. In collaboration with various stakeholders, the unions' efforts are starting to show positive results. But are their methods and goals informed by decolonization, reconciliation, and Indigenization? This article reflects on this question while examining the case of the International Union of Operating Engineers Local 793, which has been a leader among building trades unions when it comes to establishing relationships with Indigenous partners, training Indigenous workers, and contributing to their economic self-determination.

For 300,000 years humans have pushed for equality in their societies. For the first time ever, historian Alvin Finkel brings together the evidence to tell the story of the 99% who have constantly sought to live in a society of equals. This is a history of humanity like it's never been told before. Historian Alvin Finkel builds on the work of archaeologists, anthropologists and historians to present the very long view of the history of the human species. His focus is not on the leaders whose exploits are recounted in traditional histories, but rather on the experiences of ordinary people, the 99%, whose experiences and activities are often overlooked. In the extensive research of many contemporary scholars, Alvin Finkel notes a common thread which most historians have ignored: the constant efforts of ordinary people throughout history to create and sustain societies based on equality of all individuals. Contrary to traditional historical writing, he finds that the earliest human communities usually treated all individuals as equals. In the histories of societies all around the world, he records how individuals who found ways to gain wealth and power have faced constant, often successful, resistance from the rest. From the first recorded communities in Mesopotamia to the COVID-19 pandemic, this book features the resistances, uprisings, struggles, and solidarities of the majority against those seeking to dominate. The result is a fresh and challenging interpretation of the history of our species, one that casts a new light on the true nature of humans. --Publisher's description

This report examines the ways governments, and specifically the Government of Alberta, interfere in public-sector collective bargaining through both legislative measures and non-legislative actions. It also explores how this growing interference may impact the 2024 bargaining round in Alberta.

Governments in Canada are increasingly using multiple tools to advance their political agenda at the expense of free collective bargaining in the public sector. Legislative intervention has long been a strategy to curtail bargaining rights (Evans et al., 2023). Recently, governments have turned to non-legislative means to influence bargaining outcomes. This article is about the use of a coordination office, a decidedly non-legislative tactic, and how, over two rounds of negotiations, it transformed public-sector bargaining in Alberta. Bargaining has been further transformed by enactment of a legal requirement to keep the government’s mandates secret, the outcome being increased frustration among union representatives and potential damage to long-term relationships. Together, these measures have provided the government with a powerful means of influence, which, if successful, could spread to other jurisdictions.

Tribute to the life and work of the union activist and social historian, Raymond Léger, who was also a member of Labour/Le Travail's editorial board.

The article reviews the book, "The Things of Life: Materiality in Late Soviet Russia," by Alexey Golubev.

L’expression de l’identité religieuse au travail a longtemps été une thématique négligée, malgré un regain d’intérêt croissant. Cette recherche répond à l’appel d’une vision plus dynamique de l’objet pour comprendre comment les personnes concilient religiosité et professionnalité dans des contextes plus ou moins contraignants. Nous étudions le cas de travailleurs qui se convertissent à une nouvelle religion au cours de leur carrière. À travers une méthodologie qualitative et longitudinale, nous suivons 22 personnes converties à l’islam travaillant dans des entreprises françaises, à travers trois entretiens sur un an (66 entretiens). Les résultats montrent l’existence de plusieurs formes de job-crafting identitaire, qui conduisent à quatre grandes stratégies de réconciliation entre identité religieuse et identité professionnelle. La recherche établit un lien original entre les transitions identitaires, sur l’identité religieuse et sur le job-crafting.

Based on an analysis of judgments on the motion for issuance of an injunction order against strike pickets rendered by the Quebec Superior Court between 2002 and 2023, this article shows that it has been extremely rare for judges to note serious acts of violence, such as beatings, injuries and dangerous acts of vandalism. On the other hand, a threatening look, the appearance or risk of any nuisance can always be qualified by the Court as intimidation, a threat, violence, a wrongful act, irreparable harm, and can justify limiting the right to picket in its simplest form of expression. We then defend the hypothesis that these orders granted in an almost mechanical manner are totally disproportionate, that they sanction workers in an indiscriminate and preventive manner, to the point of undermining the very essence of the right to picket, and this, in violation of the rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly of workers recognized by the Supreme Court.

Cette recherche examine l’impact d’une privation relative sur la croyance en un monde juste et sur le désengagement vis-à-vis du travail. Deux études ont été menées, dans chacune desquelles deux groupes de Français d’origine maghrébine ont été confrontés à une situation dans laquelle ils devaient se mettre à la place d’un Français d’origine maghrébine indiquant avoir déjà été victime de discrimination vs déclarant n’en avoir jamais subi. Dans la première étude, ce Français essuyait un refus de promotion au profit d’un Français de souche (privation intergroupale) alors que dans la seconde c’était au profit d’un autre Français d’origine maghrébine (privation intragroupale). Les participants répondaient alors à un questionnaire de croyance en un monde juste et de désengagement vis-à-vis du travail. Il est constaté que dans la situation intergroupale, les participant(e)s de la condition « Négation de discrimination » et ceux de la condition « Reconnaissance de discrimination » ne se différencient sur aucune des deux variables dépendantes. En revanche, dans la situation intragroupale, les participants placés dans la condition « Négation de discrimination » croient davantage en un monde juste et dévaluent plus le travail que ceux de la condition « Reconnaissance de discrimination ». De plus, la croyance en un monde juste (VM) semble médiatiser la relation entre le type d’attribution (VI) et la dévaluation du travail (VD). Ces résultats sont confrontés à ceux de la littérature et discutés sur le plan de leurs implications.

Summary: In this study, we sought to identify how employee turnover affected company value in a sample of 254 European listed companies before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. We specifically tested the hypothesis that the most profitable and socially responsible companies withstood the pandemic better. We then complemented our analysis by identifying potential sectoral differences. We analyzed the association between employee turnover and company value by using a quantile regression model to determine this association at each point of the conditional distribution of company value. All of our financial and non-financial data for the 2019-2020 period were extracted from the Bloomberg database. We found a negative association between employee turnover and company value before and during the pandemic. The additional costs of employee turnover may have therefore reduced stock market values. The negative association weakened considerably during the pandemic for those companies that had the lowest company value, possibly because of the government support and guarantees they received during the lockdowns. Our sectoral analysis showed a stronger effect on traditional industries with intensive human interactions than on modern industries with predominantly virtual interactions. Estimation results from more profitable companies showed a positive association before the pandemic, perhaps because they had an ‘optimal’ level of employee turnover that maximized their productivity and performance and, thus, their stock market value. This association completely reversed during the pandemic, perhaps because their higher profitability was not sufficient to dampen the negative effect of the increase in employee turnover. For the most profitable and socially responsible companies, the same association was much stronger both before and during the pandemic. For almost all of the companies, the estimated coefficients of employee turnover were positive before the pandemic but became negative for those companies that had the lowest stock market values during the pandemic. This study enriches the existing literature by being the first one to show how employee turnover affected the company value of European listed firms before and during the pandemic. It also provides new evidence that this association varied with the level of sectoral sensitivity to the pandemic and was much stronger for the most profitable and socially responsible companies.

The renowned Harry Glasbeek unpacks how law has been used to ensure that workers' aspirations are kept in check. Law at Work uncovers how the legal system, through its structures and mechanisms, legitimizes and reinforces the exploitation of workers. Using historic and contemporary examples, Glasbeek illustrates how conscious manipulations of law are part and parcel of how law protects capitalists at the expense of workers. He proves how the very laws designed to safeguard rights and freedoms often act as invisible shackles, compelling readers to reflect on their own struggles as they navigate a world where the legal system fails to serve their interests. These manipulations are made to look innocent because the underlying structures and ideology which give rise to specific rules are not challenged or challengeable. This thought-provoking book is an indispensable resource for those seeking to understand the hidden dynamics of worker oppression, empowering readers to question prevailing narratives and envision a future where the law truly serves the interests of all. -- Publisher's description

This dissertation provides the first historical overview of the Confederation of Canadian Unions (CCU) and its affiliates from 1969 to 1992. Formed at the end of the 1960s as a foil to the Canadian Labour Congress (CLC), the CCU sought to nationalize the Canadian labour movement by fomenting the formation of Canadian unions. As a left-nationalist labour body, the CCU charged the CLC with conservatism, complacency, and collaboration in its approach to organizing and collective bargaining. Chief among the CCU’s concerns was the domination of American international unions in the CLC. Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, the CCU organized workplaces in unorganized industries, bringing a host of immigrant women into the ranks of the Canadian labour movement, while establishing large bargaining units in industries primarily organized by American unions. At the same time, the CCU forwarded a left-nationalist politics inspired by the New Canadian Political Economy (NCPE) that criticized Canada’s economic, political, and cultural dependence on the United States, and used this politics to mobilize its members against continental free trade and towards a nationalized, socialized home economy. The CCU and its affiliates also formed important linkages with the New Left and the women’s movement during these decades and proved itself a militant actor in confrontations with the state and industrial law. Several CCU affiliates eventually merged with the Canadian Autoworkers (CAW) in the 1990s in the wake of extensive economic restructuring and corresponding changes in the Canadian labour movement. The dissertation contributes to the scholarship on industrial relations, industrial legality, and nationalism by providing a historical case study of a left-nationalist labour institution that simultaneously challenged and was shaped by federal and provincial law. It provides a critical institutionalist perspective on union federations that accounts for the law as a contested terrain, and nationalism as a historically contingent politics.

The article reviews and comments on the books, "Harry Bridges: Labor Radical, Labor Legend" by Robert W. Cherny, "Labor under Siege: Big Bob McEllrath and the ILWU's Fight for Organized Labor in an Anti-Union Era," by Harvey Schwartz with Ronald Magden, "Under the Iron Heel: The Wobblies and the Capitalist War on Radical Workers," by Ahmed White.

The article reviews the book, "Building That Bright Future: Soviet Karelia in the Life Writing of Finnish North Americans," by Samira Saramo.

The article reviews the book, "The Real Living Wage: Civil Regulation and the Employment Relationship," by Edmund Heery, Deborah Hann, and David Nash