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This article is a minimum filmography about the fundamental issue of mobility. The films reviewed here represent Mexican workers who travel to Canada as temporary workers, thus, who are legal economic migrants. ...This article seeks to introduce the main problems of SAWP [Seasonal Agricultural Workers Program] in the framework of an approach that takes place in the 2020’s; presenting the activists’ struggle, pointing out SAWP’s problems for the families affected and with regard to the process of temporary workers soliciting Canadian citizenship. I analyze five films produced over the last 15 years and present them chronologically to discover how seasonal agricultural workers’ participation in the programs signed by Mexico and Canada is documented.

In June 2024, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada announced impending new pilot programs for migrant care workers. While the announcement brings hope that “new pilot programs will provide home care workers with permanent residence on arrival in Canada,” this report identifies persistent problems with Canada’s migrant care worker programs and demonstrates why permanency upon arrival is a requisite for necessary program changes. Given the ongoing and structural issues of Canada’s migrant care worker programs, the newest pilot programs will also need other critical improvements to ensure dignified work and meaningful inclusion for much-needed care workers in Canada. --Website summary

The 2024 review of the Labour Relations Code, only the second in more than two decades, comes at a critical juncture for labour relations in British Columbia. It is imperative that this review bring a comprehensive package of reforms to markedly improve workers’ abilities to meaningfully exercise their statutory rights to organize and engage in collective bargaining in the current context of fissured workplaces and increasingly insecure work arrangements in many sectors of the BC economy. --Website summary

The Ontario Superior Court of Justice has approved a $30 million settlement resolving class action lawsuits regarding the employment status of players in the Canadian Hockey League’s Ontario Hockey League (OHL), Western Hockey League (WHL), and Québec Major Junior Hockey League (QMJHL). The decision comes after a complex legal battle spanning nearly a decade, affecting approximately 4,286 amateur hockey players. But it still needs to be approved by courts in Alberta and Quebec.

A detailed look at the experiences of migrant and immigrant women’s working conditions in low-wage essential sectors in Nova Scotia before, during, and following the most acute periods of the COVID-19 pandemic, this report draws on 27 in-depth, qualitative interviews.... --Website summary

This paper examines freedom of association in Canada. In particular, it traces why Canada’s constitutional protection of freedom of association has developed only slowly and principally in the union context so far, reaching in a struggling way toward what I call “half a constitutional freedom.” --Introduction

The evidence presented in this report runs counter to arguments that card-check and anti-scab legislation give excessive power to workers over employers. Rather, card-check certification and a replacement worker ban are fundamental to upholding workers rights within Canada’s labour relations system. The right to join a union and the right to strike are two foundational aspects of Canadian labour relations. Testimonials from workers in this report make clear that mandatory votes suppress workers’ freedom to join a union without coercion from anti-union employers. --Website summary

Drawing on the framework of racial capitalism, this paper highlights two distinct but related dynamics of racial differentiation in relation to Amazon in Greater Toronto Area (GTA): at the level of the region’s broader political economy and within Amazon’s warehouses. I outline the ways in which the e-commerce giant both exploits and (re)makes the racialized geography of the GTA. Amazon’s capitalization on neoliberal austerity and corporate welfare perpetuates class and racialized inequalities. These processes adversely affect these suburban localities and negatively impact employment in both quantitative and qualitative ways. In this context, I argue that Amazon’s success has been, in no small part, due to its exploitation of Canada’s racially stratified labour market. Within the warehouse, the notion that digital Taylorism produces an undifferentiated workforce and a uniform labour process is interrogated. Instead, workers’ own accounts point to the ways digital technologies enable management to generate racial/ethnic differentiation and further squeeze value from workers. By situating Amazon within this specific socio-historical and political economic context, I demonstrate that the GTA offers a case study through which to examine the racial dynamics of digital capitalism and show that racialized and gendered social relations inflect the uneven experiences of algorithmic management.

We investigated the role of cultural intelligence (CQ) among immigrant workers (IWs) in their professional success within Quebec organizations. Professional success was assessed at two stages of a worker’s career: an intermediate (organizational socialization: OS) and an ultimate stage (objective career success: OCS). Data from a purposive sample of 103 IWs show that CQ predicts OS, but neither CQ nor OS predicts OCS, except for IWs from Global North countries. Thus, intermediate success depends on the immigrant’s personal ability to integrate into the organization’s culture, but this ability will increase objective career success only if the immigrant is from the Global North, and not from the Global South. These findings challenge the hypothesis that socio-economic integration depends on the immigrant’s personal ability to adapt. Finally, we discuss structural factors that may affect the CQ/OCS relationship.

L’objectif de cet article consiste à analyser les spécificités et les enjeux entrepreneuriaux de la relation de travail atypique que constitue la coopération amapienne entretenue entre un petit producteur agricole et un groupe de consommateurs bénévoles. Assimilable à une forme spécifique d’entrepreneuriat collectif agricole, la création d’une association pour le maintien d’une agriculture paysanne (AMAP) se matérialise par un engagement contractualisé des consommateurs dans l’activité de production agricole et de vente directe de produits alimentaires locaux. L’engagement de ces consommateurs constitue alors une véritable force de travail pour le petit producteur agricole facilitant l’accès à des expertises et compétences complémentaires. Notre recherche vise à comprendre comment la coopération amapienne, en tant que relation de travail atypique, permet de stimuler, au sein d’un territoire, l’entrepreneuriat collectif agricole entre un petit producteur et un groupe de consommateurs bénévoles. Basés sur une méthodologie qualitative, nos résultats montrent que cette relation de travail atypique se caractérise par un système de coproduction, de cogestion et de réciprocité apprenante. Par ailleurs, elle favorise, pour l’entrepreneur agricole, la mise en place d’un environnement capacitant grâce aux principes de suppléance, de soutien, d’éducation et d’accompagnement auxquels obéit la création d’une AMAP et qui renforcent la capacité d’action et d’autonomisation du petit producteur. Ainsi, la finalité de cette relation de travail atypique réside dans un « entreprendre ensemble » pour, in fine, cocréer de la valeur sociale. Cette approche entrepreneuriale et altruiste de la relation de travail atypique enrichit la littérature académique qui l’envisageait, jusqu’à présent, principalement à partir de la situation de vulnérabilité du travailleur. Nous proposons en effet de la considérer aussi à partir de la capacité du travailleur à prendre part à un projet d’entrepreneuriat collectif en mettant à disposition d’une communauté un ensemble d’expertises et de compétences.

The anti-sweatshop movement has long committed to abolishing sweatshop labour and ensuring workers’ rights for all. There is an established body of literature on sport and the anti-sweatshop movement on the roles played by a range of actors concerning the mega-sporting events, which have been plagued with abuses of workers’ lives in the name of the sport spectacle. In effort to move past this troubled history, FIFA has embedded internationally recognized human and labour rights into their 2026 bid process. This study evaluates how the City of Toronto, Canada Soccer Association, and FIFA have considered ethical procurement and sweatshop labour as part of their bid for co-hosting the 2026 FIFA Men’s World Cup. Employing a critical theoretical approach, this study finds that despite the varying levels of considerations given to ethical (anti-sweatshop) procurement, the efforts remain insufficient. This is attributed to the unequal power dynamics that prioritize a discourse of (neoliberal capitalist) development for soft power.

Job security has always been a paramount concern for the trade union movement. This article explores the ways that unions used collective bargaining to gain a measure of job security for their members in the face of deindustrialization as unionized factories in North America began to close in large numbers after the 1970s. These new measures included advance notice, severance pay, plant closing moratoria, restrictions placed on plant movements, transfer rights, and expanding the scope of collective ‘social’ bargaining to cover training and adjustment. In some sectors, such as automotive, collective bargaining has also been extended into areas normally left to management. The price was often high. Eventually some unions, notably the Canadian Auto Workers (established 1985; part of Unifor after 2013), prioritized winning new capital investments and product lines for unionized plants in their negotiations, though often at the cost of jobs, wage freezes or reductions, and other concessions. By focusing upon auto sector deindustrialization in Canada since the 1980s, we draw lessons from more recent union bargaining strategies, and how they constitute an important element of worker responses to industrial job loss and manufacturing closure.

The article reviews the book, "The Happiness of the British Working Class," by Jamie L. Bronstein.

This book brings together the vast research literature about gender and technology to help designers understand what a gender perspective and a focus on intersectionality can contribute to designing information technology systems and artifacts, and to assist organizations as they work to develop work cultures that are supportive of women and marginalized genders and people. Drawing on empirical and analytical studies of women's work and technology in many parts of the world, the book addresses how to make invisible aspects of work visible; how to recognize women's skills without falling into the trap of gender stereotyping; how to engage in improving working conditions; and how to defend care of life situations and needs against a managerial logic. It addresses challenges for design, including many overlooked and undervalued aspects, such as the complexities involved in human–machine interactions, as well as the need to create safe spaces for research subjects. --Publisher's description

The article reviews the book, "Distant Stage: Quebec, Brazil, and the Making of Canada's Cultural Diplomacy," by Eric Fillion.

L’étude cherche à contribuer à expliquer pourquoi les travailleurs et travailleuses continuent à être exposés à des conditions de travail pathogènes, malgré les législations en prévention en santé et en sécurité du travail. Elle examine pour cela le processus social de « régulation » de l’exposition au bruit, cas paradigmatique de risque pour la santé dont les effets et les éventuels coûts d’indemnisation sont différés et généralement pas perçus comme nuisant à la sécurité et la productivité. L’analyse s’appuie entre autres sur des données obtenues par demande d’accès à l’information auprès de la Commission des normes, de l’équité, de la santé et de la sécurité du travail, dont des rapports d’intervention d’inspecteurs. Alors que les cas de surdité professionnelle reconnus sont en augmentation marquée, l’analyse met en évidence une série de déficits de régulation : déficit de protection par un seuil réglementaire d’exposition au bruit inchangé jusqu’à 2023; absence de couverture de la majorité des secteurs d’activité par le Réseau de santé publique en santé au travail, aussi par paralysie réglementaire, alors que ses signalements donnent lieu à la majorité des interventions de l’inspectorat; déficit d’application (très faible nombre d’interventions sur le bruit, particulièrement dans les secteurs à majorité féminine), même après la priorisation de ce risque, le nombre d’inspecteurs restant inchangé malgré l’augmentation marquée du nombre d’établissements; finalement, déficit de responsabilisation des employeurs par l’absence d’imputation directe à l’employeur des coûts d’indemnisation des cas de surdité professionnelle reconnus, d’abord encouragée par le mode de tarification, puis systématique. Ces déficits combinés participent à la « normalisation » d’atteintes à la santé qui peuvent pourtant être prévenues. L’étude conclut à l’échec de l’autorégulation de facto (absence de réglementation adéquate et de ressources conséquentes de soutien et de contrôle) comme à celle du marché (coûts d’indemnisation et tarification en fonction de l’expérience).

This introductory human resource management (HRM) textbook provides students with an overview of the major domains of human resource management (the “how-to”) with a focus on the practical application of the most recent HRM research and best practices. Students will learn to understand, anticipate, and respond to how power, profit, and intersectionality shape the practice of HRM. Moving beyond the typical procedure-oriented textbook, Barnetson and Foster provide thought-provoking political analysis to better prepare students for the real-world practice of human resource management. --Publisher's description

In recent years, labour unrest in Canada and elsewhere has led to a resurgence in union organizing, job action and contract gains. This thesis sets out to understand how greater attentiveness to working-class affects or emotions might support this potentially revitalizing moment. Given the limited scholarship in this area, this study connects a literature review of affect theory with radical labour history to develop a framework for thinking about the affective dimensions of collective action within unions. Using that framework, the study then investigates the affective life of two Western Canadian unions through surveys and interviews. The thesis concludes that acknowledging and becoming more intentional in efforts to mediate the affective intensities that circulate, move people and organize life at the level of union membership represents an important focal point as a new cycle of class recomposition potentially takes shape.

This paper delves into the implications of Canada's Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program (SAWP) through the lens of international human rights law (IHRL), spotlighting the nuanced effects on migrant agricultural workers' rights. Originating in 1966, the SAWP has been pivotal in recruiting labour from Mexico and the Caribbean to bolster Canada's agricultural sector. The paper critiques the program's core policies, notably the restrictive employment system that ties workers to specific employers and the significant barriers to obtaining permanent residency (PR) and citizenship. These policies are scrutinized for their potential violation of fundamental human rights, including the rights to equality, liberty and security, and access to justice, under both Canadian and international legal frameworks. A comprehensive analysis is presented, underpinning Canada's obligations under IHRL and the apparent discrepancies within its treatment of SAWP participants. The study proposes substantial policy reforms aimed at rectifying these discrepancies, advocating for a transition towards open work permits, and establishing clear pathways to PR and citizenship for SAWP workers. The research underscores the necessity for Canada to reconcile its labour demands within the agricultural sector with its human rights obligations, ensuring a fair and humane treatment of migrant workers who play a crucial role in the country's economy.

In this dissertation, I draw on Frantz Fanon’s concepts of cultural imposition and collective catharsis to examine how the colonized subject, like the incarcerated Black worker, undergoes a double process of dehumanization wherein they are perceived as both an invisible and hypervisible subject. I argue that the colonized subject is invisible insofar as they are subjected to various forms of dehumanization such as physiological and psychological abuse, lack of access to resources, and neglect. However, they are also perceived as hypervisible because they are viewed as existing in excess as hypersexual, hyper deviant, and hyper criminal creatures and therefore deserving of the treatment they endure. Similarly, the incarcerated worker is viewed as invisible and hypervisible because they are viewed as unskilled and subhuman beings undeserving of adequate pay and protections but are also perceived as best suited to work in poor conditions doing less skilled, undervalued, low-paying work. By tracing how this relationship between race, racialization and labour is underpinned by whiteness both historically and in a contemporary sense, I demonstrate how the use of prison labour within a Canadian multicultural context must necessarily be read through a normalizing white gaze, under the guise of public safety and rehabilitation; here the prison functions as a disciplinary site wherein Black and racialized prisoners are constructed as inferior beings in need of heightened control through labour. In doing so, I argue that the use of prison labour in Canadian prisons is a form of colonial violence that reproduces inferior and superior colonial identities.