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L’article propose une grille de lecture des transformations de la relation d’emploi dans le cadre de la globalisation des marchés à partir de la notion de « zone grise d’emploi » (ZGE). Cette notion, forgée à l’origine par le juriste A. Supiot, pour désigner une convergence de situation entre l’« état de subordination » des salariés et des travailleurs indépendants est reprise et discutée dans le cadre élargi d’une « relation d’emploi avec tiers ». Ce cas de figure renvoie à un contexte d’internationalisation de la production où la relation employé-employeur ne se résume pas à une relation de face à face, mais dépend d’un ensemble de parties prenantes impliquées dans les conditions qui président à son organisation et sa gestion. L’article propose une définition de la ZGE qui ne se limite pas à souligner un défaut d’institutionnalisation dans la règle de droit, mais considère que tout « écart à la norme » est devenu la règle et non plus l’exception. La ZGE est définie comme « espace public » entendu comme un espace de délibération où les jeux d’intérêt et les relations de pouvoir se coordonnent ou se confrontent pour la constitution d’un ordre de régulation hybride, public et privé, formel et informel. L’intérêt de cette notion est de porter un autre regard sur les transformations de la relation d’emploi. En prenant la firme Uber comme exemple, l’article montre que l’on ne peut réduire la question de l’emploi des chauffeurs prestataires au paradigme juridique standard qui limiterait le débat entre choisir le statut de travailleur indépendant ou celui de salarié. La diversité, mais aussi la fragilité des jugements prononcés par les tribunaux, leurs caractères partiels et toujours provisoires, laissent deviner que la situation socio-professionnelle des chauffeurs, si elle relève de l’« indécidable » au plan du droit, ne peut être comprise sans prendre en considération l’action des États, des territoires et de la société civile dans le jeu de la régulation.

Meaningful work has been defined as work that is personally enriching and that makes a positive contribution. There is increasing interest in how organizations can harness the meaningfulness of work to enhance productivity and performance. We explain how organizations seek to manage the meaningfulness employees experience through strategies focused on job design, leadership, HRM and culture. Employees can respond positively to employers' strategies aimed at raising their level of experienced meaningfulness when they are felt to be authentic. However, when meaningfulness is lacking, or employees perceive that the employer is seeking to manipulate their meaningfulness for performative intent, then the response of employees can be to engage in “existential labor” strategies with the potential for harmful consequences for individuals and organizations. We develop a Model of Existential Labor, drawing out a set of propositions for future research endeavors, and outline the implications for HRM practitioners.

In order to compete in increasingly tight quasi-markets generated by government cutbacks and contracting-out, management in nonprofit agencies have argued that wages and benefits must be reduced or jobs and services will be cut. These arguments have motivated some of the female-majority workers to join and/or organize unions and undertake strike action. Focusing on two case studies exploring restructuring in the highly gendered nonprofit social services in two liberal welfare states (Scotland and Canada), this article explores shifts in industrial relations at the agency level, as well as workforce resistance and union activism. Through the analysis of gendered unpaid work and gendered forms of social and union solidarity, this article extends feminist political economy and mobilization theory. It also suggests convergences at several layers of practice and policy, including private and nonprofit industrial relations cultures, managerialism and the underfunding of contracted-out government services.

Unpaid work has long been used in nonprofit/voluntary social services to extend paid work. Drawing on three case studies of nonprofit social services in Canada, this article argues that due to austerity policies, the conditions for ‘pure’ gift relationships in unpaid social service work are increasingly rare. Instead, employers have found various ways to ‘fill the gaps’ in funding through the extraction of unpaid work in various forms. Precarious workers are highly vulnerable to expectations that they will ‘volunteer’ at their places of employment, while expectations that students will undertake unpaid internships is increasing the norm for degree completion and procurement of employment, and full-time workers often use unpaid work as a form of resistance. This article contributes to theory by advancing a spectrum of unpaid nonprofit social service work as compelled and coerced to varying degrees in the context of austerity policies and funding cutbacks., Unpaid work has long been used in nonprofit/voluntary social services to extend paid work. Drawing on three case studies of nonprofit social services in Canada, this article argues that due to austerity policies, the conditions for ‘pure’ gift relationships in unpaid social service work are increasingly rare. Instead, employers have found various ways to ‘fill the gaps’ in funding through the extraction of unpaid work in various forms. Precarious workers are highly vulnerable to expectations that they will ‘volunteer’ at their places of employment, while expectations that students will undertake unpaid internships is increasing the norm for degree completion and procurement of employment, and full-time workers often use unpaid work as a form of resistance. This article contributes to theory by advancing a spectrum of unpaid nonprofit social service work as compelled and coerced to varying degrees in the context of austerity policies and funding cutbacks.

This article reviews the book, "Deported: Immigrant Policing, Disposable Labor, and Global Capitalism," by Tanya Maria Golash-Boza.

"The Mill - Fifty Years of Pulp and Protest explores the power that a single industry can wield. For fifty years, the pulp mill near Pictou in northern Nova Scotia has buoyed the local economy and found support from governments at all levels. But it has also pulped millions of acres of forests, spewed millions of tonnes of noxious emissions into the air, consumed quadrillions of litres of fresh water and then pumped them out again as toxic effluent into nearby Boat Harbour, and eventually into the Northumberland Strait. From the day it began operation in 1967, the mill has fomented protest and created deep divisions and tensions in northern Nova Scotia. This story is about people whose livelihoods depend on the pulp mill and who are willing to live with the "smell of money." It's about people whose well-being, health, homes, water, air, and businesses have been harmed by the mill's emissions and effluent. It's about the heartache such divisions cause and about people who, for the sake of peace, keep their thoughts about the mill to themselves. But it's also about hope, giving voice to those who led the successive groups that have protested and campaigned for a cleaner mill - First Nations, fishers, doctors, local councillors, tourism operators, artists and musicians, teachers and woodlot owners. Their personal stories are interwoven into a historical arc that traces the mill's origins and the persistent environmental and social problems it causes to this day. Baxter weaves a rich tapestry of storytelling, relevant to everyone who is concerned about how we can start to renegotiate the relationship between economy, jobs, and profits on one hand, and human well-being, health, and the environment on the other. The Mill tells a local story with global relevance and appeal."--

À partir d’une recherche qualitative auprès de 48 ex-militants syndicaux ayant eu plus de 80% de leur temps de travail pour leur syndicat, de 10 directeurs des Ressources humaines et de trois organisations syndicales, une organisation patronale et un cabinet d’accompagnement, cet article questionne la reconversion des militants syndicaux en dehors de la sphère syndicale. En s’appuyant sur le contexte français et la littérature existante sur la reconversion des militants syndicaux, nos travaux soulignent les stratégies mises en place par les ex-militants afin d’assurer leur employabilité militante externe.Ces stratégies sont influencées par la perception qu’ils ont de leur employabilité. Plusieurs facteurs externes et individuels affectent cette perception. Les facteurs individuels sont le capital social perçu, la nature du départ (subi ou volontaire), le niveau de poste précèdent et le niveau atteint dans l’organisation syndicale. Ces facteurs individuels n’expliquent pas tout. D’autres facteurs externes, tels la stigmatisation dont peut faire l’objet le militant à cause de son engagement syndical, le lien contractuel et l’accompagnement du syndicat, expliquent la perception que le militant a de son employabilité. Celle-ci entraine soit une non mobilisation du capital social, soit une mobilisation offensive du capital social. Dans ce dernier cas, l’ex-permanent peut subir une phase d’observation de la part de l’entreprise d’accueil.En s’intéressant à la reconversion syndicale, cette recherche constitue un renversement de positionnement par rapport aux nombreux travaux analysant la carrière syndicale. Le capital social des militants n’est plus pensé au sein de l’organisation syndicale, mais en dehors de celle-ci, et il permet de proposer le concept d’employabilité militante externe, à savoir la capacité d’un ex-militant syndical d’obtenir un travail et de se maintenir en emploi en dehors du syndicat grâce à la mobilisation de son capital social. // Title in English: Ensuring external activist employability by mobilizing social capital : the case of ex-full time unionists after a professional transition outside of their unions. Based on qualitative research involving 48 former unionists who worked for more than 80% of their time for the union, 10 human resource directors and three union organizations, one employers’ organization and one outplacement company specialized in this type of transition, this article considers the transition of ex-activists to work outside the trade union sphere. Based on the French context and the existing literature on the transition of trade union activists, our work highlights the strategies mobilized by ex-unionists to ensure their external activist employability.These strategies are influenced by their perceived employability. Several external and individual factors impact this perception. Individual factors include : perceived social capital, the nature of the departure (suffered or voluntary), the level of post preceding the transition and the level in the trade union organization. However, these individual factors do not explain everything. Other external factors, such as the stigmatization of the activist linked to his union work, the contractual relationship, and the support of the union explain the unionist’s perceived employability. This leads either to a non-mobilization of social capital or to an offensive mobilization of social capital. In this latter case, the former employee could be placed under observation by the host company.By looking at the transitions of unionists, this research is a reversal of the position taken in many studies analyzing the unionist’s career. The social capital of activists is no longer defined within the trade union organization, but outside of it. This allows us to put forward the concept of external activist employability as the capacity of a unionist to obtain and maintain a job outside the union sphere through the mobilization of social capital.

In the twenty years since Quebec introduced its family policy in 1997, with the objective of supporting the parents of young children, the province has implemented a number of measures aimed at promoting work-life balance which are in many respects more generous than those elsewhere in Canada. However, while enhancing rights to maternity, parental and paternity leave upon the arrival of a child, Quebec has done little to address conflicts between work and family life after a parent's return to work, especially conflicts resulting from routine, daily obligations towards children, the elderly, or other family mem- bers. This paper examines the adequacy of existing legal mechanisms available to Quebec workers under human rights and employment standards legislation for reducing work-family conflict. In this regard, the author notes that 'family status" or 'family situation" has not been recognized as a prohibited ground of discrimination under Quebec's Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms, and the province's courts have consistently resisted expanding the scope of the pro- hibited ground of "civil status" to include parental obligations in the employ- ment context. Furthermore, while the Labour Standards Act provides for various short- and long-term leaves of absence for family responsibilities, the legislation imposes restrictive conditions on entitlement, e.g. the obligation in question must generally be "extraordinary" in nature, and the employee must prove that she took steps to find an alternative solution before seeking leave. Overall, Quebec law has preserved management's prerogative to determine the organization and scheduling of work, maintaining a conception of the "ideal" or "normative" worker as one who has no family responsibilities. Ultimately, the author argues, meaningful reform must take aim at the crux of the matter - employees' ability to control their working time.

In the early twentieth-century, the Communist Party of Canada (CPC) initially hesitated to discuss the politics of reproduction as a means of easing material inequity for women and men of the working class. Nevertheless, over five decades, this topic appeared often in the CPCs official and unofficial publications, illustrating a sustained interest in the taboo subject. My thesis draws upon archival materials, communist and mainstream newspapers, and medical periodicals to survey contemporary opinions of birth control, abortion, eugenics, juvenile delinquency, venereal disease, and state medicine. Using the lens of left-politics, these topics are contextualized with reference to the extant literature on the histories of politics, sex, reproduction, labour, and medicine in Canada and beyond. Far from being confined to a few secretive individuals, the militant left engaged a dense network of activists who took stock of the social as well as physical reproduction of the nation. Often their interests appeared indistinguishable from the mainstream, and occasionally overlapped with those of their right-leaning opponents. The CPC unfailingly argued for an understanding of sex and reproduction that reflected its Marxist worldview. Some multi-generational discussions were so durable that they would outlast and outgrow the militant left to emerge within the rhetoric of a multitude of Canadian liberation groups by the late sixties and early seventies. I argue that investigation of the politics underwriting the ideas of the CPC and its ideology of a healthy, socialized body politic, elucidates complexities in the formation of mainstream Canadian approaches to sex, reproduction, and health.

In this article, I argue that graduate employees took on the political identity of precarious workers who face job insecurity and income insecurity, drawing attention to the casualization of work in the academic labor market in Canada, and the cost of undertaking graduate studies in Canadian universities. Their argument appealed to media, faculty, undergraduate students, and supportive media, which was key to building solidarity and public support for graduate employees’ struggle. Building on social movement unionism literature, I show how this identity moved the debate away from the bargaining table and into broader coalition building, suggesting a broader social movement unionism among academic workers.

Union renewal research calls for moving beyond broad terms, like community unionism, to specify how social relations of work shape renewal for different workers, sectors and contexts. Analysis of interviews with union officials and union members in publicly funded, in-home personal support reveal two community dimensions: both caring and racialized relations between workers and service recipients. Scholarship on care workers emphasizes empathy and coalition with service recipients as a key aspect of union renewal, yet says little about racialized tensions. Studies of domestic workers emphasize organizing in response to racialization, but provide little insight into caring social relations at work. This article develops arguments that both positive and negative worker–recipient relations shape union organizing and representation in the service sector by specifying the ways in which racialization contributes to this dynamic. It suggests that anti-racist organizing at work, alongside coalition building and collective bargaining, are important renewal strategies for this sector.

This dissertation explores the nature of workers’ self-activity during World War II and the ensuing responses to these actions by the state and capital. A close examination of wartime strikes demonstrates that top-down efforts by unions to operate within normative industrial relations were generally failures. Far more likely to be effective were democratic strikes, generally illegal, called from the shopfloor. The Workers’ War further illustrates that while the government passed incredibly coercive legislation to control labour, such legislation failed to have a significant impact. Even where it was most influential and targeted it was eventually beaten through direct action. Even Japanese Canadian forced labour in work camps with armed guards, undertook effective strikes. Largely interested in institutional and legislative changes, the unions, far from being a militant force, spent much of their energy trying to stop or curtail strikes. This thesis contends that the concretion of industrial legality in Canada was imposed to control effective action. Rather than breaking unions of their militancy, the dearth of a state terror apparatus necessitated the creation of compulsory bargaining legislation. First, it argues that the creation of the modern industrial relations regime that forms the foundation for modern labour law was the result of effective workers’ action rather than militant unions. It further shows that the repressive apparatus of the state was unable to control workers, necessitating a structural adjustment. In a larger sense, this thesis argues that this story is at the centre of the history of capitalism in Canada. The imposition of capitalist social relations on the geographies that become Canada had the transformation of land into capital via labour at the very core of its project. Controlling labour was a central concern, and the manner in which labour relations were consolidated was a reflection of a negotiation between labour, capital, and state- a manifestly unequal negotiation that largely failed to reflect the interests of workers.

The article reviews the book, "Household Workers Unite: The Untold Story of African American Women Who Built a Movement," by Premilla Nadasen.

In recent years K-12 school systems from New York to Mexico City to Toronto, serving vastly divergent students and communities, have been subject to strikingly similar waves of neoliberal policies by governments. A key manifestation has been the de-professionalization or deskilling of teachers. Organized labours response has been highly uneven geographically. Professional autonomy means a capacity and freedom of teachers to exercise their judgement in interpreting broad curriculum guidelines, into their day to day classroom activities. It is the primary obstacle to the further neoliberalization of education. The expansion of standardized instructional and evaluative techniques and technologies are necessary for opening new markets within schools and for weakening the collective power of teachers and their unions. Their proponents are limited by the existence of the classroom as a space of labour autonomy, run by experienced and highly educated teachers. Recognizing the significant crossover of policy at the North American scale alongside significant economic and political linkages, this dissertation centres on case studies in three cities, New York, Mexico City and Toronto. This dissertation assesses challenges to teachers professional autonomy from 2001 to 2016 across five dimensions of comparison. First are changes in governance, namely the centralization of authority, often legitimized by mobilizing policies from elsewhere. Second are policies which have shifted workplace power relations between principals and teachers, as with School Based Management programs that download budgetary, discipline and dismissal practices to school administrators. Third are the effect of standardized testing of students and teachers on the latters capacity to exercise professional judgement in the classroom through designing unique lesson plans, pedagogy and evaluation. Fourth is the creation of school choice for schools competing for enrolment and thereby funding, which has tended to perpetuate class and racial segregation. Finally, the ability of teachers unions to construct a multi scalar strategy is considered, including alliances with parents, communities and other sectors of labour. This dissertation concludes with recommendations for how teachers unions could respond to the challenge to professional autonomy with a stronger engagement on teacher practice and professional self-regulation.

This article reviews the book, "American Prophets: Seven Religious Radicals and their Struggle for Social and Political Justice," by Albert J. Raboteau.

L’externalisation, qui donne lieu à l’intégration indirecte du travail dans l’organisation productive, pose des défis importants pour la représentation collective des travailleuses et des travailleurs. C’est que le droit du travail a été établi en fonction d’un tout autre modèle organisationnel. Afin de mieux comprendre ces défis, nous avons mené trois études de cas sur la représentation collective en contexte d’externalisation des services publics d’aide à domicile au Québec durant la période 2003-2013. Les travailleuses concernées — majoritairement des femmes — occupent des emplois précaires chez trois types de prestataires privés intégrés à des réseaux locaux de services: entreprises d’économie sociale en aide domestique (EESAD), usagers du programme Chèque emploi-service (CES) et agences de location de personnel. Nous avons examiné si des pratiques de représentation collective de ces travailleuses existent et quels acteurs sociaux les portent. Nous avons aussi vérifié si ces pratiques se confinent à l’intérieur des frontières de l’entité identifiée comme l’employeur au sens juridique ou si elles sont « réticulaires », étendant la solidarité à la sphère du pouvoir stratégique (Appay, 1997) exercé par les autorités publiques dans les réseaux. Nos résultats montrent l’absence d’une représentation collective réticulaire dans ces réseaux locaux de services où la dévalorisation sexuée du travail, contrée en partie dans le secteur public, revient en force. Le personnel de 15% des EESAD est syndiqué, mais les pratiques de représentation syndicale n’interpellent que l’employeur reconnu au sens juridique, les EESAD. Dans les agences de location de personnel intégrées à ces réseaux locaux, aucune forme de représentation collective n’existe, ni dans le programme CES. Cependant, une action collective interpellant les autorités publiques au sujet des conditions d’emploi dans le CES a eu un certain succès ponctuel. Portée par une coalition d’associations locales représentant des personnes vivant avec des limitations fonctionnelles, elle ouvre la voie à l’idée d’alliances salariées-usagers autour de la qualité des services et de l’emploi. , Outsourcing, which entails the indirect integration of work into the organization of production and services, poses significant challenges for workers’ collective representation. This is because the relevant labour law is premised on a completely different organizational model. To gain insight into these challenges, three case studies were conducted on collective representation in the context of outsourcing of public homecare services in Quebec during the 2003-2013 period. The workers involved—for the most part women—held precarious jobs in three types of private service providers integrated into local networks of services: social economy domestic help enterprises (EESAD), users of the Service Employment Paycheque plan (SEP) and employment agencies. We examined whether these workers are represented collectively and which social actors are involved. We also investigated whether these practices are confined within the boundaries of the entity identified as the employer in the legal sense or whether they are “reticular”, extending solidarity to the sphere of strategic power (Appay, 1997) exercised by the public authorities in the networks. Our results show that there is no reticular collective representation in these local networks of services where the gendered devaluation of work, partly overcome in the public sector, is back with a vengeance. Employees in 15% of EESADs are unionized but the union representation practices only focus on the legally recognized employer, the EESADs. In the employment agencies integrated into these local networks, no form of collective representation exists, nor does such representation exist in the case of the SEP. However, collective action targeting the public authorities involving working conditions under the SEP has had some one-off success. Driven by a coalition of local associations representing people living with disabilities, it paves the way for the idea of employee-user alliances around service and job quality. , La externalización, que da lugar a la integración indirecta del trabajo en la organización productiva, plantea retos importantes a la representación colectiva de los trabajadores y trabajadoras. Es que el derecho laboral ha sido establecido en función de un modelo organizacional diferente. Para comprender mejor estos retos, hemos llevado a cabo tres estudios de caso sobre la representación colectiva en contexto de externalización de servicios públicos de asistencia domestica a domicilio en Quebec durante el periodo 2003-2013. Las trabajadoras concernidas – mayoritariamente mujeres – ocupan empleos precarios en tres tipos de proveedores privados integrados a las redes locales de servicios: las empresas de economía social de asistencia domestica (EESAD), los utilizadores del programa Cheque empleo-servicios (CES) y las agencias de empleo. Hemos examinado si las prácticas de representación colectiva de esas trabajadoras existen y cuáles son los actores sociales que los sostienen. Hemos verificado también si esas prácticas son confinadas al interior de las fronteras de la entidad identificada como empleador en términos jurídicos o si son « reticulares », extendiendo la solidaridad a la esfera del poder estratégico (Appay, 1997) ejercido por las autoridades públicas en las redes. Nuestros resultados muestran la ausencia de una representación colectiva reticular en esas redes locales de servicios donde la desvalorización sexuada del trabajo, bloqueada en parte en el sector público, regresa con fuerza. El personal de 15% de las EESAD es sindicalizado pero las prácticas de representación sindical interpelan únicamente al empleador jurídicamente reconocido, las EESAD. En las agencias de empleo integradas a esas redes locales, no existe ninguna forma de representación colectiva, ni en el programa CES. Sin embargo, una acción colectiva interpelando las autoridades públicas en cuanto a las condiciones de empleo en las CES tuvo cierto éxito puntual. Sostenida por una coalición de asociaciones locales que representaban las personas que viven con limitaciones funcionales, la acción abrió la vía a la idea de alianzas entre asalariados y utilizadores de servicios en torno a la calidad de los servicios y del empleo.

This article integrates the employment strain model with the social stress model in order to reveal the mechanisms that explain the relation between precarious employment and mental well-being. This model is applied to the case of temporary agency employment by analysing 41 in-depth interviews with temporary agency workers from Canada. The results show how temporary agency workers perceive employment-related uncertainties and efforts mainly as negative and to a lesser extent as positive experiences, respectively evoking strain or activation. Further, it is revealed how uncertainties and efforts mutually reinforce each other, which increases strain, and how support can serve as a buffer.

This article provides an overview of some key issues related to immigration in Quebec. Quebec stands out from the rest of Canada in terms of the origin of its immigrants, who come mainly from francophone countries. Quebec immigrants are relatively better educated than those elsewhere in Canada, but have higher unemployment rates. Our overview of the research examining the impact of immigration on the economy found that immigration has a relatively small impact. Given the above, we suggest that immigration in Quebec should be maintained at current levels–at least in the short term–but that selection and integration policies should be improved by, among other things, putting more emphasis on the needs of employers. In addition, candidates with Canadian or Quebec experience should be favoured. Finally, the impact of these policies will be limited without more openness to immigrants on the part of employers.

This article reviews the book, "Consumers in the Bush: Shopping in Rural Upper Canada," by Douglas McCalla.

This article reviews the book, "Silk Stockings and Socialism: Philadelphia's Radical Hosiery Workers from the Jazz Age to the New Deal," by Sharon McConnell-Sidorick.