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L’étude du droit du travail restauré au cours de la transition économique chinoise nous montre que, comme ailleurs à d’autres époques, il accompagne le développement capitaliste et assure la construction du marché du travail. Suivant la tradition institutionnaliste en économie fondée sur le lien étroit économie-droit, nous pouvons mettre à jour les choix faits par l’État concernant les droits à protéger à travers des normes du travail élevées. Ces droits du travailleur s’exerçant dans un pays autoritaire se trouvent soumis avant tout au projet de « société harmonieuse » mené par le Parti communiste chinois. En fin de compte, l’ancrage du droit du travail dans le dispositif de « management social », destiné à assurer le contrôle de l’État sur les travailleurs, se retourne contre eux.

Income inequality has skyrocketed in Canada over the past decades. The rich have become richer, while the average household income has deteriorated and job quality, plummeted. Common explanations for these trends point to globalization, technology, or other forces largely beyond our control. But as Jobs with Inequality shows, there is nothing inevitable about inequality. Rather, runaway inequality is the result of politics and policies, and what governments have done to aid the rich and boost finance, and what has not done to uphold the interests of workers. Drawing on new tax and income data, John Peters tells the story of how inequality is unfolding in Canada today by examining post-democracy, financialization, and labour market deregulation. Timely and novel, the book explains how and why business and government have rewritten the rules of the economy to the advantage of the few, and considers why progressive efforts to reverse these trends have so regularly run aground. -- Publisher's description

Low-wage work and precarious employment are among the most urgent issues of our time. Canadian Labour Policy and Politics serves as essential reading for undergraduates who need to understand the politics of inequality in Canada’s labour market. This comprehensive textbook traces the rise of these pressing problems, reveals the resulting inequalities, and outlines the solutions for a sustainable future. Written by leading experts and practitioners, the text demonstrates how and why laws and public policy – intended to protect workers – often leave workers vulnerable with little economic or social security. Based on up-to-date data and international comparisons, chapters provide readers with real-world examples and case studies of how globalization, labour laws, employment standards, COVID-19, and other challenges affect workers on and off the job. Canadian Labour Policy and Politics also engages students in defining a far-reaching policy agenda for developing greater economic equality, political inclusiveness, and a green recovery in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic. Accessible and clearly written, it is a must-read for students as well as researchers, practitioners, activists, and policymakers. Key features include chapter summaries and outlines, suggestions for further reading, and glossaries. Students and scholars of Canadian politics and public policy, labour studies, political economy, and sociology will find this an invaluable addition to their bookshelves. The volume is a core text for second-, third-, and fourth-year level university labour and inequality courses. The fresh and insightful overview of Canada’s labour market and policies will also be essential reading for government policymakers, NGO representatives, union researchers and practitioners, and journalists. --Publisher's description

Dans un contexte de transformation du système français de relations d’emploi, à la fois dans son coeur (contrat à durée indéterminée) et dans ses marges (contrats à durée déterminée de plus en plus courts, autoentrepreneuriat, …), cet article cherche à comprendre les diverses stratégies de gestion de la main-d’oeuvre, en particulier celles relatives à la flexibilité des entreprises à l’échelle d’une région française : la Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur. Nous adoptons une approche renouvelée des théories de la segmentation, à la fois diversifiée et dynamique. Au-delà de l’opposition marché interne-marché externe, nous avons d’abord caractérisé les pratiques de segmentation, non seulement selon la nature du contrat de travail, mais également selon la durée du contrat, le niveau de rémunération et le type de temps de travail (complet ou partiel). Nous avons ensuite étudié l’évolution que cette segmentation a connue entre 2006 et 2016 et avons décliné cette segmentation des pratiques selon la taille des établissements. À partir d’une base de données exhaustive sur les emplois et les établissements de la région étudiée, nous avons mis à jour quatre segments caractérisant les relations d’emploi en Provence-Côte d’Azur : le premier, typique du marché primaire, est qualifié de « stabilité de l’emploi » ; le deuxième, au contraire, typique du marché secondaire, est nommé « flexibilité par les contrats courts » ; le troisième est marqué par l’usage de contrats à durée déterminée (CDD) de plus de six mois, d’où la qualification de « flexibilité par les CDD longs » ; le quatrième, plus diversifié, est qualifié de « pratiques mixtes ». L’évolution entre 2006 et 2016 se caractérise ensuite par le renforcement des caractéristiques propres à chaque segment, mais aussi par l’érosion du segment de « stabilité de l’emploi » et la progression du segment de « pratiques mixtes », qui semble illustrer la diffusion de formes d’emplois subventionnés par les pouvoirs publics sur la période 2006-2016. La déclinaison de la typologie des pratiques par taille d’établissement a, elle, permis de confirmer de manière générale la pertinence des 4 segments, même si pour les grands établissements, les segments de « flexibilité par les CDD longs » et de « pratiques mixtes » pourraient former un unique segment.

The article reviews the book, "Routledge International Handbook of Working-Class Studies," edited by Michele Fazio et al.

In 1977, Bonnie Robichaud accepted a job at the Department of Defence military base in North Bay, Ontario. After a string of dead-end jobs, with five young children at home, Robichaud was ecstatic to have found a unionized job with steady pay, benefits, and vacation time. After her supervisor began to sexually harass and intimidate her, her story could have followed the same course as countless women before her: endure, stay silent, and eventually quit. Instead, Robichaud filed a complaint after her probation period was up. When a high-ranking officer said she was the only one who had ever complained, Robichaud said, "Good. Then it should be easy to fix." This timely and revelatory memoir follows her gruelling eleven-year fight for justice, which was won in the Supreme Court of Canada. The unanimous decision set a historic legal precedent that employers are responsible for maintaining a respectful and harassment-free workplace. Robichaud's story is a landmark piece of Canadian labour history--one that is more relevant today than ever. --Publisher's description

The article reviews the book, "In the Kingdom of Shoes: Bata Zlĭn, Globalization, 1894–1945," by Zachary Austin Doleshal.

Introduces and summarizes the five articles presented for the roundtable that was convened on the 50th anniversary of the founding of National Action Committee on the Status of Women. Takes note of the various themes explored, including labour feminism.

The article reviews the book, "Public Education, Neoliberalism, and Teachers: New York, Mexico City, Toronto," by Paul Bocking.

This article addresses two key questions. First, how have faculty associations and university administrations in Canada responded to the intertwined challenges of austerity and pandemic bargaining? And second, how can faculty associations apply strategic and tactical lessons from this period to future rounds of collective bargaining? The content of this article is informed by the secondary literature on university labour relations and faculty associations in Canada and is grounded in the author’s practical experience as Chief Negotiator for the Brock University Faculty Association (BUFA) in the last two rounds of bargaining. The article uses the 2020 round of pandemic bargaining at Brock University as a case study to explore the obstacles and opportunities presented by the COVID-19 crisis within the broader context of the neoliberalization of higher education. The case study also serves as a jumping off point to compare and contrast the range of faculty association responses to pandemic bargaining and theorize more generally about how the pandemic intersects with strategic debates concerning models of faculty unionism. --From introduction

The article reviews the book, "Shaping the Futures of Work: Proactive Governance and Millennials," by Nilanjan Ragunath.

This paper considers the recently introduced New Zealand Fair Pay Agreement (FPA) sectoral bargaining framework and offers a preliminary series of ideas and proposals setting out how an FPA model for bargaining sectoral standards could work in Canada. It is intended as the beginning of a more detailed discussion on the development of an FPA regime culminating in model legislation that could be adapted to different Canadian jurisdictions. Guided by principles of accountability, integration, and inclusivity, this proposal is intended to apply to all workers in an employment relationship – including dependent contractors and gig and platform workers. The proposed system is to be structured as a new, stand-alone statute, drawing upon existing institutions administering collective bargaining legislation, incorporating some familiar collective bargaining concepts: good faith bargaining, dues check-off, and unfair labour practice protection. It is intended to preserve existing collective bargaining arrangements by excluding specified sectors with existing high union density or existing sectoral bargaining. However, it is also intended to offer a new, sectoral bargaining option based on industry or occupation sectors, producing FPA “sector agreements” containing minimum standards applying to all employees and employers in the sector. This proposed framework would operate in parallel and in conjunction with the existing enterprise-level collective bargaining system.

The article reviews the book, "Tacky's Revolt: The Story of an Atlantic Slave War," by Vincent Brown.

The article reviews the book, "Code White: Sounding the Alarm on Violence Against Health Care Workers," by Margaret M. Keith and James T. Brophy.

The development of work–life policies—e.g., employee assistance programs, on-site childcare, flextime, part-time, compressed week, and so on—is increasingly important for a growing number of organizations. Though such programs provide benefits for both employees and employers, usage rates are still low. Scholars have called for research that addresses this phenomenon and more particularly explains the underlying processes of individual decision-making concerning work–life balance, and describe why and how certain social groups differ in their approaches to policy use. Our inductive study –based on 44 individual interviews- aims to address these issues. We found that the policies are used differently depending on the employees’ social group, and that certain salient social identities—such as gender, parenthood and managerial status—shape their use. Such programs are a structural and cultural change for organizations and often present an opportunity for redefining the centrality of work. Indeed the values inherent in them, including resting and taking time for oneself or for one’s family, may conflict with the traditionally masculine values associated with the ‘ideal worker’, intuitively linked to performance and production of positive results. The clash between the two, which permeated the interviews, causes employees to fall back on the social identity or identities they find meaningful. Our findings show three main strategies that individuals use when they feel that their social identity is threatened: (1) engage in workaround activities to avoid using work-life policies; (2) try to compensate for policies use (by engaging in projects outside one’s job or doing overtime work) ; and (3) significantly limit policies use. These results contribute to literature by showing that many managers and men do not feel legitimate to use work-life policies and find workarounds to manage without them, thus perpetuating stereotypical masculine norms. We demonstrate that the identity threat that underlies work-life policies taking may help women in the short term, but also contributes to their discrimination in the long run as well as is detrimental to the work-life balance of men.

In Canadian Great War historiography, the late-war and post-WWI revolt has remained a conspicuous subject for exploring regional and class conflict. This dissertation examines the revolt with a new analytical perspective centred on patriotism and profiteering. The first section of this study constructs a cultural framework called Great War culture. Based on the limitations of the state, it became necessary to militarize socialization so that a major war effort could be undertaken. Through this process, Canada experienced a war-centric cultural shift, whereby social and political belonging became premised on patriotic identity. The term “profiteering” emerged as part of the war-centric lexicon to designate those who were disregarding patriotic sensibilities and selfishly exploiting the war for profit. The second section of this dissertation examines three major interpretations of Great War profiteering between 1914 and 1918: war profiteering, food profiteering, and alien profiteering. It provides an understanding of each controversy through the perspective of federal politicians and state officials; leaders in the labour, farmers’, and veterans’ movements; and ordinary patriots in English Canada. It argues that Borden’s administration failed to curb patriotic outrage and disillusionment, setting the stage for explosive post-war militancy and unrest. The final section examines how workers, farmers, and veterans drew upon the legitimacy of the Great War as a struggle for democracy to challenge the terms of post-war reconstruction. As this section explores, patriots undertook this revolt by using direct action involving violence and industrial militancy. They also used political action to challenge party politics, which some believed to be a root cause of the profiteering evil.

This article reviews the book, "People, Power and Profits: Progressive Capitalism for an Age of Discontent," by Joseph Stiglitz.

The article reviews the book, "No Property in Man: Slavery and Antislavery at the Nation's Founding," by Sean Wilentz.

In Canada, as in most advanced capitalist countries, the right of workers to engage in collective action has been partially immunized from competition law, one of the basic norms of capitalist legality. The “zone of toleration”, however, has been contested over time and poses a recurring regulatory dilemma that stems from labour’s commodity status in capitalism. In the capitalist utopia, workers are commodified and atomized, each one competing against all others. But in capitalist reality, such an arrangement produces the tragedy of atomism. In Polanyian terms, labour is a false commodity and treating it as such results socially dysfunctional consequences, producing a counter movement. In Marxist terms, labour is embodied in human beings who resist their commodification and atomization, in part by uniting with other workers and acting collectively to improve their conditions and, perhaps, one day to create a different social order in which labour ceases to be a commodity. Viewed in either light, the zone of legal toleration within competition law is the product of recurring conflicts and struggles whose outcome is shaped and reshaped over time. In Canada, this conflict has been resolved by granting workers a legal immunity from liability under competition law for engaging in approved collective action to improve or defend their terms and conditions of work. However, the zone of toleration is contestable at three margins, explored in this chapter. First, is the margin between those workers who are covered by the exemption and those who are not; second is between the sale of labour power and the sale of the commodities it produces; and the third is between the means that covered workers can lawfully use to make their combinations effective and those that take them out of the zone of toleration. The chapter explores the history of the construction of the zone of toleration and conflicts over its margins.

The article reviews the book, "Industrial Craft in Australia: Oral Histories of Creativity and Survival," by Jesse Adams Stein.