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The article chronicles the development of two retail workers' unionization efforts that took place in the Toronto, Ontario area in the 1990s. It examines the role that women labour leaders Wynne Hartviksen and Debora De Angelis played in organizing the drives and describes how their personal experiences working in low-wage and non-benefited retail jobs contributed to their beliefs as workers' rights activists. It also presents comments from both Hartviksen and De Angelis on topics such as fear exhibited by employees regarding being punished by employers for joining unions and their efforts to contact and recruit potential union members through mailings, phone calls, and personal interviews.

Drawing on data from a sixteen-month ethnography of Queen’s Park, the provincial legislature of Ontario, this study analyses and critiques the evolving production of neoliberal government. The work of real social actors, primarily political workers and politicians, and their active ideological and material creation of government, is central to my focus on the neoliberal project of the Liberal government in Ontario. After charting the historical trajectory of neoliberalism internationally and in Canada, with a particular emphasis on the Third Way approach, Icentre on thedevelopment of neoliberal political culture and restructuring in Ontario. Then I provide an in-depth analysis of the production of the Liberal government, focusing on social and fiscal policies and policy-making, hegemonic gender and class politics, and political communications and spin. I conclude that, at one level, the Liberal chimera fused certain progressive practices and language with neoliberal policies and rhetoric. At the same time, significant and dangerous initiatives that interlocked the public and for-profit sector conceptually and materially were pursued. Thus, a more camouflaged form of deep neoliberal integration was produced.

An in-depth look at the urgent struggle to protect animals from harm, cruelty, injustice, extinction, and their greatest threat—us. Beloved dogs and cats. Magnificent horses and mountain gorillas. Curious chickens. What do we actually do to protect animals from harm—and is it enough? This engaging book provides a unique and eye-opening exploration of the world of animal protection as people defend diverse animals from injustice and cruelty. From the streets of major US cities to remote farms and tropical forests, Defending Animals is a gritty and moving portrait of the real work of animal protection that takes place in communities, courtrooms, and boardrooms. Globally recognized expert Kendra Coulter takes readers across the different landscapes of animal protection to meet people and animals of all kinds, from cruelty investigators to forensic veterinarians, wildlife rehabilitators and conservation leaders to animal lawyers and entrepreneurs, each working in their own ways to defend animals. Bringing unparalleled research and a distinct and nuanced analytical viewpoint, Defending Animals shows that animal protection is not only physical, intellectual, and emotional work but also a labor so rooted in empathy and care that it just might bridge the vast divide between polarized people and help create a more humane future for us all. -- Publisher's description

Retail workers are a significant but largely unorganized group in Canada and the United States. However, in recent years, there has been a marked increase in efforts to organize retail workers, including pursuit of innovative structures and strategies. The author focuses on the dominant threads of contemporary retail organizing work in Canada and the United States, outlining three current organizing vehicles: unionization, store-based networks, and occupation or sector-based associations. The author then reflects on the strengths, weaknesses, and possibilities of these approaches, independently and collectively, and emphasizes the need to confront the social and cultural as well as the economic devaluation of retail workers.

Retail workers are a large labor force, yet their jobs are generally devalued and dominated by low wages, precarious conditions, and disrespect. Coulter draws on three years of comparative research on retail workers and political action, including fieldwork in Canada, the United States, and Sweden, to explore what is needed to improve workers' wellbeing and transform retail work. The only book of its kind, Revolutionizing Retail explains the strategies being used to improve retail jobs and retail workers' quality of life, including diverse forms of organizing, public policy, and good management. Coulter analyzes the degree to which current efforts are succeeding, and what lessons they offer about the present and future of work, forms of agency, and class, gender, and race relations. The power of culture, emotions, and workers' personal experiences of political action are at the heart of this engaging discussion of the challenges and possibilities of social change. --Publisher's description

In this thought-provoking and innovative book, Kendra Coulter examines the diversity of work done with, by, and for animals. Interweaving human-animal studies, labor theories and research, and feminist political economy, Coulter develops a unique analysis of the accomplishments, complexities, problems, and possibilities of multispecies and interspecies labor. She fosters a nuanced, multi-faceted approach to labor that takes human and animal well-being seriously and challenges readers to not only think deeply and differently about animals and work but to reflect on the potential for interspecies solidarity. The result is an engaging, expansive, and path-making text. --Publisher's description

The article reviews the book, "Casino Women: Courage in Unexpected Places," by Susan Chandler and Jill B. Jones.

This chapter draws upon research conducted on retail work from 2009 to 2016 and it highlights the most significant patterns and findings about union avoidance and how anti-unionism is manifested in retail stores on an ongoing basis and in organizing attempts. --Author

In the summer of 2005, the Society of Energy Professionals Hydro One Local engaged in unprecedented strike action that lasted 105 days. This article documents the strike, and explores how and why it occurred, and with such significant support and participation from the 1000 members of a union that had no militant history. I trace the build-up, progression and resolution of the strike, drawing from Society materials, media reports and ethnographic observation, as well as the insights of elected leaders, staff representatives, and rank and file members of the Society collected through interviews and written questionnaires. I conclude that government policy and management behaviour caused worker anger but that union education, organization and democracy were integral to moving these "professional" workers into job action.

When I entered Queen’s Park, the provincial legislature in Ontario, Canada, I sought to uncover, contextualize, and analyze what political workers do and why, in order to better understand the production of government. Not long after I started fieldwork, during an informal discussion but one that took place in the mythically sacrosanct space of the legislative chamber, a young male Conservative staffer encouraged a Liberal counterpart to decorate his new motorcycle helmet with a sticker proclaiming “Show me your tits, bitch!” This sort of misogyny, in combination with more subtle daily examples of andro-centrism, made it clear that gender and, in particular, variants of hegemonic masculinity were central to the production of government and what political workers do and why. I learned very quickly that I would need to grapple with the relationships between patriarchy and political labor in order to thoroughly understand government.

This chapter examines the idea of animals having humane jobs. The concept of humane jobs has been proposed primarily to help conceptualize and propel good work for people which also benefits animals. Here the focus expands to interrogate whether animals can be engaged in what could be considered humane jobs and what that would involve. By building in particular on feminist political economy and care ethics, as well as the front-line efforts of people who work with animals, the chapter elucidates key preconditions and perameters for certain animals to have humane jobs, including important inclusions and exclusions. Moreover, it argues that humane jobs are not sufficient on their own, but rather that we also ought to be emphasizing animals’ work-lives. This means understanding animals not only as workers but as whole beings, and taking seriously their lives, relationships, and experiences, before and after work, on a daily basis, and over their lifetimes. The chapter is thus both inductive and generative, and offers a constellation of ethical and conceptual considerations, intended to drive further research, foster nuanced and contextualized analysis, and help inspire tangible changes in thought and political action.

Governments are formal political institutions, places of work for thousands of women and men, and powerful social, cultural, and economic sites that shape the lives of all people. This collection demonstrates how anthropologists enrich our understandings of government by exploring the labor of those who govern, and how the dynamics of culture are at the heart of government actions that justify, modify, and reproduce political action. By assembling original, ethnographically-grounded research in legislatures, executives, and bureaucracies, this volume illuminates and unpacks the structures, practices, and values of government actors in local, regional, and national contexts. It will be of interest to scholars and students in anthropology, as well as sociology, political science, policy studies, and labor studies. --Publisher's description

[T]his chapter identifies different forms of anti-poverty work being pursued in Canada today and examines the relations among poor people, poverty and labour unions. ...[The author] concentrates on examples of three main intersections of labour union and anti-poverty relations: union organizing of low-wage workers, poor workers' organizations, and multi-organization campaigns and coalitions. --Editors' introduction

Spaces of work and economic activity cause the most significant and widespread harm to animals so are particularly significant when thinking about how to both understand and promote solidarity with animals. This chapter begins by establishing what ‘animals at work’ means and then reestablishes the importance of the concept of interspecies solidarity as both a process and goal. It expands on earlier analyses and suggests that the principles of equity and care offer complementary and compelling guidance and impetus to deepen and enrich the application of the concept of solidarity. There are three levels within which these ethical priorities can be translated into meaningful, material changes: the interpersonal, the organizational, and the governmental/legislative (or, the micro, meso, and macro level). Some workplace contexts are ethically indefensible and should be replaced through just humane jobs transitions. Others have more positive potential, and, in these cases, interspecies solidarity could result in meaningful changes.