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Review essay of "A Grander Vision: My Life in the Labour Movement" (2019) by Sid Ryan, and "A New Kind of Union: Unifor and the Birth of the Modern Canadian Union" (2019) by Fred Wilson.
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This article begins with a broad overview of the scholarly literature on labour politics in Canada before focusing more specifically on the relationship between organized labour and the NDP. The article is organized thematically, focusing on three key features of the party-union relationship: (1) institutional ties between labour and the NDP; (2) the ideological impact of labour on the politics of the NDP: and (3) labour's (in)ability to deliver votes to the party. Each dimension of the party-union relationship reveals factors that contributed to a loosening of ties over time and sets the stage for a final concluding section exploring the implications of a weakened NDP-union link for the future of labour and working-class politics in Canada. --From author's introduction
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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
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This article explores union responses to workplace-based covid-19 vaccine mandates in Canada. Specifically, the authors examine the complex interplay of factors that drove unions to adopt their respective positions on vaccine mandates and to frame those positions in particular ways for the benefit of their members and the wider public. Interviews with key informants, along with analysis of documents and arbitration decisions, reveal a disjuncture between the discursive quality of certain unions’ positions and their actual positions. In particular, media framing of unions as either “for” or “against” vaccine mandates oversimplified or misrepresented the actual positions adopted. In response, the article introduces a typology of union positions that distinguishes between support for mandatory-vaccination policies and support for voluntary-vaccination policies and reveals that the vast majority of unions favoured the latter. The authors further reveal that workplace vaccine mandates were both internally divisive and disorienting for unions, given the central role labour organizations play in managing workplace disputes and representing the interests of workers, both individually and collectively.
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This article uses case studies from three comparable Ontario-based universities to explore the relationship between bargaining unit structures and collective bargaining outcomes for unionized sessional contract academic faculty. The article charts the complex network of bargaining unit structures and inter-union or association relationships in Ontario universities and uses both quantitative and qualitative data to illustrate how different structures influence internal debates about sessional contract academic faculty, bargaining priorities, and collective bargaining strategies. The authors conclude that bargaining unit structures have less of an impact than practitioners assume and that success at the bargaining table for sessional contract academic faculty is dependent on a broad range of factors rather than any particular structure.
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This article explores the relationship between unionization and academic freedom protections for sessional faculty in Ontario universities. Specifically, we compare university policies and contract provisions with a view to determining whether unionized sessionals hired on a per-course basis have stronger academic freedom protections than their non-union counterparts. We then explore whether particular kinds of bargaining unit structures are more conducive to achieving stronger academic freedom provisions. Finally, we consider whether academic freedom can be exercised effectively by sessionals, whether unionized or not. We conclude that unionization does help to produce stronger academic freedom protections for sessional faculty and that faculty association bargaining unit structures are most likely to help deliver this outcome. We further conclude that academic freedom is difficult to exercise for sessional faculty, regardless of union status, but that unionization offers greater protections for sessionals facing repercussions as a result of asserting their academic freedom.