Your search

In authors or contributors
Resource type
  • Since the turn of the twenty-first century, Canadian unions have scored a number of important Supreme Court victories, securing constitutional rights to picket, bargain collectively, and strike. Unions in Court documents the evolution of the Canadian labour movement’s engagement with the Charter, demonstrating how and why labour’s long-standing distrust of the legal system has given way to a controversial, Charter-based legal strategy. This book’s in-depth examination of constitutional labour rights will have critical implications for labour movements as well as activists in other fields. --Publisher's description.

  • In The Canadian Labour Movement, historian Craig Heron and political scientist Charles Smith tell the story of Canada's workers from the midnineteenth century through to today, painting a vivid picture of key developments, such as the birth of craft unionism, the breakthroughs of the fifties and sixties, and the setbacks of the early twenty-first century. The fourth edition of this book has been completely updated with a substantial new chapter that covers the period from the great recession of 2008 through to 2020. In this chapter, Smith describes the fallout of the financial crisis, how Stephen Harper's government restricted labour rights, the rise of the "gig economy" and precarious work, and the continued de-industrialization in the private sector. These pressures contributed to fracturing the movement, as when Unifor, the largest private sector union, split from the Canadian Labour Congress, the established "house of labour." Through it all, rank-and-file union members have fought for better conditions for all workers, including through campaigns like the fight for a $15 minimum wage. --Publisher's description

  • In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, the need to re-establish the labour movement’s political capacity to exert collective power in ways that foster greater opportunity and equality for working-class people has taken on a greater sense of urgency. Understanding the strategic political possibilities and challenges facing the Canadian labour movement at this important moment in history is the central concern of this second edition of Rethinking the Politics of Labour in Canada. With new and revised essays by established and emerging scholars from a wide range of disciplines, this edited collection assesses the past, present and uncertain future of Canadian labour politics in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. Bringing together the traditional electoral-based aspects of labour politics with analyses of newer and rediscovered forms of working-class organization and social movement-influenced strategies, which have become increasingly important in the Canadian labour movement, this book seeks to take stock of these new forms of labour politics, understand their emergence and assess their potential impact on the future of labour in Canada. --Publisher's description. Contents: Part 1: Contextualizing Labour and Working-Class Politics. Canadian Labour and COVID-19 / Stephanie Ross and Larry Savage -- Business Unionism and Social Unionism in Theory and Practice / Stephanie Ross. Part 2: The Challenge of Electoral Politics. Struggling to Survive: The New Democratic Party and Labour in the Neoliberal Era / Alan Ernst and Bryan Evans -- Labour and Politics in Quebec / Peter Graefe -- Anybody but Conservative: Canadian Unions and Strategic Voting / Larry Savage. Part 3: The Prospects of Extra-Parliamentary Activism. Interrogating the Union Politics of Equity, Inclusion and Diversity / Winnie Ng and Carol Wall -- Which Side Are You On? Indigenous Peoples and Canada’s Labour Movement / Suzanne Mills and Tyler McCreary -- The Politics of Migrant Worker Organizing in Canada / Karl Gardner, Dani Magsumbol and Ethel Tungohan -- Community Unionism and Alt-Labour in Canada / Simon Black -- Canadian Labour and the Environment: Addressing the Value-Action Gap / Dennis Soron -- Class Struggle Goes to Court: Workers’ Rights and the Charter of Rights and Freedoms / Charles Smith and Alison Braley-Rattai.

Last update from database: 4/3/25, 4:10 AM (UTC)

Explore