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The article reviews the book, "On Class," by Deborah Dundas.

...A new study from the non-profit Angus Reid Institute dives deep into perceptions of labour unions, finding a nation with competing views about the value and cost of organized work in Canada, among union members and non-members alike. Overall, Canadians largely feel that unions have had a positive impact for those they represent. Three-in-five say this, approximately three-times as many as say the impact has been a net negative. The cost-benefit calculation is more divided when considering the impact of unions on the country’s economy as a whole. Two-in-five say this impact is a positive one while three-in-ten say it has been negative. Workers themselves have their own experiences. For most, union membership has been a plus. Three-in-five members of both public (62%) and private (63%) sector unions say they’re satisfied with the representation they receive. Half as many say they’re dissatisfied, suggesting there is plenty of room for improvement. Progress may come from more than one area. Overall, among those who have gone to a union representative for assistance, three-in-ten (30%) say they did not feel supported. Women are slightly more likely to say they did not feel supported (36%) than men (30%). Further, when they think about the costs of membership and the benefits they receive, two-in-five union members (39%) say they do not receive adequate benefit for what they pay. Asked which of the main federal political parties they think is currently best suited to improve their own situation, public sector union members overwhelmingly say the NDP, traditionally associated with organized labour, is the best option (49% say this, a 31-point advantage over the next option chosen). That said, those in private sector unions are less certain. One-third say the Conservative Party would be best (32%), one-third choose the NDP (32%) and 26 per cent choose the governing Liberal Party. --Website summary

Work stoppages, including number of work stoppages, maximum number of employees involved, average duration, and number of person-days not worked due to work stoppages by jurisdiction, industry, and sector, annually, from 1946 to 2020.

The Labour Issue: Rebuilding the working class. On International Workers’ Day, we celebrate the power of workers—together, we have the power to fundamentally transform the economy. That’s why this issue of the Monitor focuses on labour power. In his lead editorial, CCPA Senior Communications Specialist Jon Milton writes about the need to rebuild the working class in the face of persistent attacks on organized labour’s strength. --Website introduction

Introduces the theme of deindustrialization in Canada including history, gender, regions, technology, and resistance Summarizes the various contributions to this special issue of the journal.

Justicia for Migrant Workers (J4MW) is a volunteer-run political collective comprising people from diverse walks of life, including migrant workers, labour organizers, educators, researchers, students and racialized youth based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. We are engaged in this work alongside our personal commitments and numerous social justice struggles. J4MW strives to promote the rights of migrant farm workers (participating in agricultural streams of the Temporary Foreign Worker Program, including the Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program) and farm workers without a formal immigration status. Promoting workers’ rights entails creating for spaces where workers themselves can organize and voice their concerns without losing their work or being repatriated. The collective starts with workers’ knowledge and concerns and fight for change collectively, basing our work on fighting racism, sexism and capitalism. We see ourselves as a movement of workers and allies and strive to support organizing that is led and directed by workers in the fields, farms and greenhouses. --Website description

For educators seeking to build anti-racism learning into Canadian history classes, this 8-book set of classroom materials is an invaluable resource. Each book addresses a major instance of official racism and discrimination spanning more than 150 years. ...Titles included: Righting Canada's Wrongs: The Komagata Maru; Righting Canada's Wrongs: The Chinese Head Tax; Righting Canada's Wrongs: Anti-Semitism and the MS St. Louis; Righting Canada's Wrongs: The LGBT Purge; Righting Canada's Wrongs: Africville; Righting Canada's Wrongs: Italian Canadian Internment; Righting Canada's Wrongs: Residential Schools; Righting Canada's Wrongs: Japanese Canadian Internment; Righting Canada's Wrongs: Resource Guide. --Website description

The article reviews the book, "The Story of Work, A New History of Humanity," by Jan Lucasssen.

Cet article vise à comprendre l’émergence et le développement d’une gestion des ressources humaines (GRH) inclusive en PME. Le concept d’inclusion renvoie à l’épanouissement professionnel et à la reconnaissance des salariés (Bonneveux et al., 2020). Cette forme de GRH comporte une visée intégrative dans la mesure où elle offre la possibilité d’améliorer la collaboration notamment entre le dirigeant et ses salariés. Dans cette optique, nous avons mobilisé de façon originale la logique du don de Mauss, couplée à la littérature sur la GRH en PME afin de proposer une nouvelle grille de lecture. À partir du cas emblématique d’une PME, une étude qualitative longitudinale a été menée sur une période de 8 ans. Les résultats soulignent le décalage entre les contre-dons attendus et ceux réellement réalisés par le dirigeant, qui conditionnent in fine l’adonnement des salariés. Ce déséquilibre dans la relation amène à la construction d’une GRH inclusive.

In this singular firsthand account, a former migrant worker reveals a disturbing system of exploitation at the heart of Canada’s farm labour system. When Gabriel Allahdua applied to the Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program in Canada, he thought he would be leaving his home in St. Lucia to work in a country with a sterling human rights reputation and commitment to multiculturalism. Instead, breakneck quotas and a culture of fear dominated his four years in a mega-greenhouse in Ontario. This deeply personal memoir takes readers behind the scenes to see what life is really like for the people who produce Canada’s food. Now, as a leading activist in the migrant justice movement in Canada, Gabriel is fighting back against the Canadian government to demand rights and respect for temporary foreign labourers. Harvesting Freedom shows Canada’s place in the long history of slavery, colonialism, and inequality that has linked the Caribbean to the wider world for half a millennium--but also the tireless determination of Caribbean people to fight for their freedom. -- Publisher's description

This study is about the impact of discriminatory job loss (DJL) on individual attitudes. It is based on interviews with 36 academics who were inequitably and involuntarily fired, and aggressively and punitively discriminated against. We extend previous research on workplace discrimination by exploring the effects of discriminatory job loss on a skilled workforce and by going beyond the job loss itself to examine coping mechanisms, resilience and post-traumatic growth. We found that gratitude, patience and optimism or pessimism about one’s future and career were leading individual factors in the ability to cope with discriminatory job loss. Such coping mechanisms, and their roles in resilience and post-traumatic growth, were described to us by academics in Turkey and abroad.

The article reviews the book, "Pour sortir les allumettières de l’ombre. Les ouvrières de la manufacture d’allumettes E.B. Eddy de Hull (1854-1928)," by Kathleeen Durocher.

The article reviews the book, "Making Mexican Chicago: From Postwar Settlement to the Age of Gentrification," by Mike Amezcua.

A personal appreciation of the life and work of Jewish and labour studies historian, Irving Abella (1940-2022).

The article reviews the book, "Penal Servitude: Convicts and Long-Term Imprisonment, 1853-1948," by Helen Johnston, Barry Godfrey, and David J. Cox.

La question de la représentation collective des cadres a été remise à l’ordre du jour récemment, à la suite de l’initiative de l’Association des cadres de la Société des casinos du Québec ainsi que de l’Association professionnelle des cadres de premier niveau d’Hydro-Québec, qui ont obtenu l’autorisation du Tribunal administratif du travail de se constituer en syndicats, malgré le statut de cadre de leurs membres. Cette décision, qui a été confirmée en février 2022 par la Cour d’appel du Québec, soulève de nombreux questionnements sur le futur de la représentation collective de cette catégorie de travailleurs. Cet article entend contribuer à la réflexion sur ce thème, en mettant en lumière les attentes qu’entretiennent les cadres du secteur parapublic québécois à propos de leurs associations représentatives et de leurs modes d’action. Pour ce faire, nous mobilisons des résultats provenant de deux recherches réalisées auprès de cadres du secteur de la santé et des services sociaux, membres de l’AGESSS, et du secteur de l’éducation, membres de l’AQCS. Ces cadres expriment leur accord face à d’éventuelles modifications de l’encadrement législatif de leurs relations de travail. Cela dit, ils ne manifestent pas pour autant une volonté de se syndiquer. Qui plus est, ils sont ambivalents quant à l’utilisation éventuelle de modes d’action revendicateurs. Nous posons l’hypothèse que ce rapport au syndicalisme est une affirmation identitaire, qui s’explique, entre autres, par la façon dont le Code du travail définit les acteurs des relations du travail.

The article reviews the book, "Petite histoire politique des banlieues populaires," by Hacène Belmessous.

Tracing the history of gendered working-class responses to deindustrialization in the Montréal neighbourhood of Saint-Henri reveals that many of the local political initiatives of the 1960s and 1970s were connected to longer-term working-class efforts to navigate shifting patterns of capital accumulation extending back to the 1940s. The gendered tradition of territory-based organizing in this community encouraged women workers’ shop-floor militancy and was foundational for new forms of local political advocacy around issues like health care and housing. In deindustrialization’s moment, the concerns of a precariously employed, feminized working-class population spurred a crossover of industrial struggle with survival-focused reproductive labour issues, centred around a grassroots organization called the popir (Projet d’organisation populaire, d’information, et de regroupement). This pattern of gendered working-class militancy and solidarity persisted throughout the 1980s and shaped resistance to Saint-Henri’s subsequent gentrification at the turn of the new millennium.

Musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) are one of the main causes of work disability (EU-OSHA, 2019; WHO, 2019). Several solutions, including the cobotic system (EUROGIP, 2017), have been put forward to improve unhealthy working conditions and prevent MSDs. We sought to identify the MSD risk factors of workers on a screen-printed glass production line prior to introduction of a cobot. We used a mixed data collection technique: video observations and assessment of MSD risk factors by expert ergonomists, and then self-confrontation interviews with six production-line operators and subjective perception of risk factors. The two types of assessment (by experts and by operators) showed that the most demanding risk factors were physical (e.g., work posture) and psychosocial (e.g., mental workload). Certain risk factors were viewed differently by the experts and the operators. One question remains: How can a cobot make work more meaningful for operators?

The article reviews the book, "Love’s Next Meeting: The Forgotten History of Homosexuality and the Left in American Culture," by Aaron S. Lecklider.