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Taking an inter-provincial comparative approach, Dynamic Negotiations identifies potential avenues of reform. Academic and legal experts describe and analyse the history, current structure, and functioning of bargaining in public elementary and secondary schools in six key jurisdictions - Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec, and Newfoundland - representing a spectrum of approaches. This is a vital area of public policy that is much discussed but not well enough understood. The volume is a valuable resource for policy-makers, academics, and practitioners in education and labour relations. --Publisher's description. Contents: Introduction: Labour Relations in Primary and Secondary Canadian Education / Sara Slinn and Arthur Sweetman -- Crosscurrents: Comparative Review of Elementary and Secondary Teacher Collective Bargaining Structures in Canada / Karen Schucher and Sara Slinn -- The Great Divide: School Politics and Labour Relations in British Columbia before and after 1972 / Thomas Fleming -- Conflict without Compromise: The Case of Public Sector Teacher Bargaining in British Columbia / Sara Slinn -- Oil and Ideology: The Transformation of K-12 Bargaining in Alberta / Kelly Williams-Whitt -- Teacher Collective Bargaining in Manitoba / Valerie J. Matthews Lemieux -- The Evolution of Teacher Bargaining in Ontario / Joseph B. Rose -- Collective Bargaining for Teachers in Ontario: Central Power, Local Responsibility / Elizabeth Shilton -- The Centralization of Collective Bargaining in Ontario's Public Education Sector and the Need to Balance Stakeholder Interests / Brendan Sweeney, Susan McWilliams, and Robert Hickey -- Labour Relations in the Quebec K-11 Education Sector: Labour Regulation under Centralization / Jean-Noël Grenier and Mustapha Bettache -- K-12 Teacher Collective Bargaining in Newfoundland and Labrador / Travor C. Brown.

Though the Canadian labour movement’s postwar political, economic and social achievements may have seemed like irrevocable contributions to human progress, they have proven to be anything but. Since the mid-1970s, labour’s political influence and capacity to defend, let alone extend, these gains has been seriously undermined by the strategies of both capitalist interests and the neoliberal state. Electoral de-alignment and the decline of class-based voting, bursts of unsustained extra-parliamentary militancy and a general lack of influence on state actors and policy outcomes all signal that the labour movement is in crisis. Despite much experimentation in an attempt to regain political clout, labour continues to experience deep frustration and stagnation. As such, the labour movement’s future political capacities are in question, and the need for critical appraisal is urgent. Understanding how and why workers were able to exert collective power in the postwar era, how they lost it and how they might re-establish it is the central concern of Rethinking the Politics of Labour in Canada. With essays from established and emerging scholars from a wide range of disciplines, this collection assesses the past, present and uncertain future of labour politics in Canada. Bringing together the traditional electoral-based aspects of labour politics with analyses of the 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 impact on the future of labour in Canada. --Publisher's description. Contents:  Rethinking the Politics of Labour in Canada: An Introduction / Stephanie Ross & Larry Savage -- Part 1: Contextualizing Labour and Working-Class Politics. Canadian Labour and the Crisis of Solidarity / Donald Swartz & Rosemary Warskett -- Business Unionism and Social Unionism in Theory and Practice / Stephanie Ross. Part 2: The Challenge of Electoral Politics. The New Democratic Party in the Era of Neoliberalism / Bryan Evans -- Québec Labour: Days of Glory or the Same Old Story? / Peter Graefe -- Organized Labour and the Politics of Strategic Voting / Larry Savage -- Labour and the Politics of Voting System Reform in Canada / Dennis Pilon -- Part 3: The Prospects of Extra-Parliamentary Activism. Unions, Gender Equity and Neoconservative Politics / Amanda Coles & Charlotte Yates -- Social Unionism, Partnership and Conflict: Union Engagement with Aboriginal Peoples in Canada / Suzanne Mills & Tyler McCreary -- Canadian Labour and the Environment: Addressing the Value-Action Gap / Dennis Soron -- Community Unionism and the Canadian Labour Movement / Simon Black -- Anti-Poverty Work: Unions, Poor Workers and Collective Action in Canada  / Kendra Coulter -- Organizing Migrant and Immigrant Workers in Canada / Aziz Choudry & Mark Thomas -- Labour, Courts and the Erosion of Workers’ Rights in Canada / Charles Smith. Includes bibliographical references (pp. 198-222).

[The authors] recount the story of the canals, with particular emphasis on the experiences of the engineers, contractors, and labourers who built the inland waterways between 1824 and 1889. Making extensive use of the National Archives and the Archives of Ontario, Styran and Taylor unveil previously unpublished information about the construction of the canals, including technical plans and drawings from a wide variety of sources. They illustrate the technical and management intricacies of building a navigational trade and commerce lifeline while also revealing the vivid characters - from businessman William Hamilton Merritt to engineer John Page - who inspired the project and drove it to completion. The history of the Welland Canals is a gripping tale of epic proportions. Given the ongoing importance of the Great Lakes in the North American economy, interest in the St. Lawrence Seaway - of which the Welland is "the Great Swivel Link" - and the relevance of labour history, This Great National Object will be of interest to enthusiasts and historians alike. --Publisher's description

Company towns are often portrayed as powerless communities, fundamentally dependent on the outside influence of global capital. Neil White challenges this interpretation by exploring how these communities were altered at the local level through human agency, missteps, and chance. Far from being homogeneous, these company towns are shown to be unique communities with equally unique histories. Company Towns provides a multi-layered, international comparison between the development of two settlements—the mining community of Mount Isa, Queensland, Australia, and the mill town of Corner Brook, Newfoundland, Canada. White pinpoints crucial differences between the towns' experiences by contrasting each region's histories from various perspectives—business, urban, labour, civic, and socio-cultural. Company Towns also makes use of a sizable collection of previously neglected oral history sources and town records, providing an illuminating portrait of divergence that defies efforts to impose structure on the company town phenomenon. --Publisher's description

In 1927, Gabriel Sylliboy, the Grand Chief of the Mi'kmaw of Atlantic Canada, was charged with trapping muskrats out of season. At appeal in July 1928, Sylliboy and five other men recalled conversations with parents, grandparents, and community members to explain how they understood a treaty their people had signed with the British in 1752. Using this testimony as a starting point, William Wicken traces Mi'kmaw memories of the treaty, arguing that as colonization altered Mi'kmaw society, community interpretations of the treaty changed as well. The Sylliboy case was part of a broader debate within Canada about Aboriginal peoples' legal status within Confederation. In using the 1752 treaty to try and establish a legal identity separate from that of other Nova Scotians, Mi'kmaw leaders contested federal and provincial attempts to force their assimilation into Anglo-Canadian society. Integrating matters of governance and legality with an exploration of historical memory, The Colonization of Mi'kmaw Memory and History offers a nuanced understanding of how and why individuals and communities recall the past."--Publisher's description. Contents: Part 1: Why the Men Testified. 1. Accounting for Alex Gillis's actions: the Mi'kmaq in rural society -- 2. Why Nova Scotia prosecuted Gabriel Sylliboy -- 3. Moving to appeal: Mi'kmaw and government motivations. Part 2: How the Men Remembered. 4. Parents, grandparents, and great grandparents, 1794-1853. 5. Reserve life, 1850-1881: remembering the treaty. Part 3: Why the Men Remembered. 6. The demography of Mi'kmaw communities, 1871-1911 -- 7. Moving into the city: the King's Road Reserve and the politics of relocation. Appendix: The Federal and DIA censuses, 1871-1911.

The essays in [this book] create a transnational and comparative dialogue on the history of the productive and reproductive lives and circumstances of Indigenous women from the late nineteenth century to the present in the United States, Australia, New Zealand/Aotearoa, and Canada. Surveying the spectrum of Indigenous women's lives and circumstances as workers, both waged and unwaged, the contributors offer varied perspectives on the ways women's work has contributed to the survival of communities in the face of ongoing tensions between assimilation and colonization. They also interpret how individual nations have conceived of Indigenous women as workers and, in turn, convert these assumptions and definitions into policy and practice. The essays address the intersection of Indigenous, women's, and labor history, but will also be useful to contemporary policy makers, tribal activists, and Native American women's advocacy associations. --Publisher's description. Contents: Aboriginal women and work across the 49th Parallel : historical antecedents and new challenges / Joan Sangster -- Making a living : Anishinaabe women in Michigan's changing economy / Alice Littlefield -- Procuring passage : Southern Australian Aboriginal women and the early maritime industry of sealing / Lynette Russell -- The contours of agency : women's work, race, and Queensland's indentured labor trade / Tracey Banivanua Mar -- From "superabundance" to dependency : women agriculturalists and the negotiation of colonialism and capitalism for reservation-era Lummi / Chris Friday -- "We were real Skookum women" : The shíshálh economy and the logging industry on the Pacific Northwest Coast / Susan Roy and Ruth Taylor -- Unraveling the narratives of nostalgia : Navajo weavers and globalization / Kathy M'Closkey -- Labor and leisure in the "enchanted summer land" : Anishinaabe women's work and the growth of Wisconsin tourism, 1900-1940 / Melissa Rohde -- Nimble fingers and strong backs : First Nations and Métis women in fur trade and rural economies / Sherry Farrell Racette -- Northfork Mono women's agricultural work, "productive coexistence," and social well-being in the San Joaquin Valley, California, circa 1850-1950 / Heather A. Howard -- Diverted mothering among American Indian domestic servants, 1920-1940 / Margaret D. Jacobs -- Charity or industry? American Indian women and work relief in the New Deal era / Colleen O'Neill -- "An Indian teacher among Indians": Native women as federal employees / Cathleen D. Cahill -- "Assaulting the ears of government" : the Indian homemakers' clubs and the Maori Women's Welfare League in their formative years / Aroha Harris and Mary Jane Logan McCallum -- Politically purposeful work : Ojibwe women's labor and leadership in postwar Minneapolis / Brenda J. Child -- Maori sovereignty, Black feminism, and the New Zealand trade union movement / Cybèle Locke -- Beading lesson / Beth H. Piatote.

In the early twentieth century, the Canadian Lakehead was known as a breeding ground for revolution, a place where harsh conditions in dockyards, lumber mills, and railway yards drove immigrants into radical labour politics. This intensely engaging history reasserts Northwestern Ontario's rightful reputation as a birthplace of leftism in Canada by exposing the conditions that gave rise to an array of left-wing organizations, including the Communist Party, the One Big Union, and the Industrial Workers of the World. Yet, as Michel Beaulieu shows, the circumstances and actions of Lakehead labour, especially those related to ideology, ethnicity, and personality were complex; they simultaneously empowered and fettered workers in their struggles against the shackles of capitalism. Cultural ties helped bring left-wing ideas to Canada but, as each group developed a distinctive vocabulary of socialism, Anglo-Celtic workers defended their privileges against Finns, Ukrainians, and Italians. At the Lakehead, ethnic difference often outweighed class solidarity - at the cost of a stronger labour movement for Canada. --Publisher's description.  Contents: Part 1. The Roots of Revolution?: 1. Early socialist organizations at the Lakehead, 1900-14; 2. Repression, revitalization, and revolutions, 1914-18 -- Part 2. From Winnipeg to the Workers' Unity League: 3. "The Hog Only Harms Himself if He Topples His Trough": The one big union, 1919-22; 4. "Into the Masses!": The Communist Party of Canada at the Lakehead, 1922-25; 5. Bolshevization and the reorganization of the Lakehead Left, 1925-27; 6. Turning to the left, 1928-30 -- Part 3. The Great Depression and the Third Period: 7. "Class against Class": socialist activities, 1930-32; 8. Wobbly relations: The Communist Party of Canada, the Industrial Workers of the World, and the Lakehead, 1932-35.

[This book] traces Canada's transformation into a modern consumer nation back to an era when Eaton’s, Simpson's, and the Hudson’s Bay Company fostered and came to rule the country’s shopping scene. Between 1890 and 1940, department stores revolutionized selling and shopping by parlaying cheap raw materials, business-friendly government policies, and growing demand for low-priced goods into retail empires that promised to meet citizens' needs and strengthen the nation. Some Canadians found happiness and fulfillment in their aisles; others experienced nothing more than a cold shoulder and a closed door. The stores' advertising and public relations campaigns often disguised a darker, more complicated reality that included strikes, union drives, customer complaints, government inquiries, and public criticism. This vivid account of Canadian department stores in their heyday showcases them as powerful agents of nationalism and modernization. But the nation that their catalogues and shopping experience helped to define - white, consumerist, middle-class - was more limited than nostalgic portraits of the early department store suggest. --Publisher's description. Contents: Rise of mass retail -- Creating modern Canada -- Fathers of mass merchandising -- Crafting the consumer workforce -- Shopping, pleasure, and power -- Working at the heart of consumption -- Criticizing the big stores. Includes bibliographical references (p. 274-292) and index.

Does Canada have a working-class movement? Though most of us think of ourselves as middle class, most of us are, in fact, part of the working class: we work for wages and are not managers. Although many of us are members of unions - the most significant organizations of the working-class movement in Canada - most people do not understand themselves to be part of this movement. Is the working-class movement a relic of the twentieth-century factory worker, no longer relevant to workers in the twenty-first century? David Camfield argues that, despite its real deficiencies, the movement is as important today as it was a hundred years ago. Drawing on the ideas of union and community activists as well as academic research, David Camfield offers an analysis of the contemporary Canadian working-class movement and how it came to be in its current state. he argues that re-energizing the movement in its current form is not enough - it needs to be reinvented to face the challenges of contemporary capitalism. Considering potential ways forward, Camfield asserts that reforming unions from below and building new workers' organizations offer the best possibilities for effecting real change within the movement. --Publisher's description

The Shifting Landscape of Work is a contributed text that explores contemporary issues pertaining to labour in the context of race, class, age, economics, and gender, presented from a left-of-center perspective. All of the contributors are well known and respected scholars in their field of research. The authors challenge students to think about the dynamics of the labour market, including the realities of unpaid work and the impact of structural shifts in societal power relations. --Publisher's description

The first major volume to place U.S.-centered labor history in a transnational focus, Workers Across the Americas collects the newest scholarship of Canadianist, Caribbeanist, and Latin American specialists as well as U.S. historians. These essays highlight both the supra- and sub-national aspect of selected topics without neglecting nation-states themselves as historical forces. Indeed, the transnational focus opens new avenues for understanding changes in the concepts, policies, and practice of states, their interactions with each other and their populations, and the ways in which the popular classes resist, react, and advance their interests. What does this transnational turn encompass? And what are its likely perils as well as promise as a framework for research and analysis? To address these questions John French, Julie Greene, Neville Kirk, Aviva Chomsky, Dirk Hoerder, and Vic Satzewich lead off the volume with critical commentaries on the project of transnational labor history. Their responses offer a tour of explanations, tensions, and cautions in the evolution of a new arena of research and writing. Thereafter, Workers Across the Americas groups fifteen research essays around themes of labor and empire, indigenous peoples and labor systems, international feminism and reproductive labor, labor recruitment and immigration control, transnational labor politics, and labor internationalism. Topics range from military labor in the British Empire to coffee workers on the Guatemalan/Mexican border to the role of the International Labor Organization in attempting to set common labor standards. Leading scholars introduce each section and recommend further reading. -- Publisher's description. "Associate editors, Eileen Boris, John D. French, Julie Greene, Joan Sangster, Shelton Stromquist." Contents: Another World history is possible: reflections on the translocal, transnational, and global / John D. French -- Historians of the world: transnational forces, nation-states, and the practice of U.S. history / Julie Greene -- Transnational labor history: promise and perils / Neville Kirk -- Labor history as world history: linking regions over time / Aviva Chomsky -- Overlapping spaces: transregional and transcultural / Dirk Hoerder -- Transnational migration: a new historical phenomenon? / Vic Satzewich -- "black service ... white money": the peculiar institution of military labor in the British Army during the Seven Years' War / Peter Way -- "We speak the same language in the new world:: capital, class, and community in Mexico's "American century" / Steven J. Bachelor -- Indigenous labor in mid-nineteenth-century British North America: the Mi'kmaq of Cape Breton and Squamish of British Columbia in comparative perspective / Andrew Parnaby -- "De facto Mexicans": coffee workers and nationality on the Guatemalan-Mexican border, 1913-1941 / Catherine Nolan-Ferrell -- "No right to layettes or nursing time": maternity leave and the question of U.S. exceptionalism / Eileen Boris -- The battle within the home: development strategies and the commodification of caring labors at the 1975 International Women's Year Conference / Jocelyn Olcott -- Feminizing white slavery in the United States: Marcus Braun and the transnational traffic in white bodies, 1890-1910 / Gunther Peck -- Patronage and progress: the Bracero program from the perspective of Mexico / Michael Snodgrass -- Unspoken exclusions: race, nation, and empire in the immigration restrictions of the 1920s in North America and the greater Caribbean / Lara Putnam -- Claiming political space: workers, municipal socialism, and the reconstruction of local democracy in transnational perspective / Shelton Stromquist -- A migrating revolution: Mexican political organizers and their rejection of American assimilation, 1920-1940 / John H. Flores -- Fugitive slaves across North America / Jeffrey R. Kerr-Ritchie -- Movable type: Toronto's transnational printers, 1866-1872 / Jacob Remes -- Global sea or national backwater? The International Labor Organization and the quixotic quest for maritime standards, 1919-1945 / Leon Fink.

Working People in Alberta traces the history of labour in Alberta from the period of First Nations occupation to the present. Drawing on over two hundred interviews with labour leaders, activists, and ordinary working people, as well as on archival records, the volume gives voice to the people who have toiled in Alberta over the centuries. In so doing, it seeks to counter the view of Alberta as a one-class, one-party, one-ideology province, in which distinctions between those who work and those who own are irrelevant. Workers from across the generations tell another tale, of an ongoing collective struggle to improve their economic and social circumstances in the face of a dominant, exploitative elite. Their stories are set within a sequential analysis of provincial politics and economics, supplemented by chapters on women and the labour movement and on minority workers of colour and their quest for social justice. Published on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the Alberta Federation of Labour, Working People in Alberta contrasts the stories of workers who were union members and those who were not. In its depictions of union organizing drives, strikes, and working-class life in cities and towns, this lavishly illustrated volume creates a composite portrait of the men and women who have worked to build and sustain the province of Alberta. --Publisher's description. Contents: Introduction : Those who built Alberta -- Millennia of Native work / Alvin Finkel -- The fur trade and early European settlement / Alvin Finkel -- One step forward : Alberta workers, 1885-1914 / Jim Selby -- War, repression, and depression, 1914-1939 / Eric Strikwerda and Alvin Finkel -- Alberta labour and working-class life, 1940-1959 / James Muir -- The boomers become the workers : Alberta, 1960-1980 / Alvin Finkel -- Alberta labour in the 1980s / Winston Gereluk -- Revolution, retrenchment, and the new normal : the 1990s and beyond / Jason Foster -- Women, labour, and the labour movement / Joan Schiebelbein -- Racialization and work / Jennifer Kelly and Dan Cui -- Conclusion : A history to build upon / Alvin Finkel.

[E]xplores the ways in which several of Canada’s women journalists, broadcasters, and other media workers reached well beyond the glory of their personal bylines to advocate for the most controversial women’s rights of their eras. To do so, some of them adopted conventional feminine identities, while others refused to conform altogether, openly and defiantly challenging the gender expectations of their day. The book consists of a series of case studies of the women in question as they grappled with the concerns close to their hearts: higher education for women, healthy dress reforms, the vote, equal opportunities at work, abortion, lesbianism, and Aboriginal women’s rights. Their media reflected their respective eras: intellectual magazines, daily and weekly newspapers, radio, feminist public relations, alternative women’s periodicals, and documentary film made for television. --Publisher's description

A leading textbook in industrial relations at the university level, this book is valuable both as a primary and as a supplementary text for students of industrial relations, sociology, labour studies, economics and management programs. The book contains highly accessible coverage of conventional topic areas, including the history of industrial relations, contemporary employer practices, labour unions, labour law, collective bargaining, and contract administration. Yet it also includes coverage of broader economic and social issues relevant to the study of labour and employment relations in both the union and non-union sectors. Readers are thus able not only to develop a strong practical knowledge of Canadian industrial relations, but also to ground this knowledge in a deeper understanding of these relations and the broader issues and debates that surround them. This latest edition incorporates up-to-date statistics relevant to the study of industrial relations (e.g., strike activity, union membership, income inequality) as well as recent developments in the literature. It also streamlines the previous edition. The chapters on management practices and the effects of high performance practices have been merged and edited down, as have the chapters on contemporary developments and contemporary alternatives. --Publisher's description. Contents: Foundations: concepts, issues, and debates -- The broader debate: three theses on the nature and development of industrial relations, the economy, and society -- Understanding labour-management relations -- Work and industrial relations in historical perspective -- Contemporary management practices -- Understanding and explaining management -- Labour unions as institutions -- Labour unions as organizations -- The role of the state -- Understanding the state -- Labour law: the regulation of labour-management relations -- Collective bargaining: structure, process, and outcomes -- Strikes and dispute resolution -- The grievance and grievance arbitration processes -- The collective agreement: content and issues -- Contemporary problems, challenges, and alternatives. Includes bibliographical references (p. [431]-452) and index.

Many Canadians believe that immigrants steal jobs away from qualified Canadians, abuse the healthcare system and refuse to participate in Canadian culture. In About Canada: Immigration, Gogia and Slade challenge these myths with a thorough investigation of the realities of immigrating to Canada. Examining historical immigration policies, the authors note that these policies were always fundamentally racist, favouring whites, unless hard labourers were needed. Although current policies are no longer explicitly racist, they do continue to favour certain kinds of applicants. Many recent immigrants to Canada are highly trained and educated professionals, and yet few of them, contrary to the myth, find work in their area of expertise. Despite the fact that these experts could contribute significantly to Canadian society, deeply ingrained racism, suspicion and fear keep immigrants out of these jobs. On the other hand, Canada also requires construction workers, nannies and agricultural workers — but few immigrants who do this work qualify for citizenship. About Canada: Immigration argues that we need to move beyond the myths and build an immigration policy that meets the needs of Canadian society. --Publisher's description. Contents: Introduction -- Immigration: a critical analysis -- Evolution of immigration policy: learning about the past to understand the present -- Immigration policy and practices: the mechanics of migration -- Immigrants and the labour market: devaluation, frustration and downward mobility -- Reception party: the settlement process for immigrants -- Revolving door: temporary workers in Canada -- Under the surface: Canada's hidden labour force -- Coming to a better place? Not always a happy ending.

[This book] tells the compelling story of British Columbia workers who sustained a left tradition during the bleakest days of the Cold War. Through their continuing activism on issues from the politics of timber licenses to global questions of war and peace, these workers bridged the transition from an Old to a New Left.In the late 1950s, half of B.C.'s workers belonged to unions, but the promise of postwar collective bargaining spawned disillusionment tied to inflation and automation. A new working class that was educated, white collar, and increasingly rebellious shifted the locus of activism from the Communist Party and Co-operative Commonwealth Federation to the newly formed New Democratic Party, which was elected in 1972. Grounded in archival research and oral history, Militant Minority provides a valuable case study of one of the most organized and independent working classes in North America, during a period of ideological tension and unprecedented material advance. --Publisher's description

Through Feminist Eyes gathers in one volume the most incisive and insightful essays written to date by the distinguished Canadian historian Joan Sangster. To the original essays, Sangster has added reflective introductory discussions that situate her earlier work in the context of developing theory and debate. Sangster has also supplied an introduction to the collection in which she reflects on the themes and theoretical orientations that have shaped the writing of women's history over the past thirty years. Approaching her subject matter from an array of interpretive frameworks that engage questions of gender, class, colonialism, politics, and labour, Sangster explores the lived experience of women in a variety of specific historical settings. In so doing, she sheds new light on issues that have sparked much debate among feminist historians and offers a thoughtful overview of the evolution of women's history in Canada. --Publisher's description. Contents: Introduction: Reflections on Thirty Years of Women’s History -- Discovering Women’s History == The 1907 Bell Telephone Strike: Organizing Women Workers -- Looking Backwards: Re-assessing Women on the Canadian Left == The Communist Party and the Woman Question, 1922-1929 -- Manufacturing Consent in Peterborough -- The Softball Solution: Female Workers, Male Managers, and the Operation of Paternalism at Westclox, 1923–1960 -- Pardon Tales’ from Magistrate’s Court: Women, Crime, and the Court in Peterborough County, 1920–1950 --Telling Our Stories: Feminist Debates and the Use of Oral History -- Foucault, Feminism, and Postcolonialism -- Girls in Conflict with the Law: Exploring the Construction of Female ‘Delinquency’ in Ontario, 1940–1960 -- Criminalizing the Colonized: Ontario Native Women Confront the Criminal Justice System, 1920–1960 -- Constructing the ‘Eskimo’ Wife: White Women’s Travel Writing, Colonialism, and the Canadian North, 1940–1960 -- Embodied Experience -- Words of Experience/Experiencing Words: Reading Working Women’s Letters to Canada’s Royal Commission on the Status of Women -- Making a Fur Coat: Women, the Labouring Body, and Working-class History.

In Along the No. 20 Line, Rolf Knight takes the reader on a tour through working-class East Vancouver of a century ago. Knight's "through-line" is literally a line: the old No. 20 streetcar route that ran between downtown Vancouver and the present-day neighbourhood of the Pacific National Exhibition. From 1892 to 1949, when it was shut down and replaced by the No. 20 Granville / Victoria Drive bus, the No. 20 streetcar carried thousands of Vancouverites back and forth between their East Van homes and their jobs on the docks, and in the mills, factories, and workshops along the No. 20 line. --Publisher's description

From the end of the Second World War to the early 1980s, the North American norm was that men had full-time jobs, earned a "family wage," and expected to stay with the same employer for life. In households with children, most women were unpaid caregivers. This situation began to change in the mid-1970s as two-earner households became commonplace, with women entering employment through temporary and part-time jobs. Since the 1980s, less permanent precarious employment has increasingly become the norm for all workers. Working Without Commitments offers a new understanding of the social and health impacts of this change in the modern workplace, where outsourcing, limited term contracts, and the elimination of pensions and health benefits have become the new standard. Using information from interviews and surveys with workers in less permanent employment, the authors show how precarious employment affects the health of workers, labour productivity, and the sustainability of the traditional family model. --Publisher's description. Contents: Working without commitments: employment relationships and health -- A short history of the employment relationship: control, effort, and support -- Working without commitments and the characteristics of the employment relationship -- Gender, race, and the characteristics of the employment relationship -- The employment strain model and the health effects of less permanent employment -- The blurred lines between precariousness and permanence -- Sustainable, less permanent employment -- "On a path" to employment security? -- Unsustainable, less permanent employment -- Creating commitments in less permanent employment: policy reforms to address rising insecurity.

In the 1980s, following decades of booming business, the global steel industry went into a precipitous decline, which necessitated significant restructuring. Management demanded workers' increased participation in evermore temporary and insecure labour. Engaging the workers at the flagship Stelco plant in Hamilton, the authors document new management strategies and the responses of unionized workforces to them. These investigations provide valuable insights into the dramatic changes occurring within the Canadian steel industry. --Publisher's description