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[P]resents statistics documenting the changing face of Canada's labour force, which is projected to become more feminized, more racialized, and more Aboriginal. ...[The author] warns that many of the most underprivileged workers are already turning to worker advocacy centres for help, rather than unions, because of unions' continuing failure to respond to their needs. --Editor's introduction

If a city is its people, and its people are what they eat, then shouldn’t food play a larger role in our dialogue about how and where we live? The food of a metropolis is essential to its character. Native plants, proximity to farmland, the locations of supermarkets, immigration, the role chefs can and should play in society – how a city nourishes itself makes a statement about the kind of city it is.With a cornucopia of essays on comestibles, The Edible City considers how one city eats. It includes dishes on peaches and poverty, on processing plants and public gardens, on rats and bees and bad restaurant service, on schnitzel and school lunches. There are incisive studies of food-security policy, of feeding the needy and of waste, and a happy tale about a hardy fig tree.Together they form a saucy picture of how Toronto – and, by extension, every city – sustains itself, from growing basilon balconies to four-star restaurants. Dig into The Edible City and get the whole story, from field to fork. --Publisher's description

...Nowhere in Canada was the trade union movement very strong as employers and governments practiced labour relations behind the barrel of a gun, but in what today constitutes the city of Thunder Bay, it was even weaker than elsewhere. Indeed, until 1902, organized labour was practically non-existent. It was not until Harry Bryan came to the Lakehead in that year that organizational activity began in earnest in a number of trades, although others had organized some workers, like the railway men, during the previous decade. Bryan exemplified an era that would see the creation of a vibrant and diverse socialist culture in the region.1 As a union man he could count his success by the number of unions chartered - as many, some claim, as 22; however, the number is in dispute. Because of his striking achievement, his former associates often referred to him as the father of the labour movement in Thunder Bay. --From authors' introduction

Assesses workforce changes in Sudbury, Ontario, notably in the public sector, and the role of unions in confronting the Progressive Conservative provincial government of Mike Harris in the 1990s.

Mine Mill Local 598/Canadian Autoworkers union president Rick Grylls discusses the strikes at Falconbridge in Sudbury, Ontario, in 2000-2001 and 2004.

Analyzes from a legal and political perspective important events in Sudbury, including the punitive treatment of the poor (the Kimberly Rogers case) and the resort to strikebreakers and injunctions in the 2001-2002 Falconbridge Strike. Concludes that such events are the outcome of the neo-conservative policies of the provincial government of Mike Harris.

Analyzes Sudbury as a hinterland of resource extraction, including the response of unions. Provides new policy strategies for labour and an assessment of the community's future prospects.

Chronicles the contested election of Dave Patterson as president of Local 6500, the 1978 Inco strike, and the intra-union turmoil that followed that resulted in a more conservative leadership.

One of the first women to be hired as a miner by Inco in Sudbury, Ontario, in 1974, Mulroy recounts her experiences of the company, the work place, and the union.

Chronicles the conflicted labour relations, strikes, and ownership changes at the daily newspaper, The Sudbury Star, during the period 1996-2006.

This interdisciplinary volume offers a powerful critique of how social structures and relations as well as ideologies shape workplaces, labour markets, and households in contemporary Canada. Contributors dissect recent transformations in work and expose the uncertainty, insecurity, and instability that increasingly characterize both paid and unpaid work. Using a progressive approach to political economy, contributors propose alternative policies and practices that might secure more decent livelihoods for workers and their families. Contributors include Hugh Armstrong (Carleton), Pat Armstrong (York), Wallace Clement (Carleton), June Corman (Brock), Gillian Creese (British Columbia), Alice de Wolff (Independent Researcher), Ann Duffy (Brock), Andy King (United Steelworkers of America), Kate Laxer (York), Belinda Leach (Guelph), Wayne Lewchuk (McMaster), David W. Livingstone (OISE), Meg Luxton (York), Norene Pupo (York), Antonie Scholtz (OISE), Vivian Shalla (Guelph), Janet Siltanen (Carleton), Leah F. Vosko (York), Rosemary Warskett (Carleton), and Charlotte Yates (McMaster).

Recent demographic projections based on Statistics Canada data indicate that persons designated as belonging to a visible minority group will comprise 20 per cent of the Canadian population by 2017. In Canada's major cities, the proportion of persons classified as visible minority is expected to exceed 50 per cent. What is race, and how should racism be studied sociologically? What differences exist in patterns of structural incorporation within and among ethno-racial groups in Canada? What factors influence upward social mobility? Are Canadian institutions capable of meeting the needs of the country's increasingly diverse ethno-racial population? These are some of the questions that this volume addresses. This collection of original articles identifies future research directions for racism in Canada based on important changes taking place in the country. It also offers the basis for a more complete understanding of racism and social change in Canada.

Assesses the state of the union movement in Canada. Concludes that progress in the past decade has been hampered by internal competition, resistance by many in the movement to new, more militant forms of action, and a lack of vision to offer workers in the struggle to resist employers and governments.

[E]xamines the degree to which unionization, a key indicator of control over the labour process...limits precarious employment among workers. it also explores, how, and in what ways, union coverage mitigates precarious employment for workers in distinct social locations....Although unionization mitigates precariousness for some workers, [the authors] contend that inequalities based on race still prevail. --From editor's introductory chapter, p. 38.

[P]ortrays precarious employment in the increasingly privatized Canadian health-care industry. In the face of dramatic restructing in this industry, [the authors] reveal that a growing number of women health-care workers, especially those performing what is deemed to be "ancillary work," are subject to conditions of work that make not only ancillary health-care workers but patients too at greater risk of ill-health. --From editor's introductory chapter (p. 35).

Throughout the industrialized world, international migrants serve as nannies, construction workers, gardeners and small-business entrepreneurs. Labor Movement suggests that the international migration of workers is necessary for the survival of industrialized economies. The book thus turns the conventional view of international migration on its head: it investigates how migration regulates labor markets, rather than labor markets shaping migration flows. Assuming a critical view of orthodox economic theory, the book illustrates how different legal, social and cultural strategies towards international migrants are deployed and coordinated within the wider neo-liberal project to render migrants and immigrants vulnerable, pushing them into performing distinct economic roles and into subordinate labor market situations. Drawing on social theories associated with Pierre Bourdieu and other prominent thinkers, Labor Movement suggests that migration regulates labor markets through processes of social distinction, cultural judgement and the strategic deployment of citizenship. European and North American case studies illustrate how the labor of international migrants is systematically devalued and how popular discourse legitimates the demotion of migrants to subordinate labor. Engaging with various immigrant groups in different cities, including South Asian immigrants in Vancouver, foreigners and Spataussiedler in Berlin, and Mexican and Caribbean offshore workers in rural Ontario, the studies seek to unravel the complex web of regulatory labor market processes related to international migration. Recognizing and understanding these processes, Bauder argues, is an important step towards building effective activist strategies and for envisioning new roles for migrating workers and people. The book is a valuable resource to researchers and students in economics, ethnic and migration studies, geography, sociology, political science, and to frontline activists in Europe, North America and beyond. --Publisher's description

[A]ddresses Quebec's approach to reforming its Labour Standards Act. ...[E]xamines developments in Quebec in the early 2000s, with attention to efforts by the government to evaluate "atypical workers" in an attempt to mitigate precarious employment in this jurisdiction. --From editor's introductory chapter, p. 37.

This chapter is concerned wtih identifying the many symptoms associated with the inadequacy of workers' protection that the study of precarious employment makes visible. ...[The authors] probe key themes central to regulatory failure in the context of precarious employment, including disparity of treatment between workers in precarious employment and workers with greater security, gaps in legal coverage, the interaction between labour market position and social location, and the lack of compliance and enforcement. --From editor's introductory chapter, p. 37.

[F]ocuses on the state as an employer; it is concerned with precarious employment and state employees (and former employees) involved in the delivery of public services, their deteriorating conditions of employoment, and the impact of this declien on public safety. ...[The author] examines the situations of three groups of state workers - court workers, workers in Ontario's Trillium Drug Program, and meat inspectors - whose work is cirtical to maintaining public health and welfare, yet who confront multiple dimensions of precarious employment. --From editor's introductory chapter, p. 36.