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The relationship between labour movements and the environment has been the subject of considerable debate but little empirical research. Using panel data for Canadian provinces between 2001 and 2019, this article investigates the relationship between unionization rates and two measures of environmental quality: greenhouse gas emissions and total particulate matter pollution. We find that higher unionization rates are associated with lower emissions for both these measures. This finding suggests that stronger labour organizations do not lead to detrimental environmental outcomes.

The article reviews and comments on two books by American author and historian Noel lgnatiev (1940-2019): "Treason to Whiteness is Loyalty to Humanity," edited by Geert Dhondt, Zhandarka Kurt, and Jarrod Shanahan, and "Acceptable Men: Life in the Largest Steel Mill in the World."

Contemporary North American work culture is characterized by experts as one of overwork. Throughout much of the previous century, many parents devoted themselves either to their careers, or to their families. These “competing devotions” served as a cultural model for making sense of the world and alleviated the tension between overwork and family life. Data from interviews with 84 IT workers are used to examine whether devotion to work and family is still experienced as oppositional for working parents. I find that interviewees report feeling devoted both to their families and their careers, which I refer to as dual devotion. Such espousals of dual devotion are facilitated by the use of flexible work policies—remote work and flextime—which enable those with dual devotions to accomplish work–life integration. However, whereas men perceive remote work as allowing them to dedicate more time to childcare, women perceive it as allowing them to dedicate more time to work. These findings advance our understanding of the relationship between gender inequality and the experiential dimensions of work and family time: the practices that enable dual devotions, in particular remote work, help parents maintain an orientation to time that makes overwork more palatable. In either case, workplaces win since women are working long hours and men are not sacrificing paid work hours to take on more childcare or housework.

Could “centralized” bodies of collective representation constitute a power resource for employees in contemporary fragmented work organizations? Referring to the particular features of the institutional framework in France, this article links the theory of power resources to the concept of institutional toying to show that the power resources of managers allow them to make use of institutional shortcomings that limit the scope of these bodies as power resources for employees. The article draws on the REPONSE 2017 (DARES) survey, which sought to quantify “fragmented” organizations and their collective representation bodies. Six case studies of fragmented companies are also used to illustrate the diversity of institutional toying strategies employed by managers.

Les instances « centralisées » de représentation collective pourraient-elles constituer une ressource de pouvoir pour les salariés dans les organisations de travail fragmentées contemporaines? En se référant aux spécificités du cadre institutionnel français, cet article articule la théorie des ressources de pouvoir au concept de modelage institutionnel pour faire apparaître que les ressources de pouvoir des directions leur permettent de s’appuyer sur des lacunes institutionnelles limitant la portée de ces instances comme ressources de pouvoir pour les salariés. Il utilise l’enquête REPONSE 2017 (DARES) pour quantifier les entreprises « éclatées » ainsi que leurs instances de représentation collective. Six monographies d’entreprises éclatées sont également mobilisées pour illustrer la diversité des stratégies de modelage institutionnel des directions.

The article reviews the book, "'Our Relations… The Mixed Bloods': Indigenous Transformation and Dispossession in the Western Great Lakes," by Larry Nesper.

Dans les dernières décennies, les spécialistes en relations industrielles (RI) n’ont cessé de préconiser une meilleure intégration de leurs théories et de leurs recherches empiriques sur le conflit à celles de leur discipline voisine, le comportement organisationnel (CO). La réalisation d’un tel objectif s’est néanmoins révélée un défi constant. Cet article offre une nouvelle perspective sur la quête de cette intégration par l’entremise d’une catégorisation des normes conceptuelles distinctes et dissemblables du conflit en RI et en CO, laquelle amène à conclure que les conceptualisations du conflit dans ces deux disciplines reposent sur des logiques inconciliables. Toutefois, même si ces logiques divergentes rendent impossible une conceptualisation unifiée du conflit, une meilleure compréhension de leur caractère inconciliable pourrait mener à un renforcement du dialogue et, à terme, à une discussion fructueuse entre les chercheurs en RI et en CO.

Over the past several decades, industrial relations (IR) scholars have consistently advocated for better integration of their conflict theory and empirical research with that of the neighbouring discipline of organizational behaviour (OB). Achievement of such a goal has nonetheless been a continuing challenge. Offering a novel perspective on the quest for integration, this paper categorizes the distinct and dissimilar conceptual norms of conflict in IR and OB, concluding that conceptualizations of conflict in the two disciplines are built upon irreconcilable logics. Although a unified conceptualization of conflict across these differing logics is not possible, a better understanding of their irreconcilability could facilitate a more robust and ultimately fruitful dialogue among IR and OB researchers.

The article reviews the book, "Perceptions de justice et santé au travail. L’organisation à l’épreuve. Collection Inégalité et justice sociale," edited by Stéphane Moulin.

The article reviews the book, "Unsettling the Great White North. Black Canadian History," by Funké Aladejebi and Michele A. Johnson.

Deborah Dundas is a journalist who grew up poor and almost didn’t make it to university. In On Class, she talks to writers, activists, those who work with the poor and those who are poor about what happens when we don’t talk about poverty or class—and what will happen when we do. Growing up poor, Deborah Dundas knew what it meant to want, to be hungry, and to long for social and economic dignity; she understood the crushing weight of having nothing much expected of you. But even after overcoming many of the usual barriers faced by lower- and working-class people, she still felt anxious about her place, and even in relatively safe spaces reluctant to broach the subject of class. While new social movements have generated open conversation about gender and racism, discussions of class rarely include the voices of those most deeply affected: the working class and poor. On Class is an exploration of the ways in which we talk about class: of who tells the stories, and who doesn’t, which ones tend to be repeated most often, and why this has to change. It asks the question: What don’t we talk about when we don’t talk about class? And what might happen if, finally, we did? --Publisher's description

Politics has often been conceptualized as a conflict between political parties that represent the economic interests of different groups in society. This conception of politics has, however, been considerably weakened by the economic and social transformations of the last decades and by the rise of post-materialist values among newer generations of electors. Indeed, the vote of manual workers for left-wing parties has declined significantly in recent decades as did the impact of left-wing parties on social spending. At the same time, the issue of low-wage work has become prominent in the partisan debates of several countries such as the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom following the mobilization of low-paid workers, unions and community associations. Low-wage workers who mainly work in the service sector have often precarious work and living conditions following decades of labor markets deregulation and are highly dependent on governmental policies to insure decent living and work conditions. One of these policies, the minimum wage, has been at the center of the electoral campaigns of many left-wing parties in recent years. However, the issue of low-wage work has rarely been studied in political science. This thesis seeks to explain the partisan dynamics surrounding the issue of low-wage work. My main argument is that low-wage workers tend to vote for left-wing parties in accordance with their economic interests, especially in countries with a weak degree of corporatism such as the United States and the United Kingdom. In those countries, left-wing parties have strong incentives to make pledges related to low-wage work like increasing the minimum wage in their electoral manifesto, because unions are unable to negotiate decent working conditions for the majority of workers. Indeed, in countries with weak corporatism, low-wage workers are very dependent on governmental interventions to ensure minimum working standards and improve their living conditions. In countries with strong corporatism, however, unions negotiate collective agreements that ensure minimum working conditions for the majority of workers, workers with weaker bargaining power are thus less dependent on government policies to insure decent working conditions. Therefore, left-wing parties should be able to consolidate their vote among low-wage workers in countries with a weak degree of corporatism. Once in power, left-wing parties should also increase the minimum wage and the direct cash transfers to low-income families more than governments led by right-wing parties, especially when corporatism is weak. The emphasis on policies targeted to low-wage workers by left-wing parties in countries with a weak degree of corporatism could also limit the capacity of radical parties to attract the vote of low-wage workers. This thesis is composed of 4 articles, one on electoral pledges related to low-wage work, one on the vote of low-wage workers, one on the impact of left-wing parties on minimum wages and one on the impact of left-wing parties on direct cash transfers received by low-income families. These four articles demonstrate the relevance of a materialist conception of politics and the role of institutions regulating the labor market on partisan dynamics.

The article reviews the book, "Blanc de plomb. Histoire d’un poison légal," by Judith Rainhorn.

Proposals for a just transition for labour have been largely restricted to debates about transitions in coal regions. Yet a just transition for labour should apply to all industries. Alongside these debates, planning guidelines are in place to encourage the adoption of circular economy practices to address questions relating to material sustainability, especially in the context of the encroaching climate crisis. Surprisingly, few people have considered the implications of such changes for work and employment relationships. Unless a just transition is pursued, current inequalities in the housing construction industry are likely to intensify and remain embedded. The argument is that moves toward a circular economy in Australian housing construction require a just transition for the workforce. Such a transition must be planned and inclusive.

The article reviews the book, "From Printing to Streaming: Cultural Production inder Capitalism," by Michael Chanan.

Partial-load college faculty simultaneously occupy insider/outsider positions in their respective higher education institutions. How do they perceive the relationship between their employment status and their work as educators? In recent scholarship, it has been argued that part-time faculty occupy liminal positions as simultaneous professionals and precarious labourers in higher education. None of the literature attends to how part-time college faculty (a cohort that makes up 70%+ of Ontario’s college faculty) who specifically aspire to full-time teaching positions think about their work and professional identities, much less in the context of the province of Ontario, Canada. Through semi-structured and open-ended interviews with ten partial-load college faculty who aspire to full-time teaching positions across three colleges in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA), this study asks faculty to reflect upon the relationship between their conditions of employment and their work as educators. How partial-load college faculty think about their work and professional identities has direct import for what continues to be the foundational mission, purview, and day-to-day activities of colleges – teaching and learning. Holland, Lachicotte, Skinner, and Cain’s (1998) identity theory provides the framework for enabling a nuanced analyses as to how partial-load college faculty think about, make sense of, and narrate their experiences in the liminal space of precarious professionals. The results of this study show that partial-load faculty are largely excluded from the pedagogical communities of their departments and institutions and that every aspect of their work as educators (curriculum development, professional development, and relationships with colleagues) is negotiated and filtered through their precarious status. This research sheds light on the centrality of partial-load college faculty on the enactment of curriculum in colleges as well as explores how various stakeholders can make meaningful change to address the professional goals and curricular inclusion of this significant teaching cohort.

The article reviews the book, "Construire l'économie postcapitaliste," by Audrey Laurin Lamothe, Frédéric Legault, and Simon Tremblay-Pepin.

Cette étude s’intéresse à la capacité des organisations syndicales à améliorer les conditions de travail de leurs membres en contexte d’austérité économique. Pour ce faire, nous nous intéressons au cas de la négociation 2014-2015 au sein du secteur public québécois et plus particulièrement à la négociation dans le secteur de l’Éducation primaire-secondaire. Proposant une approche d’analyse multiniveau et multidimensionnelle et mobilisant un devis qualitatif, nous souhaitons engager une réflexion sur la capacité des syndicats du secteur de l’éducation à répondre à la précarité dans ce secteur. La position que nous avançons dans cet article est que les syndicats n’ont pas été en mesure de saisir certaines opportunités leur permettant de renforcer leur pouvoir de force aux tables de négociation. Nos principaux résultats nous amènent à faire le constat que les structures centralisées n’ont pas bien servi le front commun lors de la négociation de 2015; la négociation inter et intraorganisationnelle s’est avérée difficile et peu efficace compte tenu des multiples réalités et enjeux et de la stratégie fortement centralisée du gouvernement. Nous avons aussi constaté que la précarité vécue et perçue par les membres du secteur de l’éducation est très spécifique au contexte et aux caractéristiques de l’emploi; une spécificité qui semble plus difficile à faire reconnaitre au sein de structures centralisées. Partant de la thèse du « syndicalisme fantôme » proposé par Desbiens (2020) et du pragmatisme syndical de Lemieux (2021), nous engageons une réflexion et proposons des pistes d’action de manière à favoriser un rapprochement entre les différents paliers d’action syndicale et d’arrimer plus solidement la praxis syndicale aux attentes des membres.

In this profoundly troubling and incisive look at the state of work and welfare in Canada, Jason Foster reveals the long, often-hidden process that has left our jobs less secure, our livelihoods more uncertain, and the pockets of Canada’s wealthy fatter than ever. This phenomenon, the rise of “precarious work,” touches the entire economy and contributes to levels of income inequality unseen since the early 20th century. Our world is less secure than it has been in generations. Gigs, Hustles, and Temps describes how we got here, and why. Jobs across the economy are increasingly more precarious, and they share similar characteristics: impermanence, little to no benefits, and no union representation. Uber, Starbucks and Amazon have led the way. Governments are contracting out more labour than ever before. Tech companies hire workers on “flexible” contracts without the prospect of long-term employment. Migrant workers, too, are working without a safety net, figuratively and literally. No matter where you fall on the socio-economic ladder, your life is probably more precarious than your parents’ once was. Foster offers insights into the many consequences of our increasingly precarious world. He also details some of the less obvious repercussions of precarious work, including its contribution to the crisis of mental and public health across Canada. Foster argues that the rise of precarious work is more a “return to normal” for capitalist economies. But there is a flip side: advances in worker welfare have come through solidarity, struggle, and negotiation with the forces currently promoting precarious work across Canada's economy. Things don’t have to be the way they are. Gigs, Hustles, and Temps is a comprehensive, accessible, and essential guidebook on the road to a better world. --Publisher's description

Unions in North America have a long history of financial support for charities, non-profits and other community-based organisations. However, very little research has been conducted into how much, to whom and why this financial support is provided. This article reports on a survey examining the financial donation patterns of unions in the Canadian province of Alberta. Alberta is chosen as the jurisdiction for the study as the provincial government recently enacted legislation (commonly referred to as Bill 32) that may force unions to reduce community-based donations, which would negatively impact those organisations and interfere with a core union function. The survey also examines how union financial support changes due to the implementation of this legislation. The study finds that a small but not insignificant percentage of union expenditures are devoted to community giving and that unions tend to donate to a narrow range of causes and organisations. It also finds that union responses to donation-dampening legislation were mixed, in part due to the politically controversial nature of the legislation.