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The article reviews the book, "Demanding Equality: One Hundred Years of Canadian Feminism," by Joan Sangster.

The global COVID-19 pandemic acted as an exogenous shock that forced organizations to adopt homeworking as a common form of work for many occupations. Drawing on a real-time cross-occupational qualitative survey, we first examined how compulsory homeworking affected workers’ freedom to define and perform their tasks. Second, we analyzed how different forms of control developed under the new organization of work. Specifically, we studied how the outcomes varied by occupation and along the vertical division of labour. Our findings agree with those of labour process theorists who argue that personal, bureaucratic and technical forms of control complement each other, rather than being stages of a linear succession.

Pays homage to the life and work of Walter Hildebrandt (1951-2021), who published historical studies of Indigenous communities in the Canadian West and Indigenous relations with the Canadian state. A historian for Parks Canada, Hildebrandt later became publishing director of the University of Calgary and Athabasca University presses. Includes an appreciation of Hildebrandt's poetry, with selections from three long poems — "Let Them Eat Grass / The Dakota Wars 1862" and "Winnipeg 1919" — that were originally published in the 2016 collection, "Documentaries: Poems." Also introduces three poems by Tom Wayman — "Reply," "When the Future Wore a Mask: My Parents at War" and "Ars Poetica: Nail" — intended as tributes. A photo of Hildebrandt is included.

This article argues that while work-places are safer today than they were 50 years ago, the degree to which this change is due to Canada's occupational health and safety (ohs) system is unclear. Examining the literature and reflecting upon the authors' own experiences with work-place safety, the article suggests that fundamental flaws embedded in the principles of the system undermine its effectiveness at keeping workers safe. Specifically, the premise of joint responsibility – which is given life in the internal responsibility system (irs) – appears to ignore the conflicting interests and unequal power relations that exist in Canadian work-places. The circumstances that contributed to the historical effectiveness of the irs no longer exist, undermining the ability of workers to realize safe and healthy work-places.

A powerful, personal critique of capitalist patriarchy as seen through the eyes of a queer radical. Capitalism has infiltrated every aspect of our personal, social, economic, and sexual lives. By examining the politics of gender, environment, and sexuality, we can see the ways straight, cis, white, and especially male upper-class people control and subvert the other - queer, non-binary, BIPOC, and female bodies - in order to keep the working lower classes divided. Patriarchy and classism are forms of systemic violence which ensure that the main commodity of capitalism - a large, disposable, cheap, and ideally subjugated work force - is readily available. There is a lot wrong with the ways we live, work, and treat each other. In essays that are both accessible and inspiring, Lori Fox examines their confrontations with the capitalist patriarchy through their experiences as a queer, non-binary, working-class farm hand, labourer, bartender, bush-worker, and road dog, exploring the ugly places where issues of gender, sexuality, class, and the environment intersect. In applying the micro to the macro, demonstrating how the personal is political and vice versa, Fox exposes the flaws in believing that this is the only way our society can or should work. Brash, topical, and passionate, This Has Always Been a War is not only a collection of essays, but a series of dispatches from the combative front lines of our present-day culture. -- Publisher's description

The article reviews the book, "Life in Stalin's Soviet Union," edited by Kees Boterbloem.

The article reviews the book, "People, State, and War Under the French Regime in Canada," by Louise Dechêne.

The article reviews the book, "Le genre au travail. Recherches féministes et luttes de femmes," edited by Réseau de recherche MAGE.

We present the results of a research-action initiative to strengthen participation by social dialogue stakeholders (union representatives, managers and workers) in companies that are being digitally transformed. For this, we used activity-centred ergonomics. After presenting a co-design process, i.e., “Social Design,” we describe how the initiative was carried out in a large industrial company and how it was re-designed “in use.” We thus helped certain union representatives participate in dialogue on the topical issue of digital transformation, thereby helping define a new organizational structure in the workplace and further developing the “Social Design” approach.

We explored how company transparency, as measured by ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) disclosure, affected the employee turnover of 212 multinational corporations that were listed in the European capital market during the 2010-2017 period. We also examined the role of the business environment by looking at the company’s ESG reporting system and its economic sector. To analyze how ESG disclosure affected employee turnover at any point of its conditional distribution, we used a panel data quantile regression model. ESG disclosure was found to be negatively associated with employee turnover. Employee turnover, as well as the extent to which it is affected by ESG disclosure, was found to depend strongly on the conditional distribution of the turnover rate, the sector and whether ESG disclosure is mandatory or voluntary. Our findings were confirmed by a robustness check analysis. In conclusion, the relationship between company transparency and employee turnover depends strongly on the institutional context and, especially, on disclosure regulation. The more a company is scrutinized, the more it will try to be socially responsible to maintain and/or improve its reputation and thus reassure and satisfy its stakeholders.

En 2013, le gouvernement du Québec a introduit un nouveau régime forestier qui a transformé la dynamique dans la gouvernance de la forêt publique. Parmi les changements apportés, l’État est désormais chargé de planifier et de gérer les activités d’aménagement forestier. L’aménagement forestier comprend des activités commerciales et non commerciales. De 1986 à 2013, le gouvernement attribuait aux entreprises forestières des volumes de bois à long terme au moyen de « contrats d’approvisionnement et d’aménagement forestier » (CAAF). Ces entreprises avaient également la responsabilité d’assurer les travaux sylvicoles non commerciaux visant la régénération des peuplements forestiers. La Loi sur l’aménagement durable du territoire forestier, en vigueur depuis 2013, a transformé en profondeur l’organisation des activités dans ce secteur. Sur le plan des activités commerciales, l’octroi de CAAF est remplacé par des « garanties d’approvisionnement », lesquelles confèrent à leurs bénéficiaires un volume de bois de la forêt publique à des fins de transformation. Sur le plan des activités non commerciales, l’État assume désormais l’entière responsabilité de la planification et de la gestion des opérations, jadis confiée aux titulaires de CAAF. À partir de données empiriques, ce texte met en lumière la façon dont le régime forestier instauré en 2013 a permis l’émergence d’acteurs, exogènes au champ du droit du travail, dont les pratiques et les schémas d’action façonnent aujourd’hui les conditions de travail des ouvriers et des ouvrières sylvicoles effectuant des tâches non mécanisées. Cette main-d’oeuvre effectue des opérations d’éducation de peuplement au moyen d’une scie débroussailleuse ainsi que du reboisement. Les acteurs identifiés interviennent dans la dynamique d’attribution et de supervision des contrats de travaux sylvicoles non commerciaux et jouent un rôle de contrôle et de surveillance des conditions de travail, laissant aux parties à la relation d’emploi un pouvoir limité.

The article reviews the book, "Empreintes de résistance. Filiations et récits de femmes autochtones et racisées," by Alexandra Pierre.

Introduces the first issue of the journal that is solely available online.

Foodsters United, a work-place organizing campaign by Toronto food couriers, shows that, even in the gig economy, the classic organizing methods work. The Foodsters successfully challenged their misclassification as independent contractors, got over 40 per cent of a large workforce to sign union cards, and triggered a union vote that they won with 88.8 per cent support. These victories were tempered by a devastating setback: their employer, Foodora, exited from Canadian markets. Nevertheless, what Foodsters United achieved through work-place organizing sustained its transformation into Gig Workers United, which is organizing all delivery platform workers in Toronto. Although platform companies like Foodora promote the idea that the gig economy is unprecedented, its historical continuities are more important than its discontinuities. This is also true of the work-place organizing in the gig economy. Foodsters United achieved substantial victories, not because they invented new organizing methods but because they adapted the classic methods, in often ingenious ways, to their gig economy work-place. This article is based on interviews with the campaign organizers. It is organized thematically according to classic work-place organizing methods, particularly those developed in the industrial organizing tradition, including organizing conversations, mapping, charting, leader identification, issue identification, and the creation of democratic organizations.

Research has struggled with the task of distinguishing high from low-quality employment. Making the distinction between challenging and hindering job demands in a context of social exchange, our study develops a generalizable heuristic for employment quality research. Latent class analysis with mixture modelling was applied to a sample of 2,143 adults from a diversity of occupations. A two-factor model provided substantial support for the distinction between challenging and hindering employment. Challenging employment was characterized by hard and emotionally demanding work and by provision of greater resources. Hindering employment involved several hindering demands and fewer resources. As predicted, challenging employment was associated with better self-reported general health and less psychological distress. The positive associations between higher education levels and longer work experience and challenging employment also supported the challenging/hindering heuristic.

This study examines worker voice in the development and implementation of safety plans or protocols for covid-19 prevention among hospital workers, long-term care workers, and education workers in the Canadian province of Ontario. Although Ontario occupational health and safety law and official public health policy appear to recognize the need for active consultation with workers and labour unions, there were limited – and in some cases no – efforts by employers to meaningfully involve workers, worker representatives (reps), or union officials in assessing covid-19 risks and planning protection and prevention measures. The political and legal efforts of workers and unions to assert their right to participate and the outcomes of those efforts are also documented through archival evidence and interviews with worker reps and union officials. The article concludes with an assessment of weaknesses in the government promotion and protection of worker health and safety rights and calls for greater labour attention to the critical importance of worker health and safety representation.

Since the beginning of the twenty-first century, diamonds have been lauded as a "glistening" driver of the northern Canadian economy. Canadian diamonds are cast with an imagined purity as though they had emerged by magic. However, these diamonds are mined on Dene land, extracted by people who fly in from afar, separated from their families for long periods of time. Adopting a decolonizing and feminist approach to political economy, Refracted Economies analyses the impact of diamond mining in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories. The book centres Indigenous women's social reproduction labour--both at the mine sites and at sites of community, home, and care--as a means of understanding the diffuse impacts of the diamond mines. Grounded in ethnographic work, the narratives of northern Indigenous women's multiple labours offer unique insight into the gendered ways northern land and livelihoods have been restructured by the diamond industry. Rebecca Jane Hall draws on documentary analysis, interviews, and talking circles in order to understand and appreciate the--often unseen--labour performed by Indigenous women. Placing this day-to-day labour at the heart of her analysis, Hall shows that it both reproduces the mixed economy and resists the gendered violence of settler colonialism as exemplified by extractive capitalism. --Publisher's description

This article reviews the book, "Capital and Ideology," by Thomas Piketty. translated by Arthur Goldhammer.

Income inequality has risen in Canada with the decline in union density and, thus, in union influence. Both trends have occasioned various proposals to reform federal and provincial labour relations systems, especially those aspects concerning certification. However, most proposals have been based on minor modifications to the Wagner Model of exclusive, majoritarian representation. To realize the full potential of these reform proposals, including, importantly, the likes of ‘broad-based bargaining,’ we contend that union membership should be the default option for new workers. Such a change would enable these proposals to increase absolute and relative levels of union membership, thereby providing the organizing resources (financial, human) required for much higher levels of union influence. In this study, we show that those living in Canada generally support union membership by default and would not opt out afterwards. We believe this popular support justifies making union membership automatic for new workers.

On 3 February 1989, leaders of the British Columbia labour movement, members of the environmental movement, and representatives from the Nuu-chah-nulth-aht Tribal Council (ntc) gathered to meet at Tin Wis, the ntc meeting space, in Tofino, BC, to discuss an alliance around environmental issues on the West Coast of Vancouver Island. This article takes this meeting, and subsequent alliance, as a way to explore the impact, potential, and contested meanings of alliances forged among workers, environmentalists, and First Nations in British Columbia in the late 20th century and beyond. In this way, the article examines from a historical perspective what sociologists have framed as the period of new social movements.