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This thesis consists of three self-contained essays examining the link between Aboriginal identity and economic success in the Canadian labour market. The analytical approach encompasses mixed methods research, with two empirical tests and one qualitative inquiry. Both the neoclassical and institutional economics approaches to labour market analysis are considered, as discussed in the introduction to the thesis. Essay I employs monthly Labour Force Survey data and examines the difference in the impact of the 2008-2011 economic downturn on Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal workers. The main findings in this essay indicate that the economic downturn had a markedly more negative impact on Aboriginal than on non-Aboriginal workers. For one subgroup of Aboriginal workers - Métis - a large portion of the difference in the impact can be attributed to the difference in endowments while for the other subgroup of Aboriginal workers - North American Indian - only a small portion of the difference in the impact can be attributed to the difference in endowments, much remains unexplained. Essay II employs the 2006 Census and Aboriginal Peoples Survey data and examines the relative impact of various sources of capital -- human, social and cultural -- on the employment success of Aboriginal labour force participants living on-reserve, off-reserve, in urban and in rural areas across Canada. The single most important finding in this essay is that the predictions of human capital theory do not hold up when the associated empirical models are applied to different Aboriginal groups. Another important finding is that for some subgroups of Aboriginal population social capital and cultural factors are potentially important omitted variables in the associated equations. Essay III employs primary data collected from knowledgeable key informants working in the area of Aboriginal labour force development and investigates the role institutional and other constraints, not observable in the statistical information, play in the labour market experience of Aboriginal people. Findings here suggest that many paradoxes and puzzles that persist in the empirical literature can be better understood once the institutional arrangements related to the investment in human and other capital, the legacy of historical disadvantage, and the experience of workplace discrimination are taken into account.

Dans un important arrêt rendu en 2007 dans l’affaire Health Services and Support, la Cour suprême du Canada a reconnu pour la première fois que la liberté d’association énoncée à la Charte canadienne des droits et libertés protégeait la «capacité des syndiqués d’engager des négociations collectives sur des problèmes reliés au milieu de travail». Pour conclure ainsi, la Cour trouve appui dans le droit international du travail. Avec cette décision, la Cour renverse sa position établie une vingtaine d’années plus tôt voulant que la négociation collective ne soit pas une activité bénéficiant d’une protection à titre de droit fondamental. Suite à ce changement de paradigme, nombre d’auteurs ont été d’avis que la constitutionnalisation du droit de négociation collective pourrait avoir des effets sur la validité de différentes mesures législatives et sur l’interprétation des lois encadrant les régimes de relations de travail. De plus, la négociation collective étant historiquement indissociable de la grève, il y avait tout lieu de croire que la protection de la Charte pourrait être étendue au droit de grève. Par la suite, en 2011, la Cour suprême a rendu la décision Fraser portant sur l’accès à un régime de représentation collective, précisant la portée du droit de négociation collective tel qu’envisagé dans Health Services. Le présent mémoire recense la jurisprudence qui a abordé la protection constitutionnelle de la négociation collective en droit public canadien et en droit privé québécois depuis l’arrêt Health Services afin d’identifier ses effets sur la validité des restrictions au droit de grève, sur la validité des restrictions au contenu des négociations et sur l’imposition de conditions de travail, sur la validité des exclusions de certaines catégories de travailleurs des régimes de représentation collective, et sur l’interprétation des dispositions de ces régimes. Les résultats de la recherche nous permettent de conclure que la constitutionnalisation du droit de négociation collective a engendré un certain volume de contestations de la part d’organisations syndicales. Ces procédures ont porté fruit dans des situations où l’atteinte aux droits était similaire aux précédents de la Cour suprême ainsi que dans un cas lié au droit de grève. Les effets plus vastes envisagés dans la recension de la littérature ne se sont pas matérialisés. Par ailleurs, nos résultats en droit privé indiquent que la constitutionnalisation du droit de grève n’a pas eu d’impact sur l’interprétation des régimes de relations industrielles. Enfin, le recours ou non au droit international par les tribunaux n’a pas d’effet sur nos résultats.

Editorial introduction to the issue.

This paper contributes to current debates around neoliberalism and subnational developments in Canadian immigration policy. In response to critiques of neoliberalism’s “promiscuity,” scalar and governmentality frameworks are used to analyze Nova Scotia’s failed economic nominee category experiment. The competing choices, calculations, and commitments at stake at “meso”- and “micro”-scales reveal a more complex and compelling reality that underscores the contributions and challenges of a range of political actors. This, in turn, suggests possible disruptions to neoliberalization and seeks to strike a better balance between structure and agency, as well as economic and social immigration priorities.

The article reviews the book, "Offshore Petroleum Politics: Regulation and Risk in the Scotian Basin," by Peter Clancy.

The nanotechnology field is a growing industry, particularly in Quebec: occupational exposure risks already exist and should increase exponentially. In recent years, work has been undertaken in Quebec to develop knowledge for improving the prevention of nanomaterial-related risks. In particular, a group of researchers, professionals and students involved in the nanotechnology field was created in 2006 under the aegis of the Quebec Occupational Health and Safety Research Network. Its aim is to share the expertise of the different stakeholders in this field in order to promote multidisciplinary collaboration and more rapid advancement in research.

The article reviews the book, "Emotionalizing Organizations and Organizing Emotions," edited by Barbara Sieben and Asa Wettergren.

The Pacific Northwest underwent rapid economic growth in the late 19th century and cities on both sides of the Canada/US border burgeoned. The building boom was sustained by a large cohort of tradesmen and skilled labourers who lived in modest cabins, tenement blocks, boarding houses, and residential hotels. Most of these urban wageworkers were unmarried. They left few records of their experiences outside the job site or union hall. In this case study of Victoria, British Columbia circa 1891, we deployed a historical geographical information system (HGIS) to reconstitute the urban residential and social space of bout 2,000 otherwise elusive working men. Our research framework combines qualitative methods that are familiar to historians and quantitative methods favoured by geospatial researchers. By integrating both qualitative and quantitative data, we are able to represent the multiple spatial conditions experienced by Victoria's wageworkers in the early 1890s. In the process, we repopulated the city and reconstructed a largely vanished urban landscape. A primary objective of the essay is to demonstrate how GIS can be used as a research tool and new epistemology in the field of labour history.

The article reviews the book, "Winnipeg Beach: Leisure and Courtship in a Resort Town, 1900-1967," by Dale Barbour.

Analyzes the turbulent history of labour relations between public sector unions and provincial and federal governments since the 1970s. Summarizes the distinctive features of the neoliberal state as employer.

This study is about the ongoing transformation of neoliberal public policy, precarious work, and public sector unions' struggles against demands for austerity. Situated in long-term historical perspective, I examine to what extent changes in the nature and content of government intervention, social welfare provision, and restructuring of the public sector are structurally-induced, the products of historical and contemporary circumstances, the result of mismanagement, or some combination of other factors. I argue that in addition to reducing the compass of social services, recent expenditure restraint measures have targeted unionized workers in order to lower wages and reduce benefits across the sector. Case studies include original analyses of striking workers at the Canadian Museum of Civilization Corporation, collective bargaining between teaching assistants and contract instructors and Carleton University, and striking civic workers at the city of Toronto. Together the cases break new ground in understanding how neoliberalism is being reconstructed and redeployed in light of the Great Recession and the consequences this has had on public sector workers and services. The three jurisdictions in this study - municipal, provincial, and federal - represent three scales of neoliberal restructuring in Canada. While all three governments have resorted to some form of austerity, the methods used to reduce the deficit and move toward balanced budgets have been differential and multifaceted. These include service delivery restructuring, increasing use of public-private-partnerships, privatization, new user-fees, and/or consumption taxes, as well as public sector worker layoffs, workplace intensification, and the selling of Crown assets. I contend that such measures seek to shift the burden of recession onto the public sector by reducing social services provisioning and seeking concessions from unionized public sector workers. In fact, the state has taken a leading role in narrowing the field of free collective bargaining, suspending trade union rights, and implementing an aggressive program of dispossession. Absent the collective capacities to stop let alone reverse these measures, public sector unions have reached an impasse. Unable to translate militancy into an alternative ideological perspective and a coherent political and economic program, they continue to desperately hang onto previous gains that look increasingly insecure and fragile. I argue that in order for unions to regain their once prominent role in the pursuit of social justice and workplace democracy, they will need to take the risks of organizing working class communities and fighting back while they still have some capacity to do so - else they risk continuing the decades-long labour impasse and union decline. In my view, this necessarily requires an explicitly anti-capitalist perspective, with the aim being to develop both alternative policies and an alternative politics rooted in the working class.

The article reviews the book, "The Anthropological Study of Class and Class Consciousness," edited by E. Paul Durrenberger.

The article reviews the book, "A Wilder West: Rodeo in Western Canada," by Mary-Ellen Kelm.

The purpose of this study was to examine the perceptions of working women when they announce their pregnancies, take maternity leave, transition back to work, and utilize flexible work policies. Using a qualitative methodology, transcripts of in-depth interviews were analyzed utilizing a life history approach. Key findings of the study are that women perceive more negative responses to the announcement of their pregnancies than positive ones. In terms of maternity and parental leave policies, all the participants had access to these benefits. Women found issues with financial adequacy, administration, and duration of these policies. Mothers found that financial support from the Canadian government was inadequate to allow them to take the full duration of the 52-week maternity and parental leave for which they were eligible. In addition, employer “top-up” payments were limited and administrative details of maternity leave were often not discussed fully with pregnant workers. When women returned to work, they found that workplaces did not offer resources such as a phased-in return to work or personnel to help them re-engage with their prior work projects. Women discussed the challenges of managing their dual roles of worker and mother and found that managers and coworkers put them in a mommy mould which lessened the quality of their assignments. New mothers found that they had difficultly juggling their work and home responsibilities, finding time for themselves, and receiving increased domestic support from their spouses. While some workplaces offered women flexible workplace policies, not all mothers chose to access them as they found these policies often negatively impacted their career progression. Other issues were a lack of flexible workplace policy transparency, inconsistent manager support, and difficulty maintaining a flexible schedule. Findings have major implications for an improved response from managers upon pregnancy announcement, improved dialogue among employers about increasing “top up” maternity leave pay to new mothers, developing a formal transition plan for new mothers returning to the workplace, and expanding the use of flexible workplace policies.

The article reviews the book, "No Man's Land: Jamaican Guestworkers in America and the Global History of Deportable Labor," by Cindy Hahamovitch.

Coal miners at Bienfait, Saskatchewan, had joined the militant Mine Workers' Union of Canada in 1931. In September of that year they went on strike to win recognition of their union as a prelude to pressing demands for a restoration of wages cut by the local coal operators. --Introduction

Si certains travaux sur le renouveau syndical reconnaissent l’importance de s’intéresser au fait représentatif et plus particulièrement à la relation représentant-représenté, les effets du leadership des représentants syndicaux sur leurs membres demeurent très peu étudiés. Pour pallier ce déficit analytique, cette étude analyse l’effet direct du leadership transformationnel du représentant syndical sur l’engagement syndical ainsi que l’effet modérateur de la justice distributive et procédurale du syndicat local sur cette relation. Des analyses de régressions linéaires multiples, menées auprès d’un échantillon de 834 travailleurs syndiqués d’une entreprise québécoise, soutiennent l’existence d’un lien positif entre le leadership transformationnel du représentant syndical et l’engagement envers le syndicat, et ce, après avoir contrôlé certaines caractéristiques des répondants dont l’âge, le sexe, l’ancienneté et le niveau de scolarité. En outre, nos résultats démontrent que la justice syndicale de type procédural modère cette relation. En ce sens, un syndicat local reconnu comme offrant des procédures justes et équitables viendrait rehausser les efforts de leadership de ses représentants.Sur le plan théorique, cette étude supporte la théorie des échanges sociaux ainsi que le modèle d’engagement au groupe, en démontrant notamment que la justice et le leadership transformationnel jouent sur des mécanismes affectifs similaires. Sur le plan pratique, les résultats soulignent l’importance, pour les syndicats locaux, de se pencher sur les pratiques et sur les modes de fonctionnement au niveau local qui sont susceptibles de favoriser la perception de justice procédurale. Ces constats ouvrent ainsi de nouvelles avenues de recherche relatives aux efforts de revitalisation des syndicats locaux et, plus spécifiquement, aux effets du leadership syndical et à la dynamique sous-jacente à la relation représentant-représenté.

The article reviews the book, "A Company of One: Insecurity, Independence and the New World of White-Collar Unemployment," by Carrie M. Lane.

The rapid expansion of the oil sands in northern Alberta in the early 21st century led to the use of significant numbers of temporary foreign workers. These foreign workers became a part of the region’s so-called “shadow population.” This paper examines how the presence of foreign workers affects conceptions of community and social cohesion through the experiences of foreign workers employed in oil sands construction. The study finds foreign workers are excluded from the life of the community due to their differential exclusion, vulnerable and precarious connection to the labour market, experiences of discrimination, and conflicted transnational community identities. The paper discusses the shortcomings of community and social cohesion approaches in addressing temporary foreign workers and considers the policy limitations of a widespread temporary foreign worker program.