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This report examines the ways governments, and specifically the Government of Alberta, interfere in public-sector collective bargaining through both legislative measures and non-legislative actions. It also explores how this growing interference may impact the 2024 bargaining round in Alberta.

Governments in Canada are increasingly using multiple tools to advance their political agenda at the expense of free collective bargaining in the public sector. Legislative intervention has long been a strategy to curtail bargaining rights (Evans et al., 2023). Recently, governments have turned to non-legislative means to influence bargaining outcomes. This article is about the use of a coordination office, a decidedly non-legislative tactic, and how, over two rounds of negotiations, it transformed public-sector bargaining in Alberta. Bargaining has been further transformed by enactment of a legal requirement to keep the government’s mandates secret, the outcome being increased frustration among union representatives and potential damage to long-term relationships. Together, these measures have provided the government with a powerful means of influence, which, if successful, could spread to other jurisdictions.

Tribute to the life and work of the union activist and social historian, Raymond Léger, who was also a member of Labour/Le Travail's editorial board.

The article reviews the book, "The Things of Life: Materiality in Late Soviet Russia," by Alexey Golubev.

L’expression de l’identité religieuse au travail a longtemps été une thématique négligée, malgré un regain d’intérêt croissant. Cette recherche répond à l’appel d’une vision plus dynamique de l’objet pour comprendre comment les personnes concilient religiosité et professionnalité dans des contextes plus ou moins contraignants. Nous étudions le cas de travailleurs qui se convertissent à une nouvelle religion au cours de leur carrière. À travers une méthodologie qualitative et longitudinale, nous suivons 22 personnes converties à l’islam travaillant dans des entreprises françaises, à travers trois entretiens sur un an (66 entretiens). Les résultats montrent l’existence de plusieurs formes de job-crafting identitaire, qui conduisent à quatre grandes stratégies de réconciliation entre identité religieuse et identité professionnelle. La recherche établit un lien original entre les transitions identitaires, sur l’identité religieuse et sur le job-crafting.

Based on an analysis of judgments on the motion for issuance of an injunction order against strike pickets rendered by the Quebec Superior Court between 2002 and 2023, this article shows that it has been extremely rare for judges to note serious acts of violence, such as beatings, injuries and dangerous acts of vandalism. On the other hand, a threatening look, the appearance or risk of any nuisance can always be qualified by the Court as intimidation, a threat, violence, a wrongful act, irreparable harm, and can justify limiting the right to picket in its simplest form of expression. We then defend the hypothesis that these orders granted in an almost mechanical manner are totally disproportionate, that they sanction workers in an indiscriminate and preventive manner, to the point of undermining the very essence of the right to picket, and this, in violation of the rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly of workers recognized by the Supreme Court.

Cette recherche examine l’impact d’une privation relative sur la croyance en un monde juste et sur le désengagement vis-à-vis du travail. Deux études ont été menées, dans chacune desquelles deux groupes de Français d’origine maghrébine ont été confrontés à une situation dans laquelle ils devaient se mettre à la place d’un Français d’origine maghrébine indiquant avoir déjà été victime de discrimination vs déclarant n’en avoir jamais subi. Dans la première étude, ce Français essuyait un refus de promotion au profit d’un Français de souche (privation intergroupale) alors que dans la seconde c’était au profit d’un autre Français d’origine maghrébine (privation intragroupale). Les participants répondaient alors à un questionnaire de croyance en un monde juste et de désengagement vis-à-vis du travail. Il est constaté que dans la situation intergroupale, les participant(e)s de la condition « Négation de discrimination » et ceux de la condition « Reconnaissance de discrimination » ne se différencient sur aucune des deux variables dépendantes. En revanche, dans la situation intragroupale, les participants placés dans la condition « Négation de discrimination » croient davantage en un monde juste et dévaluent plus le travail que ceux de la condition « Reconnaissance de discrimination ». De plus, la croyance en un monde juste (VM) semble médiatiser la relation entre le type d’attribution (VI) et la dévaluation du travail (VD). Ces résultats sont confrontés à ceux de la littérature et discutés sur le plan de leurs implications.

Summary: In this study, we sought to identify how employee turnover affected company value in a sample of 254 European listed companies before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. We specifically tested the hypothesis that the most profitable and socially responsible companies withstood the pandemic better. We then complemented our analysis by identifying potential sectoral differences. We analyzed the association between employee turnover and company value by using a quantile regression model to determine this association at each point of the conditional distribution of company value. All of our financial and non-financial data for the 2019-2020 period were extracted from the Bloomberg database. We found a negative association between employee turnover and company value before and during the pandemic. The additional costs of employee turnover may have therefore reduced stock market values. The negative association weakened considerably during the pandemic for those companies that had the lowest company value, possibly because of the government support and guarantees they received during the lockdowns. Our sectoral analysis showed a stronger effect on traditional industries with intensive human interactions than on modern industries with predominantly virtual interactions. Estimation results from more profitable companies showed a positive association before the pandemic, perhaps because they had an ‘optimal’ level of employee turnover that maximized their productivity and performance and, thus, their stock market value. This association completely reversed during the pandemic, perhaps because their higher profitability was not sufficient to dampen the negative effect of the increase in employee turnover. For the most profitable and socially responsible companies, the same association was much stronger both before and during the pandemic. For almost all of the companies, the estimated coefficients of employee turnover were positive before the pandemic but became negative for those companies that had the lowest stock market values during the pandemic. This study enriches the existing literature by being the first one to show how employee turnover affected the company value of European listed firms before and during the pandemic. It also provides new evidence that this association varied with the level of sectoral sensitivity to the pandemic and was much stronger for the most profitable and socially responsible companies.

Ce livre retrace en 15 chapitres le parcours de l'historien Guy Gaudreau qui a choisi les textes les plus représentatifs de sa carrière. --Quatrième de couverture

Canada has intensified its reliance on temporary foreign workers, including migrant agricultural workers (MAWs) who have contributed to its agriculture sector, rural economies, and food security for decades. These workers live and work in rural communities across Canada for up to two years. Thousands of MAWs engage in recurring cyclical migration, often returning to the same rural communities in Canada for decades, while others are undocumented. Yet MAWs do not have access to the supports and services provided for immigrant newcomers and pathways for permanent residence. The exclusion of these workers from such entitlements, including labour mobility, reinforces their precarity, inhibits their sense of belonging, and reflects the stratification built into Canada’s migration regime. This article draws on interviews with 98 MAWs in three migrant‐intensive regions in southwestern Ontario to examine how workers construct and describe support in relation to co‐workers, employers, residents, and community organizations. Drawing on conceptualizations of support as an important vehicle for social connection and inclusion that comprises social and citizenship belonging, we document how the strategies MAWs employ to forge connections are enabled or undermined by Canada’s Temporary Foreign Worker Program, community dynamics, and the broader forces of racialization, gender, and exclusion. This article contributes to the limited scholarship on the support landscape for MAWs, whose experiences foreground the contested nature of belonging and inclusion among migrant populations across smaller cities and rural areas.

The renowned Harry Glasbeek unpacks how law has been used to ensure that workers' aspirations are kept in check. Law at Work uncovers how the legal system, through its structures and mechanisms, legitimizes and reinforces the exploitation of workers. Using historic and contemporary examples, Glasbeek illustrates how conscious manipulations of law are part and parcel of how law protects capitalists at the expense of workers. He proves how the very laws designed to safeguard rights and freedoms often act as invisible shackles, compelling readers to reflect on their own struggles as they navigate a world where the legal system fails to serve their interests. These manipulations are made to look innocent because the underlying structures and ideology which give rise to specific rules are not challenged or challengeable. This thought-provoking book is an indispensable resource for those seeking to understand the hidden dynamics of worker oppression, empowering readers to question prevailing narratives and envision a future where the law truly serves the interests of all. -- Publisher's description

Despite a surge in the number of organizations using surveillance technology to monitor their workers, understanding of the health impacts of these technologies in the broader working population is limited. The current study addresses this omission using a novel measure of an individual’s overall perception of workplace surveillance, which enables it to be asked of all workers, rather than only those in specific occupations or work contexts that have historically been vulnerable to electronic performance monitoring. Structural equation modeling analyses based on a national sample of Canadian workers (N = 3,508) reveal that surveillance perceptions are indirectly associated with increased psychological distress and lower job satisfaction through stress proliferation. Findings demonstrate that the negative consequences of surveillance are explained by its positive association with three secondary work stressors: job pressures, reduced autonomy, and privacy violations. In the case of psychological distress, these stressors fully mediate a positive association with surveillance. The relationship between surveillance and job satisfaction is more complex, however, with the indirect effects of stress proliferation balanced out by a positive direct effect of surveillance on satisfaction. These results support the use of a stress process framework to examine how surveillance impacts worker well-being through stress proliferation.

This dissertation provides the first historical overview of the Confederation of Canadian Unions (CCU) and its affiliates from 1969 to 1992. Formed at the end of the 1960s as a foil to the Canadian Labour Congress (CLC), the CCU sought to nationalize the Canadian labour movement by fomenting the formation of Canadian unions. As a left-nationalist labour body, the CCU charged the CLC with conservatism, complacency, and collaboration in its approach to organizing and collective bargaining. Chief among the CCU’s concerns was the domination of American international unions in the CLC. Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, the CCU organized workplaces in unorganized industries, bringing a host of immigrant women into the ranks of the Canadian labour movement, while establishing large bargaining units in industries primarily organized by American unions. At the same time, the CCU forwarded a left-nationalist politics inspired by the New Canadian Political Economy (NCPE) that criticized Canada’s economic, political, and cultural dependence on the United States, and used this politics to mobilize its members against continental free trade and towards a nationalized, socialized home economy. The CCU and its affiliates also formed important linkages with the New Left and the women’s movement during these decades and proved itself a militant actor in confrontations with the state and industrial law. Several CCU affiliates eventually merged with the Canadian Autoworkers (CAW) in the 1990s in the wake of extensive economic restructuring and corresponding changes in the Canadian labour movement. The dissertation contributes to the scholarship on industrial relations, industrial legality, and nationalism by providing a historical case study of a left-nationalist labour institution that simultaneously challenged and was shaped by federal and provincial law. It provides a critical institutionalist perspective on union federations that accounts for the law as a contested terrain, and nationalism as a historically contingent politics.

The article reviews and comments on the books, "Harry Bridges: Labor Radical, Labor Legend" by Robert W. Cherny, "Labor under Siege: Big Bob McEllrath and the ILWU's Fight for Organized Labor in an Anti-Union Era," by Harvey Schwartz with Ronald Magden, "Under the Iron Heel: The Wobblies and the Capitalist War on Radical Workers," by Ahmed White.

The article reviews the book, "Building That Bright Future: Soviet Karelia in the Life Writing of Finnish North Americans," by Samira Saramo.

This article examines the interest representation of European Employers’ Organizations (EEOs) in the European Union (EU). Previous literature in employment relations focused on employer activity in social dialogue, while literature in political science focused on political representation and how business associations lobby EU political institutions. Going beyond this dualism in the literature, this article suggests that gaining a full understanding of the interest representation of European Employers Organizations requires analyzing interactions between the political and social dialogue arenas. We argue that EEOs gain legitimacy through participating in social dialogue to facilitate their primary focus of political interest representation. Strategic and institutional perspectives on legitimacy provide insights into how EEOs respond to challenges and manage their environment within the EU to pursue their interests.

The article reviews the book, "The Real Living Wage: Civil Regulation and the Employment Relationship," by Edmund Heery, Deborah Hann, and David Nash

Le concept de marque employeur (ME) suppose de communiquer une promesse d’emploi unique et désirable afin d’attirer puis fidéliser. La consistance de la ME dans le temps (perçue par les candidats puis vécue par les salariés) conditionnerait la fidélité. Pourtant, de récents travaux démontrent que la ME n’est pas consistante dans le temps, sans que cela n’affecte négativement la fidélité. La recherche demeure relativement aveugle aux facteurs expliquant cette évolution et ses effets, soit ce qui se joue durant l’expérience du collaborateur (EMX). Le concept d’EMX, élusif et peu stabilisé, souffre d’un manque de clarté théorique et de modalités d’investigations pratiques. Cette étude étudie ainsi des récits expérientiels de 40 informants sur une année de contrat, afin de contribuer à une meilleure compréhension et appréhension pratique de l’EMX et d’en apprécier les effets sur la ME et la fidélité. Les résultats permettent de valider quatre propriétés structurantes de l’EMX, clarifiant le concept et guidant son investigation : interactionnelle, enracinée, indéfinie et source d’apprentissage. Cette dernière propriété semble jouer un rôle crucial dans l’évolution des perceptions de la ME observées, et expliquer leurs effets sur la fidélité.

Thousands of children and youth across the country took to the streets for two weeks in spring 1947 to protest a three-cent increase in the price of chocolate bars. The protest initially generated enthusiastic press coverage and had widespread popular support, but when the National Federation of Labor Youth (nfly), the Communist Party's youth organization, announced its support, anti-communists in the press and the community red-baited the protesters. The campaign quickly lost momentum, which anti-communists attributed to the presence of Communists but was more likely due to their own red-baiting attacks in the press. Some of these protests were spontaneous reactions to a 40 per cent increase in the price of candy bars, while others were led or inspired by nfly. Either way, the countrywide mobilization of thousands of children and youth marks a turning point in the history of Canada's left. Erupting in tandem with a nationwide strike of industrial workers and protests of activist consumers demanding greater economic security and a more responsive state, the children's chocolate bar protest provides a window on this critical moment in the class struggle. The attacks on this popular protest at the moment that the long run of community-based militancy was about to be demonized, delegitimated, and silenced by red-baiting marks a significant milestone in Canada's Cold War. In addition to adding the youngsters' challenge to capital and the state to the history of the popular left, the event contributes to the growing literature on children and youth engaged in political protest, while their creative protest strategies offer a youthful dimension to the study of performance activism.

This book deals with the Crown Employees Collective Bargaining Act and the Public Service Act, the statutes that primarily govern unionized and non-unionized employment and labour relations in the Ontario Public Service and Crown Agencies. This updated edition provides a full review of all sections, and all judicial and arbitral consideration, of both acts. It also discusses the unique treatment of the Crown and its employees in the Public Sector Labour Relations Transition Act and the Employment Standards Act. -- Publisher's description