Search

By the terms of our Commission we were required: first, to consider and make suggestions for securing a permanent improvement in the relations between employers and employees; second, to recommend means for insuring that industrial conditions affecting relations between employers and employees shall be reviewed from time to time by those concerned, with a view to improving conditions in the future. 2. For the above purpose the Commission was directed: (1) to make a survey and classification of existing Canadian industries; (2) to obtain information as to the (3) character and extent of organization already existing amongst bodies of employers and employees, respectively ; to investigate available data as to the progress made by Joint Industrial Councils in Canada, Great Britain and the United States. 3. We opened the inquiry at the City of Victoria, in the Province of British Columbia, on the 26th day of April last, and completed it at the City of Ottawa on the 13th day of June instant. Between those dates we held seventy sessions in twenty-eight industrial centres, extending from Victoria, B.C., to Sydney, N.S., in the course of which we examined 486 witnesses. --Introduction

In this pioneering work, Gustavus Myers lays bare the corruption, swindling, land deals, and bribery that are at the basis of Canadian history. This is Canada's past seen through the eyes of a muckraker, and in it the heroes of other histories appear in quite a different light. This book was first published in 1914—in the United States. It has never before been published in Canada. Canadian historians have mostly ignored, suppressed, or mocked it. But history is not the preserve of apologists for big business and the political parties, and A History of Canadian Wealth is certain to be widely read and recognized at last as a classic. A landmark revisionist history of Canada, A History of Canadian Wealth remains as lively and startling as it was when first published. --Publisher's description (from 1st Canadian edition (Lorimer, 1972) with an introduction by Stanley Ryerson)

Annuals reports, 1901-1983

V. 1, 1900-1901, to v. 65, 1965 , 1971, and 1975

In 1896, the Trades and Labour Congress petitioned the federal government to investigate the sweatshop system in Canada. Commissioner Alexander Whyte Wright inspected factories, workshops, and private homes in Halifax, Quebec, Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto, and Hamilton. He reported that appalling conditions and paltry wages were the norm in factories and shops, but that workers toiled even longer, earned less, and suffered more in their own homes.

In this paper some attempt will be made to discuss the conditions under which women are working in the Province of Ontario; referring, perhaps more particularly, to the City of Toronto, which has afforded the most convenient field of observation. ...[W]e find a large and increasing number of women employed was wage-earners; and Ontario, following the example of older countries, has found it necessary to subject their labour to various restrictions in order to protect the interests of society. Since the subject of child labour is intimately connected, both in factory law and inspection, with that of the employment of women, it has been discussed in connection therewith in this paper. --From author's introduction

Includes analytical index arranged by names of witnesses, and topical index arranged by subject.

1886 witnessed the height of a period of violent industrial strife in North America. In that year the eight-hour day movement culminated in Chicago's notorious Haymarket Riot. Both the Trades and Labor Congress of Canada and the American Federation of Labor became firmly established and held their first annual meetings; the Knights of Labor were at their peak. Unemployment, working dislocation, and social unrest were focusing public attention on the abuses of the emerging industrial system. Those with power - the big business monopolies - were exploiting those without, and the various levels of government seemed unable or unwilling to intervene. It was all too evident that wealth and progress were for the few, and poverty and alienation were for the many. What were the cases of this inequality, and how could the balance be restored? This was the 'Labor Question' that engaged the imagination of so many writers in the 1880s, men such as Henry George, Laurence Gronlund, Edward Bellamy -- and T. Phillips Thompson. Thompson was one of the leading spokesmen of the Canadian labor and socialist movements for over three decades. This book presents a distillation of his thought in a constructive critique of the American political and economic system. Time has proved Thompson a prophet: much of what he advocated in The Politics of Labor has come to pass in the years since 1886. --Publisher's description (from University of Toronto Press reprint edition with a new introduction by Jay Atherton, 1975)

The BC Federation of Labour represents over 500,000 members from affiliated unions across the province, working in every aspect of the BC economy. It has a long and proud history of fighting for the rights of all working people to a safe workplace and fair wages. --Website

The Canadian Committee on Labour History is open to anybody interested in studying and promoting all aspects of working-class and labour history. The Committee defines working-class and labour history in the broadest terms and encourages study of working-class communities, culture, ethnicity, family life, gender, sexuality, migration, ideology, politics and organization. It recognizes the value of a diversity of disciplinary and theoretical approaches to the study of history and encourages open and active discussion and debate. As well, it aims to encourage the inclusion of working-class history in school curricula, through institutions of public history, and within the educational programs of labour and community organizations.

The Canadian Foundation for Labour Rights is a national voice devoted to promoting labour rights as an important means to strengthen democracy, equality and economic justice here in Canada and internationally. CFLR was established and is sponsored by the National Union of Public and General Employees..

The Canadian Industrial Relations Association (CIRA) is a diverse network of people from across Canada and around the world interested in promoting research, discussion and education in the field of work, labour, employment and industrial relations. CIRA sponsors conferences, encourages high quality research and practice, and fosters the building of relationships between members.

Canadian Law of Work Forum (CLWF) launched in 2020 as a space for academics, practitioners, and students to discuss and exchange ideas on work law, labour policy, and industrial relations. --Website description

Class, Race and Corporate Power is an academic journal examining the politics of corporate power. This includes an analysis of capital, labor, and race relations within nation-states and the global economy. We encourage contributions that explore these issues within holistic frameworks that borrow from a range of scholarly disciplines. --Website description

The Comparative Perspectives on Precarious Employment Database (CPD) brings together a library of relevant sources, unique user-friendly statistical tables, and a thesaurus of concepts – designed to facilitate research on labour market insecurity in a comparative industrialized context. Users can analyze multidimensional tables to explore and compare the contours of precarious employment in thirty-three countries, including Australia, Canada, the United States, twenty-seven European Union (EU) member countries and three non-European Union member countries.

The Gender & Work Database (GWD) is an online research tool designed for both researchers and students with varying levels of expertise. The database is informed by a feminist political economy approach and provides resources that facilitate research on gender and work. The GWD can be used as an interactive classroom tool, to obtain basic information on a topic, or as a research tool to examine complex social relations.

The Global Labour Research Centre (GLRC), based in the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies, engages in the study of work, employment and labour in the context of a constantly changing global economy. The Centre’s work is organized around five major themes: Work, Employment, and Labour Rights; Migration, Citizenship, and Work; Gender Relations in Work and Labour Movements; Revitalization of Workers’ Movements; and Work and Health. The GLRC acts as hub for pan-university research collaboration on global labour, and promotes research that engages with a wide range of labour and community partners. --Website description

Listing of the 88 subjects under the labour heading including labour leaders, unions, strikes, history, and law.