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Autoworkers unionized the General Motors plant in Oshawa in 1937 after a bitterly fought strike that pitted them against a rabidly anti-union government, hostile press and GM corporation. It was a major turning point in Canadian labour history. Crucial factors contributing to the strike’s success include the historical background of working-class struggle in the community, patient and courageous prior organizing by Communists, the engaged leadership of rank-and-file GM workers, and the solid support of the United Autoworkers International Union. The author focuses on the voices and actions of rank-and-file workers and on the day-to-day events, many of which have been misunderstood or misinterpreted. The Truth About the ’37 Oshawa GM Strike takes down the long-accepted—but false—narrative espoused by the academic Irving Abella that the Oshawa workers were “on their own” without significant support from the UAW/CIO leadership and that they would have been better off not to organize under the banner of an international union. It also shows how that narrative fails to grasp the degree to which class struggle organizing principles were crucial to the strike’s success. A true understanding of the ’37 strike provides valuable lessons for people seeking to revive the labour movement today. --Publisher's description

Indigenous communities have been in direct conflict with the Canadian state when asserting their right to self-determination. Literature reveals that the Canadian state interprets Indigenous resistance as a threat to settler authority, responding with violence and criminal enforcement. This thesis investigates the relationship between the norms related to Indigenous rights articulated in the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and the institutional enforcement response to Indigenous resistance in the case of Mi’kmaw moderate livelihood fishing. Through a critical discourse analysis of Fisheries and Oceans Canada and Royal Canadian Mounted Police’s public statements, policy documents, and recorded actions, this research found a discursive influence on state institutions. Despite the rhetorical commitments, this research found that state response continued an approach of criminalization and violence against Mi’kmaw moderate livelihood fishers. These contradictions between rhetoric and practice challenge the institutional legitimacy of settler authority.

The emergence, dominance, and alarmingly rapid retreat of modernist industrial capitalism on Cape Breton Island during the “long twentieth century” offers a particularly captivating window on the lasting and varied effects of deindustrialization. Now, at the tail end of the industrial moment in North American history, the story of Cape Breton Island presents an opportunity to reflect on how industrialization and deindustrialization have shaped human experiences. Covering the period between 1860 and the early 2000s, this volume looks at trade unionism, state and cultural responses to deindustrialization, including the more recent pivot towards the tourist industry, and the lived experiences of Indigenous and Black people. Rather than focusing on the separate or distinct nature of Cape Breton, contributors place the island within broad transnational networks such as the financial world of the Anglo-Atlantic, the Celtic music revival, the Black diaspora, Canadian development programs, and more. In capturing the vital elements of a region on the rural resource frontier that was battered by deindustrialization, the histories included here show how the interplay of the state, cultures, and transnational connections shaped how people navigated these heavy pressures, both individually and collectively. --Publisher's description

Dans cet article, nous proposons un développement théorique sur le concept de découplage, qui s’avère utile pour analyser les relations industrielles. Beaucoup d’auteurs définissent le découplage comme un processus de réponses des organisations aux pressions institutionnelles. Si le découplage « politique-pratique » décrit par Bromley et Powell (2012) rejoint le cas de figure décrit par Meyer et Rowan (1977), où le choix est intentionnel, associé à un simulacre d’évaluation, le découplage « moyens-fins » rappelle les situations décrites par Reynaud. Dans ce cas, les dirigeants ont l’intention d’appliquer les normes institutionnelles, qu’ils ont reproduites sous forme de procédures, mais échouent à les appliquer sous la pression des opérationnels. Pour autant, la TNI n’explique par le processus sous-jacent au découplage en négligeant la dimension politique dans la production de normes et de règles, ce que la TRS permet à travers le concept de régulation sociale. En quoi le découplage dans les organisations est-il une forme de régulation sociale ? Nous faisons tout d’abord un état de l’art sur le concept de découplage, en particulier les travaux de chercheurs de la TNI inscrits dans une approche épistémologique du constructivisme social, en précisant leurs lacunes. Nous montrons ensuite que la TRS, compatible en partie avec cette dernière approche, apporte une lecture qui rompt avec une analyse multiniveau en considérant les processus de production de règles de tous les groupes sociaux sans les hiérarchiser. Nous montrons que la TRS appréhende ce phénomène comme une forme de régulations disjointes en distinguant trois catégories selon l’existence de négociation et d’accord : Les régulations disjointes « d’évitement » expliquent le découplage « politique-pratique », où la direction a connaissance de l’écart entre ses normes institutionnelles et les règles des opérateurs et fait le choix d’éviter la confrontation. Les régulations disjointes « conflictuelles » expliquent le découplage « moyens-fins » avec un alignement des structures voulu par la direction, contrariée par le pouvoir des professionnels. Les régulations disjointes « de méconnaissance » expliquent le découplage provoqué par une absence de connaissance des règles autonomes par la direction. Les équipes d’opérateurs peuvent aussi ignorer la règle de contrôle. Ces formes de disjonction entre les espaces sociaux (institutions, sommet stratégique, groupes d’opérateurs) expliquent les différents types de découplages à l’oeuvre dans un secteur économique, ouvrant des pistes de recherches stimulantes pour le futur.

For more than fifty years, Jamaican farm workers have been seasonally employed in Canada under the Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program (SAWP). In Canada, these workers live and work in conditions that make them vulnerable to various health issues, including poor mental health. This ethnographic study investigated Jamaican SAWP workers’ mental health experiences in Southern Ontario. Several common factors that engender psychological distress among Jamaican workers, ranging from mild to extreme suffering, were uncovered and organised into five themes: (1) family, (2) work environments and SAWP relations, (3) living conditions and isolation, (4) racism and social exclusion, and (5) illness and injury. I found that Jamaican workers predominantly use the term ‘stress’ to articulate distress, and they associate experiences of suffering with historic plantation slavery. Analysis of workers’ stress discourses revealed their experiences of psychological distress are structured by the conditions of the SAWP and their social marginalisation in Ontario. This article presents and discusses these findings in the context of SAWP power dynamics and concludes with policy recommendations aimed at improving the mental health of all SAWP workers. In foregrounding the experiences of Jamaican workers, this study addresses the dearth of research on the health and wellbeing of Caribbean SAWP workers.

This study explores ableism within higher education through an examination of the collective agreements and institutional policies that govern the academic responsibilities of disabled faculty members. Critical disability theory serves as the theoretical framework for this study, which employs both institutional ethnography and qualitative content analysis in the review of the publicly available documents from English speaking U15 Group of Canadian Research Universities (n=13). The study unfolds in three parts: Part I presents the findings from the analysis of the collective agreements and institutional policies outlining the tenure and promotion process and the barriers disabled faculty members experience in fulfilling their academic responsibilities. Part II explores the tensions and contradictions between institutional accommodation processes and the language used in their public presentation of EDI initiatives, while Part III represents the everyday experiences of disabled faculty members though interviews, representing the embodiment and internalization of the texts examined in parts I and II. This research challenges and disrupts normative understandings of what it means to be a “good academic”, by addressing an absence in the literature exploring ableist representations and assumptions present in collective agreements and institutional policies. The examination of these texts and the lived experiences of disabled faculty members through interviews has illuminated the existing contradictions and tensions in these texts, showing ableism is strongly entrenched and condoned in university policies and governance.

This catalogue of the Nii Ndahlohke exhibition at Art Windsor Essex (September 26, 2023 – June 25, 2024) features work by First Nations artists exploring the history of forced labour of students at Mount Elgin Industrial School (1851-1946). --WorldCat catalogue record

This article examines the history and relationship between organizing library workers and creating spaces for critical conversations among those in the field that have occurred in Edmonton since 2010. The reflective piece begins with a short history of the rise of the Edmonton Chapter of the Progressive Librarians Guild (PLG). Despite PLG’s early successes, PLG Edmonton disaffiliated from the broader PLG organization in 2016, and its successor organization, the Information Workers Collective (IWC), ultimately and rapidly failed as an organization. However, an ongoing space for critical conversation was facilitated the emergence of the local Politics of Libraries (PoL) conference largely organized by student volunteers. The article concludes by reflecting on the limits of organizing beyond Edmonton.

Given the importance of the fishing industry to the Newfoundland economy and identity, understanding the realities of fish work in the province allows for a deeper understanding of labour practices, safety regulations, and the health of the many fisheries the bolster that Newfoundland economy and identity. Initially designed to assess the working experiences of migrant workers on Canadian fishing boats, this thesis turns to domestic workers to unpack labour realties and address the potential of exploitative and abusive practices that help chart fishing among one of the most dangerous jobs in the world. This research took place in Newfoundland in October of 2022, where crew members, boat captains, their owners, and industry and union representatives were approached to gather work experiences and opinions on the broader regional fishing industry in the province. From these experiences, an assessment of how and if exploitative working conditions can be improved utilizes existing and proposed international labour conventions, understandings of unionization, and the political economy, to represent exploitative labour conditions along a continuum. The evolving and changing economic and environmental realities of fishing both globally and in eastern Canada highlight how an already risk-taking, masculine, and community focused industry lives with, is shaped by, and can work towards limiting, the more damaging forms of exploitation. This thesis utilizes qualitative data to inform its assessment of precarious labour realities at sea in the Newfoundland fishing industry to further advocate for the move towards regionalized and industry specific seafarer support mechanisms. Through promoting these mechanisms, such as a seafarer support centre and the ratification of the Work in Fishing Convention (C188), this research calls for Newfoundland's fishing industry to lead the way towards better practices nationally.

Critiques Bryan Palmer's essay, "The Past is Before Us," published in the same issue. The paper was originally presented as a set of comments at the conference, Challenging Labour conference/Le défi du travail, Mount Royal University, Calgary, October 2022. Author hagwil hayetsk is also known as Charles Menzies.

This thesis explores the lived experiences of international students in Canada, examining the impacts and outcomes of Canada’s International Student Program (ISP) that positions students as not only educational participants but also flexible economic assets. Through a brief review of international student policy developments, it is argued that these changes reflect a deliberate effort to commodify international students' labor to meet Canadian labor market demands. The thesis also draws on migration literature to highlight the exploitative risks inherent in foreign labor pathways, applying these concerns to the International Student Program. Through the use of qualitative semi-structured interviews with international students and support professionals, this study reveals the challenges students face under these policies including permit or program navigation, financial instability, and most notably adverse impacts on well-being. This study highlights the complex relationship between Canada’s various mobility programs and notes the benefits of utilizing qualitative methodologies in researching program outcomes.

Most academic librarians working in the postsecondary sector in Canada and the United States today hold faculty status appointments and are represented by their campus faculty association (i.e., they are unionized). In some settings, librarians and archivists are included in the same collective bargaining unit as teaching and research faculty, while in others, information workers have their own bargaining unit. Still yet, there are campuses where librarians are not recognized as academic staff, and as such, they must actively advocate to win the rights and recognition that most of their peers who are employed at other college and university campuses in North America enjoy. This advocacy work takes place at both the individual and collective levels. The following case study explores the experiences of one Canadian and one American academic librarian who each offer their own, distinct perspectives of having held faculty status librarian appointments with permanence (i.e., tenure or continuing appointment) as well as appointments as academic library administrators, roles where librarians typically relinquish, formally and informally, their active membership in and representation by the faculty association and/or collective bargaining unit. Reflections shared will include: perspectives gained on collective action, having directly participated in labour action (e.g., a librarian and archivist strike) and collective labour advocacy work in the North American context; considerations for leaving, be it temporarily or permanently, a tenured librarian appointment for a library administrative post outside of the union (e.g., improved individual compensation, striving to improve individual and collective working conditions for librarians from within the leadership ranks) and the costs of doing so (e.g., relinquishing faculty status and its associated rights and responsibilities, including academic freedom and a workload that formally recognizes research and service work); and finally, the knowledge gained and insight gleaned after having returned to the privileged position of a faculty status librarian appointment with permanence. Arising out of this case study, strategies will be offered to help academic librarians resist corporate practices that erode their individual and collective autonomy and employment stability, and which are misaligned with academic librarians’ core professional values. The experiences of these two librarians, who have each engaged in advocacy work from both within and outside of the collective bargaining unit, will be explored in relation to the wider context of collective action, unionisation, and the overall employment conditions of information workers in Canada and the United States.

The article reviews the book, "Théories féministes voyageuses. Internationalisme et coalitions depuis les luttes latinoaméricaines," by Mara Montanaro.

Although counterintuitive for many academics and lay people alike, the Canadian environmental movement has long included significant engagement from organized labour. More surprising, perhaps, the most dedicated labour environmentalists came from unions representing workers in the auto, steel, mining, chemical, and oil industries. This was certainly the case in Alberta during the 1970s. There, the Oil, Chemical and Atomic Workers (ocaw) used their outsized influence within the Alberta Federation of Labour (afl) to conjoin growing concern about occupational health and safety with developing awareness about air and water pollution beyond the workplace. Drawing on fonds at the University of Calgary Glenbow Archives, Provincial Archives of Alberta, and Library and Archives Canada, this article chronicles and assesses efforts by ocaw officials within the afl to introduce and sustain a labour environmentalist agenda. It also makes an argument for historians interested in the origins and evolution of the Canadian environmental movement to pay closer attention to organized labour.

The article reviews the book, "L’Économie institutionnelle. Sa place dans l’économie politique," 2 volumes of John Rogers Commons, critical edition by Jean-Jacques Gislain and Bruno Théret.

Since the mid-nineteenth century, public officials, reformers, journalists, and other elites have referred to “the labour question.” The labour question was rooted in the system of wage labour that spread throughout much of Europe and its colonies and produced contending classes as industrialization unfolded. Answers to the Labour Question explores how the liberal state responded to workers’ demands that employers recognize trade unions as their legitimate representatives in their struggle for compensation and control over the workplace. Gary Mucciaroni examines five Anglophone nations – Australia, Canada, Great Britain, New Zealand, and the United States – whose differences are often overlooked in the literature on political economy, which lumps them together as liberal, “market-led” economies. Despite their many shared characteristics and common historical origins, these nations’ responses to the labour question diverged dramatically. Mucciaroni identifies the factors that explain why these nations developed such different industrial relations regimes and how the paths each nation took to the adoption of its regime reflected a different logic of institutional change. Drawing on newspaper accounts, parliamentary debates, and personal memoirs, among other sources, Answers to the Labour Question aims to understand the variety of state responses to industrial unrest and institutional change beyond the domain of industrial relations. --Publisher's description

In response to Sustainable Development Goals 5 and 10 (SDGs), organizations are collaborating with unions to integrate sustainability into their strategies by adopting socially responsible HR practices for social equity and equality. In this study, grounded in social justice ideology, we explore the antecedents, decisions and outcomes of sustainable HRM practices that promote workplace equity and equality with union support. We used a framework-based systematic literature review (SLR) method, guided by the antecedents-decisions-outcomes (ADO) framework of Paul et al. (2023), and followed Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) protocols to ensure comprehensive and transparent reporting. Using the ADO framework, we identified organizational culture and values, stakeholder engagement, union trends, legal framework and regulations, collective agreements and company size as “antecedents.” “Decisions” encompassed inclusive recruitment and hiring practices, equal pay and compensation initiatives, diversity and inclusion training, flexible work arrangements and mechanisms for conflict resolution and grievance handling. “Outcomes” included improved employee well-being, enhanced productivity and performance, greater support for diversity and inclusion and a positive impact on employee health and safety. Each of the explored practices corresponded to one of three types of social justice. We suggest several avenues for future research by identifying critical gaps in theory and practice.

The article reviews the book, "Questioning the Entrepreneurial State: Status-Quo, Pitfalls, and the Need for Credible Innovation Policy," by Karl Wennberg and Christian Sandström.

The article reviews the book, "The Corporation and the Twentieth Century: The History of American Business Enterprise," by Richard N. Langlois

...Some shocking statistics underpin Adrian Murray's examination of COVID-19 in Canada: underfunded and poorly regulated for-profit care homes for the aged experienced a death rate four times that of public care homes. Murray details the uneven impacts of the pandemic in Canada, with the burden falling hardest on those in precarious work, women, black, Indigenous and other racalised groups - as shaped by Canada's colonial history of dispossession and racism, now exacerbated by neoliberal economic policies. Murray highlights the contradictions of Canadian exceptionalism, suggesting that the COVID-19 pandemic be read through the lens of a colonial present epitomised by internal inequalities and internationally by hoarding of vaccines. --From Editors' Introduction