Search

The article reviews the book, "The Tragedy of Social Democracy," by Sirvan Karimi.

Since the 1980s, the world’s working class has been under continual assault by the forces of neoliberalism and imperialism. In response, new labor movements have emerged across the Global South—from Brazil and South Africa to Indonesia and Pakistan.Building Global Labor Solidarity in a Time of Accelerating Globalization is a call for international solidarity to resist the assaults on labor’s power. This collection of essays by international labor activists and academics examines models of worker solidarity, different forms of labor organizations, and those models’ and organizations’ relationships to social movements and civil society. --Publisher's description. Contents: Multiple fragments--strength or weakness: theorizing global labor solidarity / Kim Scipes -- Worker-to-worker: a transformative model of solidarity--lessons from grassroots international labor solidarity in Canada in the 1970s and 1980s / Katherine Nastovski -- Building bridges between the labor movement and transnational migration research: what potential for international solidarity? / Jenny Jungehüsling -- Labor and sustainable development at Latin America: rebuilding alliances at a new crossroads / Bruno Dobrusin -- It takes more than a village: a case study of worker solidarity in Bangladesh / Timothy Ryan -- Building global labor solidarity today: learning from the KMU of the Philippines / Kim Scipes -- Building a culture of solidarity across the US-Mexico border / David Bacon -- Working for global justice in the new US labor movement / Michael Zweig.

The article reviews the book, "The Age of Acquiescence: The Life and Death of American Resistance to Organized Wealth and Power," by Steve Fraser.

The Penthouse is rumoured to be the oldest continuously operating nightclub in the land we now know as Canada and is without a doubt the oldest exotic nightclub. Owned and operated by an Italian family who emigrated to Vancouver, British Columbia, The Penthouse has survived numerous waves of moral crackdown in the city as well as many offers to buy the prime location in the face of aggressive development. A staggering number of nightclubs in Vancouver, exotic or otherwise, have not shared the same fate. Through conducting an institutional history of The Penthouse I locate it within changing local politics related to feminist activism, policing, and the sex industry as well as larger shifts in cultural attitudes towards sexual labour and sex workers' bodies. Further I assemble a social history of the dancers, looking at their experiences in the club and their perception of the intersections between feminism, identity, performance, and sex. Feminist theory, women's and gender history, and performance studies inform this multi-method project, which includes results and analysis from archival research and oral history interviews conducted with dancers employed at the club from 1978-2012. Overwhelmingly, the narrators reflected on their time as dancers as valuable to their lives in a myriad of ways, including helping to foster healthy relationships with their bodies and sexualities. Nevertheless most felt that the stigma they faced as sexual labourers impacted their lives in a negative way and was in conflict with the way they experienced their work themselves. This ongoing stigma was often a driving force for abandoning striptease for more 'square' or respectable work. Others continue to work in the sex industry. Eleven dancers shared their stories for this project, as did one member of the serving staff at The Penthouse, booking agent Randy Knowlan, and current owner/operator Danny Filippone. These stories offer a history of the Penthouse which places it as a central part of Vancouver's history. At a time when conventional striptease seems to be in decline and other facets of the sex industry seem to be under attack by new forms of criminal regulation, the interviews with dancers, staff, and the owner/operator suggest that future possibilities for Vancouver's contemporary striptease communities might lie in the evolving local neo-burlesque scene.

The article reviews the book, "Bad Time Stories: Government-Union Conflicts and the Rhetoric of Legitimation Strategies," by Yonatan Reshef and Charles Keim.

In this dissertation, I examine union organizing in the Canadian banking industry between 1940 and 1980. By demonstrating that bank workers consistently sought to unionize throughout the twentieth century, I challenge claims that bank employees and other private sector white-collar workers have low rates of unionization because they are not interested in unions or suffer from false consciousness. This research also suggests, however, that many bank workers saw themselves as different from blue-collar industrial workers; the lived reality of bank work as precarious, poorly paid, and rife with gender inequality intersected with ideas about professionalism and aspirations of advancing up the career ladder. Banks, unions, and workers drew on these ideas and experiences in their arguments for and against unionization. I also look at why previous organizing efforts did not establish a strong union presence in the banking industry. Most of these attempts failed, I argue, due to several key issues, including the banks’ anti-union activity, federal and provincial labour board decisions, and labour movement disputes over ideology, jurisdiction, and strategy. The banks consistently opposed unionization and used a variety of tactics to thwart union organizing, both overtly and covertly. The state, in the form of labour legislation and labour boards, provided unions and workers with some means by which to compel the banks to recognize unions, negotiate contracts, and deal with employee grievances; however, state action and inaction more often worked to undermine union organizing. The attitudes and strategies of high-ranking labour movement officials also shaped the outcome of union drives in the banks. Between 1940 and 1980, the mostly male labour leadership repeatedly used top-down organizing strategies and appointed male organizers with no experience of bank work to oversee union drives in a sector with an increasingly feminized workforce; labour leaders’ inability or unwillingness to reflect on this approach and to support grassroots campaigns and alternative strategies hindered bank union organizing. I thus highlight the intersection of gender and class and reveal how these factors have historically shaped the labour movement bureaucracy, union organizing, and the relationship between labour and the state. Author Keywords: banks, gender, labour bureaucracy, trade unions, union organizing, white-collar workers.

The article reviews the book, "Class Lives: Stories from Across the Economic Divide," by Chuck Collins et al.

The Centre for Future Work is a progressive research institute, founded in 2016, with operations in Canada and Australia. The Centre is a unique centre of excellence on the full range of economic issues facing working people: including the future of jobs, wages and income distribution, skills and training, sector and industry policies, globalization, the role of government, public services, and more. The Centre also develops timely and practical policy proposals to help make the world of work better for working people and their families. The Centre is independent and non-partisan. [Jim Stanford, Director.] --Website description

Using data collected from survey responses and interviews conducted in 2014, this study examines the consequences of back-to-work legislation from the perspective of customer service workers at Air Canada represented by Unifor Local 2002. By examining union attitudes, opinions of strikes, wildcat actions and back-to-work legislation deployed in 2011 and 2012, the study concludes that this type of legislation functioned to protect the interests of the employer in an ongoing process of corporate restructuring. Such ad hoc legislative measures, defined by political economists as ‘permanent exceptionalism’, further undermines the industrial pluralist regime that is the foundation of Canadian labour relations.

The article reviews and comments on several books including "Beyond the Nation?: Immigrants’ Local Lives in Transnational Culture," edited by Alexander Freund, "Making the Chinese Mexican: Global Migration, Localism, and Exclusion in the U.S.-Mexico Borderlands," by Grace Peña Delgado, and"Ethnic Elites and Canadian Identity: Japanese, Ukrainians, and Scots, 1919–1971," by Aya Fujiwara.

This dissertation examines the impact of precarious work on women in Montreal. Precariousness is increasingly common in Quebec, where women are overrepresented in part-time, temporary, and self-employed work. Based on three years of fieldwork, the thesis argues that while many women experience precariousness in the labour market, they do not experience it in the same ways. The neighbourhoods in which women live significantly shape their lives at work and home. Building critically on the literature on precariousness and social class, my research theorizes precarious workers as members of the working class, not as a marginalized social class outside it. Specifically, the dissertation asks how urban space influences precarious work and how time pressures impact experiences of work and home. First, while noting that precarious workers across industries (e.g. art, teaching, service) face housing pressures similar to those experienced by other members of the working class, the research shows that precarious women workers living in central neighbourhoods are especially at risk of being displaced by the middle-class. Second, the project brings important attention to paid and unpaid domestic work. Most research in the field of “time-use” at work focuses on sectors outside the home, even though women have long performed unwaged housework and many women continue to undertake paid employment or self-employment in the home. The dissertation demonstrates the ways in which women’s workloads have increased in the sphere of the home, diminishing their physical health and rendering them more precarious. Third, with reference to women who continue to perform large amounts of unpaid work, the research considers the relevance of historical and contemporary debates around the relationship between paid and unpaid labour, illustrating how women’s wages are negatively impacted by this unpaid work. This dissertation brings together the social dimensions of gender, race, social class, and urban space. In so doing, the project contributes a multi-scalar analysis to antiracist feminist political economy and reaffirms the importance of social class within feminist geography. Bridging these two broader traditions – political economy and economic geography – the project provides a critical framework for understanding the specificities of precarious work for women in Montreal.

The article reviews the book, "L’abbé Pierre Gravel : Syndicaliste et ultranationaliste," by Alexandre Dumas.

This book investigates the labour history of a people who have not been involved in the twentieth-century labour movement in large numbers: North American Mennonites. It explores their historically-constructed attitudes toward organized labour and unions, which it attempts to understand on its own terms. Although Mennonites are typically associated with rural life, they in fact became very involved as workers in specific locations in both traditional Mennonite enclaves in Ohio, Indiana, Ontario, and Manitoba, and those to which they migrated in the twentieth century, such as British Columbia and California. Mennonites in these locales found employment both as field workers for large agri-business operations (for example, the orchards and packing plants of the San Joaquin Valley in California) and as factory hands in manufacturing firms (such as the automotive factories in southern Ontario). The late twentieth century experiences of North American Mennonites in these settings caused them to confront and reassess their attitudes toward unions. A study of these Mennonites--united by transnational ties of ethnic and religious identity yet shaped, at times, in distinct ways by their differing geographic locations, immigration histories and ethnic origins, denominational ties, and class positions--provides insights into how and why the majority of North American Mennonites have rejected labour unions in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. The oral histories of the 113 Mennonites interviewed provide insight into why many working North Americans are not union supporters, and how people in general negotiate tensions between their commitments to faith and conscience and the demands of their employment. An important aim of the book is to bring labour historians and historians of religion into conversation. --Publisher's description

The article reviews the book, "The Pew and the Picket Line: Christianity and the American Working Class, edited by Christopher D. Cantwell, Heath W. Carter, and Janine Giordano Drake.

SummaryChanges in the work of professional and managerial staff (PMS, cadres) in France were studied in a research project based on 100 interviews, conducted in seven private and public companies. Through a discourse and correspondence analysis—of a corpus amounting to some 600,000 words—, this study concludes that this particular French employment group can be seen neither as a homogeneous entity, nor as a totally fragmented socio-professional category. Rather, reflecting on working life experiences, it describes three groups that correspond to a horizontal division of professional and managerial staff: the serene, the individualized and the resistant.“Serene” PMS perceive their professional lives as being free of major problems. Their career trajectories go up, leading to senior positions in the organization. Training opportunities are used and personal assessment by supervisors is seen as a favourable orientation. This world is stabilized by law or by collectively negotiated agreements and characterized by autonomy and concern for the common good, which are the basis of their beliefs.“Individualized” PMS consider themselves to be responsible for their own success and to be the architects of their careers. They put in countless hours of service, arriving early in the morning and going home late in the evening. They prioritize work over family and aim to be active in highly competitive markets. The individualized have everything they need to be “happy,” except that work leaves them very little time for their private lives. In addition, these employees fear threats to job security and to their careers.“Resistant” PMS’s working time is measured in hours and minutes. Unpaid overtime is refused. This strict regulation of working time is nevertheless accompanied by a considerable workload. Deadlines are difficult to respect. Manifestations of stress and responsibilities in personnel management lead the resisting employee to a negative view of work. The importance of sociability in and outside of work compensates for the loss of the traditional prestige of these PMS. // Les changements dans le travail des professionnels et du management (cadres) en France ont été étudiés dans le cadre d’un projet de recherche sur la base de 100 entretiens, menés dans sept entreprises privées et publiques. Une analyse du discours et une analyse factorielle des correspondances basée sur un corpus de 600 000 mots montre que cette catégorie professionnelle ne peut être considérée ni comme une entité homogène, ni comme totalement fragmenté. En partant des expériences de vie au travail des employés, nous décrivons trois groupes, correspondant à une division horizontale des cadres : les sereins, les individualisés et les résistants.Les « sereins » perçoivent leur vie professionnelle comme étant exempt de problèmes majeurs. Leur trajectoire de carrière est montante, conduisant à des postes de direction dans l’organisation. Les possibilités de formation sont pleinement utilisées et l’évaluation personnelle par les superviseurs est considérée avec bienveillance. Ce monde est stabilisé par la loi ou par des accords négociés collectivement. Il est caractérisé par l’autonomie et par le souci du bien commun, qui sont la base de leurs croyances.Les « individualisés » se considèrent responsables de leur propre succès et ils estiment être les architectes de leur carrière. Ils consacrent d’innombrables heures de service, en arrivant tôt le matin et en rentrant à la maison tard dans la soirée. Ils privilégient le travail à la famille et voudraient être actifs dans des marchés hautement concurrentiels. Les individualisés ont tout pour être « heureux », sauf que le travail ne leur laisse que très peu de temps pour leur vie privée. En outre, ces employés craignent les menaces sur la sécurité de leur emploi et de leur carrière.Le temps de travail des « résistants » se mesure en heures et minutes. Des heures supplémentaires non rémunérées sont refusées. Cette règlementation stricte du temps de travail est néanmoins accompagnée d’une charge de travail considérable. Les délais sont difficiles à respecter. Les manifestations de stress et les responsabilités dans la gestion du personnel conduisent les résistants à une vision négative du travail. L’importance de la sociabilité dans et en dehors du travail compense ici la perte du prestige traditionnel des cadres.

Discusses the death of nine workers due to the flash fire at Phillips garment factory in Toronto on 20 January 1950, which resulted in a public inquiry. Concludes with six short poems in memory of the workers.

The article reviews the book, "Protest and the Politics of Space and Place, 1789–1848," by Katrina Navickas.

The article reviews the book, "Hobohemia and the Crucifixion Machine: Rival Images of a New World in 1930s Vancouver," by Todd McCallum.

For decades, manufacturers from around the world relied on asbestos from the town of Asbestos, Quebec, to produce fire-retardant products. Then, over time, people learned about the mineral's devastating effects on human health. Dependent on this deadly industry for their community's survival, the residents of Asbestos developed a unique, place-based understanding of their local environment; the risks they faced living next to the giant opencast mine; and their place within the global resource trade. This book unearths the local/global tensions that defined Asbestos's proud and painful history to reveal the challenges similar resource communities have faced--and continue to face today. -- Publisher's description. Contents: Foreword: the long dying / Graeme Wynn -- Introduction: introducing Asbestos -- Creation stories: Asbestos before 1918 -- Land with a future, not a past, 1918-49 -- Negotiating risk, 1918-49 -- Essential characteristics, 1918-49 -- Bodies collide: the strike of 1949 -- "Une ville qui se deplace," 1949-83 -- Useful tools, 1949-83 -- Altered authority, 1949-83 -- Conclusion: surviving collapse: Asbestos post-1983.