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This paper examines the specific circumstances of contract employment within Sudbury Canada’s mining industry. We attribute this degradation to a shift from direct employment with a major mining company to a concomitant erosion of collective bargaining language and a precarious contract-based relationship. We contend that subcontracting the hiring of employees to a third party skirts provisions of both Federal and Provincial labour legislation which governs and limits the employer’s power (in the case of Ontario this includes the ‘closed shop’ provisions in the Rand Formula, discussed in detail below), and denies fair union representation to what would otherwise be an organized cadre of mining employees, duly employed by the primary employer of record. --From introduction

Notre article évalue la croissance des salaires réels des travailleurs au Canada du début du 20e siècle jusqu’à 2013, en considérant à la fois les salaires des travailleurs syndiqués et non syndiqués. Cette évolution est mise en relation avec la hausse de la productivité du travail afin de vérifier la théorie de l’économiste Robert Solow voulant que la croissance des salaires réels progresse au même rythme que la productivité du travail. Nous relevons l’évolution des salaires en trois temps selon les modes dominants de régulation des relations de travail : 1900-1939, 1940-1979 et 1980-2013. La première phase, celle du libéralisme, est marquée par la négociation individuelle des conditions de travail et l’amorce de la syndicalisation. La deuxième se situe dans la mouvance keynésienne et est caractérisée par le militantisme syndical et l’aide de l’État. La troisième, qui s’inscrit dans l’affirmation du néolibéralisme, voit le recul du syndicalisme et de l’appui apporté par les gouvernements. De notre analyse, il ressort que trois importants facteurs influencent la détermination des salaires : 1-la croissance économique ; 2-l’action de l’État ; et 3- le militantisme syndical. Notre recherche montre que les salaires réels moyens des travailleurs au Canada n’ont guère augmenté au-delà de l’inflation depuis les trois dernières décennies malgré un accroissement de la productivité du travail. Ce quasi-gel du pouvoir d’achat des travailleurs est notamment attribuable à des transformations du marché du travail, à l’érosion du rapport de force des salariés dans les entreprises et aux valeurs néolibérales qui s’imposent auprès des gouvernements. En revanche, les années antérieures se présentent sous un tout autre jour puisque les salariés profitent de la croissance économique et de la hausse de la productivité du travail. Depuis la Deuxième Guerre mondiale, leur pouvoir d’achat fait plus que doubler, en même temps qu’ils peuvent bénéficier d’une réduction de leurs heures de travail et de nombreux autres avantages sociaux. Cet avancement est le résultat de la forte croissance économique, de la hausse du taux de syndicalisation et de politiques gouvernementales keynésiennes axées sur la stimulation de la consommation. De 1901 à 1940, les salariés profitèrent également du développement industriel, même si les rapports qui déterminent l’embauche et les conditions de travail sont surtout de nature individuelle basés sur les lois du marché. Au cours de cette période, l’action de l’État demeure marginale, mais des syndicats réussissent à imposer la négociation collective.

My dissertation, Housework and Social Subversion: Wages, Housework, and Feminist Activism in 1970s Italy and Canada, presents a history of the Wages for Housework movements in Italy and Canada (1972-1978), looking at the parallel development of autonomist feminist politics in these locations. Based on a series of interviews with feminists involved in the movement, my dissertation highlights the significant political value in the way the groups theoretical perspective influenced our current understanding of social reproduction. Social reproduction refers to the unpaid activities associated with family and societal maintenance procreation, socialization, and nurturance as well as paid work in social sectors such as health care, education, childcare, and social services. In the context of Wages for Housework, my dissertation re-examines the movements understandings of wages, housework, and the gendered relations of production in the home. In critiquing the capitalist, patriarchal, imperialist nuclear family, they re-conceptualized wages and housework in a way that allowed for the uncovering of the most hidden aspect of housework: emotional labour and care. Looking at the parallel development of Wages for Housework movements in Italy and Canada, I also highlight the emergence of similar tensions regarding the demand for wages and the role of the working class housewife in their analyses. As Nicole Cox and Silvia Federici wrote, Our power as women begins with the social struggle for the wage, not to be let into the wage relation (for we were never out of it) but to be le out of it, for every sector of the working class to be left out of it (1975, 11). In light of the continued pervasiveness of care as work, this dissertation contributes to building a better understanding of social reproduction in a global context.

This article reviews the book, "Outlaws of the Atlantic: Sailors, Pirates, and Motley Crews in the Age of Sail," by Marcus Rediker.

Provides a critical appreciation of the television series, "Bomb Girls," as a pedagogical tool and as Canadian historical fiction in the context of American-dominated culture industry. Concludes that while the series is limited in its understanding of class relations, it nonetheless is of value for students to consider the relationship between mass media, representation and working women.

Job Developers have complex and demanding jobs that require balancing the needs of organizations, employers, and job seekers. Job Developers must meet new employers and potential employees every day, earn their trust, and learn their needs. A common role Job Developers play is helping people find jobs and helping employers find employees. Job Developers attempt to learn what employers and job seekers need and what each can offer to match the right applicants to the right employers.Competent Job Developers must have organization, research, marketing, selling, communication, and negotiation skills. Job development has become a high growth occupation. Because the nature of their jobs changes constantly, Job Developers must also stays updated on employment trends and labor market information. While these changes provide opportunities for practitioners to expand their roles, they also impose increased demands and challenges to build their skills and capacity to perform their jobs. The job developer profession (also known as employment specialist) is a recently new concept in the nonprofit sector. Job Developers' potential as advocates for the unemployed, those with disabilities, and new immigrants is fundamental in today's competitive job market and in the context of equitable opportunity for employment. Informal and nonformal learning are well-recognized and well-used in the job development field. Job Developers rely on informal and nonformal learning for professional development and occupational autonomy.

This article reviews the book, "'Métis': Race, Recognition, and the Struggle for Indigenous Peoplehood," by Chris Andersen.

The article reviews the book, "People with Disabilities: Sidelined or Mainstreamed?," by Lisa Schur, Douglas Kruse and Peter Blanck.

The article reviews the book, "Academic Freedom in Conflict: The Struggle Over Free Speech Rights in the University," edited by James L. Turk.

Using panel data from the Surveys of Labour and Income Dynamics covering the period 1993 to 2008 in Canada this study examines labour force transitions among older workers. High rates of self-employment among older workers primarily result from greater labour market continuation among the self-employed compared to paid employees. Older self-employed men across all characteristics examined are more likely to continue working at each age, while self-employed women do not respond to age-related factors (such as the pension system) to the same extent as paid employees. Labour market continuation is found to be higher among late-life entrants to self-employment than among paid employees after accounting for individual characteristics and job tenure.

This thesis examines the life stories of six Indigenous civil servants who worked in the Canadian federal public service from the late 1960s until today. To contextualize these lived experiences, this thesis also explores the development of a culture of merit, representation, and employment equity within the federal civil service in the twentieth century. Stories of work were provided within the frame of larger life stories, allowing narrators to speak to both their perceptions of the civil service as an employer and also the role and meaning of this work within their lives. As a result, this thesis argues that the complexity of individual experiences, identity formation, and memory make it difficult to generalize about “the Indigenous civil servant” in any meaningful way. Relatedly, this thesis also emphasizes both the enriching possibilities and the unique challenges of conducting life story oral interviews and “sharing authority” in collaborative research projects.

Increasing discontent among provincial employees in Alberta in the late 1960s and 1970s led to growing militancy culminating in a series of strike actions in 1974 by members of the Civil Service Association of Alberta (csa of a) and the transformation of that organization into the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees. In response to growing labour unrest in the public sector, the Lougheed government created a joint government/union task force with the csa of a on 11 February 1975 to review the legislation governing provincial employees and to recommend changes in legislation necessary to achieve a better system of labour relations. The creation of the task force created a period of labour peace in the provincial public sector leading up to the provincial election in the spring of 1975. However, following the re-election of the Lougheed government, public sector labour legislation was revised with the passage of the highly anti-union Public Service Employee Relations Act in May 1977. Internal government documents of the day suggest the task force process was a cynical manipulation of the union in an effort to defuse public employee militancy and to delay conflict.

In the Weber case, the Supreme Court of Canada enlarged the scope of jurisdiction of labour arbitrators by holding that they have exclusive jurisdiction over all disputes arising not only expressly, but also "inferentially," from a collective agreement. Unfortunately, the expanded jurisdiction conferred on arbitrators was not accompanied by any direction as to where they should look for the normative standards necessary to adjudicate claims where those stan- dards are not provided by the collective agreement, creating the potential for what scholar and arbitrator Brian Etherington has called a Weber gap. There is the potential for such a Weber gap in relation to workplace pension issues, which have traditionally been dealt with by the courts. In Bisaillon v. Concordia University, the Supreme Court of Canada applied a liberal version of the Weber test to a pension dispute, holding that it belonged within the exclusive jurisdic- tion of an arbitrator. Courts and arbitrators have had starkly different responses to this decision: courts have embraced the Court's liberal approach and refused jurisdiction over many pension claims they would previously have dealt with, while arbitrators have taken a narrower view and have been hesitant to expand their own jurisdiction. This divergence has led in practice to an enforcement gap that may leave some unionized employees without access to an effective forum in which to vindicate pension rights. The author proposes that this problem could be addressed through a liberalization of arbitral practice, through collective bargaining, or through legislative reform.

This research project reviews and evaluates the academic literature relating to obtaining and maintaining collective bargaining rights under the OLRA. Research indicates that procedural changes to representation processes including the mandatory representation vote significantly reduced the likelihood of certification, and that these effects were concentrated in more vulnerable units. This may partly be due to greater opportunity for delay and employer resistance under vote procedure compared to under card-based certification. The research also indicates that delay has significant effects on certification outcomes, as do ULP complaints and employer resistance tactics. ULPs have negative long-term effects, and are associated with difficulties in bargaining and early decertification. Research also suggests that employer resistance, including ULPs, is common and often intentional. Little research on decertification exists, but offers some indication that employer actions contribute to decertification, and that decertification is concentrated in smaller, low-skill, low bargaining power units.

This paper aims to discover the theatrical relationship between the working class and the factory of war. In that, it strives to prove that the lower income labourer is the cog of the machine: a nameless entity with an inescapable destiny. Through the paper and the subsequent production of Oh, What A Lovely War! I intend to give a voice to the worker and will struggle with my own blue collar identity, just as Joan Littlewood did in years past. This production and paper therefore is one of self-discovery and acceptance. In addition, it aims to prove that without the heroic efforts of the laboring class, there would be no war, as the cowardice of capitalism would fall without its soldiers.

This article reviews the book, "24/7: Late Capitalism and the Ends of Sleep," by Jonathan Crary.

In 1932, coal miners inside of Alberta's Crowsnest Pass struck for 195 days over working conditions. I use a multi-perspective approach and found my analysis on the basis of community to increase our understanding on industrial disputes. I explore the strike from the viewpoint of coal operators, miners, union organizers, women, the RCMP, and other residents inside the region to contextualize the experience of the strike. By using the starting point of community, I add to the ‘labour versus capital’ paradigm often employed in writings on industrial disputes. The Mine Workers Union of Canada represented the striking miners but it became clear that community consensus to support for the union was never reached. Resistance against the union formed on several fronts and often pitted strike supporters against those who disagreed. The strike is a reminder that tensions not only existed between classes but also within classes.

This concise and readable book provides non-specialist readers with all the information they need to understand how capitalism works (and how it doesn’t). Economics for Everyone, now in its second edition, is an antidote to the abstract and ideological way that economics is normally taught and reported. Key concepts such as finance, competition and wages are explored, and their importance to everyday life is revealed. --Publisher's description

This paper explores some of the complex legal issues that a pension plan sponsor may face when making changes to plan design, particularly where those changes may have a negative impact on benefits. Pension standards legislation in Canada generally permits prospective amendments to a pension plan, pro- vided they do not affect vested rights. However, as the author explains, deter- mining the nature and extent of permissible changes may be complicated by differences in the language of the applicable legislation, which varies across jurisdictions. Furthermore, the key terms "accrued" and "vested" have not been interpreted in a consistent way by courts and tribunals. Turning specifically to the question of which pension benefits can be changed and which ones cannot, the author argues that pension standards law protects only accrued benefits, and not a particular plan design or all "rights" which might be said to arise from plan membership. The paper goes on to review the limited circumstances in which changes can be made to vested pension benefits.

Examines the controversy surrounding the passage of Bill C-377 by the Canadian federal parliament in 2012. Introduced as a private member's bill by Conservative MP Russ Hiebert in 2011, the legislation required unions to disclose publicly all of their activities to the Canada Revenue Agency under the Income Tax Act. The paper analyzes the anti-labour origins of the bill, which mirrored the union disclosure provisions of the US Taft-Hartley Act; it also considers the role of LabourWatch, the bill's principal private-sector Canadian advocate, as well as the Nanos Research polls commissioned by LabourWatch that appeared to show wide public support for the bill.