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British Columbia was the site of some of the most significant events in the history of the labour movement and had some of the best-organized and most politically conscious communist workers. In this illuminating volume, Jon Bartlett follows the activities of BC Communists from the onset of the Great Depression to the coming of the Popular Front and investigates the collisions between these Communists and the organs of the federal, provincial, and municipal governments. Reflecting on the vectors of cultural resistance, from the creation of vernacular newspapers to the circulation of popular song and verse, Bartlett charts workers’ efforts to resist wage cutbacks in mines, mills, and the logging and fishing industries and describes the organization of opposition to the relief camps and its outcomes. -- Publisher's description

As Canada sought to protect its borders and aid its allies during the Cold War, many people were recruited to build the emerging security state: as construction and maintenance workers, engineers, members of the armed forces, medical researchers, and research subjects. Security work transformed the lives of individuals, families, and communities in ways that were both predictable and surprising, and both beneficial and harmful; the militarization and colonization of Indigenous lives and lands was especially disruptive. The opening essays of Cold War Workers intimately portray the complicated effects of Cold War labour upon Indigenous lives. Elmer Sinclair, a residential school survivor and member of the Canadian armed forces, achieved equality with white men through his militarized masculinity. His more positive professional experience contrasts with those of Indigenous workers on northern radar lines, many of whom lost languages, connections to the land, and other elements of traditional cultures as they sought new skills and better employment. Diverse Indigenous experiences of Cold War security work set the scene for the second set of essays, which explore the impact of security preoccupations on marginalized groups – the study of extreme isolation through scientific experimentation on human subjects; the targeting of gay men with psychiatric labelling to enforce an idealized masculinity; and the restriction of gender mobility in the Canadian military, and the pushback from servicewomen. Cold War Workers raises questions about the influence of settler-colonial masculine institutional values on those who laboured for the Cold War state and society. By comparing the experiences of different types of workers, families, and communities, this volume reveals how race, gender, and privilege affected people in varied and sometimes unexpected ways. -- Publisher's description

At the end of the twentieth century, as social democratic parties around the world struggled to produce a coherent response to the deindustrialization crisis, many pivoted towards progressive neoliberalism and Third Way social democracy. Almost everywhere, they turned their backs on the weakened trade union movement and embraced neoliberal assumptions about labour force flexibility and global competition. Shamefully, Third Way social democrats emphasized the moral dimension of poverty rather than its structural causes as they abandoned the old redistributive class politics of the Left. Based on extensive archival research and interviews with NDP politicians, senior economic policy advisors, and trade unionists, The Left in Power examines the response of the political Left in Ontario to the crisis that gripped the old ‘industrialized world.’ Steven High revisits the heartbreaking years of Bob Rae’s Ontario NDP government—from their historic and unexpected 1990 victory, to their policy shifts that left working-class voters feeling betrayed, to their landslide defeat in 1995—to uncover what we can learn from one social democratic party’s mistakes about how to govern from the Left. --Publisher's description

Over the last several decades, the workplace in Canada has experienced profound changes. Work has become increasingly insecure for a growing number of workers, and income inequality has deepened. New technologies have reshaped labour processes and have enhanced elements of employer control over work and workers. Entry into the labour market is itself a difficult process, as young workers struggle to match qualifications and credentials with jobs, while for many older workers, retirement with a secure income is a diminishing prospect. The demographic composition of the labour market is transforming, yet this change is conditioned by longstanding patterns of inequality in terms of gender, race, disability, and immigration status. Work and Labour in Canada explores the changing world of work, mapping out major trends and patterns that define working life and identifying the economic, social, and political factors that shape the contemporary workplace. Evaluating working conditions and the quality of jobs from a critical perspective, this text presents an analysis of recent trends in employment and unemployment as well as outlines the role and impact of unions and other workers’ organizations. The fourth edition includes a new chapter on work and technology, updated statistical data, and additional content on the basic income debate, labour and climate change, and COVID-19. This thoroughly revised and updated edition is essential for teachers, researchers, labour activists, and students of labour studies, sociology, political science, political economy, and economic geography programs. --Publisher's description

Rethinking Feminist History and Theory considers the past, present, and future of feminist history and theory, emphasizing how feminism has influenced the histories of gender, class, and labour, and their intersections. This vibrant collection, inspired by the work of historian and women’s studies scholar Joan Sangster, features essays from academics across multiple disciplines, highlighting the dynamism of feminist historical scholarship in Canada. The book explores questions such as: How has women’s resistance and radicalism been expressed, lived, represented, and repressed over the past century? How do we research these phenomena? How do we situate feminism in relation to other movements for egalitarian social change? Contributors explicitly address these recurring themes, aiming to chart new directions for future research and teaching. While primarily Canadian-focused, the collection includes global perspectives, with contributions from scholars in Chile, Finland, Sweden, and the UK. These essays emphasize the importance of cross-disciplinary collaboration, incorporating insights from labour studies, political economy, anthropology, legal studies, and feminist theory. Ultimately, Rethinking Feminist History and Theory engages deeply with Sangster’s rich and wide-ranging work to understand and interpret women’s experiences. It seeks to inspire future scholarship and teaching in feminist history and theory, showcasing the ongoing relevance and adaptability of feminist perspectives. -- Publisher's description

All miners and smelter workers know the folly of going on strike when their employer holds a stockpile. In 1958 the International Nickel Company had enough nickel on hand to guarantee sales for at least six months. Despite this, fourteen thousand miners and smeltermen in Sudbury, Ontario, downed their tools and struck against the corporate titan of the mining industry. Standing Up to Big Nickel is a comprehensive portrait of a pivotal strike by the International Union of Mine, Mill, and Smelter Workers, a union that has inspired exceptional levels of solidarity among its members. The Cold War and the resulting instabilities in the Canadian labour movement form the backdrop to Elizabeth Quinlan’s engrossing analysis. The union straddled the line, she shows, between its historical commitment to working-class struggle and the newly restrictive legal landscape of the postwar era. Retrospective accounts by surviving union members, leaders, family, and community members bring to life the history of a distinctive group of workers who sweated over smelter furnaces and toiled underground in perilous conditions. Quinlan traces the events before, during, and after one of Canada’s greatest strikes in both magnitude and duration. Featuring biographical sketches and scenes based on archival and documentary data, Standing Up to Big Nickel captures an intensely dramatic juncture in Canadian labour history.

Now in its fourth edition, Dennis Raphael’s Social Determinants of Health offers the definitive Canadian discussion of the primary factors that influence the health of Canada’s population.This unique text on the social determinants of health contains contributions from top academics and high-profile experts from across Canada. Taking a public policy approach, the contributors to this edited collection critically analyze the structural inequalities embedded in our society and the socio-economic factors that affect health―including income, education, employment, housing, food security, gender, and race. This new edition includes recent statistics, new developments in early childhood education and the implementation of Canada’s national childcare system, and new content on the social determinants of Indigenous Peoples’ health. Particular attention is paid to how economic globalization and the acceptance of neoliberal governing ideology is shaping the health of Canadians. The COVID-19 epidemic vividly illustrated the importance of the social determinants of health, as sickness and death rates were strikingly higher among Canadians in groups already experiencing adverse living and working conditions and poorer health: lower income Canadians, recent immigrants of colour, and those experiencing housing and food insecurity. If anything positive is to come out of this experience, it will be recognition that in the current post-COVID-19 environment, it is essential to understand the socio-economic conditions that shape the health of individuals and communities. Social Determinants of Health, Fourth Edition is aimed at courses focusing on the social determinants of health at Canadian universities and colleges, particularly those in health studies and nursing, but also allied health, sociology, and human services. --Publisher's description

To be published: September 2025. Fifty years of gold mining at Yellowknife in the Northwest Territories spurred northern settlement and produced millions of dollars in profits. But mineral processing also had catastrophic environmental effects and left a troubled legacy. When two mining companies in Yellowknife began processing gold ore in the 1940s, they did so with little or no pollution controls. Giant Mine spewed thousands of kilograms of arsenic trioxide from its roaster stack into the environment, causing illness and death among people and animals, especially in the adjacent Yellowknives Dene community. Even after the companies installed controls, arsenic trioxide continued to enter the atmosphere and waterways. Eventually Giant Mine, the biggest polluter, would deposit the arsenic dust beneath the mine, leaving 237,000 tonnes of highly toxic material buried underground. For decades, the mining companies and the federal government hid the worst effects of the pollution, doubted their own studies, and resisted calls for action. Yet the Yellowknives Dene fought back with the support of labour unions and environmental groups, questioning the safety of the air and water in their community and the massive toxic deposit underground. The Price of Gold traces the troubling history of one of Canada’s most contaminated sites but also the inspiring story of Indigenous, labour, and environmental activists who resisted the ongoing poisoning of their communities. -- Publisher's description

Throughout the eighteenth century, the French and British empires mobilized thousands of labourers in Canada through a system of mandatory labour known as “corvée.” This social arrangement was rooted in the feudal obligations of French peasants to landowners. Under the French regime, corvée was a custom, an obligation, and a form of obedience, a “local affair” embedded in an agricultural way of life that retainined a sense of reciprocity with mechanisms to discourage exploitation. However, with the British conquest of Quebec in 1763, and, later, the American Revolution, the corvée system assumed new dimensions. The British recognized the need for labour power in an underpopulated region and coopted the corvée customs for their own imperial ends. Though British officials retained some French statutes, they enacted new laws mobilizing the male inhabitants of New France to work in state enterprises (such as iron mining and logging), with Labourers holding little to no input into how the colonial state viewed their well-being. Leaning heavily on corvée as a form of conscription, the British army’s surging demand for workers in Quebec precipitated wide-spread protests. This crisis forced the royally appointed governor Frederick Haldimand to ratify a new provincial code regulating the use of corvée. Workers of War and Empire from New France to British America, 1688-1783 chronicles the transformation of the corvée system over a century, positioning French Canadian workers at the center of the narrative. -- Publisher's description

This book is an invitation to trouble the mobilization of “anti-Asian hate” in the aftermath of COVID-19 pandemic. Bringing together activists, organizers, academic, and artists, this book explores the historical and contemporary conditions that make theorizing “Asian Canadian” feasible. Grounded in a transnational queer and feminist lens, this book also aims to envision possible futures and solidarities. Ultimately, this collection is concerned with moments and places of tensions, confrontations, relations, and solidarity. We offer stories of insurgent encounters as people who identify as “Asian” navigate and implicate settler colonial nation-state to make new dreams, histories and intimacies. -- Publisher's description

Migrant Work by Another Name explores the complexities of Canada's evolving international migration and employment policy landscape. It critically examines the shift towards “mobility” programs under the recently inaugurated International Mobility Program (IMP). This shift occurs alongside the contraction of certain streams within Canada’s long-standing Temporary Foreign Worker Program (TFWP). The book investigates the implications of policy changes, influenced at once by public outcry over migrant worker exploitation and persistent demands for labour in the face of qualitative labour shortages in high-income countries like Canada. Grounded in a decolonial feminist political economy approach, Leah F. Vosko employs a mixed methods analysis to contrast the narrative of “mobility” with the persistent realities of precarity among transnational workers. The book features in-depth case studies of the three largest IMP subprograms – Working Holiday, Post-Graduation, and Spousal Work Permit programs – revealing how these initiatives, despite being touted as promoting mobility, provide for temporary migrant work by another name and perpetuate distinct forms of precarity. This critical perspective challenges the notion of progress in contemporary migration policies, shedding light on the ongoing challenges faced by transnational workers in Canada. -- Publisher's description

This book brings together the vast research literature about gender and technology to help designers understand what a gender perspective and a focus on intersectionality can contribute to designing information technology systems and artifacts, and to assist organizations as they work to develop work cultures that are supportive of women and marginalized genders and people. Drawing on empirical and analytical studies of women's work and technology in many parts of the world, the book addresses how to make invisible aspects of work visible; how to recognize women's skills without falling into the trap of gender stereotyping; how to engage in improving working conditions; and how to defend care of life situations and needs against a managerial logic. It addresses challenges for design, including many overlooked and undervalued aspects, such as the complexities involved in human–machine interactions, as well as the need to create safe spaces for research subjects. --Publisher's description

This introductory human resource management (HRM) textbook provides students with an overview of the major domains of human resource management (the “how-to”) with a focus on the practical application of the most recent HRM research and best practices. Students will learn to understand, anticipate, and respond to how power, profit, and intersectionality shape the practice of HRM. Moving beyond the typical procedure-oriented textbook, Barnetson and Foster provide thought-provoking political analysis to better prepare students for the real-world practice of human resource management. --Publisher's description

Although Canadian history has no shortage of stories about disasters and accidents, the phenomenon of risk, upset, and misfortune has been largely overlooked by historians. Disasters get their due, but not so the smaller scale accident where fate is more intimate. Yet such events often have a vivid afterlife in the communities where they happen, and the way in which they are explained and remembered has significant social, cultural, and political meaning. An Accidental History of Canada brings together original studies of an intriguing range of accidents stretching from the 1630s to the 1970s. These include workplace accidents, domestic accidents, childhood accidents, and leisure accidents in colonial, Indigenous, rural, and urban settings. Whether arising from colonial power relations, urban dangers, perils in resource extraction, or hazardous recreations, most accidents occur within circumstances of vulnerability, and reveal precarity and inequities not otherwise apparent. Contributors to this volume are alert to the intersections of the settler agenda and the elevation of risk that it brought. Indigenous and settler ways of understanding accidents are juxtaposed, with chapters exploring the links between accidents and the rise of the modern state. An Accidental History of Canada makes plain that whether they are interpreted as an intervention by providence, a miscalculation, inevitability, or the result of observable risk, accidents--and our responses to them--reveal shared values. -- Publisher's description

In 2019, Regina’s Co-op Refinery Complex (CRC), a subsidiary of Federated Co-operative, locked out Unifor Local 594 after collective bargaining negotiations failed. CRC used the transition to a “low carbon” future as the justification for concessions on working conditions and reducing the workers' pension plan. The lockout demonstrates what a “just transition” means to fossil fuel corporations: rollbacks of collective bargaining, worker rights, cooperative spirit and environmental justice. In the name of a new future, Federated Co-operative and the Saskatchewan government trampled all over important worker rights — the right to strike and picket, occupational health and safety, pensions and collective bargaining. It also highlights the sorry state of co-operative values in Canada. As corporations and governments are poised to make a transition that will be detrimental to workers and communities, this books argues that solidarity between unions and community movements is absolutely necessary to make the transition away from fossil fuels a just one. -- Publisher's description

In 1910, Sir William Meredith led a Royal Commission to investigate the injury, death, and permanent disability of workers. In response to his findings, Meredith helped introduce a new system of compensation for injured and disabled workers that emphasized their rights and well-being. But today, Sir William’s principles appear to be dead: injured and disabled workers often end up living in poverty and are viewed with stigma by those who should be providing them with service. What happened? How can we find out the experiences and needs of injured and disabled workers, and how can the necessary changes be put into action? To answer such questions, the Research Action Alliance on the Consequences of Work Injury (RAACWI), a community-based research initiative that brought advocates, injured workers, and academics together, was formed. Who Killed Sir William? provides an engaging look at RAACWI’s eight years of groundbreaking work and what a successful community-academia partnership looks like to inform and inspire fellow academics, advocates, and community. Its discussion includes (and goes beyond): Developing a trusting, productive, community-advocate-academic relationship; successes such as the production of over twenty research publications and a speakers school for injured workers; the use of diverse teaching methods, including skits and theatre pieces; [and] some of the challenges RAACWI faced (and how they overcame them). In Who Killed Sir William? authors Marion Endicott and Steve Mantis not only offer insight on the systemic assailants, but also lay out a process of addressing them. --Publisher's description

For 300,000 years humans have pushed for equality in their societies. For the first time ever, historian Alvin Finkel brings together the evidence to tell the story of the 99% who have constantly sought to live in a society of equals. This is a history of humanity like it's never been told before. Historian Alvin Finkel builds on the work of archaeologists, anthropologists and historians to present the very long view of the history of the human species. His focus is not on the leaders whose exploits are recounted in traditional histories, but rather on the experiences of ordinary people, the 99%, whose experiences and activities are often overlooked. In the extensive research of many contemporary scholars, Alvin Finkel notes a common thread which most historians have ignored: the constant efforts of ordinary people throughout history to create and sustain societies based on equality of all individuals. Contrary to traditional historical writing, he finds that the earliest human communities usually treated all individuals as equals. In the histories of societies all around the world, he records how individuals who found ways to gain wealth and power have faced constant, often successful, resistance from the rest. From the first recorded communities in Mesopotamia to the COVID-19 pandemic, this book features the resistances, uprisings, struggles, and solidarities of the majority against those seeking to dominate. The result is a fresh and challenging interpretation of the history of our species, one that casts a new light on the true nature of humans. --Publisher's description

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

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

An original history of those who made tattooing their livelihood. In 1891 J. Murakami travelled from Japan, via San Francisco, to Vancouver Island and began working in and around Victoria. His occupation: creating permanent images on the skin of paying clients. From this early example of tattooing as work, Jamie Jelinski takes us from coast to coast with detours to the United States, England, and Japan as he traces the evolution of commercial tattooing in Canada over more than one hundred years. Needle Work offers insight into how tattoo artists navigated regulation, the types of spaces they worked in, and the dynamic relationship between the images they tattooed on customers and other forms of visual culture and artistic enterprise. Merging biographical narratives with an examination of tattooing’s place within wider society, Jelinski reveals how these commercial image makers bridged conventional gaps between cultural production and practical, for-profit work, thereby establishing tattooing as a legitimate career. Richly illustrated and drawing on archives, print media, and objects held in institutions and private collections across Canada and beyond, Needle Work provides a timely understanding of a vocation that is now familiar but whose intricate history has rarely been considered. --Publisher's description