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[The author] reports on his research into the failure of Canadian governments to protect and promote the collective bargaining rights of both unionized and non-unionized workers in this country. Far from honouring their solemn commitments to the UN’s International Labour Organization, our governments have blatantly and repeatedly violated them. Their many strike-breaking actions and arbitrarily imposed contract settlements have been condemned by the ILO, which has cited Canada as one of the world’s worst violators of basic labour rights. In exposing the appalling anti-labour record of our federal and provincial governments, Adams includes his exchange of correspondence with Canada’s labour ministries on their dismal labour-law policies. --Publisher's summary Contents: Why collective bargaining is a human right -- Industrial democracy achieved in Europe, thwarted in Canada -- Exclusive-agent certification, quagmire on the road to industrial democracy? -- Alternatives to exclusive-agent certification -- Why unions rely on certification -- How Canadian practice legitimizes employer opposition in collective bargaining -- Constitutional, non-statutory collective representation: the SASSEA and McMaster examples -- Recent developments and their implications for labour policy -- What our governments ought to be doing -- What our governments are actually doing --The union response -- The NUPGE/UFCW campaign. Includes bibliographical references (pages 147-152);

How the unaccounted costs of neo-liberal policies fall on Canadian women. Using a feminist political economy approach, contributors document the impact of current socio-economic policies on states, markets, households, and communities. Relying on impressive empirical research, they argue that women bear the costs of and responsibility for care-giving and show that the theoretical framework provided by feminist analyses of social reproduction not only corrects the gender-blindness of most economic theories but suggests an alternative that places care-giving at its centre. In this illuminating study, they challenge feminist scholars to re-engage with materialism and political economy to engage with feminism. --Publisher's description. Contents: Introduction: Social Reproduction and Feminist Political Economy / Kate Bezanson and Meg Luxton (pages 3-10) -- Feminist Political Economy in Canada and the Politics of Social Reproduction / Meg Luxton (pages 11-44) -- Social Reproduction and Canadian Federalism / Barbara Cameron (pages 45-74) -- Whose Social Reproduction? Transnational Motherhood and Challenges to Feminist Political Economy / Sedef Arat-Koç (pages 75-92) -- Bargaining for Collective Responsibility for Social Reproduction / Alice De Wolff (pages 93-116) -- Privatization: A Strategy for Eliminating Pay Equity in Health Care / Marjorie Griffin Cohen and Marcy Cohen (pages 117-144) -- Crisis Tendencies in Social Reproduction: The Case of Ontario’s Early Years Plan / Leah F. Vosko (pages 145-172) -- The Neo-liberal State and Social Reproduction: Gender and Household Insecurity in the Late 1990s / Kate Bezanson (pages 173-214) -- Someone to Watch over You: Gender, Class, and Social Reproduction / Susan Braedley (pages 215-230) -- Motherhood as a Class Act: The Many Ways in Which “Intensive Mothering” Is Entangled with Social Class / Bonnie Fox (pages 231-262) -- Friends, Neighbours, and Community: A Case Study of the Role of Informal Caregiving in Social Reproduction / Meg Luxton (pages 263-92 ).

In the 1980s there were few midwives in Canada and their practice was neither legal nor officially recognized. Ontario midwives and their supporters pushed to integrate midwifery into provincial health care systems and by 1993 had established an internationally renowned model. Ivy Lynn Bourgeault analyses the struggle to professionalize midwifery in the context of the negotiations between women, as both consumers and providers of health care, and the state. Push! offers a historical account of the forces behind the integration of midwifery in Ontario, including public interest in funding midwifery services and the impact of political lobbying. Bourgeault also explores the specific features of Ontario's respected model, including the use of independent practitioners, funding for a self-regulatory college, a university-based education program, and the provision of midwifery care in both home and hospital settings. --Publisher's description

During the night of April 10, 1734, Montréal burned. Marie-Joseph Angélique, a twenty-nine-year-old slave, was arrested, tried, and found guilty of starting the blaze that consumed forty-six buildings. Suspecting that she had not acted alone and angered that she had maintained her innocence, Angélique's condemners tortured her after the trial. She confessed but named no accomplices. Before Angélique was hanged, she was paraded through the city. Afterward, her corpse was burned. Angélique, who had been born in Portugal, faded into the shadows of Canadian history, vaguely remembered as the alleged arsonist behind an early catastrophic fire. The result of fifteen years of research, [this book] vividly tells the story of this strong-willed woman. Afua Cooper draws on extensive trial records that offer, in Angélique's own words, a detailed portrait of her life and a sense of what slavery was like in Canada at the time. Predating other first-person accounts by more than forty years, these records constitute what is arguably the oldest slave narrative in the New World. Cooper sheds new light on the largely misunderstood or ignored history of slavery in Canada. She refutes the myth that Canada was a haven at the end of the Underground Railroad. Cooper also provides a context for Canada in the larger picture of transatlantic slavery while re-creating the tragic life of one woman who refused to accept bondage. --Publisher's description

How are national and international labour laws responding to the challenge of globalization as it re-shapes the workplaces of the world? This collection of essays by leading legal scholars and lawyers from Europe and the Americas was first published in 2006. It addresses the implications of globalization for the legal regulation of the workplace. It examines the role of international labour standards and the contribution of the International Labour Organization, and assesses the success of the European experiment with continental employment standards. It explores the prospects for hemispheric co-operation on labour standards in the Americas, and deals with the impact of international labour standards on the rights of women and migrant workers. As the nature and organization of work around the world is being decisively transformed, new regional and international institutions are emerging that may provide the platform for new labour standards, and for protecting existing ones. --Publisher's description

As themes in film studies literature, work and the working class have long occupied a peripheral place in the evaluation of Canadian cinema, often set aside in the critical literature for the sake of a unifying narrative that assumes a division between Québécois and English Canada's film production, a social-realist documentary aesthetic, and what might be called a 'younger brother' relationship with the United States. In Working on Screen, contributors examine representations of socio-economic class across the spectrum of Canadian film, video, and television, covering a wide range of class-related topics and dealing with them as they intersect with history, political activism, globalization, feminism, queer rights, masculinity, regional marginalization, cinematic realism, and Canadian nationalism. Of concern in this collection are the daily lives and struggles of working people and the ways in which the representation of the experience of class in film fosters or marginalizes a progressive engagement with history, politics, and societies around the world. Working on Screen thus expands the scholarly debates on the concept of national cinema and builds on the rich, formative efforts of Canadian cultural criticism that held dear the need for cultural autonomy. -- Publisher's description

This book focuses on the efforts and progress of union revitalization and organizing, and documents the renewal initiatives undertaken by unions in Canada. Unions, separately or in coalition with other unions or social groups, have begun to re-examine the basis of their organization and activity in the face of a harsher economic and political climate. Signs of union renewal include increased rank-and-file participation in the life of the union, increased democratic decision-making, evidence of new horizontal union structures, the development of a worker-centred societal vision, and a new emphasis on organizing both internally and externally. Paths to Union Renewal addresses a subject of considerable political and social importance about which there have been a number of debates. A key impetus for this re-examination has originated in the United States where decades-long union decline has engendered new ideas adopted by a number of unions and the national central labour body the AFL-CIO. This in turn has led to debates on renewal strategies in Western Europe and Anglo-Saxon countries from Britain to Australia. Despite this, little detailed research of the processes, structures, and implications of union renewal has been undertaken across Canada. Paths to Union Renewal fills this gap by critically examining union renewal in a variety of unions, providing a basis for informed discussion and debate on the role and place of trade unions in contemporary society. --Publisher's description. Contents: Pt. 1: Union Renewal and the State of Unions in Canada.  Union Renewal and Organizational Change: A Review of the Literature / Pradeep Kumar and Christopher Schenk -- Rowing Against the Tide: The Struggle to Raise Union Density in a Hostile Environment / Andrew Jackson -- Innovation in Canadian Unions: Patterns, Causes and Consequences / Pradeep Kumar and Gregor Murray -- Women are Key to Union Renewal: Lessons from the Canadian Labour Movement / Charlotte Yates -- Globalization and Union Renewal: Perspectives from the Quebec Labour Movement / Christian Lévesque and Gregor Murray. Pt. 2: Case Studies on Union Renewal. The BCGEU [British Columbia Government and Service Employees Union]: The Road to Renewal / Gary Steeves -- Union Renewal and the CUPE / Jane Stinson and Morna Ballantyne -- Union Resistance and Union Renewal in the CAW / David Robertson and Bill Murningham -- Rank-and-File Involvement in Policy-Making at the CEP / Keith R. Newman -- Mobilizing Young People: A Case Study of UFCW Canada Youth Programs and Initiatives / Anna Liu and Christopher O'Halloran -- Renewal from Different Directions: The Case of UNITE-HERE Local 75 / Steve Tufts -- Building Capacity for Global Action Steelworkers' Humanity Fund / Judith Marshall and Jorge Garcia-Orgales. Pt. 3: Unions and Community: Campaigns and Organizing. Community Unionism and Labour Movement Renewal: Organizing for Fair Employment / Cynthia J. Cranford, Mary Gellatly, Deena Ladd, and Leah F. Vosko -- The Workers' Organizing and REsource Centre in Winnipeg / Geoff Bickerton and Catherine Stearns -- A Community Coalition in Defense of Public Medicare/ Natalie Mehra -- Organizing Call Centres: The Steelworkers' Experience / Julie Guard, Jorge Garcia-Orgales, Mercedes Steedman,a nd D'Arcy Martin. Pt. 4: Leadership Development and Education. Increasing Inter-Union Co-ooperation and Co-ordination: The BC Federation of Labour Organizing Institute / John Weir -- Union Education, Union Leadership and Union Renewal: the Role of PEL / Johanna Weststar.

Bloodletting & Miraculous Cures is a collection of mature and intricate stories connected through the relationships that develop among a group of young doctors as they move from the challenges of med school to the intense world of emergency rooms, evac missions, and terrifying new viruses. --Publisher's description. Contents: How to get into medical school, part I -- Take all of Murphy -- How to get into medical school, part II -- Code clock -- A long migration -- Winston -- Eli -- Afterwards -- An insistent tide -- Night flight -- Contact tracing -- Before light -- Glossary of terms -- Acknowledgements.

Jeanne Corbin typifies the female militants of the first generation of Canadian Communists. Andrée Lévesque's powerful account of the experiences of Corbin and her female comrades reveals the essential role women played in the movement. Levesque also shows that, despite some efforts to construct egalitarian gender relations, these women subordinated gender issues to the class struggle. Corbin's red itinerary began when she joined the Young Communist League in Edmonton. She later held party posts across the country through her involvement with The Worker in Toronto, a French communist paper in Montreal, the Workers' Cooperative in Timmins, and a lumbermen's strike in Abitibi - where she was jailed for taking part in a protest. She died of tuberculosis in London, Ontario, in 1944. Levesque relies on a wide range of sources to provide a unique exploration of Canadian labour and social history. --Publisher's descriptioin

Using a feminist political economy approach, contributors document the impact of current socio-economic policies on states, markets, households, and communities. Relying on impressive empirical research, they argue that women bear the costs of and responsibility for care-giving and show that the theoretical framework provided by feminist analyses of social reproduction not only corrects the gender-blindness of most economic theories but suggests an alternative that places care-giving at its centre. In this illuminating study, they challenge feminist scholars to re-engage with materialism and political economy to engage with feminism. -- Publisher's description

[This book updates] recent and classic scholarship on the history, politics, and social groups of the working class in Canada. Some of the changes...in the new edition include better representation of women scholars and nine provocative and ground-breaking new articles on racism and human rights; women's equality; gender history; Quebec sovereignty; and the environment. --Publisher's description

Un syndicat de professeurs d’université n’est pas un syndicat comme les autres. L’individualisme inhérent au travail et à la culture professorale a toujours contribué à rendre plusieurs d’entre eux méfiants et plutôt réservés face à la solidarité syndicale. Chez les professeurs, le « nous » syndical s’est graduellement construit, par étapes, parfois dans la tourmente et la division. C’est ce cheminement des universitaires, cet «apprivoisement» du syndicalisme, qui est l’objet de ce volume. La conscience syndicale chez les professeurs commence véritablement à prendre racine avec la création du Syndicat des professeurs en 1966. Elle aboutit à la formation du SGPUM en 1972 et à son accréditation trois ans plus tard. Dans les années 1980 et 1990 l’utilité du syndicalisme ne fait plus de doute chez les professeurs, frappés par de faibles augmentations salariales, quand ce n’est pas des gels et des récupérations. Dans les années 2000, leur solidarité se renforce avec l’objectif de rattrapage des conditions de travail qui va culminer avec la première grève des professeurs en hiver 2005. Jacques Rouillard propose ici un historique de quarante ans de vie syndicale et de plus de cinquante ans de vie associative. Soucieux également d’insérer l’évolution du syndicat dans la trame générale de l’histoire du syndicalisme québécois, il accorde une large place dans cet historique aux négociations des syndicats des secteurs public et parapublic. --Description de l'éditeur

This progressive new reader examines work in a global era. It is an ideal text for sociology of work and labour courses across Canada. This book will also be relevant to a wide range of courses in labour studies and industrial relations programs in Canada." "Divided into eight key parts with a total of 16 essential readings, this volume covers a great deal of ground: Fordist and post-Fordist methods of work organization; labour markets in transition; working in the free-trade zones; migration, transnationalism, and domestic work; neo-liberalism and the dismantling of the welfare state; education, training, and skills in a knowledge-based economy; and the labour movement in transition. All major issues surrounding work in Canada are covered. Book jacket. --Publisher's description

In October 1976 one million Canadian workers walked off the job to protest the wage controls imposed by Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau. In a memorable personal account of this historic general strike, Saint John labour activist George Vair recalls how workers in one New Brunswick city mobilized to defend themselves and their unions and defeat the unpopular program. --Publisher's description

This interdisciplinary volume offers a multifaceted picture of precarious employment and the ways in which its principal features are reinforced or challenged by laws, policies, and labour market institutions, including trade unions and community organizations. Contributors develop more fully the concept of precarious employment and critique outmoded notions of standard and nonstandard employment. The product of a five-year Community-University Research Alliance, the volume aims to foster new social, statistical, legal, political, and economic understandings of precarious employment and to advance strategies for improving the quality and conditions of work and health. --Publisher's description