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[E]xamines the degree to which unionization, a key indicator of control over the labour process...limits precarious employment among workers. it also explores, how, and in what ways, union coverage mitigates precarious employment for workers in distinct social locations....Although unionization mitigates precariousness for some workers, [the authors] contend that inequalities based on race still prevail. --From editor's introductory chapter, p. 38.

[P]ortrays precarious employment in the increasingly privatized Canadian health-care industry. In the face of dramatic restructing in this industry, [the authors] reveal that a growing number of women health-care workers, especially those performing what is deemed to be "ancillary work," are subject to conditions of work that make not only ancillary health-care workers but patients too at greater risk of ill-health. --From editor's introductory chapter (p. 35).

Throughout the industrialized world, international migrants serve as nannies, construction workers, gardeners and small-business entrepreneurs. Labor Movement suggests that the international migration of workers is necessary for the survival of industrialized economies. The book thus turns the conventional view of international migration on its head: it investigates how migration regulates labor markets, rather than labor markets shaping migration flows. Assuming a critical view of orthodox economic theory, the book illustrates how different legal, social and cultural strategies towards international migrants are deployed and coordinated within the wider neo-liberal project to render migrants and immigrants vulnerable, pushing them into performing distinct economic roles and into subordinate labor market situations. Drawing on social theories associated with Pierre Bourdieu and other prominent thinkers, Labor Movement suggests that migration regulates labor markets through processes of social distinction, cultural judgement and the strategic deployment of citizenship. European and North American case studies illustrate how the labor of international migrants is systematically devalued and how popular discourse legitimates the demotion of migrants to subordinate labor. Engaging with various immigrant groups in different cities, including South Asian immigrants in Vancouver, foreigners and Spataussiedler in Berlin, and Mexican and Caribbean offshore workers in rural Ontario, the studies seek to unravel the complex web of regulatory labor market processes related to international migration. Recognizing and understanding these processes, Bauder argues, is an important step towards building effective activist strategies and for envisioning new roles for migrating workers and people. The book is a valuable resource to researchers and students in economics, ethnic and migration studies, geography, sociology, political science, and to frontline activists in Europe, North America and beyond. --Publisher's description

[A]ddresses Quebec's approach to reforming its Labour Standards Act. ...[E]xamines developments in Quebec in the early 2000s, with attention to efforts by the government to evaluate "atypical workers" in an attempt to mitigate precarious employment in this jurisdiction. --From editor's introductory chapter, p. 37.

This chapter is concerned wtih identifying the many symptoms associated with the inadequacy of workers' protection that the study of precarious employment makes visible. ...[The authors] probe key themes central to regulatory failure in the context of precarious employment, including disparity of treatment between workers in precarious employment and workers with greater security, gaps in legal coverage, the interaction between labour market position and social location, and the lack of compliance and enforcement. --From editor's introductory chapter, p. 37.

[F]ocuses on the state as an employer; it is concerned with precarious employment and state employees (and former employees) involved in the delivery of public services, their deteriorating conditions of employoment, and the impact of this declien on public safety. ...[The author] examines the situations of three groups of state workers - court workers, workers in Ontario's Trillium Drug Program, and meat inspectors - whose work is cirtical to maintaining public health and welfare, yet who confront multiple dimensions of precarious employment. --From editor's introductory chapter, p. 36.

Case study based on multi-year ethnography of the efforts of a group of workers organizing with Toronto Organizing for Fair Employment (TOFFE), now the Workers' Action Centre of toronto, an active community partner in the Community University Research Alliance on Contingent Work. [The authors] attempt to conceptualize community unionism by locating the efforts of TOFFE in relation to two intersecting continua - a continuum of location that includes constitituency, site, and issue-based organizing, and a continuum of process, defined by hierarchical organizations at one pole, and particpatory organizations at the other pole. --From editor's introductory chapter, p. 39.

[The author] is concerned with the way the mainstream labour movement has historically treated non-white workers in precarious employment and the role of history in shaping contemporary practices. Das Gupta's offers a qualitative analysis of the perceptions and experiences of labour activists of colour and of alternative advocacy strategies for building more inclusive resistance movements. --From editor's introductory chapter, p. 38.

[C]onsiders the effects of contracting-out of public employment services for employment place workers, on the one hand, and, on the other, the workers seeking employment whom they serve. In so doing, [the author] reveals a range of important connections, from linkages at the policy level between changing immigration policy and the provision of employment supports at the provincial level, to connections, by way of a common attachment to precarious employment, between community workers, working largely in serial fixed-term temporary contracts contingent on public funding, and their clients. --From editor's introductory chapter, p. 37.

The focus of the USW case study is the [Humanity] Fund, an initiative to build international exchanges and solidarity and alliances in response to growing power of multinationals through capital mobility. ...[The paper] describes the working of the Fund and then assesses how the global connections with Chile and Peru in the mining sector have contributed to the union renewal in the USW. --Editors' introduction

[E]xplores how more widespread collective bargaiing, minimum employment in Nordic countries like Denmark, could have a favourable impact on the ways in which labour markets operate at the micro-level. --From editor's introductory chapter, p. 38.

[P]rovides an overview of the trends and patterns of union density in Canada and its implications for union renewal. Of particular interest is [the author's] analysis of the opportunities for new organizing in various industries and occupations. --Editors' introduction

"[E]xamines the interconnections between gender, nationality, and occupational health. ...[The author] reports that 10 percent of adult Canadians, mostly women, have debilitating work-related musculo-skeletal disorders that seriously limit the scope of their daily activities. ...Canadians have a distinct disadvantage in fighting occupational injury and illness since record keeping was outsourced by the government during the 1990s to thirteen regional Associations of Workers Compensation Boards of Canada, a nonprofit association that charges fees to access the data that were formerly available to the public for free." --Editor's introduction

[C]ontributes to an understanding of the nature of precarious employment and its broader social implications, with an emphasis on its impact on health. It reports findings of a survey exploring connections between the employment relationship, the organization of work, and workers' health. ...[The authors] develop a new concept - "employment strain" - to examine how precarious employment relationships affect workers' health.

[Analyzes] existing legislation, law and legal literature on the application of occupational health and safety and on workers' compensation legislation in Quebec. [Argues] there are very few tools available to examine regulatory effectiveness from a legal perspective...[and that] it is crucial for legal researchers to join with researchers determining health effects. --From editor's introductory chapter, p. 38.

Case study of efforts [by the United Steelworkers] to organize Omega Direct Response, a call centre in Sudbury, Ontario. The study shows that, by working together, rank-and-file workers as inside organizers and experienced professional organizers can develop winning strategies that can enable unions to organize hard to organize workplaces. The paper also includes perspectives from a conference on organizing call centres held in Toronto in September 2003. --Editors' introduction

Case study of unions mobilizing with community groups to defend public Medicare in Canada. The catalyst for the national campaign in 2001-02 was the royal commission on the future of health care in Canada, chaired by Roy Romanow.

[D]iscusses the determinants of a strong union movement, the evolution of the union [from 1985 to 2005], and the challenges of union resistance and union renewal. These include making gains in bargaining, expanding democracy, organizing, deepening membership involvement and participation, generational renewal, strengthening social unionism, building alliances with social movements, strengthening our capacity to mobilize, and defining ourselves by what we do. The paper asserts that one of the union's greatest strengths is its culture. -- Editors' introduction

[H]ighlights some of the innovations in structures, policies, and practices underway in union organizations in Canada, and the factors underlying the patterns of change. The paper draws on an extensive survey of innovations and change conducted by the authors in 2001 in partnership with Human Resources and Skills Development Canada and major unions and federations. --Editors' introduction

[A]nalyzes the Quebec experience with union renewal, focusing on the critical role of power resources, that is "resources that a union can access and mobilize in order to influence the process of change." --Editors' introduction