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Results 14 resources
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Defines community unionism/alt-labour in terms of community organizations that contest and make claims on the state rather than collaborate with neoliberal governments, such as the downloading of social services. Discusses worker centres and labour-community coalitions including the $15 and Fairness campaign in Ontario. Concludes that organized labour should do more to support community unionism. A revised and expanded version of the essay published in the first edition (2012).
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Discusses the role of the Canadian militia and army in crushing strikes, protest, and dissent, as well as the privileged class backgrounds of military officers and their connections to elite clubs and institutions.
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Provides a historical assessment of the NDP-labour relationship that became more distanced and defensive in the neoliberal era, especially at the provincial level. Whether there will be a rapprochement in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic remains to be determined. A revised version of the essay published in the first edition (2012).
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Argues that COVID-19 has exposed the flawed premise of the migration system, namely that workers are essential yet disposable. Discusses the exploitative forms of precarious migrant labour and organized efforts to counteract them including a union drive in British Columbia (UFCW Local 1518 versus Sidhu & Sons), social movements like the Migrant Rights Network, and the hybrid approaches of the Montreal Immigrant Workers Centre.
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Discusses the distinctive features of labour and politics in Quebec, where the labour movement has had little connection with the NDP. Rather it has worked with the Parti Quebecois and the community sector, as well as participating in provincial roundtables. Since 2000, however, the left in the province has fragmented, as has the PQ's nationalist project, leaving labour in a weakened position. Concludes that the strategic partnerships with the provincial government continue to be of pivotal importance, as is protecting and promoting a strong, autonomous, rights-oriented community sector. A revised version of the essay published in the first edition (2012).
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Discusses the shifting relationship between Indigneous peoples and the labour movement, where historically there has been deep tension. Concludes that labour organizing should engage with and learn from the frameworks of Indigenous communities as they struggle to develop in the context of the capitalist system and their changing relationship with the state. A revised version of the essay published in the 2012 edition.
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Defines business and social unionism. Argues that the distinction between the two is not air tight, rather they intermingle. However, social unionism is essential for global solidarity. A revised version of the essay published in the first edition (2012).
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[The authors] explore the state of labour politics in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. On the one hand, they argue the pandemic created an unprecedented opening for organization labour to build broader forms of solidarity around class-wide demands for the expansion of universal social protections like paid sick days, universal public child care, basic income and pharmacare, and to integrate gender and racial justice into these demands in new and important ways. On the other hand, they make the case that the differential impact of of the pandemic on various sections of the working class saw some unions eschew more universal strategies in favour of a more politically expedient defensive unionism aimed at protecting a narrow community of interest from the negative effects of the pandemic. --From editor's introduction.
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Discusses union-backed strategic voting (most often, endorsement of Liberal rather than NDP candidates) to defeat the Conservatives. Concludes that such campaigns have been divisive and do not advance the labour movement. A revised and expanded version of the essay published in the first edition (2012).
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Examines the shifting currents of court decisions on labour rights in the Charter era. Concludes that labour's resort to the courts is primarily defensive and that victories, when they occur, are limited.
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Defines the value-action gap (i.e., the disjuncture between word and deed) and explores the labour movement's mixed response to the environmental challenge in terms of this model. The conclusion urges labour to help foster a broad-based movment that would integrate environmental sustainability with economic equality and social justice. It also cautions against the embrace of green capitalism. A revised version of the essay in the first edition (2012).
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Examines the legislative record of the governing conservative Saskatchewan Party on protecting the rights of migrants and immigrants in the context of business and labour market demands. Concludes that the province's legal regime stands well in comparison to other jurisdictions, although the government has at times also catered to anti-immigration populism, such as the Yellow Vest Canada movement.
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Examines the anti-union legislative record of the Saskatchewan Party, which saw one of its core bills, prohibiting the right to strike in a broad range of public sector services, struck down by the Supreme Court. The court did, however, uphold a companion bill that undermined workers' ability to organize. Provides background on provincial labour regimes since the landmark Trade Union Act of 1944 that was passed by the CCF government of Tommy Douglas. Concludes that the Saskatchewan Party has done more than any previous conservative government to curtail the right of workers to organize and take job action.
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Questions the commitment of organized labour to equity, inclusion and diversity, which in practice has been treated as a side show to the bread-and-butter issues. Argues that organized labour must make major internal structural changes to confront the problems of EDI that exist both internally and externally.