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This article examines Pierre Elliott Trudeau's relationship with labour and social democratic organizations, 1949-1959. Using historiographic works, reflections from contemporary historical figures, and Trudeau's archival fonds, this essay demonstrates that his connections to labour and the left were motivated by his desire to enrich liberal democracy in both Quebec and Canada. Supporting labour unions and the provincial/federal Cooperative Commonwealth Federation during the early 1950s was imperative, as labour was a force for change and democratic renewal, and the CCF was the party with the strongest commitment to popular democracy, especially when contrasted with a Liberal Party and Union Nationale, which were dominated by regressive and financial interests. Using various theoretical approaches, including Ian McKay's Liberal Order Framework and Antonio Gramsci's concept of "trasformismo," I seek to show how Trudeau's leftist forays were informed by the desire to transform liberalism and capitalism in such a way that maintained their essences while inoculating them from their core flaws. This process of liberal transformation and hegemony is further emphasized in the later stages of the 1950s, as Trudeau began to reject social democratic and labour parties, arguing that they put their goals aside and join forces with liberals to fight for democracy first.

Debates centered on the role of social networks as a determinant of labour market outcomes have a long history in economics and sociology; however, determining causality remains a challenge. In this study we use information on random assignment to a unique intervention to identify the impact of changes in the size of alternative social network measures on subsequent employment at both the individual and community levels. Our results indicate that being assigned to the treatment protocol significantly increased the size of social networks, particularly weak ties. Nevertheless, these increases do not translate into improved employment outcomes 18 months following study completion. We do not find any evidence of treatment effect heterogeneity based on the initial size of one’s social network; rather those whose strong ties increased at a higher rate during the experiment were significantly less likely to hold a job following the experiment. We find that many of these results also hold at the community level among those who did not directly participate in the intervention. In summary, our results suggest that policies can successfully influence the [End Page S1] size of an individual’s social network, but that these increases have a limited impact on long-run labour market outcomes, with the notable exception of changes in the composition of individuals who hold jobs.

Workers in Ontario, Canada are on the edge of a crisis in the enforcement of their minimum employment standards (ES). This crisis is shaped not only by well-documented deficiencies in the scope of labour protection but by the fact that the administration of the ES system has not kept pace with the increasing number of workers and workplaces requiring protection under the province’s employment standards act. Coupled with an outmoded complaint-based system, the dearth of support for ES enforcement is cultivating a situation in which an unprecedented number of workers are bearers of rights without genuine opportunities for redress. Responding to this situation, this article explores how measures augmenting the voices of workers and their advocates could contribute to improving ES enforcement in Ontario. It does so through a review of innovative practices in other common law contexts characterized by similar enforcement regimes where labour market conditions have likewise deteriorated.

This article reconsiders the shift in Canada from an exclusively government-regulated occupational health and safety system to the Internal Responsibility System (IRS). The IRS gives workers rights, or “voice,” to manage, know about, and refuse unsafe working conditions. I present new evidence that worker voice and the IRS have weakened with the decline of unions and the rise of precarious employment. Survey data are analyzed from Ontario workers who rated the likelihood that raising a health and safety concern with their current employer would negatively affect their future employment. My analysis models how workers’ sex, race, unionization, sector, and degree of employment precarity affect their probability of exercising voice. Results of a logistic regression suggest the most precariously employed are the least likely to use voice. Consequently, I argue that the IRS should be supplemented with more external oversight in sectors where employment is most insecure.

This paper focuses on the contradictory nature and sometimes unintended consequences of workers' efforts to defend particular communities against the ravages of capital restructuring. In the past decade, pattern collective bargaining in the highly unionized British Columbia pulp and paper industry has faced enormous strains due to intense industry restructuring. Our analysis focuses on the repercussions of actions taken by union locals in two British Columbia towns-Port Alice and Port Alberni-to try to secure the survival of their pulp and paper mills and, even in the case of Port Alice, the continued existence of the community. Our analysis resonates with recent debates surrounding worker agency as well as writing in the 1980s which addressed the often contradictory and problematic nature of workers' struggles to 'defend place'; writing largely neglected in more recent work in labour geography.

English/French abstracts of articles in the Spring 2013 issue.

English/French abstracts of articles in the Fall 2013 issue.

La vie professionnelle : âge, expérience et santé à l’épreuve des conditions de travail, edited by Anne-Françoise Molinié, Corinne Gaudart and Valérie Pueyo, is reviewed.

The article reviews and comments on the books "They Saved the Crops: Labor, Landscape, and the Struggle Over Industrial Farming in Bracero-Era California," by Don Mitchell, "Braceros: Migrant Citizens and Transnational Subjects in the Postwar United States and Mexico," by Deborah Cohen, and "Pineros: Latino Labour and the Changing Face of Forestry in the Pacific Northwest," by Brinda Sarathy.

Ce texte propose une relecture du débat sur l’action syndicale à l’international entre la construction de coalitions globales et le développement de réseaux locaux. Il se base sur le récit des représentants syndicaux du secteur minier au Ghana et au Mexique. Les stratégies syndicales sont saisies sous les trois dimensions analytiques que sont les espaces de l’action syndicale à l’international, les modes d’interaction et le cadre de référence. L’objectif de l’article vise à comprendre comment les syndicats nationaux naviguent entre le local et le global, et les facteurs qui les poussent et les attirent vers les espaces transnationaux.Alors que les deux syndicats sont engagés dans un processus de renouvellement de leur action, leur stratégie transnationale diffère : les Ghanéens sont engagés dans le développement de nouvelles aptitudes et de nouveaux savoir-faire et les Mexicains dans la construction des coalitions. Ces constats suggèrent que l’action syndicale à l’international est fonction des contingences nationales. Primo, le syndicat ghanéen intervient surtout au niveau continental africain et privilégie le développement des compétences locales et nationales. De son côté, le syndicat mexicain est présent aussi bien au niveau continental nord-américain que transnational, notamment dans des campagnes de solidarité. Secundo, les Ghanéens entretiennent de faibles liens avec les autres syndicats. De l’autre, les Mexicains sont engagés dans un large répertoire d’action avec les syndicats nord-américains et les fédérations internationales. Tertio, les Ghanéens conçoivent leurs intérêts sur la base d’une forte identité clanique et définissent leur engagement international en termes de ressources. Pour leur part, les Mexicains bâtissent des coalitions transnationales sur la base d’une identité de classe.Allant au-delà de la dichotomie entre le local et le global, les stratégies syndicales à l’international sont socialement construites et localement enracinées. Elles s’expliquent par la dynamique de l’économie politique dans laquelle se trouvent insérés ces syndicats et les structures d’opportunité transnationale à leur portée.

The author argues that the current test for age discrimination in Canada, which is based on the Supreme Court of Canada's decision in R. v. Kapp and which requires that discrimination be motivated by or perpetuate stereotyping or prejudice, has led adjudicators to fail to come to grips with wrongful ageism in the workplace. The fact that everyone ages, and that distinctions based on age may in the past have benefitted the same people who are now harmed by those distinctions, has in the author's view been given too much weight, thereby making discrimination against senior workers too easy to justify. She proposes that the legal test for age discrimination should focus on wrongs done in the present, and should not take account of any past or future benefits which may be attributed to a distinction drawn on the basis of age. On the basis of what the author calls the Dignified Lives Approach, she argues that an age-based distinc- tion should be held to be discriminatory if it violates any of these five principles: people of all ages must be assessed on their merits, must be treated as equals, must have enough means to live lives of dignity, must be socially included, and must retain their autonomy. Using as examples four recent cases of alleged age-based discrimination in the employment context decided by Canadian courts and administrative tribunals, the author demonstrates how the Dignified Lives Approach would in her view be more sensitive to different types of age dis- crimination and would bring more just outcomes.

The article reviews the book, "Age, Gender, and Work: Small Information Technology Firms in the New Economy," edited by Julie Anne McMullin.

The article reviews the book, "Partir pour la famille. Fécondité, grossesse et accouchement au Québec, 1900-1950," by Suzanne Marchand.

The "accommodation gap" refers to the shortfall between those accom- modations which persons with disabilities require in order to work, and those workplace accommodations which they actually receive. This paper argues that the accommodation gap raises important issues for policy-makers in Canada, given the growing participation of older workers in the labour market and the fact that the incidence of disability increases with age. Such issues include the loss of productivity, higher poverty rates, increased cost of social programs, and failure to achieve the goals of human rights legislation. Using the results of an extensive analysis of data obtained from Statistics Canada's 2006 Participation and Activity Limitation Survey, the authors inquire into three questions: (1) Is there a workplace accommodation gap in Canada, and if there is, how big is it and whom does it affect? (2) Is it associated with age or aging, and there- fore likely to be aggravated by the aging of the Canadian population? (3) Are its causes likely to elude complaint-driven enforcement of human rights law because they are systemic? In answering these questions, the studyfinds that a large number of Canadians (about 35%) do not receive accommodations they need to work productively, or at all. Furthermore, the results show that the older the worker and the more severe his or her disability, the greater the accommo- dation gap. The authors suggest that thisfinding supports the view that employ- ers' decisions on whether to provide accommodation are influenced by economic considerations, stereotypes about the link between age and disability, the fact that certain types of accommodation may conflict with workplace culture, and other factors. Finally, the paper contends that the enforcement mechanism cur- rently in place is probably inadequate to deal with the accommodation gap, in view of the systemic nature of many of its causes. The authors set out a number of alternative options which may be more effective in closing the accommodation gap, and propose that those options be considered as part of a comprehensive policy review.

Dans un contexte où la qualité de vie au travail, le bien-être et la santé psychologique des employés sont actuellement au coeur des préoccupations des gestionnaires et des milieux de travail, les enjeux de santé organisationnelle deviennent incontournables. Or, malgré l’intérêt grandissant des chercheurs et des praticiens, la notion de santé organisationnelle a été l’objet de diverses conceptualisations et représente encore aujourd’hui un objet d’étude en pleine évolution. Dans cet ordre d’idées, cet article propose de faire une synthèse des approches contemporaines de la santé organisationnelle et d’investiguer comment cette thématique est abordée par les chercheurs québécois. Pour ce faire, une recension des écrits a d’abord été effectuée afin d’établir un portrait des connaissances acquises à ce jour. Ensuite, une enquête consultative a été réalisée auprès d’experts scientifiques québécois. À la fois les écrits et les experts consultés rapportent que la santé organisationnelle est un concept qui prend plusieurs sens, qui nécessite l’adoption d’une perspective plus globale et qui s’élargit à d’autres sphères que le travail. Or, contrairement à la documentation, les experts abordent surtout les aspects de la santé psychologique et moins la santé physique, et ils considèrent essentiellement les facteurs organisationnels comme des préoccupations de recherche future dans le domaine. Les résultats obtenus permettent de dresser un état des connaissances sur le concept de santé organisationnelle et son évolution, tout en identifiant les tendances émergentes susceptibles d’influencer les orientations scientifiques futures pour le regroupement stratégique en santé psychologique au travail du Réseau de recherche en santé et sécurité du travail du Québec. // More than thirty years after the adoption of the Quebec Act respecting occupational health and safety (AROHS), the regulations respecting the prevention programme (PP), the health programme specific to the establishment, joint OHS committees (JOHSC) and workers' safety representatives (WSR) have not yet been implemented in all occupational sectors, as was the original intention. The AROHS contains provisions respecting JOHSC's and WSR's on construction sites that are still not in force. In the vast majority of Canadian jurisdictions, measures such as the PP, the JOHSC and the WSR (in small workplaces) are mandatory in all economic sectors. The fact that these provisions at the heart of the AROHS do not cover all economic activity sectors cannot be justified based on scientific knowledge and on their application in other jurisdictions. Their adoption could, in the future, serve as the foundation for other measures that are required to respond to the changes in employment relations and the nature of work.

Utilizing a convenience sample of nearly 2000 respondents drawn from administrative data, this study finds 43.7 percent of adolescents (aged 12-14) and 61.5 percent of young persons (aged 15-17) in the Canadian province of Alberta reported employment in 2011/12. Of those employed, 49.7 percent of adolescents and 59.0 percent of young persons reported at least one work-related injury in the previous year. This study also identifies widespread non-reporting of workplace injuries and seemingly ineffective hazard identification and safety training. These results add to the growing evidence that the regulation of teenage employment in Alberta fails to adequately protect these workers from injury.

The article reviews the book, "Still Dying for a Living: Corporate Criminal Liability After the Westray Mine Disaster," by Steven Bittle.

The article reviews the book, "American Labor, Congress, and the Welfare State, 1935-2010," by Tracy Roof.