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An indigenous woman and former employee with the Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations (FSIN) recently confided her frustration with the apathetic approach to collective organizing amongst her co-workers. When asking her colleagues why they did not want a union to represent them, a frequent reply was that it was “not our way.” In other words, organizing to protect workers’ rights is “un-indigenous.” That these views have taken root among employees is indicative of the seductive sway that fixed notions of tradition hold on indigenous people. Many of us fear being accused of what the Plains Cree refer to as moniyakaso; that is, “acting or behaving as a white person.” This article explores these themes in the context of the highly publicized establishment and eventual elimination of a labour union at the Northern Lights Casino in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan. --Introduction

The strike started 15 May 1919 with the young women working at the telephone system leading the way. By the end of the second day, 35,000 Winnipeg workers, a majority of them unorganized, had left their jobs in an unprecedented demonstration of solidarity in support of fair treatment, dignity and justice for all working people.

This essay examines Aboriginal longshoremen, most of whom belonged to the Squamish First Nation, on Burrard Inlet, British Columbia, from 1863 to 1939. Beginning with a consideration of the Squamish adaptation to wage labour in the mid-to-late nineteenth century, this essay analyses the ways in which Aboriginal workers negotiated the daily demands of waterfront work. Their encounter with the work process, labour politics, welfare capitalism, and class conflict are studied in depth. Despite intense competition from non-Aboriginal workers for limited job opportunities, Aboriginal longshoremen worked on Burrard inlet for a long period of time; in addition to the daily demands of waterfront work, this essay also explores the strategies that Squamish dockers adopted to protect their positions on the waterfront. Often mentioned in the scholarly literature, but never studied in a systematic way, the 'Indian'waterfront provides a window into the importance of waged work to Aboriginal people on Burrard Inlet and the sophisticated ways that the Squamish responded to Canadian colonialism and capitalism.

English/French abstracts of articles in published in the Spring 2006 edition of the journal.

[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);

Janitors in Canada increasingly suffer from what I call here “sweatshop citizenship”, which is a combination of disintegrating workplace rights and eroding social citizenship rights. This condition has been institutionalized by neoliberal state policies which have undermined the welfare state and the assumptions of citizenship which it embodied. Through an exploration of how sweatshop citizenship is being instituted in Ontario and British Columbia, I consider the difficulties which contemporary industrial practices in the cleaning industry and anti-union legislation are presenting janitors, together with the possibility for their resisting such conditions.

The article reviews the book, "The Price of Poverty: Money, Work and Culture in the Mexican American Barrio," by Daniel Dohan.

[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.

The article reviews the book, "Mainstreaming Informal Employment and Gender in Poverty Reduction: A Handbook for Policy-Makers and Other Stakeholders," by Martha Alter Chen, Joann Vanek and Marilyn Carr.

The article reviews the book, "NHS plc: The Privatisation of Our Health Care," by Allyson Pollock, Collins Leys, David Price, David Rowland and Shamini Gnani.

[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).

Little is actually known about women's occupational health, let alone how men and women may experience similar jobs and health risks differently. Drawing on data from a larger study of social service workers, this article examines four areas where gender is pivotal to the new ways of organizing caring labour, including the expansion of unpaid work and the use of personal resources to subsidize agency resources; gender-neutral violence; gender-specific violence and the juggling of home and work responsibilities. Collective assumptions and expectations about how men and women should perform care work result in men's partial insulation from the more intense forms of exploitation, stress and violence. This article looks at health risks, not merely as compensable occupational health concerns, but as avoidable products of forms of work organization that draw on notions of the endlessly stretchable capacity of women to provide care work in any context, including a context of violence. Indeed, the logic of women's elastic caring appear crucial to the survival of some agencies and the gender order in these workplaces.

The article reviews the book, "Pension Power: Unions, Pension Funds, and Social Investment in Canada," by Isla Carmichael.

The article reviews the book, "Sustainability and the Civil Commons: Rural Communities in the Era of Globalization," by Jennifer Sumner.

Un modèle d’analyse a été construit pour rendre compte de l’influence du contexte de l’établissement sur l’issue d’interventions de prévention en santé et en sécurité du travail. Il a été constitué à partir d’une étude de cas en profondeur de sept interventions réalisées par des conseillers externes. L’étude examine l’influence du degré de développement des activités en prévention avant l’intervention, qui apparaît lui-même fortement lié aux caractéristiques structurelles des établissements. Une typologie des modes de régulation sociale de la santé et de la sécurité observés au sein des milieux de travail est présentée ; ces régulations jouent également un rôle dans la mise en oeuvre des mesures préventives. L’étude met en évidence l’apport des interventions externes à la prévention en santé et en sécurité du travail, et de leur collaboration soutenue avec les milieux de travail, au cours d’interventions successives.

The article reviews the book, "Humanitarianism, Identity, and Nation: Migration Laws of Australia and Canada," by Catherine Dauvergne.

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

Les auteurs de cet article proposent une évaluation empirique de facteurs qui favoriseraient la longévité des expériences des travailleuses et des travailleurs autonomes canadiens et concourraient ainsi à l’explication de la forte croissance de ce statut d’emploi ces dernières décennies. S’appuyant sur un cadre théorique original et utilisant le modèle de régression à risques proportionnels de Cox, ils estiment les prédicteurs de la probabilité de sortie des expériences de travail autonome suivies sur une période de 72 mois avec les données longitudinales de l’Enquête sur la dynamique du travail et du revenu. Leur étude révèle des différences notables entre les prédicteurs de la pérennité des expériences des hommes et des femmes, mais souligne aussi l’importance des conditions économiques des expériences de ces deux groupes pour en comprendre le succès.

Between 1890 and 1940 Canada's three largest department stores -- Eaton's Simpson's, and the Hudson's Bay Company -- developed a multifacted system of employee commodification. Not only did they encourage their employees to become avid consumers, so did they market their employees' activities, interests, and bodies. They undertook these commodiyfing gestures in an attempt to extract value from their workforces. Investigating the rise and operation of commodification at these major retailers, this paper offers new insights into corporate management systems, demonstrates that commodification had negative consequences for employees, and provides fresh perspectives on 20th-century consumer capitalism.

The article reviews and comments on several books including "Creeping Conformity: How Canada Became Suburban, 1900-1960," by Richard Harris, "Manufacturing Suburbs: Building Work and Home on the Metropolitan Fringe," by Robert Lewis and "A Great Duty: Canadian Responses to Modern Life and Mass Culture, 1939-1967," by Len Kuffert.