Just Labour (E-Journal - York University)
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Economic Liberalization, Democratic Expansion and Organized Labour in India: Towards a New Politics of Revival?
Get PDFSmiths Falls in the World: A Study of Globalization in a Rural Canadian Town
Get PDFIn early February, 2007, Hershey’s Chocolate Company announced its global supply-chain transformation plan to cut more than 1500 jobs from its Canadian and United States plants. Smiths Falls, the Chocolate Capital of Canada, lost its Hershey factory together with the closure of the Rideau Regional Centre, an institution for people with developmental disabilities. By the end of 2008, this Eastern Ontario town of roughly 9,000 people shed roughly 1700 jobs, constituting almost 40% of its active labour force (Sutton, 2009). Globalization, despite the confusion generated by the word, must be considered a core factor in the economic and social situation. Smiths Falls confronts these lay-offs from a position of economic and social strain already. The paper examines the broader changes in the world occurring through globalization and how the local society of Smiths Falls has adjusted in tandem. Such an analysis has likely been relevant to Smiths Falls since its inception; as a meeting point of transcontinental trade and a centre of manufacturing within an ever-expanding and more complex supply chain
The Sky Is Not Falling: Unionization, Wal-Mart and First-Contract Arbitration in Canada
Get PDFThe conflict between property rights and the right of association creates the case for various policy avenues to ensure that employees have effective access to the right to associate for the purposes of collective bargaining. One such labour policy in Canada is first-contract arbitration. The experience of this policy in Quebec over the last three decades has achieved key objectives: ensuring first agreements for newly unionized workers, developing constructive bargaining relationships and overcoming what can be a major obstacle to an effective right to associate. After reviewing this experience, this article provides an overview of the unionization campaigns resulting in union certifications for the United Food and Commercial Workers Canada in six Wal-Mart facilities in Quebec province over the last six years. It then examines two recent cases of first-contract arbitration for these certifications. In one case, the company summarily closed the department concerned after the first contract was awarded. In the second case, the store remains open, with an operative collective agreement. Absent a policy of first-contract arbitration, it appears unlikely that this would be the case. The evolution of the bargaining relationship beyond the first-contract will provide a key test of the relative efficacy of Canadian policy approaches to ensure the freedom of association
Labour Migration and Development: Towards a North-South Vision for Change
Get PDFThis article is adapted from a presentation made at a meeting of policy experts of the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development, and the Trade Union Advisory Council. The presentation provided the "trade union expert perspective" at the seminar held in Paris, October 17, 2007, entitled "Fair Labour Migration – from vision to reality." Tracing an alternative approach to understanding ‘global labour supply’, the article makes links between jobless growth, trade and investment liberalization, and the increased use of temporary migrant workers around the world. The article concludes with proposals for a broad framework of change leading to decent work and sustainable development – in both the global North and the global South
Growth of a Modern Union Local: A People’s History of SEIU Local 880
Get PDFThis article examines the growth of one of the fastest-growing union locals in North America, the Services Employees International Union Local 880 in Chicago. As union membership has declined nationally, Local 880 has achieved exponential growth over the last twenty five years by being among the first to organize extremely low wage home based child care and home care workers. The article highlights the tenets of the local’s organizing philosophy, including community organizing and political activism, as well as other strategies and tactics 880 has utilized in growing its membership to more than 65,000 members. Along the way, it has secured notable victories on behalf of its members, including winning the largest organizing campaign of home childcare workers in U.S. history
International Framework Agreements and the Future of Collective Bargaining in Multinational Companies
Get PDFThis article emphasizes the contribution of International Framework Agreements (IFAs) to collective bargaining within multinational companies (MNC). For this purpose, we used various data, including content analysis of 42 IFAs and interviews with representatives of the five Global Union Federations (GUFs) involved in the negotiation of these IFAs, in order to assess the content and efficiency of these agreements. Our analysis reveals that IFAs usually include a commitment by the signatory MNC to conform to ILO’s core conventions in all its operations, and to inform its business partners of their obligations under the agreement. Regular meetings are held with unions’ representatives for the monitoring of thes e agreements to ensure their respect by the signatory multinational companies and their business partners. According to GUFs’ representatives, the IFAs have been effective in protecting basic trade union rights covered by ILO conventions 87 and 98. In the last part, we emphasize the IFAs’ contribution to collective bargaining within MNCs and discuss the prospects for future development of international collective bargaining, particularly in light of Levinson’s seminal work (1972) on this subject