Just Labour (E-Journal - York University)
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From Statutory Right to Human Right: The Evolution and Current Status of Collective Bargaining
Get PDF“Standing By Our Principles”: The Trades and Labor Congress of Canada and Immigration, 1933 – 1939
Get PDFThis paper explores the approach of Canada's largest labour central, the Trades and Labor Congress (TLC), to immigration from 1933 to 1939. This was a unique period in Canada's immigration history, as in 1930 the government responded to the onset of the Great Depression by closing the gates to almost all immigration for the first time since Confederation, and by 1933 there was no doubt that the gates would remain closed for some time. Despite this dramatic change, Canadian labour leaders stood by their longstanding views on immigration through to the end of the 1930s. Although the level of concern about immigration predictably declined, TLC leaders generally gained confidence that their established views had widespread support. This confidence encouraged unionists to pose as protectors of immigrants against hardship in Canada. It also assured them that they did not have to devote as much energy as in earlier periods to agitating for the deportation of some immigrants, or to their longtime favourite cause, restricting immigration from Asia and southern and eastern Europe.
Altogether, changes in the economy and immigration rates did not necessarily entail changes in labour's attitudes. A number of other factors, including ideological trends within the movement, prevailing attitudes towards race and gender, and the efforts of groups advocating immigration served to entrench labour's views even more deeply in the 1930s
David Peetz, Brave New Workplace: How Individual Contracts Are Changing Our Jobs. Sydney: Allen and Unwin, 2006. 262 pages
Get PDFVarieties Of Social Unionism: Towards a Framework for Comparison
Get PDFIn academic and activist debates about union renewal, the replacement of business unionism with social unionism is seen as central to the labour movement's short- and long-term survival. Social unionism, generally understood to involve both engagement with social justice struggles beyond the workplace and methods of union activity beyond the collective bargaining process, is claimed to increase the labour movement's organizing capacity, bargaining power, and social and political weight. However, despite its increased importance, social unionism's various meanings, strategies, and implications remain relatively unexamined, and very different approaches are often lumped together. Using concepts from social movement theory, this paper proposes an analytical framework for systematically comparing different concrete manifestations of social unionism. In particular, social unionist initiatives vary according to 1) the ethos or collective action frame used to rationalize union activity; 2) the repertoire or strategic means used to act on that ethos; and 3) the internal organizational practices and power relations which shape who is involved in defining and carrying out union goals and initiatives. I argue that whether social unionist projects are able to reach immediate instrumental goals as well as generate renewed working class / movement capacity is shaped by both the mix of frame, repertoire and organizational practice as well as the relationship between these three. The paper therefore asserts that the category "social unionism" must be more nuanced, and calls for a more explicitly comparative and multi-methodological approach to reveal such complexity
Klein, Naomi. The Shock Doctrine : The Rise of Disaster Capitalism. Toronto: Knopf Canada , 2007. 672 pages
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Broad, Dave and Wayne Antony (eds.) Capitalism Rebooted: Work, Welfare and the New Economy. Halifax : Fernwood Press, 2006. 185 pages.
Get PDFOrganizing for Better Working Conditions and Wages: The Unite Here! Hotel Workers Rising Campaign
Get PDFThis article examines some of the strategies and success of the UNITE HERE! union in its ongoing Hotel Workers Rising: Lifting One Another Above the Poverty Line campaign in the United States and Canada. This unique campaign has generated national attention in both the United States and Canada about issues facing hotel workers, including how changes in corporate policies aimed at pleasing the consumer - such as the shift to 'heavenly' beds - has had deleterious consequences for Room Attendants in terms of back injuries from lifting heavier mattresses. How successful has the UNITE HERE! been so far in terms of securing new contracts? What about in terms of organizing urban, suburban, and rural hotel employees? What barriers do unions face when organizing hotel workers? What does comparing union density rates in the hotel sector across cities reveal? After beginning to address some of these questions, this article concludes by providing some policy recommendations
The Problems and Experiences of Ethnic Minority and Migrant Workers in Hotels and Restaurants in England
Get PDFWhile working conditions in hotels and restaurants are known to consist of low pay, low status, exploitation of employees and lack of unionisation, little has been written in the UK about the specific experiences of ethnic minority and migrant workers. The article is based on research into the problems and experiences of ethnic minority and migrant workers in hotels and restaurants in three regions of England, consisting of in-depth interviews with 50 ethnic minority and migrant workers, plus additional key informant interviews. It argues that issues such as low pay, long hours, bullying, racial harassment, lack of opportunities for promotion and discrimination are problems affected by, or compounded by, respondents' ethnic backgrounds or migrant status. The article concludes that three key factors serve to differentiate the experience of ethnic minority and migrant workers in the sector: immigration status; working in the informal sector; discrimination in the labour market and employmen