Abstract This paper discusses how the Canadianlabour market is currently experiencing a perfect storm of circumstances that is creating an environment conducive to some of the best employment data in decades. The paper further discusses how analysts point out that the low unemployment figures, between 4 and 5 percent, have fuelled housing related spending as well as benefited from the high prices of natural commodities where those industries have greatly expanded operations over the last 5 years. Yet, in spite of such strong economic support for continued employment strength, analysts are also quick to note that continued inflationary pressures combined with global market related factors related to competitive labour practices are sure to affect an overall increase in unemployment figures over the next several years
Abstract The paper discusses how Canadian workers have been victimized for decades by a political economic system which protects business, trade and the financial community interests at the expense of workers. The paper discusses further how globalization has also weakened the Canadian unions. The paper maintains that for Canadian unions to become more effective, the Canadian public must wake up and realize that globalization is just another name for exploitation.
From the Paper "This dominance and control has been portrayed as the pursuit of policies which are in the best interests of all Canadians, and has been expressed through government and business support for the free market system and the neo-liberal policy of globalization. Unfortunately for millions of Canadian workers, government policy makers and businessmen interpret the free market system as a system dependent upon the ability of businesses to increase their profits. In their view, anything that diminishes the ability of Canadian businesses and corporations to expand their profit margins is harmful to the economy, and anything that enables Canadian businesses and corporations to maximize their profits is beneficial to the economy."
Abstract This paper addresses gender discrimination in the Canadianlabour force. The paper makes the argument that there is a wage gap between men and women in Canada. The paper discusses theories as to why this wage gap may exist and if this is likely to change in the future.
From the Paper "Gender Discrimination in the Canadian Labour Force Gender discrimination continues to be a problem in the Canadian workforce. Women in particular are still experiencing a wage gap in the labour force. According to Lois Moorcroft in Newfoundland Women Want Pay Equity Too, "...Full-time working women still earn only 72.5 per cent of men's salaries" (Moorcroft 2005: 6). A great deal of time and effort is being spent in order to try and rectify this situation. For example, In the 1950s, the federal government and seven of the ten provinces enacted legislation enabling 'equal pay for equal work (England and Gad 2002: 283)."
Abstract David Bright's "The Limits of Labour: Class Formation and the LabourMovement in Calgary, 1883-1929" reflects the new generation of Canadianlabour studies. It analyzes the diversity of working class culture in Calgary and cleavages within the working class during the earliest phase of industrialization in Calgary. It dismisses the traditional notion that Calgary's labourmovement was ethnically homogenous and conservative.
Abstract This essay will examine the issue of Canadianlabour market regulations and analyzes the impact labour market regulations have had on the Canadian economy both on its own terms and in an international context. This will help to determine the long-term and lasting impact labour advocacy for regulation has had on the economic underpinnings of our society, and whether they only serve moral purposes or whether they help to induce a more dynamic economic system.
Abstract With the rise to power of neoliberal forces in the United States in the 1980s, the Canadian labor market has been systemically moving towards an increasingly deregulated model that has led to many of the jobs created in Canada today being low paid and insecure. This essay critically examines several policy options to remedy this situation. The areas examined include (1) improving regulations for employment standards; (2) improving the quality of jobs; and (3) improving the quality of the Canadianlabour force.
Abstract This paper explains that the post-World War II years in Canada witnessed the fight for labor reform, resulting in great strides by the labor movement in advancing the conditions, rights and wages of the workforce. To illustrate the history of this achievement, the author discusses the origins of the post-war collective bargaining system, the labor movement in Quebec, ethnically split labor markets, immigrant working women and the organization of the civil service. The 1946 steel strike, the 1965 postal strike and the generational conflict in the labor movement of the 1960s are also presented in the paper to underscore the difficulties encountered by the Canadian labor movement.
Table of Contents:
Objective
Growth in Union Membership and the Labor Movement Government Legislation - Supports Collective Bargaining
Government Order-in-Council P.C. 2685
NASCO Organized by SWOC
New Policy and Collective Bargaining Act Passed
Labor Court - Collective Bargaining Act Details
Corporatism Evolves into Business Reform
Liberal Humanism and Economic Planning
Ethnically Submerged Split Labor Market
Porters Unionized in 1942 and Establish Agreement in1945
Summary and Conclusion
From the Paper "It is related that, in June of 1940, the government proclaimed order-in-council P.C 2685: a declaration of principles which the government hoped labor and management would adopt. It was the government's hope to proactively address unrest in the industrial sector and thereby "prejudice the war effort." This order was a formula that addressed resolving disputes and provided encouragement to employers to recognize unions voluntarily as well as good faith negotiation and dispute resolution in a conciliatory fashion."
Abstract This paper will contend that unions have systemically - for most of their history - underrepresented working women because of a deep, structural patriarchal bias against working women. As will be seen, due to a complex array of forces in the industrial ideology that has defined the Canadian workplace and Canadianlabour from its earliest days, women have been systematically denied their rights as contributors to the Canadian economy and Canadianlabour. From this perspective, to understand the undemocratic sexism in Canadian unions and the significance of unionized women's contemporary struggle for pay equity, we must understand the history of sexism in Canadianlabour.
Abstract This paper compares two histories of Canadian labor: Craig Heron's "Working in Steel: The Early Years in Canada, 1883-1935" (1988) and "Sweatshop Strife: Class, Ethnicity, and Gender in the Jewish LabourMovement of Toronto 1900-193"9 (1992) by Ruth A Frager. It commences with a comparison of their content and includes a contrast of their methodologies also. Principally, the latter focuses on gender in a manner that was absent from the male-dominated steel industries.
Abstract This paper discusses how Canada has put in place several legislative devices in an attempt to ensure that women do not suffer discrimination. There has also been a growing recognition that discriminating against women in the labour market is unfair and should not be tolerated. This paper shows how although considerable gains have been made, women have not yet achieved equality in the Canadianlabour market and that this, in fact, reflects a lingering and pervasive inequality of the sexes within Canadian society.
Abstract In this article the writer discusses that the patterns of immigration by blacks, and especially black women, over this century demonstrate discriminatory and preventive measures by the Canadian government. The paper relates that this pattern is best understood through the structural functional perspective because immigration policy is designed to ensure that Canadian society is of a certain type. The writer explains that the Canadian government permits certain quotas of immigrants into the country at specific times for labor needs. However, it also carefully controls immigration and prevents family formation. This paper argues that the intention of the Canadian government is and always has been to ensure that blacks and people of color would never be a dominant group and have access to power in the country.
From the Paper "Immigration policy provided a means to cope with labour shortages while it also defined what is meant by a suitable permanent citizen. That definition was determined by race, ethnicity, class, and also by gender. Black women from the Caribbean were in the worst position. Black workers received half the pay for performing the same work as whites. For domestic workers, conditions went beyond discrimination since they had to endure intolerable conditions of no free time, unpaid overtime, and had to live in. The live-in requirement guaranteed that the women could not form families."
Abstract This paper reviews Gad Horowitz's book, CanadianLabour in Politics, focusing specifically on the argument Horowitz makes concerning why labor plays a critical role in Canadian politics, but not in U.S. politics. It reviews the argument Horowitz makes concerning Louis Hartz's view of liberal societies. It considers Horowitz's claim that labor is important because Canadian society evolved out of a tradition wherein government is seen -- even by conservatives -- as having an important role to play. It looks at the impact Horowitz's argument has had on politicians and academics.
From the Paper "In his book Canadian Labour in Politics, Gad Horowitz, provides an analysis of the labor movement's influence on Canadian political life. He discusses the means by which Canada's labor unions have entered the political system as a vital and enduring force -- a force that does not stand outside politics as merely another interest group attempting to gain notice, but as an integrated party crucial to the very political fabric of the society. His work in this book is seminal to the understanding of cultural and social forces that allow labor to be a primary driver of the nation's politics."
Abstract The paper briefly examines the context surrounding the 1945 Windsor Strike as well as its historic impact upon the labourmovement in Canada. The paper suggests that the dictates of the Rand decision made it far easier than ever before for unions to accrue the funds they needed to aggressively combat perceived depredations visited upon them by corporate management.
From the Paper "The 1945 Windsor Strike profoundly changed the course of management-labour relations in Canada, at least for a time. The following paper will describe the 1945 Windsor Strike and also briefly outline the grievances from which it emerged. More importantly for our purposes, however, the paper will outline the long-term impact of the strike upon the Canadian workplace. As will soon become apparent, the 1945 strike galvanized many Canadian workers and served as a catalyst for dramatic change - but that change has since been checked by the emergence of a novel global economy. As the preceding paragraph has indicated, the 1945 Ford Windsor Strike was one of the most momentous management-worker squabbles in Canadian history. According to one Government of Canada web site, many industrial employers wanted to return work conditions to the way they had been in the pre-war years."
Abstract This paper analyzes the decline and subsequent rebuilding of the Canadian labor movement between 1920 and 1940. It discusses the Cape Breton coal miners, the origins of the Cooperative Commonwealth in Oshawa, Ontario and the extent to which the Cooperative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) served the interests of the working people and the labor movement during this period.
Table of Contents:
Objective
Background
The Beginning of the End
Workers' Revolt (1917-1925)
Results of Economic Downturn
The Coal Workers do not Give in so Easily
Choices and Consequences of the Choice Made
Church and Labor Alliance Ends
Laws Change in Canada in Late 1930s
Summary and Conclusion
From the Paper "The labor class in Canada experienced many shifts in their political and social climate during the period 1920-1930 in that the labor class rode upon the high waves of victory through their alignment with workers unions that succeeded in bring out about gains to these individuals only to have those gains abruptly removed following World War II. However, the determination of workers unions to organize combined with the injustices experienced by Canadian labor following the war resulted in a final victorious achievement for Canadian laborers, which they were able to realize finally in the late 1930s."
Abstract The paper explains that the free trade opposition movement is an attempt to warn blind consumers about the dangers of "free trade" where corporations exploit cheap labor. The paper discusses how developed nations invest in markets that might provide jobs to poor people but they do not pay enough to provide relief from poverty. The paper looks at the assertion that the poorest countries remain so poor because they have no real voice in setting the prices for goods.
From the Paper "In part the protests are linked to the indifference that has been shown developing nations, with regard to policy development and agenda. Yet, the opponents of free trade have a broader list of complaints that have to do with overall economic dominance of the "free trade" movement by the developed nations. The fears of the opposition are that trade, in this venue will further tax, rather than assist poorer countries, due to its aggressive emphasis on the bottom line. The "free trade" movement may allow new markets to open in these previously isolated economies but at what cost?"
