Rethinking Labor Politics In Canada

The Pullman strike brought to glaring attention the “labor problems” in America and the “labor question” in American politics; the labor problems being the unrest and discontentment of the workers, and the labor problem being the role of the government in business. One of the consequences of the Pullman Strike is that labor reformers began to vigorously search for a way of protecting the interests of the workers in an unfettered capitalist economy. Another consequence is that American workers realized that when they were in bad situations, they would never have the opportunity for improvement unless they orchestrated the government through an overwhelming turnout at different elections. “If workers used the Socialist Party and democratic elections, the power of their numbers would ensure the election of political leaders sympathetic to their cause”.2

In Canada’s government responded in control of labor in quest of collective bargaining and huge wages which counted the rising popularity in legitimate demands of organized labor in order to access guaranteed collective bargaining. Collective bargaining brought conflicts in Canada as unions incited for strikes just after war. Governments committed itself in adopting monetary and fiscal policies to maintain consumer demand. This prolonged growth duration

PC 1003 played an important role in the history of the Canadian Labor. The codes of the order-in-council PC 1003 created many arguments among many historians. Order-in-council PC 1003 came into effect on 17 February 1944. It was introduced during the Second World War in Canada by the Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King. PC 1003 was also known by the Wartime Labor Relations Order. The codes of the Order-in-council PC 1003 protected the worker’s right to collectively bargain, represent and organize the unions chosen by a majority of the workers. This order-in-council PC 1003 covered both the federal and the provisional employees. This emergency law was extended by two years after the Second World War to bring peacetime in the Canadian

Canadian workplaces today seem to be a fairly diverse place, with a blend of many religions, ethnicities, and genders present. However, although people preach affirmative action and melting pots in current times, many inequality and power issues still abound. One strikingly noticeable example is gender discrimination. Women in the workforce face many challenges like smaller wages, harassment, male privilege in hiring or promotions, and lack of support when pregnant or raising children. One half of the planet is women, and it can be assumed the same for Canada, but they still face judgment at work because they lack the authority to dispute against big corporations or even their male supervisor. It cannot be argued that

     The past of Unions is indisputable; however, the outlook can be altered to form a promising future. The reversal of history can be done through reconstruction and restatement of workers rights. A reestablishment of worker liberties should be considered in order to clarify any confusion in which present and prospective employees are faced with. Unions are notorious for being tyrannical and inconsiderate towards employees and thus union heads should confront this issue head on and give workers a voice (i.e. vote). In order to regain union strength in today’s society I believe Unions must give workers honorable rights and a democratic right to be heard.

Minority rights are an issue around the world, each day in the news you hear about how this race was killed by this race. In 1970’s, Minority Rights in Canada became a huge issue. Many women were forced to act and speak out against Male Violence and domestic abuse. A wage gap of 25% was in place in Canada between our men and women. Many people believed that women didn’t deserve to be paid the same as men. This caused many protests across Canada. Many people believed that women should be staying at home to cook and clean, however, the money that the men were bringing in wasn’t enough. Women recognized this and began to take up a line of work known as the “Pink Collar”. These jobs were traditional women’s jobs, such as waitresses, secretaries, and nurses. These jobs didn’t even come close to paying the same amount of money as the man’s work. Today, the 25% wage gap has been decreased to just 5%.

In the ideal world, every person is treated equally in the workplace whether it be hiring, promotion, assignments or termination. However in reality, racial discrimination and harassment remain pervasive in the workplace, with 1 in 4 visible minority workers who reported that they had experienced racial harassment or discrimination in the workplace [3]. In this essay, I will be discussing the social-history of racism in the workplace, the nature of racism in the labour force, motives and factors, immigration policies, temporary programs and exploitation of employment, the de-skilling of individuals and non-recognition of foreign credentials, the social-history of racism in the workplace, racism in the sociological conflict theory paradigm, and finally, policy recommendations to aimed to eliminate and decrease racism in the work environment. In the Canadian work environment, racism exists as a complex and multidimensional inequality for visible minorities and immigrants, and can be examined socially, economically and politically using the sociological Marxist conflict theory paradigm.

Immigrants today now have the privilege of entering and residing in Canada but along with this privilege, there are also barriers that impede their integration and deprive them of equal opportunity in the society. The undervaluing of foreign education and credentials has emerged over the years as a huge obstacle faced by recent immigrants who seek employment in the areas that they have been trained, and worked in for decades in their respective home countries. For years, newcomers in Canada have been denied inclusion into the Canadian labour market simply because of policies that were

“The American Federation of Labor is an American organization,” declared William Green, president of the AFL, in his 1947 keynote speech, “It believe[d] in American, the fundamental law of the United States, the Constitution, freedom, liberty and democracy. We will have nothing to do with Communism in any shape, or form ... This sixty-sixth convention will redeclare its opposition to Communism and to Communist philosophy, and ... to [those who would] attempt to establish it among the organized labor of our country.” Though Green declared “Communism abhorrent to American labor” not all the members of the AFL were American. Indeed, Canadians and their

Canada a nation with some of the richest histories in the world, some more intriguing than others whether it be its contribution during the second world war, or more importantly its fight within its self in seeking for equality and justice for it people. Similar is the case for labor the fight and struggle that was encountered by thousands in the early years of 1800’s till present. There were plentiful struggles made including ending child labor, the workers compensation, fight for being unionized in order to survive the brutality of the capitalists. In this paper I will explore the history of the minimum wage globally and the acts used to enact it in Canada with relevance to current economic conditions. Minimum wage is defined as “the minimum

This video covers a lot of the growth and stunt of unions throughout the 20th century. As the video states “The Canadian labour movement has been one of the enormous struggle and commitment. Throughout, government as played a prominent role in defining rights of workers and the power of employers. This is the story of the government as a friend and foe of Canadian workers” (Taylor). There were several events in recent Canadian history where the government has intervened and the workers end up in a worse position then they started with.

Racial discrimination in the workplace has been a persistent theme in Canada’s history as well as present-day times. The occurrence of actions and attitudes that impose a sense of one being less equal than another on the basis of one’s race in Canada’s workplace inhibits both our nation’s ability to move forward as well as strengthen unification within our country. The belief in a more egalitarian society, where one’s race and ethnic background have little to no impact on employees (or potential employees) standings within the job market, would seemingly be reinforced by the majority of Canadians, who consistently show support for Canada’s multicultural identity. Couple that with the noticeable strides Canada has made in the past several

Surprisingly, there are more women unionized today than there have been in the past. Women currently account for more than half of Canada’s unionized workforce, with the greatest amount of membership in the past three decades. (Canadian Labour Congress, 2009) Within CUPE, women account for approximately 67% of all members, making them the majority of the union participation rate (CUPE Women, n.d.). However, there are still some within the workforce that cannot or choose not to participate in the union. Despite, all attempts that CUPE has made to actively involve them, this group of non-involved workers continues to experience barriers that have led to their lack of vigorous participation.

Before world war two union organizations where small in numbers two and late during world war two where union organizations doubled in number. Many factors played a role in development of strengthen the trade union organization. These circumstances forged to make union organization in Canada deep rooted labor unions in Canada’s political and economic structure.

I recognized in their faces the same frustrations, confusion, and helplessness that plagued the early years of my family’s arrival in Canada as we struggled to adapt to life in an unfamiliar country where we could never be sure if we belonged. As someone whose childhood was a similar experience of poverty, the inaction of administrators and policy-makers to correct the situation not only instilled a deep sense of injustice in me on the workers’ behalf, but also engendered within me a sense of purpose to make sure that such social injustices do not continue to happen in the