Work And Labour In Canada

Work on Trial is a collection of studies of eleven major cases and events that have helped to shape the legal landscape of work in Canada. Published in cooperation with the Osgoode Society for Canadian Legal History.

Every day millions of Canadians go out to work. They labour in factories, offices, restaurants, and retail stores, on ships, and deep in mines. And every day millions of other Canadians, mostly women, begin work in their homes, performing the many tasks that ensure the well-being of their families and ultimately, the reproduction of the paid labour force. Yet, for all its undoubted importance, there has been remarkably little systematic research into the past and present dynamics of the world of work in Canada.

`This is a beautifully conceived and revealing book. Joan Sangster lucidly explores and explains an astonishing array of complex material to reveal how women in the post-war period became full-fledged members of the labour force. Transforming labour offers such a rich variety of ancedotal evidence that it will benefit students of women's work from all over the world.' Alice Kessler-Harris, author of in Pursuit of Equity: Women, Men and the Quest for Economic Citizenship in 20th-Century America

Income inequality has skyrocketed in Canada over the past few decades. The rich have become richer, while the average household income has deteriorated and job quality has plummeted. Common explanations for these trends point to globalization, technology, or other forces largely beyond our control. But, as Jobs with Inequality shows, there is nothing inevitable about inequality. Rather, runaway inequality is the result of politics and policies - what governments have done to aid the rich and boost finance and what they have not done to uphold the interests of workers. Drawing on new tax and income data, John Peters tells the story of how inequality is unfolding in Canada today by examining post-democracy, financialization, and labour market deregulation. Timely and novel, Jobs with Inequality explains how and why business and government have rewritten the rules of the economy to the advantage of the few, and considers why progressive efforts to reverse these trends have so regularly run aground.

'Precarious Employment' explores the nature and dynamics of precarious employment in contemporary Canada.