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The dynamics of union responses to migrant workers in Canada
Abstract
This study examines how five unions in the Canadian province of Alberta responded to a sudden
influx of temporary foreign workers (TFWs), as part of Canadian employers’ increased use of
migrant workers in the mid-2000s. The authors find three types of response to the new TFW
members: resistive, facilitative and active. Furthermore, these responses were dynamic and
changing over time. The different responses are best explained not by the unions’ institutional
context, but by internal factors shaping each union’s response. Drawing upon the concept of
referential unionisms, the study explores how unions’ self-identity shapes their responses to new
challenges such as the influx of migrant workers.
... Sometimes union leaders are convicted of corruption and other illegal acts (Jacobs, 2013). Unions have been hostile to immigration, including temporary migrant workers (Ahlquist, 2017;Foster et al., 2015). Many unions have also struggled to properly address sexual harassment of women (Avendaño, 2018). ...
Many societies are grappling with how to reduce high levels of economic inequality. Although often overlooked, labor unions can have significant flattening effects on inequality. However, unions are not highly supported by the general public. To provide some psychological explanation as to why this may be the case, we examined five potential predictors of general union attitudes (i.e., political orientation, prejudice toward union members, meritocratic beliefs, union knowledge and social mobility beliefs). We tested each variable at least twice across three studies (two in the U.S., one in Canada, total N = 1756). Results indicated that stronger political conservative orientation, prejudice feelings towards union members and less accurate knowledge of union activities uniquely explained lower pro-union attitudes across studies. Meritocratic and social mobility beliefs did not meaningfully explain union attitudes. Although mostly correlational, this research provides insight into potential reasons why everyday citizens may support or condemn unions in an increasingly unequal world. Implications for altering union attitudes and support for related policies are discussed.
... In such cases, the unions had the worst of both worlds: not strong enough to prevent immigration, their efforts to do so only served to alienate the new workers from them'. More recent studies indicate that the potentially alienating effects of union behaviour on migrants' attitudes have persisted into the twenty-first century (Foster et al. 2015;Marino et al. 2015). ...
Migrants form growing proportions of national workforces in advanced capitalist societies. Yet little is known about their attitudes towards the principal agents of worker representation in their host countries, the trade unions, much less via cross‐national research. Using European Values Survey data, we redress this imbalance by examining migrants’ levels of trust in unions, compared to native‐born. We find higher levels of trust in unions by migrants (compared to native‐born) in general and especially by migrants during their first decades after arrival and whose countries of origin are characterized by poor quality institutions. These findings have significant implications for unionization strategies towards migrants, especially given received wisdom portraying migrants as indifferent or distrustful towards unions.
... Research in the Canadian context-which initially focused on migrant workers' experiences in agricultural work or with live-in caregiver programs but has since expanded-points to the broader challenges workers face with precarious work and the Canadian programs that can foster such precariousness. This literature includes analyses of British Columbia's live-in caregiver program (see Walia 2010;Chowdhury and Gutman 2012), low-skilled workers in Alberta's service sector (see Shantz 2015) and oil sands industry (see Foster et al. 2015; Barnetson and Foster 2014), and agriculture workers in Ontario and Quebec (see Basok et al. 2014;Reid-Musson 2014;Basok and B elanger 2016). This research has demonstrated the numerous challenges found within temporary migration programs, including the time-restricted nature of work visas, employer ties, and migrant debt (Strauss and McGrath 2017). ...
Low-skilled migrant workers provide an important labour source in Atlantic Canada's seafood industry. This research unpacks the experiences of 22 workers from Thailand and the Philippines working in one Atlantic Canadian seafood processing company. We pay particular attention to migration routes, labour conditions, and worker mobility, along with worker reflections on their experiences landing a Canadian job. We also consider the perceptions of migrant workers among company staff. We argue that despite the various unfreedoms associated with migrant worker programs, migrant workers in this particular facility have demonstrated agency in negotiating the program to their advantages. The success of the workers, however, is contingent on a conjuncture of elements that are not necessarily found elsewhere in the seafood processing industry. Worker experiences, both with other Canadian employers and elsewhere, offer a stark contrast to their current situation: migrant workers often experience significant unfreedoms to gain relatively free working conditions. © 2018 Canadian Association of Geographers / L'Association canadienne des géographes.
... Puisque les TET se trouvent dans quasiment tous les secteurs de travail, leur membership dans les syndicats est devenu une condition pour conserver la représentation dans des milieux de travail. S'engager dans les luttes pour l'amélioration des conditions de travail et d'immigration des TET est alors devenu non seulement une question de justice sociale pour plusieurs syndicats, mais aussi une question de survie (Foster, 2014 ;Foster, Taylor et Khan, 2015). Certains auteurs notent d'ailleurs une évolution semblable de la position des syndicats face au secteur du placement temporaire (CSD/CSN/CSQ/FTQ, 2011 ; Choudry et Henaway, 2012). ...
L’article explore les enjeux de deux campagnes de mobilisation réalisées au Centre des travailleuses et travailleurs immigrants (CTI), auprès de personnes (1) immigrantes permanentes insérées en agence de placement et (2) migrantes temporaires. À partir de données collectées par participation observante et complétées par des entretiens semi-directifs, nous restituons une chronologie des deux actions collectives dont nous analysons les défis et les stratégies. Les résultats montrent que ces deux mobilisations constituent des réponses alternatives et complémentaires à des syndicats inopérants pour rejoindre la main-d’oeuvre précaire immigrante. Premièrement, le CTI offre les ressources humaines et matérielles nécessaires pour le développement du leadership des personnes qui deviennent sujet de droit et acteur de leur lutte. Cette dimension citoyenne semble d’ailleurs tout aussi importante pour les travailleurs que l’amélioration de leurs conditions matérielles de travail. De plus, les deux campagnes montrent une complémentarité entre la défense individuelle et collective de la main-d’oeuvre. D’autre part, les collaborations menées avec un syndicat révèlent un rapprochement stratégique entre deux organisations dont les ressources et les expertises sont complémentaires, renforçant aussi la légitimité du CTI. Cependant, l’engagement communautaire du syndicat reste marginal et produit des effets limités quant aux résultats des campagnes et à la possibilité de transformer profondément ses pratiques. Enfin, l’informalité des rapports de travail qui concernent les deux catégories d’immigrants, oblige à composer avec des moyens tout aussi informels pour appuyer leur organisation, rendant nécessaire le réseautage communautaire, religieux et culturel.
... Foster (2014; see also Foster et al., 2015) studied the response of Canadian unions to TFWs and identified three temporally sequential approaches or narrative arcs. The first, beginning in 2006 when the influx of TFWs was rapidly increasing, was reactive and negative, denying there were local labour shortages and demonizing employers for using TFWs to drive down wages and avoid unions. ...
Canadian temporary foreign worker programs have been proliferating in recent years. While much attention has deservedly focused on programs that target so-called low-skilled workers, such as seasonal agricultural workers and live-in caregivers, other programs have been expanding, and have recently been reorganized into the International Mobility Program (IMP). Streams within the IMP are quite diverse and there are few legal limits on their growth. One of these, intra-company transfers (ICTs), is not new, but it now extends beyond professional and managerial workers to more permeable and expansive categories. As a result, unions increasingly face the prospect of organizing workplaces where ICTs and other migrant workers are employed alongside permanent employees, raising difficult legal issues and strategic dilemmas. This article presents a detailed case study of one union’s response to this situation.
... The ability to enforce the rights of workers is made complex by the restrictive policies of some labour unions, their reluctance to embrace temporary foreign workers and the relegation of some temporary foreign workers to second-class union status. 43 Without full protection in the workplace and complete enforcement of labour rights, temporary foreign workers may face ill health. Thus, stronger immigration policies that establish full protection and rights for workers are needed to prevent abuse and exploitation, and to promote the health of this population. ...
Objectives:
Temporary foreign workers contribute to economic prosperity in Canada, but they experience forms of structural inequities and have minimal rights, which can contribute to their ill health. The objective of this scoping review is to examine the extent, range and nature of the Canadian literature on the health of temporary foreign workers and their families in Canada.
Methods:
The review was guided by Arksey and O'Malley's five stages for conducting a scoping review. We performed a comprehensive search of seven databases, which revealed 994 studies. In total, 10 published research papers, which focused exclusively on the health of temporary foreign workers in Canada, were included in the study; these 10 papers represented the findings from 9 studies.
Synthesis:
The majority of the studies involved seasonal agricultural workers in the province of Ontario (n = 8). Major health issues of temporary foreign workers included mental health, occupational health, poor housing and sanitation, and barriers to accessing health care, including fear of deportation and language barriers. These health issues are highly shaped by temporary foreign workers' precarious immigration status in Canada.
Conclusion:
Findings from this study demonstrate the need to reduce barriers to health care and to conduct more research on other groups of temporary foreign workers, outside the agricultural sector.
Cet article présente une analyse et une discussion des enjeux humains et politiques des nouveaux visages de la précarisation du travail au Québec et au Canada. Entre, d’un côté, l’augmentation du chômage et de la précarisation du travail et, de l’autre, la pénurie de la main-d’œuvre et les stratégies de recrutement, se cachent deux faces de la même pièce, régie par des pouvoirs publics qui n’arrivent pas à prendre en compte la question de la centralité du travail et des enjeux du travail « indésirable ». Ces enjeux du travail ne sont pas sans conséquence sur les processus d’insertion, d’intégration et de maintien en emploi des travailleuses et travailleurs. Ces réalités sont d’autant plus importantes à considérer face aux nouvelles réalités des marchés et des transformations du travail générées à la suite de la pandémie de la C ovid -19.
Cette recherche a pour objet l’action publique en matière de migrations internationales du travail au Canada. Elle se focalise sur l’encadrement institutionnel des travailleurs migrants temporaires (TMT) réajusté en 2014, au niveau fédéral, par la Réforme globale du Programme de travailleurs étrangers temporaires (PTET) suivie, au niveau provincial, de la Loi nº 8 modifiant le Code du travail. Appuyée sur une enquête menée au Québec depuis 2016 dans l’agroalimentaire et l’hôtellerie-restauration, elle analyse les impacts de l’action publique sur : 1) les liens d’emploi et les relations du travail ; 2) les statuts sociojuridiques des TMT et les conditions d’accès à la syndicalisation (droits d’association et de négociation). Sa méthodologie combine une démarche qualitative et des conclusions de recherches réalisées dans d’autres provinces du Canada qui permettent de constater l’orientation économique croissante du modèle canadien en matière de politiques migratoires. Nos conclusions proposent un modèle théorique qui fait ressortir deux niveaux de conséquences de l’action publique : 1) d’abord, la segmentation de l’emploi, qui va de pair avec la désyndicalisation résultant de la suppression des rapports collectifs du travail dans ces secteurs ; 2) ensuite, l’accès juridiquement restreint à certains droits sociaux du travail, la précarisation institutionnelle des TMT générée par la multiplication de leurs statuts de séjour et par leur subordination nominative à un employeur unique. Cette action publique, conjuguant politiques migratoires et politiques de l’emploi, permet aux entreprises d’internaliser une main-d’oeuvre étrangère peu coûteuse et juridiquement vulnérabilisée ; elle régule des flux migratoires pouvant combler indéfiniment des emplois permanents par cette main-d’oeuvre sans avoir à assumer les coûts sociaux dont bénéficient les salariés locaux.
The regulation and governance of labour exploitation is a well-researched area across numerous disciplines. Common approaches towards regulating labour exploitation in businesses and supply chains include state interventions to tackle organised crime via the criminal justice system. However, due to strict criminal-legal definitions, these interventions are only possible when targeting severe exploitation. This emphasis means that a large amount of non-criminalised exploitation risks being overlooked. The purpose of this paper is to argue that non-state regulation is an important element in preventing routinised forms of labour exploitation, whereby a criminological perspective would help to understand and better prevent such practices. The paper examines state regulation, self-regulation of businesses, and trade union activity, which together addresses a wider range of labour exploitation. Semi-structured interviews from workers and supply chain stakeholders in the UK agri-food industry are used to inform this discussion. The governance of labour exploitation in relation to business activities has broader implications for the disciplinary areas of regulation and (corporate) criminology, whereby the former tends to prioritise restorative and persuasive approaches, whereas the latter focuses on deterrence and coercion. Ultimately, drawing together different strands of regulation into a hybrid approach is useful not only due to socio-political processes, but is arguably the most helpful in addressing routinised exploitation.
During the mid-2000s the number of temporary foreign workers (TFWs)present in Canada increased dramatically, more thantripling in eight years. Thebulk of the increase was due to an expansion of theTemporary Foreign WorkerProgram (TFWP) to include lower-skilled occupations. The stated reason for theexpansion was to address short-term labour shortages. Contrary to expectations,upon the onset of the economic downturn in 2008, the number of TFWs did notdecrease significantly, and appears to be increasing again in 2010 and 2011. Thispaper tracks the evolution of the TFWP from a stable program designed toaddress short-term labour needs in high-skilled occupations into a broaderlabour market tool. The paper examines the most recent available statistical datafor the TFWP and other documentary evidence to argue the role of the TFWP inCanada’s labour market has quietly shifted, becoming a permanent, large-scalelabour pool for many industries, reminiscent of European migrant workerprograms. The paper also examines the potential labour market implications ofan expanded, entrenched TFWP.
This article examines trade union responses to migration in the Netherlands, Spain and the United Kingdom. We explore how national regulatory structures and industrial relations traditions shape these responses, reflected in different ways of working with the state, employers, union members and the migrant worker community. We identify three main logics that inform trade union action: class, race/ethnicity and social rights; these are used implicitly or explicitly in building representative action. Our analysis shows how trade unions in each country tend to give priority to certain specific logics rather than others. Our findings also show how, in each country, trade union renewal in relation to migration implies engaging with new logics of actions which have not been part of the historical trade union approach. Hence the question of migration brings specific challenges for union identity and strategy. We argue for an approach that goes beyond assumptions of path dependency, and stress the complexity of representation and the challenge of balancing different interests and strategies in the process of social inclusion.
This paper considers precarious work from the point of view of trade union practice in the area of equality and diversity, exploring the way in which unions organise and recruit low-paid, vulnerable migrant workers. A theoretical approach is developed in order to understand the particular vulnerability and diversity of migrant workers in the labour market. Insights from the literature on intersectionality are applied to the study of employment, industrial relations and human resource management practice. Drawing from four case studies, the strategies of three UK trade unions towards organising low-paid migrants are compared. It is concluded that trade unions tend to consider migrants primarily as workers (taking on a so-called ‘universalistic’ approach), rather than as migrant workers with particular and overlapping forms of oppression (a ‘particularistic’ approach). As a result, unions tend to construct a dichotomy between workplace and migration issues, impeding the effective involvement of diverse and marginalised workers into unions. Based on these findings, we argue that integrating universalistic and particularistic approaches to union organising and recruitment strategies is critical to promote the successful involvement of vulnerable migrants into trade unions.
Les programmes qui concernent les travailleurs étrangers temporaires sont en général considérés comme des solutions à court terme à une pénurie de main-d’œuvre dans certaines régions ou dans certains métiers ou professions. Au cours de la dernière décennie, les différentes régions canadiennes ont connu une croissance économique inégale, et certaines ont souffert d’une importante pénurie de main-d’œuvre. Le Programme des travailleurs étrangers temporaires a donc été élargi, et l’admissibilité au programme a été facilitée ; or, au cours de la même période, les disparités régionales en matière de chômage se sont renforcées. Dans cet article, nous montrons que la persistance de ces disparités est en partie due à la plus grande disponibilité de main-d’œuvre étrangère temporaire. Cela indique donc que les décideurs politiques n’ont pas réussi à évaluer correctement le besoin de cette main-d’œuvre, ce qui aurait permis d’éviter que la présence de ces travailleurs ne produise l’effet inverse de ce qui était souhaité sur le marché du travail canadien.
Temporary foreign worker programs are typically seen as short-term solutions to shortages of regional or occupational labour. During the past decade, Canadian regions experienced unequal economic growth, and some suffered from significant excess labour demand. The Canadian Temporary Foreign Worker Program was thus expanded and conditions to access it made easier. During the same period, the pattern of regional disparities in unemployment rates became more persistent. This paper shows that some of the persistence is due to the increased availability of temporary foreign workers. This suggests that policy makers did not price them correctly to avoid adverse effects on the Canadian labour market.
The article compares trade union responses in Denmark, Norway and the UK to the arrival of construction workers from the new EU member states. Organizing has been seen as a crucial means to avoid low-wage competition and social dumping. We analyse how the unions developed strategies for recruiting migrants, the novelty of their approaches and the results in terms of membership.
How do unions contend with change in the face of strong external pressures associated with globalization? Comparative workplace ethnographies point to the persistent diversity of local actor responses. This article advances the concept of referential unionisms to understand the adaptive processes at play. Focusing on the interactions between collective identities, repertoires of action, power resources, and representative and strategic capacity, it examines how two workplace unions in the manufacturing sector in France and in Canada cope with management strategies to meet their multinational company performance objectives through the restructuring of social and productive relations in their sites.
When eight countries from Central and Eastern Europe joined the EU in 2004, unions in some countries argued that significant wage differentials between the old and the new member states necessitated transitional restrictions on free movement, but others insisted that employment standards should be protected by the enforcement of rights, not by restrictions. This article explores variations in union policies in comparative perspective, examining Austria, Germany, Ireland and the UK.
Temporary migration raises two different challenges. The first is whether territorial democracies can integrate temporary migrants as equal citizens; the second is whether transnationally mobile societies can be organized democratically as communities of equal citizens. Considering both questions within a single analytical framework will reveal a dilemma: on the one hand, liberals have good reasons to promote the expansion of categories of free-moving citizens as the most effective and normatively attractive response to the problem of partial citizenship for temporary migrants; yet, on the other hand, if free movement rights were actually used by too many, this might fatally undermine the sustainability of intergenerational and territorial democratic polities.
In recent years, the number of temporary foreign workers admitted to Canada has more than doubled. In this study, Delphine Nakache and Paula Kinoshita examine the Temporary Foreign Worker Program, in order to determine the Canadian and Albertan approaches to integrating and protecting these migrants. They consider three possible policy perspectives on the legal status of temporary foreign workers, according to whether the country of employment (1) sees temporary labour migration as an opportunity to integrate the workers; (2) is indifferent to their future position in society; or (3) tries to prevent their integration. In order to determine into which policy perspective Canada fits, the authors analyze three important integration mechanisms: employment, family unity and access to permanent residency. In the field of employment, there is a discrepancy between policy and practice in regard to temporary foreign workers’ rights. A significant factor is the restrictive nature of the work permit (temporary foreign workers are often tied to one job, one employer and one location), which can have the practical effect of limiting their employment rights and protections. Other problems include illegal recruitment practices, misinformation about migration opportunities and lack of enforcement mechanisms. In the context of employment, Canada seems indifferent to temporary foreign workers’ future position in society. On family unity and access to permanent residency, there are significant differences in their treatment, depending on their skill levels. The spouses of highly skilled workers are able to acquire open work permits, and highly skilled workers have the opportunity to get permanent residency from within. In contrast, the spouses of lower-skilled workers must apply for a restricted work permit, and lower-skilled workers, with few exceptions, have very limited opportunity to migrate permanently. Yet they can renew their temporary status so long as they have employment. Nakache and Kinoshita conclude that Canada encourages the integration of highly skilled workers and is indifferent to that of lower-skilled workers. The authors argue that the short-term focus of Canada’s temporary labour migration policy will not help the country realize its long-term labour market needs and is unfair to the vast majority of temporary foreign workers, who are expected to spend years in Canada without contributing to society in the long run. They offer a number of recommendations. To mention a few, they recommend that the work permit be restructured to allow these migrants greater mobility; that enforcement mechanisms be used to protect them from abusive practices; that communication between different governmental players be improved; that a policy be adopted to support the integration of temporary foreign workers; and that public debate about the recent changes in Canada’s labour migration policy be encouraged.
Se fondant sur la méthode d'ethnographie institutionnelle de Dorothy E. Smith, l'auteure étudie l'organisation sociale de notre connaissance des gens catégorisés comme non‐immigrants ou « tra‐vailleurs migrants ». À la suite de l'étude du Non‐Immigrant Employment Authorization Program (NIEAP) du gouvernement canadien (1973), elle montre l'importance de la pratique idéologique raciste et nationaliste des États à l'endroit de l'organisation matérielle du marché du travail compétitif « canadien » dans le cadre d'un capitalisme mondial restructuré de même que la réorganisation qui en résulte des notions d'esprit national canadien. Elle montre aussi que la pratique discursive des parlementaires qui consiste à considérer certaines personnes comme des « problèmes » pour les « Canadiens » ne provient pas de l'exclusion physique de ces «étrangers » mais plutôt de leur differentiation idéologique et matérielle des Canadiens une fois qu'ils vivent et travaillent dans la société canadienne.
Utilizing Dorothy E. Smith's method of institutional ethnography, I investigate the social organization of our knowledge of people categorized as non‐immigrants or “migrant workers.” By examining Canada's 1973 Non‐immigrant Employment Authorization Program (NIEAP), I show the importance of racist and nationalist ideological state practice to the material organization of the competitive “Canadian” labour market within a restructured global capitalism and the resultant reorganization of notions of Canadian nationhood. I show that the parliamentary discursive practice of producing certain people as “problems” for “Canadians” results not in the physical exclusion of those constructed as “foreigners” but in their ideological and material differentiation from Canadians, once such people are living and working within Canadian society.
Expressions such as…“foreigner”… and so on, denoting certain types of lesser or negative identities are in actuality congealed practices and forms of violence or relations of domination… This violence and its constructive or representative attempts have become so successful or hegemonic that they have become transparent—holding in place the ruler's claimed superior self, named or identified in myriad ways, and the inadequacy and inferiority of those who are ruled.
— Himani Bannerji.
This article focuses on the responses of British trade unions to the arrival of Polish workers since the 2004 enlargement of the European Union. It is argued that existing definitions and explanations of UK trade union engagement with migrant workers do not capture the strategies that have been used to engage with these migrant workers. We suggest that there have been two sets of responses. First, recruitment and organization activity has centred on inclusion and has been undertaken on new terrains using innovative strategies. Second, we point to the importance of new linkages locally, regionally, nationally and internationally in organizing these new labour market entrants. Copyright (c) Blackwell Publishing Ltd/London School of Economics 2009.
In this review essay, I argue that immigration presents employment researchers with a promising strategic research site because it raises a number of theoretically significant problems with mainstream economic approaches to labour and labour markets. Despite the tendency to view economic migrants as "homo economicus" personified, I argue that immigration brings the institutional nature of labour markets into sharp relief as it exposes, among other things, the influence of the state, processes of labour market segmentation, and the role of trade union policy and practice. Having identified a number of empirical anomalies that contradict neoclassical economic theory, I proceed to sketch out three areas where a more institutionally oriented approach should prove more fruitful. Copyright Blackwell Publishing Ltd/London School of Economics 2007.
When discussing the integration of immigrants the focus has been on those holding permanent residency status to the detriment of responding to the needs of other migrants who, while living, working, and paying taxes in Canada, are denied the ability to ever become members of Canadian society. This is reflected in efforts purported to ensure the integration of permanent residents into the mainstream of Canadian society. At the federal level in Canada, these have included: the Multiculturalism Act of 1972, the 1982 Charter of Rights and Freedoms, and the 1986 Employment Equity Act. All of these are said to have addressed the barriers to equality faced by non-white immigrants within Canadian society.
Canadian labour's agitation against Asian immigration in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries has received a considerable amount of scholarly attention. Many historians have highlighted labour's concerns about Asian competition in the labour market, while others have explored the pervasiveness of anti-Asian racism in most segments of Canadian, and especially British Columbian, society. But these factors – while important – do not sufficiently explain labour's antipathy to Asians. They particularly fail to account for the unity against Asian immigration between unionists in different regions, the influence of campaigns for exclusion in other countries, and the class content of labour's anti-Asian rhetoric. Another under-explored issue is whether unionists approached Asians in the same way as other immigrants, minorities, and oppressed groups. Drawing on the growing literature on racialization, and focusing primarily on the 1880s, when labour's views on Asian immigration became well established, this article shows how Asians were set apart from any groups with whom labour might have sympathy or common cause. Asians were associated with oppressive forces, particularly of the emerging industrial capitalist system. This association can be seen in many of labour's stereotypes of Asians as industrial slaves, ruthless competitors in the economy, and threats to white women. These stereotypes also set Asians up as polar opposites to the basic class, race, and gender identity that labour leaders sought to foster. L'agitation parmi les travailleurs canadiens devant l'immigration asiatique à la fin du XIXe et au début du XXe siècles a fait l'objet de maintes études. De nombreux historiens ont fait ressortir les inquiétudes qúavait ressenties la main-d'oeuvre canadienne devant la perspective de la concurrence asiatique sur le marché du travail, tandis que d'autres ont examiné l'étendue du racisme anti-asiatique dans la majorité des segments de la société canadienne, tout particulièrement en Colombie- Britannique. Bien qu'ils soient importants, ces facteurs ne suffisent pas, cependant, á expliquer l'aversion de la main-d'oeuvre canadienne pour les Asiatiques. En particulier, il n'est pas tenu compte, dans ces explications, de la solidarité qui a uni les syndicats de diverses régions dans leur opposition à l'immigration asiatique, ni de l'influence des campagnes d'exclusion des Asiatiques qui ont été menées dans d'autres pays, ni du contenu du discours anti-asiatique de la main-d'oeuvre canadienne. On a également rarement examiné si les syndicats avaient eu le même type d'échanges avec les Asiatiques qu'ils ont eus avec les immigrants d'autres origines, les minorités ou les groupes opprimés. À partir de la littérature de plus en plus abondante sur la question de la racialisation et en se concentrant essentiellement sur les années 1880, époque où le point de vue de la main-d'oeuvre concernant l'immigration asiatique s'est implanté, cet article illustre de quelle manière les Asiatiques ont été tenus à l'écart par rapport à tous les autres groupes avec lesquels la main-d'oeuvre aurait pu partager des affinite´s ou une cause commune. En effet, les Asiatiques ont été associés à des forces d'oppression et, tout particulièrement, au système industriel capitaliste émergent. Cette association se reconnaît à nombre de stéréotypes des Asiatiques, considérés comme esclaves industriels, concurrents économiques impitoyables, et comme une menace pour les femmes blanches. Ces stéréotypes ont placé les Asiatiques aux antipodes de la classe, de la race et de la politique des sexes que les dirigeants de la main-d'oeuvre s'efforçaient de favoriser.
Labour migration to Ireland is a fairly recent phenomenon. It takes place largely in reponse to ‘Ireland's call’ for additional labour to sustain the economic boom. The inflow of migrant workers has significantly transformed the Irish workforce. This article examines how Irish trade unions respond to this challenge. In drawing on qualitative interviews mainly with trade union officials as well as documentary analysis, I show that unions promote a rights-based approach to immigration. This is done not only for ideological reasons (workers' solidarity and opposition to exploitation) but also self-interest. From a trade union perspective, migrants who enjoy the same rights as Irish workers and who become integrated in the workplace and wider society are less likely to undermine labour standards.
In recent years, the Canadian labour movement has undergone fundamental change in response to demands for greater inclusion and representation by women, visible and sexual minorities, and people with disabilities. Equity, Diversity, and Canadian Labour explores the specific challenges put to outmoded attitudes and practices, charting the efforts made by organized labour in Canada towards addressing discrimination in the workplace and within unions themselves. While there has been a fair amount of progress in this regard, persistent impediments to equity and uneven responsiveness within and across diversity issues remain. This collection of original essays brings together contributors from a variety of academic backgrounds - women's studies, political science, sociology, industrial relations - and from the labour movement itself to examine union policies, practices, and cultures with respect to diversity issues. The first comprehensive analysis of Canadian labour's response to challenges on gender, race, disability, and sexual orientation issues since the 1980s, the book aims to highlight the structural and cultural developments that have taken place within the labour movement around equality rights, and to provide a forum for debates about the extent to which union democracy has been reshaped as a result of equity activism.
This chapter compares and contrasts the U.S. and French systems of labor market regulation. The U.S. system is specialized: Regulating authority is dispersed among a host of different agencies each with a relatively narrow jurisdiction, and as a result with responsibility for a very limited domain. Authority is further divided between the federal and the state governments. The French system is a unified or general system: a single agency is responsible for the enforcement of the whole labor code. As a result, the French system is a street-level bureaucracy in which considerable power and authority rests with the line agents, the work inspectors themselves. As a result, the French system is considerably more flexible and able to adjust to variations in economic and social conditions across the territory but also over time than is the U.S. system. The contrast is of broader importance because the French system was adopted by Spain (and Italy) and from there spread to Latin America. The chapter goes on to discuss the various managerial issues posed by the two systems and the problems of reconciling their contrasting dynamics in a unified global trading regime.
The rapid expansion of the oil sands in northern Alberta in the early 21st century led to the use of significant numbers of temporary foreign workers. These foreign workers became a part of the region's so-called "shadow population." This paper examines how the presence of foreign workers affects conceptions of community and social cohesion through the experiences of foreign workers employed in oil sands construction. The study finds foreign workers are excluded from the life of the community due to their differential exclusion, vulnerable and precarious connection to the labour market, experiences of discrimination, and conflicted transnational community identities. The paper discusses the shortcomings of community and social cohesion approaches in addressing temporary foreign workers and considers the policy limitations of a widespread temporary foreign worker program. © Canadian Journal of Sociology/Cahiers canadiens de sociologie.
Federal government policy changes in the early 2000s led to the rapid expansion of Canada’s Temporary Foreign Worker (TFW) Program by increasing the number of eligible occupations. Before the expansion few trade unions in Canada had interaction with TFWs, but with the new rules, and the high profile political debate that ensued, unions were forced to confront the issue of migrant workers directly for the first time. Using narrative analysis, the paper examines media statements from union officials between 2006 to 2012 to track the narratives constructed by unions regarding TFWs. It finds three temporally sequential narrative arcs: 1-prioritizing of Canadian workers’ interests and portrayal of TFWs as employer pawns; 2-TFWs as vulnerable workers needing union advocacy for their employment and human rights; and 3-post-economic crisis conflicted efforts to integrate Canadian and TFW interests. The changing narratives reflect evolving union reaction to the issue of growing use of TFWs, as well as interaction with external political and economic contexts shaping the issue.
The study examines how unions understand challenging new issues. The results suggest union discourses are shaped by the tension between internal pressures and external contexts. They also suggest that leaders’ responsibility to represent members can sometimes clash with unions’ broader values of social justice. Unions build internal value structures that inform their understanding of an issue, but they must also reflect members’ demands and concerns, even if those concerns may not reflect social justice values. The case study reveals the line between “business union” and “social union” philosophy is fluid, contested and context dependent. The paper also links union narratives of TFWs in this contemporary setting to labour’s historical attitude toward immigration and race, finding elements of both continuity and disruption.
This article is based on a recent study of attempts by a range of British trade unions to access and engage with Polish migrant workers at the community or labour market level, rather than workplace level. The findings suggest that migrant workers can indeed be recruited at this level. Doubts are expressed, however, about the sustainability of new membership gained in this way. These doubts are linked to a marked absence of clear union strategies to create a longer-term nexus of interest with those who are recruited, of the type advocated in, for example, the North American ‘new labor movement’ literature. This absence – it is argued – may be less a reflection of a lack of strategic leadership than a product of the difficulties unions face in identifying viable strategies relating to the representation and organization of workers above the workplace level.
This article compares trade union strategies towards migrant workers from the ‘new Europe’. The analysis focuses on three sectors in the UK, Norway and Germany. We conclude that trade union responses to these migrant workers are shaped by the complex interplay of national industrial relations systems, sectoral dynamics, EU regulation and the agency of individual trade unions.
Professions and unions have often been positioned as opposing alternatives or logics of action in theories of labour. Professions embrace a spirit of individualism and mystique, privileged by a social status, while unions are collectivist and seek respect and to usurp power from a dominant class. How do professionals successfully shift their position from dominance to subordination when they engage in collective bargaining? This article proposes that collective representation of professions is not a substitution of one form of power for another, but rather is the expression of a new arena of power for labour playing itself out at the forefront of work regulation in Canada. Three cases of labour disputes of professionalized workers highlight the struggle over the exercise of discretion and illustrate that collective bargaining is an occupational closure strategy that alters the boundaries of a profession in an attempt to maintain professional control.
This article explores trade union policies and actions towards migrant and ethnic minority workers in Italy and the Netherlands, drawing on union documents and interviews with trade unionists at different organizational levels. It examines how far the explanatory factors addressed in the migration studies and industrial relations literatures help in explaining the observed differences. The findings suggest an inverse relationship between union institutional embeddedness and the perception of migrant workers as ‘power resource’. Of particular relevance, in comparative perspective, are differences in internal union structures and dynamics.
Canadian labour's agitation against Asian immigration in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries has received a considerable amount of scholarly attention. Many historians have highlighted labour's concerns about Asian competition in the labour market, while others have explored the pervasiveness of anti-Asian racism in most segments of Canadian, and especially British Columbian, society. But these factors – while important – do not sufficiently explain labour's antipathy to Asians. They particularly fail to account for the unity against Asian immigration between unionists in different regions, the influence of campaigns for exclusion in other countries, and the class content of labour's anti-Asian rhetoric. Another under-explored issue is whether unionists approached Asians in the same way as other immigrants, minorities, and oppressed groups.
Drawing on the growing literature on racialization, and focusing primarily on the 1880s, when labour's views on Asian immigration became well established, this article shows how Asians were set apart from any groups with whom labour might have sympathy or common cause. Asians were associated with oppressive forces, particularly of the emerging industrial capitalist system. This association can be seen in many of labour's stereotypes of Asians as industrial slaves, ruthless competitors in the economy, and threats to white women. These stereotypes also set Asians up as polar opposites to the basic class, race, and gender identity that labour leaders sought to foster.
L’agitation parmi les travailleurs canadiens devant l’immigration asiatique à la fin du XIX e et au début du XX e siècles a fait l’objet de maintes études. De nombreux historiens ont fait ressortir les inquiétudes qu’avait ressenties la main-d’oeuvre canadienne devant la perspective de la concurrence asiatique sur le marché du travail, tandis que d’autres ont examiné l’étendue du racisme anti-asiatique dans la majorité des segments de la société canadienne, tout particulièrement en Colombie-Britannique. Bien qu’ils soient importants, ces facteurs ne suffisent pas, cependant, à expliquer l’aversion de la main-d’oeuvre canadienne pour les Asiatiques. En particulier, il n’est pas tenu compte, dans ces explications, de la solidarité qui a uni les syndicats de diverses régions dans leur opposition à l’immigration asiatique, ni de l’influence des campagnes d’exclusion des Asiatiques qui ont été menées dans d’autres pays, ni du contenu du discours anti-asiatique de la main-d’oeuvre canadienne. On a également rarement examiné si les syndicats avaient eu le même type d’échanges avec les Asiatiques qu’ils ont eus avec les immigrants d’autres origines, les minorités ou les groupes opprimés.
À partir de la littérature de plus en plus abondante sur la question de la racialisation et en se concentrant essentiellement sur les années 1880, époque où le point de vue de la main-d’oeuvre concernant l’immigration asiatique s’est implanté, cet article illustre de quelle manière les Asiatiques ont été tenus à l’écart par rapport à tous les autres groupes avec lesquels la main-d’oeuvre aurait pu partager des affinités ou une cause commune. En effet, les Asiatiques ont été associés à des forces d’oppression et, tout particulièrement, au système industriel capitaliste émergent. Cette association se reconnaît à nombre de stéréotypes des Asiatiques, considérés comme esclaves industriels, concurrents économiques impitoyables, et comme une menace pour les femmes blanches. Ces stéréotypes ont placé les Asiatiques aux antipodes de la classe, de la race et de la politique des sexes que les dirigeants de la main-d’oeuvre s’efforçaient de favoriser.
This article argues that partnerships for vocational education and training (VET) reflect contradictions within capitalism and labour power, and therefore should be analysed within the broader context of industrial and workplace relations. Therefore, in contrast to a consensual model, we posit an understanding of social partnerships as sites of struggle and negotiation. Our analysis of interview data suggests tensions between employers, educators and unions over who can deliver training and how training is to be delivered and regulated. These tensions have implications for access to apprenticeship opportunities and for how apprenticeship operates. We argue that a greater understanding of the social, political and economic contexts in which work experience programs operate is needed to move beyond partnerships that seek to produce appropriately skilled labour.
Migration, whether regular or irregular, is on the increase, despite the general spread of restrictive immigration policies at both national and EU level and the intensification of national border controls. However, its features and the ways in which actors deal with it differ by country, depending on national circumstances. In this article we examine the strategies and actions of Dutch and Italian trade unions towards both regular and irregular migration. The main aim is to underline the influence of both external (context embedded) and internal (union embedded) factors on trade unions' attitudes and responses.
This article uses interviews with trade union activists in the UK and Denmark to explore union policies towards immigrant and ethnic minority members in each country. Danish policies emphasize education, communication, and awareness-raising, while the British focus on the structures of racism and exclusion, and the need for anti-discrimination and positive action policies. The article suggests that the contrast between the consensus and conflict frames of reference, and the quality of the national political discourse are factors which aid our understanding of these national differences.
The purpose of this article is to explore the experiences of Temporary Foreign Workers in health care in Alberta, Canada. In 2007–2008, one of the regional health authorities in the province responded to a shortage of workers by recruiting 510 health-care workers internationally; most were trained as Registered Nurses (RNs) in the Philippines. However, the Association of RNs required them to complete an assessment, and in many cases, to complete further training leading to an examination before they could actually work as RNs in the province. Furthermore, economic recession and restructuring of the health authority meant that many of the short-term contracts were not renewed, despite initial promises made by recruiters. This article looks at the assessment of foreign credentials and processes that followed as a part of the vocational education and training system that is often ignored. Drawing on social closure theories, we look at the experiences of foreign workers whose positions are extremely precarious in terms of employment and residency status. Our analysis suggests that the use of temporary workers to address ‘short term’ labour demand has implications for the workers themselves as well as larger political, social and economic implications that need to be acknowledged.
The article first argues that there is a range of approaches and models developed in relation to the question of representing ethnic minorities and migrants when it comes to trade union strategies. There is no single model. Instead, there is a variety of approaches and politics, just as there are with a `traditionally established workforce'. Second, this study finds that the understanding of ethnic minority needs varies and the politics of this must be central to any discussion, as one cannot read off assumptions about the issue from formal union strategies, traditional practices and established customs in relation to regulation. In effect, there is a politics of trade union responses and there is diversity in the way the `problem' is read and understood. Third, the article argues that the issue of minority ethnic workers raises questions of trade union identity and purpose. This points to much deeper issues related to the role of regulation and strategies of inclusion — and the extent to which they cohere. It also raises the issue of the configuration of strategies of social inclusion and on occasions how strategies ignore the broader issue of participation of those they seek to represent. To this extent the article is not exclusively about inclusion and exclusion — but about the politics and contradictory dynamics of inclusion.
Migration implies that migrants meet with the communities-of-place they have moved to. Such social interaction is frequently troubled by differences in institutions for social conduct. This paper defines such institutions as habitualised practices. Drawing on Berger and Luckmann's (1967) ideas on institutions and socialisation, the analysis focuses on what happens to such institutions when migrants meet with people belonging to the community-of-place to which they have moved. The empirical base consists of a comparison between two studies carried out by the author: one of everyday life social interaction between in-migrants and communities-of-place in Dutch rural neighbourhoods, the other of the work ethic of migrant and domestic workers in Scottish agriculture. Interaction between migrants and people belonging to the communities-of-place to which they have moved can produce different relationships between their respective institutions. People belonging to the communities-of-place in the Dutch study do not hold rigidly to some elements of their institutions while they hold on more rigidly to others. The Scottish study showed that farmer-employers even prefer the work ethic of migrants, and at the same time there has been some evidence that the work ethic of domestic workers evolves in the direction of that of migrants. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
This paper examines the relationship between the number and rights of low-skilled migrant workers in high-income countries. It identifies a trade-off: Countries with large numbers of low-skilled migrant workers offer them relatively few rights, while smaller numbers of migrants are typically associated with more rights. We discuss the number-vs.-rights trade-off in theory and practice as an example of competing goods, raising the question of whether numbers of migrants or rights of migrants should get higher priority. There is no easy or universal answer, but avoiding an explicit discussion of the issue – as has been done in recent guest worker debates – can obscure an important policy choice.
In 2008, Canada admitted 192 519 international migrant workers on temporary work permits — a historical high.1 This number reflects a trend in labour migration: since 1980, the annual number of people admitted to work under temporary visas has almost always outpaced that of permanent immigrants entering the labour force annually.2 Rising numbers of migrant workers on temporary visas pose important questions for health care practitioners and researchers.3 Do migrant workers face greater risks of work-related illnesses and injuries than Canadian citizens and landed immigrants? Are migrant workers able and likely to seek medical care? In what ways will the increasing flow of migrant workers worldwide affect public health systems, such as heightening risks of transmission of infectious diseases? In this article, we document recent trends in labour migration and begin to address these questions. We focus on migrant workers entering low-paid, low-status occupations, who account for most of Canada’s foreign workforce.
[Excerpt] Labor in the New Urban Battlegrounds is an energizing, optimistic book. By using the contemporary metropolis as a comparative laboratory to see what contexts and strategies contribute best to labor revitalization, Lowell Turner, Daniel Cornfield, and their collaborators generate a fresh sense of positive possibilities for labor and new insights as to how creative actors can best take advantage of those possibilities. Energizing optimism should not be confused with seeing things through rose-colored glasses. The book fully acknowledges the odds against labor revitalization and the structural obstacles to a more equitable society. Optimism is generated by pairing obstacles with possibilities, often brought to light by another city in which similar obstacles have been overcome with innovative strategies. This book builds on a new tradition of recent analyses of U.S. labor that compellingly contests previous premature obituaries of the labor movement while making a distinctive contribution. Its power is rooted in the "comparative metropolis" analytical theme and the editors' skill in bringing a diverse baker's dozen of substantive studies to bear on it. The individual chapters are empirically diverse, complementing a gamut of metropolitan areas in the United States with comparative cases from Europe. They employ varied methodological approaches to look at the "social infrastructure" and strategic choices that underlie urban successes and failures. Many chapters are in-depth case studies of individual cities, while others (e.g., Greer, Byrd, and Fleron; Hauptmeier and Turner) are paired comparisons. Still others (Applegate; Luce; Reynolds) draw their evidence from larger numbers of cities. One (Sellers) employs an ingenious analysis of cross-national data to draw inferences about differences in urban strategic possibilities. The result is much more powerful analytically than it would have been had the editors collected thirteen metropolitan case studies and then tried to figure out their comparative implications. Empirical range and methodological diversity augment the power of the volume, but the overarching focus on comparative metropolitan analysis is what gives the book its distinctive analytical punch. Even though a variety of organizations and social actors populate the stage—campaigns, nongovernmental organizations, individual unions, and ethnic communities—defining the urban area as the stage on which the dramas occur was a critical decision. From this decision flows the book's special contribution to refocusing contemporary labor debates.
Findings from the 2000 US Census indicate high rates of Hispanic population increase beyond urban areas and traditional immigrant-receiving states. The diversity of new destinations raises questions about forces attracting migrants to rural areas and links between economic structural change and Hispanic population growth. Our conceptual framework applies dual labor market theory to the meat processing industry, a sector whose growing Hispanic labor force offers an illustrative case study for analyzing how labor demand influences demographic change. We document the industry's consolidation, concentration, increased demand for low-skilled labor, and changing labor force composition over three decades. We then position meat processing within a broader analysis that models nonmetropolitan county Hispanic population growth between 1980 and 2000 as a function of changes in industrial sector employment share and nonmetro county economic and demographic indicators. We find that growth in meat processing employment exhibits the largest positive coefficient increase in nonmetro Hispanic population growth over two decades and the largest impact of all sectors by 2000. Copyright 2005 The Population Council, Inc..
Shaping the Future: Canada's Rapidly Changing Immigration Policies. Toronto: Maytree. Bauböck R (2011) Temporary migrants, partial citizenship and hypermigration
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Sleeping car porters in Canada: an ethnically submerged split labour market
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The Temporary Foreign Worker Program in Canada: Low-Skilled Workers as an Extreme Form of Flexible Labour. Working Paper 45, Centre for Employment and Labour Relations Law Gereluk W (2012) Alberta labour in the 1980s Working People in Alberta: A History
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Guarding the Gates: The Canadian Labour Movement and Immigration
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