The study uses an eclectic framework and through an intersectional analysis and use of narratives explores the meaning of janitorial work, the gender division of labour (GDL), the unions and organizing for janitors engaged in industrial cleaning for a big cleaning company, Pluto, in Toronto. Pluto was organized by the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) in 2006. The study is based on the organizing drive for Pluto and uses participant observation and interview methods. Intersectional analysis is useful in understanding the worker's perceptions of the racialized, gendered and classed constitution of cleaning work as 'dirty' and their resistance to these constructs. We explore GDL in industrial cleaning and the construction of women's work as 'light duty' and men's work as 'heavy duty'. We conclude that union membership is important not only for material benefits of the janitors but also for their alternative identity construction. However, there is a persistence of GDL and gender pay equity is not addressed seriously in the organizing drive or upon organizing.
The paper examines the impact of lean production on indicators of the quality of life at work in the automotive industry and finds that it varies across companies and to a lesser extent between countries. The paper explains this by arguing that lean production seeks to impose new employment standards. This is a contested process where management's capacity to shift to new standards and labour's ability to protect its interests vary across workplaces.
In many countries, women are the fastest growing group of unionized workers. As unions scramble to restore their flagging membership, women become central to the process of union membership renewal. Yet survey data collected from union organizers in Canada show that unions are only partially meeting women's demand for union representation, in large part because of gender bias in union organizing practices. To develop this argument, this article offers data analysis that challenges four popular misconceptions about women and unions which contribute to gender bias in union organizing practices. These misconceptions are: women are less likely to support unions than men; high rates of unionization in the public sector rather than women themselves explain the high rates of union growth amongst women; small workplaces are a particular barrier to organizing women and women are more passive and avoid conflict, therefore reducing their likelihood of withstanding a hostile organizing drive. Having challenged these misconceptions, the article concludes with a discussion of the many ways in which union organizing practices are gender biased. Issues discussed range from the limited number of women hired as organizers to the tendency of unions to target small male-dominated workplaces for organizing, over women-dominated workplaces, in spite of the latter's greater likelihood of success.
Unions need more women members in order to grow. To organize and represent women, however, unions have to understand their different identities, issues and relationships at work. Using the concept of framing, in a case study of union organizing amongst child care workers, this article argues that unions struggle to define the scope and nature of a problem in ways that appeal to prospective women members and mobilize support for union-proposed solutions. The article explores how one union attempts to organize child care workers from diverse employment settings with divergent interests into a coalition with parents behind demands for a universal child care system.
Les syndicats en Ontario, et au Canada en général, ont dû faire face à une crise d'adhésion. Cette crise est le résultat de la restructuration économique, des changements politiques et législatifs, et des employeurs enhardis dans leur opposition aux syndicats. Les taux de syndicalisation sont en déclin ou stagnants et il y a des bas taux de syndicalisation dans des secteurs croissants de l'économie, plus particulièrement dans les industries de services du secteur privé. Cette étude, centrée sur l'Ontario, examine la réponse des syndicats à ces défis, à travers la syndicalisation des non-syndiqués.Cette étude soutient que, face à un climat politique et économique de plus en plus hostile aux syndicats, les syndicats ont augmenté les ressources investies dans la syndicalisation. Ils ont changé leurs projets organisationnels et ont décidé de mettre la priorité sur l'organisation des services dans le secteur privé en adoptant plusieurs stratégies d'organisation innovatrices créées pour obtenir un meilleur taux de réussite dans la syndicalisation. L'adoption de ces stratégies démontre que les syndicats sont capables de s'adapter pour faire face à de nouveaux défis. Le résultat probable de l'adoption de cette voie est que les syndicats auront la capacité de renverser le déclin récent dans le taux de syndicalisation et pourront commencer à accroître le nombre de leurs membres. Les arguments dans cette étude sont fondés sur trois sources d'information : (1) les informations sur l'accréditation syndicale disponibles auprès de la Commission des relations du travail de l'Ontario, (2) un questionnaire détaillé administré aux organisateurs syndicaux, basé sur le travail de Kate Bronfenbrenner aux États-Unis, et (3) des informations qualitatives à partir des entrevues avec des organisateurs syndicaux, les documents de politiques syndicales ainsi que d'autres documents syndicaux internes.En se basant sur des informations de la Commission des relations du travail de l'Ontario et sur l'analyse publiée de Martinello (2000) sur les accréditations syndicales en Ontario, cette étude démontre que les tentatives de syndicalisation, les réussites et le nombre de salariés recrutés ont été les plus nombreux sous le gouvernement NPD. Quand les conservateurs sont arrivés au pouvoir, ces succès ont diminué, menant, en général, à moins de campagnes de recrutement, à un taux de réussite moins élevé, et à un nombre plus petit d'employés organisés. Cette expérience, qui a rendu les employeurs plus agressifs et qui a accéléré les changements sur le marché du travail, a amené plusieurs syndicats à augmenter leurs efforts de recrutement. En effet, beaucoup de syndicats avaient déjà identifié la syndicalisation comme étant la clé de leur survie.En examinant les données pour six syndicats — le Syndicat des métallos unis de l'Amérique (MUA), le Syndicat international des travailleurs et travailleuses unis de l'alimentation et du commerce (TUAC), les Travailleurs et les travailleuses canadiens de l'automobile (TCA), la Fraternité unie des char...
While new models of work orgaization (lean production) in the automobile industry have been portrayed as a 'democratic'break with Fordism, we find considerable parallels with those traditional patterns of labour control they were intended to supplant. Far from understanding these as exemplars of 'democratic Taylorism', the article identities spwific company responses to problems associated with declining productivity and competitiveness. Moreover, the article argues that new models of work organization associated with lean production, far from heralding empowerment, are more conerned with asserting management control in varying ways in different companies.
Since women began mobilizing more than 40 years ago to transform the labour movement, unions have made significant changes to increase women’s participation, leadership and interest representation. Yet, there are limitations to this progress. Unionized women are concentrated in the public sector amongst full-time employees. Moreover, women’s interests have tended to be added onto existing union agenda; women are therefore encouraged to adjust to existing union structures and practices rather than unions undertaking transformational organizational change. Unions tend to socially construct the collective interests and identities of women workers in gender-neutral ways that end up limiting union capacities to make bigger organizing breakthroughs amongst women. The article develops an argument that women’s relationship to work is distinct from men’s. Women are more likely to experience a blurring of the boundaries between work, home and community, which leads many women workers to be less responsive to union appeals that focus strictly on the job and workplace. These ideas are explored using a case study of a province-wide organizing drive amongst child care providers by the B.C. Government Employees Union (BCGEU). The BCGEU used methods of community unionism to build a sense of collective identity and capacity for collective action amongst a diverse group of child care providers, including those who work in child care centres, in-home providers and migrant domestic workers. The union built its campaign around shared relationships of caring and love, and by rejecting the devaluation of child care as unskilled, women’s work. The article concludes with an evaluation of whether this approach to organizing women opens new possibilities for reaching out to non-union women.Depuis que les femmes ont commencé à se mobiliser il y a plus de 40 ans pour transformer le mouvement ouvrier, les syndicats ont entrepris des changements significatifs afin de permettre une plus grande participation des femmes, d’augmenter leur représentation dans les instances et de mieux représenter leurs intérêts. Cependant, il y a des limites à ces progrès. Les femmes syndiquées sont surtout concentrées dans le secteur public parmi les employés à temps plein. De plus, les intérêts des femmes ont eu tendance à se superposer à l’ordre du jour syndical existant ; les femmes sont donc encouragées à s’ajuster aux structures et pratiques syndicales existantes plutôt que de voir les syndicats transformer leur organisation. Les syndicats tendent à construire socialement les intérêts et identités collectives des travailleuses de manière asexuée ou sans aborder les questions de genre, ce qui finit par limiter leur capacité à faire une plus grande percée dans l’organisation collective des femmes. L’article développe l’argument selon lequel le rapport des femmes au travail est distinct de celui des hommes. Les femmes font bien plus face au brouillage des frontières entre le travail, le foyer familial et la communauté, ce qui conduit beaucoup de travailleuses êt...
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