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the role of unions today
the role of unions today
the role of labor unions
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I have chosen to discuss the Bargaining for Collective Responsibilities for Social Reproduction chapter written by Alice De Wolff. I agree with Alice De Wolff on the arguments that she presented within the chapter regarding the major reconstruction of employment by unions and the positive changes it has made for Canadians especially women. I was interested to learn about the changes made in the employment sector from an activist’s point of view; as Alice De Wolff has been extremely active in the women and labour movements in Canada. In this chapter review I will discuss the tension between employment and private life not only for women but for all employees. Second I will discuss the changes in employment that have been made by unions and activist through bargaining and campaigns. And lastly I will discuss the need for national childcare in Canada.
Growing Life-Tensions
Changes in the social, economic and political structure have resulted in “high-life stress” has increased from 27% in 1988 to 46% in 1998 according to a study from C.B.C (Bezanson & Luxton, 2006, p. 95). According to the Canadian Union of Public Employees it has been discovered that 4 out of 10 employees reported that their workload incresed from the years 1999 to 2001 the evidence presented that 72 per cent reported more work responsibility, 61 per cent reported working with new technology, 60 per cent reported a higher demand for service, and 54 per cent were working in departments that have had employment reductions (Bezanson & Luxton, 2006, p. 99). In 2001, the average age of workers in Canada is 37.6 years of age, this age has increased from 29.6 years of age in 1981 (Bezanson & Luxton, 2006, p.98). Due to the increase of age workers have encountered probl...
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...e Quebecios implemented the childcare program it was available for all families for a flat fee of 5 dollars a day, however; since Liberals formed government in 2003 they increased the fee to 7 dollars a day and have threated to reduce the services and have prohibited home-based childcare from being involved in unions or bargaining collectively (Bezanson & Luxton, 2006,p. 109).
I really enjoyed reading about Bargaining for Collective Rights and Responsibilities for Social Reproduction, Canada has come a long way with policy and legislation, and Canadians still have a long way to go. It is important to remember the changes that were made for Canadians was not easily accomplished and that in order to continue to make changes we need to stay united and continue to fight for what we believe in for that is the only way we can continue to change society for the better.
Though, Professor Armstrong makes very good connections between health care policy reforms and its impact on women, all of these connections are eclipsed by the values encompassed within the Canada Health Act of 1984. Health care to this day is provided on the basis of need rather than financial means, and is accessible to all that require it. Professor Armstrong’s argument is hinged upon the scope of services provided under the public health insurance system, and the subsequent affect of these reforms on women as the main beneficiaries of these services and as workers in these industries. However, these reforms were made to balance the economy, and the downsizing and cutbacks were necessary steps to be taken with respect to this agenda. Moreover, as aforementioned the access to medical services ultimately comes down to need, and the reforms to date are not conducive to an intentional subordination of female interests in the realm of health care. Therefore, I find Professor Armstrong’s critique on Canada’s public health insurance system to be relatively redundant because the universal access to care encompassed within the Canada Health Act transcends the conditional proponents of her arguments of inequality. In other words, I believe she is
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 Canadian women’s status has worsened over the past hundred years, of course, thanks to feminism and activism. However, their status is not as high as it could be. Women as a group first started fighting for workplace equality during the second wave of feminism, from the 1960s to the 1990s. Legislation was approved during the second wave to try to bring gender equality to the workplace. Feminists both collided and collaborated with unions and employers to ensure women received fair treatment in an occupation. Quebec had the same issues, only the province approached the conflict differently than English Canada with its own unique viewpoint. It became clear that women were entering the workplace and did not plan on leaving. Second-wave feminism in Canada shifted power from the government and businesses to women in order to try to bring equality, although the discrimination never completely disappeared.
The labor union movement over the years has shaped the way individuals work and live for both the nicest and unpleasant. Some would think the unions influence has created a power struggle between management and union leaders. In today’s time, some citizens insist the existence of unions are a must to aid in employee freedom, while others view the labor unions as just another problem in the line of progress. The purpose of labor unions was for employed workers to come together and collectively agree on fundamental workplace objectives. The rise of the union came about after the Civil War- responding to the industrial economy. Surprisingly at the least unions became popular within the 1930-50’s and began to slowly decrease, starting in the 1960’s on to today. Although, the popularity of labor unions has decreased, its importance remains to be evident with politics, journalism, auto, and the public education industries. The objective of this paper is to shine light upon labor unions, taking a closer look at the disputed issues of union ethics, concerns of union diversity, and the opposing viewpoints of labor unions.
Following World War 1, Canada became bitterly divided due to the political change moves. For one of the first times, women started to stand in equality. Towards the end of the decade, the “Person’s Case” was established, which is case stating that women are eligible to partake in the Canadian Senate. Before this case women were not considered “person’s” in the eyes of the law, and according to the BNA act only “persons” were aloud to join the Canadian Senate. However, the famous five, Emily Murphy, Nellie McClung, Henrietta Muir Edwards, Louise McKinney and Irene Parlby changed that case as well as the world for women. Soon, women were having the same rights as men. Another challenge faced, was the Winnipeg general strike which occurred in 1919. Winnipeg’s building trades workers walked off their jobs demanding for higher wages and less working hours. Soon, everyone started to leave their jobs. This caused problems because families were unsuccessful in obtaining the resources they needed. To stop this maddened the government started to arrest individuals. The General Strike left a legacy of bitterness and controversy among labour groups across Canada. It was a failure. The “Persons’s Case” and Winnipeg general strike have come to symbolize the politics of the
Over several decades, Canadian women have greatly exceeded and made several advancement in earning women’s equality. Agnes MacPhail was a strong determined woman. At a young age, Macphail disliked housework and preferred helping her father with the farm livestock. She had longed for a life outside the farm work and hoped to attend school. However, Agnes’ family was in dire need for help to support the farm. She took action and never lost hope as she pleaded for two years for her parent's approval to go to school. With persistence and hope she gained their permission to start an education. Several women have shown phenomenal strength and conquered challenges to achieve equality. Women lived in a male-dominated society; however after 1914, Canadian
...nadian women could no longer be denied the access to education, equal pay, employment, and their rights. At last, after a century, Canadian women had gained the rights they fought so hard to possess.
The major purposes of this paper are, first, to examine the impacts of collective bargaining on labour market outcomes for women workers in Canada, specifically with respect to pay, benefits coverage, the incidence of low pay and the extent of earnings inequality, and, second, to suggest ways in which positive impacts could be extended via the expansion of collective bargaining coverage. This part of the paper briefly reviews the literature on the impacts of collective bargaining on earnings, low pay, and earnings inequality, and Part II provides some background description of the labour market position of Canadian working women. Particular attention is paid to the situation of the majority of women who continue to work in lower paid, often insecure and part-time, clerical, sales, and service jobs. The central conclusion of the empirical analysis in Part III, mainly based on data from Statistics Canada's 1995 Survey of Working Arrangements, is that collective bargaining coverage, controlling for other factors, has significant positive impacts in terms of raising pay and access to benefits, and in terms of reducing the incidence of low pay among women workers. However, the level of collective bargaining coverage for women is very low in precisely those sectors of the economy where women in low paid and insecure jobs are most concentrated, namely in private services and in smaller enterprises. Promoting better labour market outcomes for women workers accordingly requires a major extension of collective bargaining. Part IV of the paper briefly considers ways in which this could be achieved through trade union action and through changes to public policy.
Factories were known for their ill treatment of their employees, long hours and dirty and unsafe conditions. In 1866, unions started to form to improve working conditions for the workers. A fundamental problem faced by democratic societies is as long as people live their lives individually and go their separate ways and be selfish individuals, they are unlikely to meet collectively to resolve issues. There needs to be meaningful unity among people to alleviate this problem to get people obliged to one another, so there is a willingness to sacrifice for shared goals. Bonding of its citizens creates a democracy. Unions seemed to offer the middle class a chance to become a crucial part of fostering institutions of constitutional democracy. The unions have went through several transitions, but have always worked for the working force. I will discuss the history of the various unions, their wins and losses, and the struggle of the employee to achieve democracy in the workplace.
Over time, the debate of childcare issue within the Canadian public policy context has been raging. Rise in the media attention of the social issue of childcare policy in Canada concentrates on the relationship and coordination among the federal, provincial, and territorial governments in addressing the social issue (Finkel, 20013). According to Lewis Steven of The Star Canada News Agency, childcare is one of the priorities the Canadian Federal Government need to consider when designing its social policies. According to Lewis (2013), the Canadian Federal Government needs to consider the safety net income as an important factor contributing to affordable childcare services in the country. In Canada, parents or members of extended family have the responsibility of providing childcare services without the consideration of family net income. However, outside the family, there are many childcare providers operating as private individuals or agencies. Such childcare providers operate as private businesses.
This article stated that, according to a study conducted by the United Way and Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), approximately 40% of young workers in Ontario are in jobs classified as part-time, temporary or self-employed. The same study also found that less than half of part-time/temporary workers were able to transition into full-time higher-wage work and, perhaps most importantly, the percentage of those able to transition will likely decline over the next decade. Clearly, the growth of part-time and temporary jobs has been growing on an upward trend over the past decade and appears to have become part of business as usual. A study conducted in 2015 by the United Way and the Law Commission of Ontario (LCO) states that approximately 22% of part-time/temporary work in the past year can be characterized as precarious work, i.e. work with poor or no benefits and job security. The growth in precarious employment is due to many factors including Globalization, improved technology, changes to business models, and the economic shift from manufacturing to the service sector. These shifts have essentially formed a new economy that has a high demand for fluidity and flexibility in the common workplace, and has low a demand for the old fashioned “Standard” model of the workplace (largely full-time employees with a full suite of
David Brody argues that the rise of contractual or collective bargaining relationships during the post WWII era formalized the relationship between employers and unions, but simultaneously began to put a break on shop floor activism. Explain Brody’s argument and, where relevant, incorporate Weber’s theory of bureaucracy.
Led by Clara Lemlich, 20,000 immigrants, mostly young women, demanded a twenty percent pay raise, a fifty-two hour workweek, and a closed shop (59). Their cause gained a significant amount of attention and caught the eye of wealthy progressive reformers, such as Alva Belmont and Anne Morgan, who perceived the strike as an opportunity to also advocate their own objective: women’s suffrage. Wealthy elites like Carnegie and Sumner may have believed that efforts to change the natural order are futile, but Morgan claimed that after learning about the details of the strike, she and other women wouldn’t be able to live their lives “without doing something to help them” (72). These affluent women demonstrated their support from both sides of the spectrum, from modestly distributing ribbons and buttons, to Alva Belmont’s contribution of her several cars to a parade for the striking workers (682) and the pledge of her mansion as surety for the bail of four strikers (76). Without the aid of these women, it was doubtful the strikers “could have lasted much longer without progressive money” (70). However, frustration arose amongst picketers as these progressive reformers turned a strike based on class struggle into a “broader feminist revolt” (68). Morgan blamed the strikers’ treatment on the inability for women to vote, not their inability to unionize (67). Striker’s retorted, asking
...continue as long as the female body is responsible for the gestation of our population. Pregnancy poses health issues that may affect work attendance and maternity leave is typically one year in length. A progressive society should make allowances for a woman's choice to have a child without penalty to their career. Many companies and government offices have recently taken steps to help women successfully manage both aspects of their lives by offering flex hours, work from home opportunities, extended leave without demotion and reentry support. More companies in Canada need to adopt these protocols to protect their valuable workforces. Women have proven their worth in the workforce as they are trending towards equality in all fronts. Hopefully, sooner rather than later, the inequity of women in the workforce will only be historical and not an everyday occurrence.
Work is more than just a way of earning money to pay the bills; it is also a key feature of our culture and provides people with purpose and dignity. Many people define themselves by what they do. Thus, determining the future prospects for the job market in Canada is very important (Watson 2008). For the most part, Canada’s economy has done relatively well during the recent economic crisis, especially when compared to some other nations. However, the economic and technological trends that have driven changes in the workforce in recent years are likely to continue for the near future. These shifting trends will affect Canadian society and its workers in a number of areas, and it is vital that steps be taken to deal with any problems that result.
Everyday, there are workers who come home from their jobs with a high amount of health issues. Headaches, aching muscles, exhaustion, and many more health issues have workers wondering why this is happening. All of these symptoms can be linked to stress in the workplace. Job stress has become more of a problem than ever before. Numerous studies show that job stress is the major source of stress for American adults and that it has escalated progressively over the past few decades (“Workplace Stress,” 2004). Stress has become more common and costly in the workplace not only for the workers, but also the companies. What is considered stress in the workplace? Many companies everyday are dealing with issues related to stress in the workplace. For example, the Blackpool Fylde and Wyre NSH Trust Foundation Hospital noticed there were issues with stress when people began calling out sick. Their consultant for occupational health began to see a pattern of worker stress that might be the case. With stress being such a big issue in the workplace, are there ways a company can decrease the amount of stress?