research papers

UNION RESEARCH PAPERS

Prepared by Linda Briskin
 
 
The research papers included in the unions module address the following key themes: union renewal, leadership and representation, worker militancies, organizing the unorganized, and the union advantage. They highlight internal struggles of unions to transform their institutional practices and policies, and external struggles to improve conditions of employment, and to advance equity through social policy. These papers offer a gendered analysis and make visible not only the relevance of gender to understanding unions as a labour market institution but also the critical importance of union women’s organizing to the project of union revitalization. These papers draw on and interrogate statistical data, and also utilize documentary sources from unions. They raise issues often neglected in the scholarly literature and absent in most published statistics.
 
Excavating the Labour Dispute data from Statistics Canada: A Research Note
By Linda Briskin and Kristine Klement. Just Labour (www.justlabour.yorku.ca) vol.4 (Summer 2004): 83-95.
 
Equity Bargaining/Bargaining Equity
By Linda Briskin. Toronto: Centre for Research on Work and Society, York University, July 2006.
 
Gender Inequality and Precarious Work: Exploring the Impact of Unions through the Gender and Work Database
By Andrew Jackson. Presented at the “Gender & Work: Knowledge Production in Practice” Conference, 2004.
 
Gendering Union Renewal: Women’s Contributions to Labour Movement Revitalization
By Jan Kainer. Prepared for the GWD, 2006.
Summarizes key themes from union renewal literature, arguing that the contributions of women’s organizing are given scant consideration in debates on labour movement revitalization.
 
The Work Stoppage Data from Human Resources and Skills Development Canada: A Research Note
By Linda Briskin. Just Labour (www.justlabour.yorku.ca) vol. 5 (Winter 2005): 80-89.
 
Thinking Through Labour’s Organizing Strategies: What the Data Reveal and What the Data Conceal
By Rosemary Warskett. Presented at the “Gender & Work: Knowledge Production in Practice” Conference, 2004.
 
Union Leadership and Equity Representation
By Linda Briskin. Prepared for the GWD, 2006.
Provides a thematic and analytic framework within which to explore issues pertinent to cultivating inclusive union leadership in the 21st century.
 
Worker Militancies Revealed: Interrogating the Statistical Data
By Linda Briskin. Prepared for the GWD, 2006.
This paper investigates new ways of looking at overall patterns of worker militancy as well as its gendered nature.