Author: Steven Tufts
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COVID-19 and ‘Actually Existing’ Unions
The shut-down of non-essential work in response to COVID-19 has decimated labour markets. The US Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that 20.5 million more workers lost their jobs in April, … Keep reading »
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Living Wages for Airport Workers?
The 2018 increase in Ontario’s hourly minimum wage to $14 was perhaps the most substantial victory for low-wage workers in decades, including workers at Pearson International Airport. In a recent … Keep reading »
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Pension Plans Should Not Invest in Companies That Harm Working People
Of all the gains unions have made for workers, the ability to retire with dignity and a pension is perhaps the most valued. Last year employers and employees in Canada … Keep reading »
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Hotels vs Housing? Platforms, Rent and Resistance in Toronto
Whether it is called the collaborative, platform, crowd-sourcing, or ‘sharing’ economy, the rise of peer-to-peer exchanges raises important questions for workers and unions. Watch video »
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Fragmentation in Toronto’s Hotel Sector
The intensity of the current conflict between UNITE HERE and its trusteeship of Local 75 and Unifor’s formation of a new local of hospitality workers (condemned by most of the labour movement as a raid) makes critical self-reflection and discussion especially difficult. In this essay, Steven Tufts attempts to put this clash into perspective and offers ways forward that point to a unity beyond the current polarizing divisions in the sector. Keep reading »
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Unions and the Gig-Economy: The Case of AirBnB
The so-called gig-economy is celebrated, maligned, fetishized, and qualified by analysts. Whether it is called the collaborative, platform, crowd-sourcing, or sharing-economy, the rise of peer-to-peer exchanges does raise important questions … Keep reading »
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Job Action at Toronto Pearson Airport Shows Why Little Strikes Matter
As Labour Day approaches, we are often reminded of the large strikes that defined Canada’s labour movement. The 30,000 workers in the 1919 Winnipeg General Strike or 11,000 autoworkers in … Keep reading »
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The Particular Politics of Casino Development in Toronto
“What hypocrisy to forcibly close petty gambling houses, when our capitalist society cannot do without an immense gambling house, where millions after millions are lost and won, for its very … Keep reading »
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Can Labour Precipitate a ‘Useful Crisis’ at Air Canada?
Shortly after being appointed Ontario’s Minister of Training and Education by Mike Harris in the mid 1990s, John Snobelen stated that it was necessary to create a ‘useful crisis’ in … Keep reading »
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Renewing Working Class Politics, Rebuilding Canadian Labour
Toronto — 23 March 2012. View on www.slideshare.net Mark P. Thomas and Steve Tufts, York University: “Uneven Worker Power and the Populism-Austerity-Labour Nexus” Herman Rosenfeld teaches Labour Studies at McMaster … Watch video »
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Greening Work in an Age of Uncertainty
Is There Something Worse than Climate Change Denial? The theme for the 17th Conference of the Parties (COP) in Durban was “Working Together: Saving Tomorrow Today.” Canada’s conservative government, backed by … Keep reading »
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Worker Power in an Age of Uneven Austerity
Any time commentators speak of a new ‘age,’ powerful assumptions quickly become entrenched in our thinking. An ‘age of austerity’ now encompasses many western economies as governments launch fierce campaigns … Keep reading »