LearningWork is a community of practice, engaged in dialogue, research and action on learning and work issues. Its active steering committee and working groups bring together academic, labour and community researchers and practitioners. All contribute to the internal life of OISE (Ontario Institute for Studies in Education) and the University of Toronto, both in the graduate program and the pre-service program. They also support the organizational capacity of the labour movement, and develop practical alternative tools to the dominant neo-liberal discourses on learning and work.
Judith Marshall (left) and Johanne Deschamps (right) explore media images of workers in a globalising economy. Credit: D'Arcy Martin
Toronto Star – Protect Ontario’s Poorest Workers
Toronto Star – Protect Ontario’s Poorest Workers
Steven HeyerOntario’s poorest workers have been denied tens of millions of dollars in wages over the past five years because of the province’s outdated and unenforced labour laws. That’s the shocking finding of a report released this week by the Workers’ Action Centre titled Working on the Edge, which chronicles seven years of employer abuses in the Greater Toronto Area. The violations include wages below minimum pay rates, failing to pay overtime or statutory holiday, vacation and termination pay and denying workers sick leave, unemployment insurance, health, injury and pension benefits.
To read more, go to http://www.thestar.com/article/220663.
Graduate Fellowships in New Brunswick Labour History
The New Brunswick Labour History Project invites applications for graduate fellowships at the University of New Brunswick and the Université de Moncton in the history of labour in 20th century New Brunswick.
The fellowships are supported by a Community-University Research Alliance grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council that involves academic researchers at the two universities and 12 community-based partner organizations. Under SSHRC guidelines applicants must be Canadian citizens or permanent residents. Fellows will be expected to meet the requirements of their graduate program while also taking on other duties in the work of the project.
We expect to award two M.A. fellowships valued at $12,000 per annum and one Ph.D. fellowship valued at $15,000 per annum. The M.A. fellowships are tenable at either the Université de Moncton or the University of New Brunswick and the Ph.D. fellowship at the University of New Brunswick. Funding is available for up to five terms for the M.A. and up to four years for the Ph.D. To be eligible, candidates must be accepted by an appropriate graduate program at either university. Candidates will also be considered for any supplementary awards for which they are eligible at either university.
Applications should include a short résumé, a relevant writing sample and a proposal of up to 1,000 words. Candidates should be in contact with a prospective supervisor. Proposals must fall within one or more of the principal project themes:
- the history of organized labour in New Brunswick;
- the history of work in Acadian New Brunswick;
- the transformation of women’s work;
- work in the resource industries;
- the working-class memory in New Brunswick history.
Candidates entering graduate studies should apply through the normal university process, including their proposal and identifying their interest in the fellowship in addition to the normal academic documentation required by the universities. Applications must be received at the University of New Brunswick by 15 January and at the Université de Moncton by 1 June. For further information on applications for graduate studies at either university, visit: www.unb.ca/gradschl or www.umoncton.ca/fesr.
Students who are currently in a graduate program at either university are also eligible to apply. Such applications should be submitted to the New Brunswick Labour History Project by 31 January. In order to do so, or for further information on the project, contact the Project Officers at lhtnb@unb.ca or lhtnb@umoncton.ca.
CSEW & Toronto Training Board Presentation to Parliament on Employment
“We need policies that allow people…to move in and out of the labour force. We need policies that look at more than jobs. We need policies that look at overall sustainable livelihoods, that look at people as assets and not deficits, and not as something that needs to be fixed…We need employment policies that are sensitive to the entirety of workers’ lives. We need ways to allow women to go to work, to allow people with disabilities to go to work, and to allow all of us to be productive workers who participate in Canada’s economic growth and productivity.” - Karen Lior, Toronto Training Board
Building Bridges: A Labour Studies Conference
University of Windsor, Windsor, Canada
How can we defend and create good jobs, protect the environment, challenge injustice and inequality, and create peace?
It’s a tall order, but there is a lot at stake. We’ve got lots of experience winning, but face some new and daunting challenges, too. Join union activists, researchers, students and artists from across the continent at this free conference to share strategies, find out what works, and discuss how we can work together to build a stronger movement for progressive social change.
Themes:
- Reaching under-represented workers
- Building union cooperation in Canada and across borders
- Strengthening alliances between labour and social movements
- Reaching out through alternative media, art and culture
Participants include: Hassan Yusseff (CLC), Sam Gindin (CAW, ret.), Charlotte Yates
(McMaster University), Geoff Bickerton (CUPW), Carol Phillips (CAW), Julia Quinonez (Comite Frontizero de Obreras, Mexico), Kate Bronfenbrenner (Cornell University), Vincenzo Pietropaolo …For more information, updates, or to register, go to: http://web4.uwindsor.ca/units/socsci/Labour.nsf/
Restructuring the Academy: Current Realities and Preferred Directions
Ontario Confederation of University Faculty Associations (OCUFA)
The conference will bring together researchers from universities in Canada and the United States. The conference is designed to reflect on the changing nature of academic work, the trends that underpin it, the implications for faculty, students, and higher education in general, and preferred future directions to ensure quality and equity in our universities.
To register, visit: http://www.ocufa.on.ca.
For more information, please contact Mark Rosenfeld at:
mrosenfeld@ocufa.on.ca or 416-979-2117 x233.
