Rising Up

The Fight for Living Wage Work in Canada

Edited by Bryan Evans, Carlo Fanelli, and Tom McDowell
Categories: Canadian Political Science, Public & Social Policy, Social Sciences, Economics, Work & Labour Studies
Publisher: UBC Press
Hardcover : 9780774864367, 300 pages, February 2021
Paperback : 9780774864374, 300 pages, November 2021
Ebook (PDF) : 9780774864381, 300 pages, February 2021
Ebook (EPUB) : 9780774864398, 300 pages, February 2021
Buy Direct
View Table of Contents

Table of contents

1 Resisting Low-Wage Work: The Struggle for Living Wages / Bryan Evans, Carlo Fanelli, and Tom McDowell

Part 1: The "Standard" Employment Relationship: Low-Wage Work

 

2 The Comparative Political Economy of Low Wages / Stephen McBride, Sorin Mitrea, and Mohammad Ferdosi

3 Labour Justice: Assessing the Politics of the American Labor Movement / Biko Koenig and Deva Woodly

4 Media (Mis)Representations and the Living Wage Movement / Carlo Fanelli and A.J. Wilson

Part 2: The Fight for Living Wages in Canada

5 The Emergence of the Living Wage Movement in Canada’s Northern Territories / Kendall Hammond

6 Getting By but Dreaming of Normal: Low-Wage Employment, Living in Toronto, and the Crisis of Social Reproduction / Meg Luxton and Patricia McDermott

7 The Living Wage and the Extremely Precarious: The Case of "Illegalized" Migrant Workers / Charity-Ann Hannan, John Shields, and Harald Bauder

8 Working for a Living, Not Living for Work: Living Wages in the Maritimes / Mary-Dan Johnston and Christine Saulnier

9 The BC Living Wage for Families Campaign: A Decade of Building / Catherine Ludgate

10 Challenging the Small Business Ideology in Saskatchewan’s Living Wage Debate / Andrew Stevens

Part 3: Resistance and Alternatives

11 The Living Wage Campaign in Hamilton: Assessing the Voluntary Approach / David Goutor

12 Why Business-Led Living Wage Campaigns Fail: The Case of Calgary, Alberta 1999–2009 / Carol-Anne Hudson

13 The Low-Wage Economy in the Age of Neoliberalism: What Can be Done? / Tom McDowell, Sune Sandbeck, and Bryan Evans

List of Contributors; Index

Description

Rising Up traces the history and international context of living wage movements across Canada. This compassionate and astute collection of essays shines a light on alternatives to a neoliberalized labour market, examining union- and community-based approaches to labour organizing, migrant labour, and media (mis)representations, among other key topics. Canada has one of the highest rates of low-wage work among advanced industrial economies. In a labour market characterized by the ongoing fallout from COVID-19, deepening income inequality, job instability, and diluted union representation, the living wage movement offers a response and solutions.

Reviews

This is an older, more classical, and well-informed political economy analysis.

- T. M. Bateman, St. Thomas University