Labour and labour related issues have been at the centre of media attention over the past few weeks. The 2016 Alberta Budget was announced. “The Alberta Jobs Plan,” as the budget is called, has the goal of diversifying Alberta’s economy and creating thousands of jobs.
April 28 was the National Day of Mourning in Canada—a day that is dedicated to workers who have lost their lives, have been injured, or who have suffered illness on the job. The National Day of Mourning is an opportunity to acknowledge these injuries, to remember lost lives, and to renew the commitment to health and safety in the workplace. Most recently we remember Ian Henry Pervez, a 24-year-old employee at Pearson International Airport in Toronto, who was killed on the job when his luggage cart rolled over just a few weeks ago.
International Worker’s day was on May 1, a day that is often used to stage protests to draw attention to working conditions and other labour related issues. This year, a protest was mounted at Pearson International Airport to demand a $15 minimum wage and an end to contract flipping. In Québec, the Québec Federation of Labour launched a $15-an-hour campaign. The current minimum wage in Québec is $10.75, a wage proven not to be enough for workers to pay their bills and buy food for their families.
AU Press, along with the Canadian Committee on Labour History, publishes a series entitled Working Canadians and the renowned journal Labour/Le travail. In the book series, you will find accounts and case studies that serve as important reminders of where we have come from and how we got here.
If you are interested in Canada’s modern welfare system, The Wages of Relief: Cities and the Unemployed in Prairie Canada, 1929–39 describes the enduring impact of the policy changes made in the 1930s in the direction of a broad, national approach to unemployment.
If you are looking for some entertainment, Champagne and Meatballs: Adventures of a Canadian Communist is a cheeky memoir from Bert Whyte, a journalist, an underground party organizer and soldier during World War II, and a press correspondent in Beijing and Moscow.
If you are from Alberta, Working People in Alberta: A History traces the history of labour in Alberta from the period of the fur trade to the present and creates a composite portrait of the men and women who have worked to build and sustain our province.
