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It will be interesting to see if the Ontario government acts substantively on the recommendations that were made by different groups during its Changing Workplace Review.  Ontario, like virtually every jurisdiction in North America, has experienced an enormous expansion of non-standard work.  The Standard Employment Relationship (SER) to which people aspired in the five decades … More Ontario Changing Workplaces Review

The Canadian and American governments dealt with the issue of genetic testing this past week.  Republicans in the House of Representatives introduced legislation that would enable employers to demand genetic testing results from employees participating in wellness programs.  A worker who declines to provide such results could face massive increases in health insurance premiums.  Here … More Genetic Testing and Individual Rights

The latest issue of the Atlantic has an interesting article that considers whether or not Donald Trump can split the American labor movement:  https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/03/can-trump-divide-organized-labor/518967/.  The article regrettably does not consider the main fissure in the movement:  private versus public sector unions.  The current state of organized labor in the United States is comparable to how … More US Labor and the Trump Administration

A conference will be held at York University in Toronto on May 26 to 27, 2017 honouring the work of historian Craig Heron (who was also my dissertation supervisor).  Here is more info courtesy of the CCLH website: http://cclh.ca/craig-heron-retirement-conference-may-26-27

This is another recording of Adolf Berle — from the very fine online digital collections at UC Santa Barbara — talking about the need to regulate corporate power.  At one point, he argues that nobody wants to go back to the Dickensian conditions described in books like Bleak House and also casts aspersions on the … More Adolf Berle on Corporate Power and the Berle Centre

This article in today’s Globe and Mail discusses the decline of Humanities and Social Science education in Canadian universities. The trend is evident elsewhere. While I do have biases as a historian, there are very pressing reasons why we need people to study Humanities and Social Science subjects. For example, I am convinced that much … More The Value of the Humanities and Social Sciences

Andrew Smith (University of Liverpool) and Kevin Tennent (University of York) and I have been working on two projects that focus on the work of Adolf Berle.  Berle was a member of Franklin Roosevelt’s Brains Trust during the New Deal era.  Berle collaborated with Gardiner Means on a book called The Modern Corporation and Private … More Adolf Berle (Roosevelt’s Brains Trust)

I am looking forward to presenting at the 2017 Critical Management Studies (CMS) conference in Liverpool, England.  This conference is held every two years, and it looks like it will be well-attended: CMS 2017 I also encourage anyone interested in a critical analysis of work and management to look further into the Critical Management Studies … More Critical Management Studies Conference 2017

Please take a look at our graduate Work and Labor Studies program: ESC MA in Work and Labor Policy