The dynamics of union responses to migrant workers in Canada

Jason Foster, Alison Taylor and Candy Khan
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Jason Foster: Athabasca University, Canada
Alison Taylor: University of British Columbia, Canada
Candy Khan: University of Alberta, Canada

Work, Employment & Society, 2015, vol. 29, issue 3, 409-426

Abstract: This study examines how five unions in the Canadian province of Alberta responded to a sudden influx of temporary foreign workers (TFWs), as part of Canadian employers’ increased use of migrant workers in the mid-2000s. The authors find three types of response to the new TFW members: resistive, facilitative and active. Furthermore, these responses were dynamic and changing over time. The different responses are best explained not by the unions’ institutional context, but by internal factors shaping each union’s response. Drawing upon the concept of referential unionisms, the study explores how unions’ self-identity shapes their responses to new challenges such as the influx of migrant workers.

Keywords: Canada; migrant workers; referential unionisms; union representation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:woemps:v:29:y:2015:i:3:p:409-426

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