Since the 1940s, unions in Canada have been shaped by a distinctive mode of legal and administrative regulation, one of whose features is the prohibition of sympathy strikes. In October 2005, the British Columbia Teachers Federation struck and, unusually, was supported by sympathy strike action. This article conceptualises Canadian labour law theoretically in terms of the political administration of society by capitalist state power and then examines the sympathy strikes, the conditions that made them possible, and their effects, significance and implications for the working-class movement in Canada and beyond.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
Atleson, J.B. ( 1994) ‘Law and union power: Thoughts on the United States and Canada’, Buffalo Law Review, no. 42, pp. 463-500.
2.
Auf der Mar, N. ( 1972) ‘The May revolt’, Last Post , June, pp. 10-27.
3.
Barker, C., A. Johnson & M. Lavalette ( 2001) ‘Leadership matters: An introduction’ , in C. Barker, A. Johnson & M. Lavalette (eds.) Leadership and Social Movements (Manchester University Press).
4.
BC Federation of Labour (2005) statement posted online at <www.bcfed.com>, 20 October (paper copy in author’s possession).
5.
BC Federation of Labour (2005) ‘BC workers support teachers and protest Bill 12’, statement posted online at <www.bcfed.com>, n.d.
6.
BC Public School Employers Association v. BC Teachers Federation (2005) Supreme Court of British Columbia, BCSC 1490, BBrown, J.
7.
Bctf (2005a) ‘Teachers’ strike vote a resounding "Yes"’, online at BC Teachers’ Federation website<www.bctf.ca>, accessed 13 July 2006.
8.
Bctf (2005b) ‘Teachers vote to return to school’, online at BC Teachers’ Federation website<www.bctf.ca>, accessed 13 July 2006.
9.
Bonefeld, W. ( 1993) The Recomposition of the British State During the 1980s (Dartmouth).
10.
Camfield, D. ( 2002) ‘Class, politics and social change: The remaking of the working class in 1940s Canada’, Ph.D dissertation, York University.
11.
Camfield, D. ( 2005) ‘Public sector "reform" and the future of public sector unions’, Review of Economic and Social Trends in Manitoba, vol. 5, no. 1 (Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives ).
12.
Camfield, D. ( 2006) ‘Neoliberalism and working class resistance in British Columbia: The hospital employees’ union struggle, 2002 2004’ , Labour/Le Travail, no. 57, Spring, pp. 9-41.
13.
Camfield, D. ( 2007a) ‘Renewal in Canadian public sector unions: Neoliberalism and union praxis’, Relations industrielles/Industrial Relations, vol. 62, no. 2, pp. 282-304.
14.
Camfield, D. ( 2007b) ‘CUPE’s sympathy strikes in British Columbia, October 2005: Raising the bar for solidarity’, Just Labour, no. 11, Winter, pp. 35-42.
15.
Carter, D. et al. (2002) Labour Law in Canada, 5th edition (Butterworths Canada).
16.
CBC (2005) ‘One more hurdle in teachers’ strike’, online at CBC News website, <www.cbc.ca> ;, 21 October, accessed 13 July 2006.
17.
Cknw (2005) ‘"What is Ready’s role?" Opposition wonders’, online at CKNW news website , <www.cknw.com>, 21 October (paper copy in author’s possession).
18.
Cohen, S. ( 2006) Ramparts of Resistance: Why Workers Lost Their Power and How to Get It Back (Pluto Press).
19.
Corrigan, P. & D. Sayer ( 1981) ‘How the law rules: Variations on some themes in Karl Marx’, B. Fryer et al. (eds.) Law, State and Society (Croom Helm) pp. 21-53.
Dobbin, M. (n.d. [2007]) I am the BCTF: The Story of the 2005 BC Teachers’ Strike (BC Teachers’ Federation).
22.
Earle, M. & I. Mackay ( 1989) ‘Introduction: Industrial legality in Nova Scotia’ , in M. Earle & I. Mackay (eds.) Workers and the State in Twentieth Century Nova Scotia (Acadiensis) pp. 9-23.
23.
Fairbrother, P. & C. Yates ( 2003) ‘Unions in crisis, unions in renewal?’ Trade Unions in Renewal: A Comparative Study, P. Fairbrother & C. Yates (eds.) (Continuum) pp. 1-31.
24.
Fantasia, R. ( 1988) Cultures of Solidarity: Consciousness, Action and Contemporary American Workers (University of California Press).
25.
Fong, P. ( 2005) ‘Province’s strike savings will give boost to schools’, Globe and Mail, 10 December.
26.
Forrest, A. ( 1995) ‘Securing the male breadwinner: A feminist interpretation of PC 1003’, C. Gonick , P. Phillips & J. Vorst (eds.) Labour Gains, Labour Pains: 50 Years of PC 1003 (Society for Socialist Studies & Fernwood) pp. 139-162.
27.
Fudge, J. & E. Tucker ( 2001) Labour Before the Law: The Regulation of Workers’ Collective Action in Canada, 1900-1948 (Oxford University Press).
28.
Gordon, T. ( 2007) ‘Towards an anti-racist Marxist state theory: A Canadian case study’, Capital & Class, no. 91, pp. 1-29.
29.
Gramsci, A. ( 1971) Selections from the Prison Notebooks, Q. Hoare & G. Nowell-Smith (trans. and eds.) (International Publishers).
30.
Hyman, R. ( 1989) The Political Economy of Industrial Relations: Theory and Practice in a Cold Climate (Macmillan).
31.
Isitt, B. & M. Moroz ( 2007) ‘The hospital employees’ union strike and the privatization of Medicare in British Columbia, Canada’, International Labor and Working-Class History, no. 71, pp. 91-111.
32.
Klare, K. ( 1980/81) ‘Labor law as ideology: Toward a new historiography of collective bargaining law’, Industrial Relations Law Journal, no. 4, pp. 450-482.
33.
Kuehn, L., BCTF Director of Research and Technology (2007) email to author, 6 December.
34.
Leier, M. ( 2003) ‘The strike as political protest’, unpublished research report, online at <www.sfu.ca> ;, accessed 12 July 2006.
35.
Mann, C. (n.d. [2005]) ‘"In McKenna no trust": Labour’s response to the Expenditure Management Act of 1992 in New Brunswick,’ unpublished paper.
36.
Matters, B. (2006) emails to author, 9 and 10 July.
37.
Moody, K. ( 2007) US Labor in Trouble and Transition: The Failure of Reform from Above, the Promise of Revival from Below ( Verso).
38.
Moore, O. ( 2005) ‘Teachers get "a way out"’, Globe and Mail, 14 October, S1, S3.
39.
Murray, G. ( 2002) ‘Unions in Canada: Strategic renewal, strategic conundrums’, in P. Fairbrother & G. Griffin (eds.) Changing Prospects for Trade Unionism: Comparisons between Six Countries (Continuum) pp. 93-136.
40.
Neocleous, M. ( 1996) Administering Civil Society: Towards a Theory of State Power (Macmillan andSt. Martin’s).
41.
Palmer, B.D. ( 1992) Working-Class Experience: Rethinking the History of Canadian Labour, 2nd edition ( McClelland and Stewart).
42.
Palmer, B.D. ( 2003) ‘What’s law got to do with it? Historical considerations on class struggle, boundaries of constraint, and capitalist authority’, Osgoode Hall Law Journal, no. 41, pp. 465-490.
43.
Palmer, B.D. ( 2005) ‘System failure: The breakdown of the post-war settlement and the politics of labour in our time’, Labour/Le Travail, no. 55, pp. 334-346.
44.
Panitch, L. & D. Swartz ( 2003) From Consent to Coercion: The Assault on Trade Union Freedoms , 3rd edition (Garamond).
45.
Picard, A. ( 1989) ‘New walkouts fuel Quebec’s labour unrest’ , Globe and Mail, 13 September, A1.
46.
Pratt, M. ( 1980) La Grève de la United Aircraft (Les Presses de l’Université du Québec).
47.
Ready, V.L. ( 2005) ‘In the matter of a dispute between Province of British Columbia and BC Public School Employers’ Association and BC Teachers’ Federation’, online at BC Teachers’ Federation website<www.bctf.ca>, accessed 24 August 2006.
48.
Reshef, Y. & S. Rastin ( 2003) Unions in the Time of Revolution: Government Restructuring in Alberta and Ontario (University of Toronto Press).
49.
Sears, A. ( 2003) Retooling the Mind Factory: Education in a Lean State (Garamond).
50.
Therborn, G. ( 1980) The Ideolog y of Power and the Power of Ideolog y ( New Left Books).
51.
Ward, D. & M. Cernetig ( 2005) ‘A day of defiance: More walkouts, protests coming to support teachers, unions say’, Vancouver Sun , 15 October, A1.
52.
Warrian, P. ( 1986) ‘"Labour is not a commodity": A study of the rights of labour in the Canadian postwar economy, 1944-1948’, Ph.D dissertation (University of Waterloo).
53.
Wells, D.M. ( 1995) ‘Origins of Canada’s Wagner model of industrial relations: The United Auto Workers in Canada and the suppression of "rank and file" unionism, 1936-1953’, Canadian Journal of Sociolog y, vol. 20, no. 2, pp. 193-225.
54.
Wood, E.M. ( 1995) Democracy Against Capitalism: Renewing Historical Materialism . (Cambridge University Press).
