http://www.yorku.ca/glrc @GLRC_York glrc@yorku.ca

Global Labour Research Centre

International Graduate Student Symposium 2017

October 26-27, 2017

York University Toronto, Canada

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The Global Labour Research Centre (GLRC) at York University is very pleased to welcome you to our third annual International Graduate Student Symposium. The symposium showcases graduate student research on a wide range of issues related to the study of work and labour in a global context, and offers an interdisciplinary forum for graduate students and post-doctoral fellows to share their research in a collaborative environment. In addition to panels on a broad array of topics, this year’s symposium features a keynote lecture that is also the inaugural John Eleen Annual Lecture in Global Labour, a new initiative of the GLRC. The lecture will be delivered by Dr. Henry A. Giroux on the topic of ‘Higher

Education and the Plague of Authoritarianism’. The symposium also includes a plenary panel of researchers who are currently working in the labour movement and who will be discussing their experiences doing research in that context. On the final day of the symposium, we will be hosting a performance of the play Life on the Line, a play that captures the experiences of the 1984-85 strike at Eaton’s in Toronto. The symposium was organized by a committee of York University graduate students, with the support of the GLRC. I would like to thank Rawan Abdelbaki, Matthew Corbeil, Lacey Croft, Jolin Joseph, Adam King, and Candies Kotchapaw for taking the initiative to bring this symposium together. I would also like to thank GLRC Coordinator Jordan House for his contributions to the organizing committee. The symposium is made possible through financial support from the following York University bodies: Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies, Faculty of Graduate Studies, Vice President Research & Innovation, Vice President Academic & Provost, Canada Research Chair in the Political Economy of Gender and Work, Centre for Feminist Research, Osgoode Hall Law School, Graduate Program in Geography, Graduate Program in Public Policy and Administration, the Spaces of Labour in Moments of Urban Populism Project, as well as the Canadian Association for Work and Labour Studies and the LIUNA Enrico Henry Mancinelli Professor in Global Labour Issues at McMaster University. I hope you find your experience at the symposium to be rewarding and that it will inspire your work as you move forward in your studies. Mark Thomas, Director Global Labour Research Centre, York University

Thursday October 26

A Message from the Director

GLRC Graduate Student Symposium 3

10:30-11:00 Breakfast & Registration

11:00-12:30 Opening Plenary: Research in the Labour Movement

12:30-1:30 Lunch

1:30-3:00

Work in the New Economy Workers Movements: Canadian Contexts

3:00-3:15 Coffee Break

3:15-4:45

Precarious Work Citizenship, Migration, & Labour

6:30-8:30 Keynote Presentation / John Eleen Annual Lecture in Global Labour - Henry A. Giroux

Friday, October 27

9.15-9:45 Breakfast & Registration

9:45-11:15 Workers Movements: International Contexts

The Environment, Rural & Resource Workers

11:15-11:30 Coffee Break

11:30-1:00

Gender, Labour, & Social Reproduction

Dimensions of Global Capitalism

1:00-2:00 Lunch

2:00-3:00 Performance: Life on The Line: Women Strike at Eaton’s 1984-85

3:30-6:00 Conference Social

Schedule at a Glance Thursday, October 26

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VH 3000 Breakfast & Registration

VH 1152A Opening Plenary: Research in the Labour Movement

Moderator: Leah Vosko (York University) Emily Norgang, Senior Researcher, Canadian Labour Congress

Thevaki Thevaratnam, Director of Research and Education, Ontario Federation of Labour Angelo DiCaro, National Representative, Research Department, Unifor Michal Rozworski, Research Analyst, Collective Bargaining, OCUFA

VH 3000 Lunch

VH 3006 Work in the New Economy

Chair: David Doorey (York University) Diana Elizarova (University of Calgary) Crowd Employment Platforms: Neutral or Value-laden? Kait Kribs (York University) Enabling Equal Access, or Exploiting Emerging Artists? Musician Labour, Content Aggregation, and TuneCore Stefan Mikuska (York University) Financial Inclusion and Informality: The Political Economy of Mobile Financial Services in Kenya Jamil Rabih Fakhri (Université de Montréal) Drivers Vs Uber – The Limits of the Judicialization. Critical Review of London’s Employment Tribunal Verdict in the Case of Aaslam Y. & Farrar J. Against Uber

Thursday, October 26 10:30 – 11:00

11:00 – 12:30

12:30-1:30

1.30-3:00

GLRC Graduate Student Symposium 5

VH 3009 Workers Movements: Canadian Contexts

Chair: Stephanie Ross (McMaster University) Joseph DeLazzari (McMaster University) Increasing Horsepower: Union Merger as Union Renewal Jordan House (York University) A Ridiculous Idea that Will Not Wither: The Unionization of Federal Prisoners in Canada, 1975-2013. Kelly Flinn (York University) ‘Almost a Union’: Canadian Visual Artists and the Working Identity Mylene Fauvel (Université de Montréal) The $15 Campaigns in Quebec: Challenges of Collective Action and Coalition Work

VH 3000 Coffee Break

VH 3006

Precarious Work Chair: Kelly Pike (York University) Grace Maich (Brock University) Insecurity and Communities: How Precarious Work Shapes Participation Patterns Vanisha Sukdeo (Osgoode Hall Law School) Isolation and Inequality at Work Melissa Cameron (McMaster University) The Impact of a Living Wage from the Perspectives of Workers Candies Kotchapaw (York University) The Black Experience of Precarious Work in Social Services in Southern Ontario, Canada: An Auto-ethnography and Phenomenological Study of the Characteristics and Consequences of Precarious Work

3:15-4:45

3:00-3:15

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VH 3009

Citizenship, Migration, & Labour Chair: Ethel Tungohan (York University) Azin Emami (York University) Dispossession, Displacement and Precarious Labour in the Gulf Region Kristy Milland (McMaster University) The Unsupported Crowd: Exclusion of Indian Workers in Amazon Mechanical Turk Communities Munjeera Jefford (York University) Immigration Policies in Canada: Hegemonic Masculinities and Intersectional Critiques

GLRC Graduate Student Symposium 7

Senate Chamber, N940 Ross Building

Keynote Presentation / John Eleen Annual Lecture in Global Labour

Higher Education and the Plague of Authoritarianism

Henry A. Giroux McMaster University Chair for Scholarship in the Public Interest

Higher education in our politically desperate age is threatened by a legacy that it does not dare to name and that legacy with its eerie resonance with an authoritarian past asserts itself, in part, with the claim that education is failing. The Trump administration needs education to fail in a very particular way. Hostile to its role as a public good and democratic sphere, it is attempting to reshape education according to the market-driven logic of neoliberalism with its emphasis on privatization, commodification, deregulation, fear, and managerialism. Under such circumstances, higher education is threatened for its potential role as a public sphere capable of educating students as informed, critical thinkers capable of not only holding power accountable but also fulfilling the role of critical agents who can act against injustice and resist diverse forms of oppression. In this lecture, Professor Henry A. Giroux posits that the modern loss of faith in the marriage of education and democracy needs to be reclaimed, but that will only happen if the long legacy of struggle over education is once again brought to life as part of a more comprehensive understanding as education being central to politics itself. Dr. Henry A. Giroux holds the McMaster University Chair for Scholarship in the Public Interest in the Department of English and Cultural Studies. He is on the editorial and advisory boards of numerous national and international scholarly journals, and has served as the editor or co-editor of four scholarly book series. Dr. Giroux is a regular contributor to a number of online journals including Truthout, Eurozine, and CounterPunch. He has published in many journals including Social Text, Third Text, Cultural Studies, Harvard Educational Review, Theory, Culture, & Society, and Monthly Review. His most recent books include: Neoliberalism’s War on Higher Education (2014); Zombie Politics and Culture in the Age of Casino Capitalism (Peter Lang 2014, 2nd edition); The Violence of Organized Forgetting (City Lights, 2014); Disposable Futures: The Seduction of Violence in the Age of the Spectacle (co-authored with Brad Evans, City Lights, 2015); Dangerous Thinking in the Age of the New Authoritarianism (Routledge, 2016); America at War with Itself (City Lights, 2017); and The Public in Peril: Trump and the Menace of Authoritarianism (Routledge 2018). His primary research areas are: cultural studies, youth studies, critical pedagogy, popular culture, media studies, social theory, and the politics of higher and public education.

Co-sponsored by the Ontario Federation of Labour & Unifor

6:30-8:30

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VH 3000 Breakfast & Registration

VH 3006 Workers Movements: International Contexts

Chair: Carlo Fanelli (York University) Paul Bocking (York University) The Ontario Secondary School Teachers' Federation & International Solidarity in Latin America Gabriela Castillo (Queen’s University) Of Bread and Bosses: Wobblies and the Origins of Anarcho-Syndicalism in Chile Shannon Ikebe (UC Berkeley) A Social Democratic Path to Socialism? Contradictions of the Swedish Wage-Earner Funds Chris Fairweather (Carleton University) Left Nationalism and Transnational Solidarity: How Union Locals Strategize to Confront Global Capital

VH 3009 The Environment, Rural & Resource Workers

Chair: Jennifer Stephen (York University) Koustab Majumdar (Tata Institute of Social Sciences) Structural Change and Contemporary Transformation of Indian Economy Valentina Castellini (University of Toronto) Are Green Jobs Also Good Jobs? Recruitment Strategies in Green Businesses in Toronto Matthew O'Reilly (McMaster University) Inuit-Union Engagement in the Mining Sector Adam King (York University) The Process of Class Formation: Theoretical Reflections from Fieldwork in Sudbury, Ontario John Hayes (York University) Energy Reform, Rural Change, and the Weakening of Commons Collectives in Oaxaca, Mexico

Friday, October 27

9:45 – 11:15

9:15 – 9:45

GLRC Graduate Student Symposium 9

VH 3000 Coffee Break

VH 3006

Gender, Labour, & Social Reproduction Chair: Soma Chatterjee (York University) Laurence Hamel-Roy (Université de Montréal) Feminist Scholar Looks at Cash-for-Care in Quebec: Conceptual Challenges Encountered Ravi Tripathi (Université Sorbonne Paris Cité) Labour Market During the Crisis: Questioning the “German Miracle” Zina Mustafa (York University) Prison, Gender, and Employment in Toronto, Canada Kaitlin Peters (York University) An Exploratory Investigation of the Gender Pay Gap in Hamilton, Ontario

VH 3009 Dimensions of Global Capitalism

Chair: Steven Tufts (York University) Arun Jacob (McMaster University) How Much a Dollar Cost? Critiquing the Financialization of Information Society Ghada Sasa (York University) Israel: Greenwashing Colonialism and Apartheid Stuart Schussler (York University) Theorizing the Capitalist Hydra: The Mexican Drug War and Accumulation by Dispossession

VH 3000 Lunch

11:15-11:30

11:30-1:00

1:00 – 2:00

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Fred Thury Studio Theatre, Vanier College

Life on the Line: Women Strike at Eaton’s 1984-85 Life on the Line by Patricia McDermott with Vrenia Ivonoffski follows the course of a six-month strike by Eaton’s workers in 1984-85. An important piece of Canadian women’s labour history, the play engages wider themes of precarity, class exploitation, gendered work, and racialization in the retail sector. Life on the Line has enjoyed multiple showings at union venues and community events. The strike highlighted the need to reform first contract legislation and was an integral episode in the struggle to form unions in the service sector, themes which have continuing relevance today.

Co-sponsored by the Centre for Feminist Research, York University

Shopsy’s Sports Grill, York Lanes

Conference Social

2:00 – 3:00

3:30 – 6:00

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On public transportation: You can reach York's Keele campus using the TTC. From downtown Toronto, you go north on the University-Spadina subway line until you come to Sheppard West station (formerly Downsview), where you transfer onto either the 196 (York University Express) bus, or the 106 bus. Both of these buses let you off just outside York Lanes, and a trip from downtown takes about an hour. Bus Stops on Keele Campus In addition to buses running to York from Sheppard West subway station, several bus lines, including the local Toronto Transit Commission (TTC), stop at points on Keele Campus. These buses include: • TTC buses:

107 B&C Keele North — Downsview Station to Rutherford GO Station (107 B) or Teston Rd (107 C) via York U 195 - Jane Rocket, express bus from Jane subway station (Bloor line). 60C, 60F - Steeles buses from Finch subway station (Yonge line). 196 - York University Express bus from Sheppard West subway station (University-Spadina line). 106 - from Sheppard West subway station (University-Spadina line). 41 B&C - Keele buses from Keele subway station (Bloor line).

• Glendon Shuttle Bus • Go Transit - http://www.gotransit.com/publicroot/en/default.aspx • York Region Transit - https://www.yrt.ca/en/ In a car: You can reach York's Keele campus by car from highway 401 (via the Allen Road and Steeles) and highway 400 (via Steeles). There are entrances to the university from Keele, Jane, Steeles, and Finch. If you are coming from downtown, take the Allen Expressway to Finch Ave., go west on Finch to Keele St., and then north on Keele to the main York entrance. The most straightforward entrance to the campus by car is from Keele St. The closest available visitor parking is the York Lanes multi-level, pay parking garage, which is just to the north of York Lanes itself. You can ask for directions for parking at the Honour Court & Welcome Centre (55 York Boulevard), which is on your left after you have entered the campus from the Keele St. entrance. For this and other parking options, please see the main York campus map for the location of lots that are accessible to visitors.

Getting to York University, Keele Campus

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Campus Map