TORONTO, May 31, 2001 -- York University’s Centre for Research on Work and Society (CRWS) has brought together two one-day workshops – the first dealing with the struggles to humanize the labour market, the second on the challenges to unions – in a single conference entitled The Two Faces of the New Work Order. The conference will be held Fri., June 8, and Sat., June 9, From 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., at Victoria Chapel, Victoria University, University of Toronto, 140 Charles Street West.

The conference will focus on the new work order that has emerged in Canada and elsewhere, and the shifting global terrain for labour. Among its main themes is that capital has so weakened both national labour markets and international economic regulation, that labour must transform itself in order to survive.

"The recent international eruption of creative militancy around globalization serves to expose just how radically market forces have eroded life chances, at the same time as it reveals the intense pressures on trade unions to re-examine their structures and strategies," said CRWS director Carla Lipsig-Mummé.

Day one of the conference – Challenging the Market: the Struggle to Regulate Work and Income – will take an international perspective on the struggle to regulate the labour market. Panelists will discuss case studies on deregulation, the changing economics of the labour market, emerging forms of flexible work, and new strategies for regulating labour. It is organized by Canada Research Chair at York Leah Vosko and CAW economist Jim Stanford.

The second day – Power, Structure and Strategy: Unions in a Dangerous Time – will focus on the struggle within the union movement to transform itself to meet these challenges, using international and Canadian experiences of successful mergers, community unionism, new organizing, shifts in power within the labour movement, and international solidarity, to explore what can be done.

Both days feature international and Canadian speakers, creative case studies from around the world, and some comparisons between Quebec and the rest of Canada. Among some of the notable papers and presentations:

•Taking the Part of Part-timers: Can Labour Standards Legislation Be Used to Benefit Part-time Workers?
Dave Broad, University of Regina
•Does Size Matter? Mergers, Organizing And Rivalry in Recent Australian Trade Union Experience, 
John Buchanan, Australian Centre for Industrial Relations Research and Training
•From International Trade Secretariat to Global Union,
Deborah Bourque, Canadian Union of Postal Workers
•Organizing and Community Unionism,
Shelley Kessler, San Mateo Labor Council, United States
•Deregulating the Industrial Relations System in the Apparel Sector,
Michel Grant, Université du Québec à Montréal
•Technology, Geography, and Regulation: The Case of Call Centres in New Brunswick,
Tom Good and Joan McFarland, St. Thomas University
•Critical Times for French Employment Regulations: The 35-hour Week and the Challenge to Social Partnership,
Steve Jefferys, University of North London

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For more information, including a conference agenda and a detailed list of presenters, visit http://www.yorku.ca/crws, or contact:

Carla Lipsig-Mummé 
Director, CRWS
York University
416-736-5612
carlalm@yorku.ca

Robin Smith
CRWS
York University
416-736-5612
robins@yorku.ca

Ken Turriff
Media Relations
York University
416-736-2100, ext. 22086
kturriff@yorku.ca
YU/069/01