Table of Contents
Preface: The PEPSO Story viii
Part I Precarity in Canada 1
1 Origins of Precarity: Families and Communities in Crisis Wayne Lewchuk Stephanie Procyk John Shields 2
The Standard Employment Relationship 5
How Many Workers Are in Precarious Employment? 10
Employment Relationships and Household Well-Being 12
Part II Creating Precarity and Its Social Impact 17
2 "No One Cares about Us": Precarious Employment among Racialized Immigrant Women Yogendra Shakya Stephanie Premji 18
Divergent Pathways to Precarious Employment 20
Policy Gaps and Precarious Employment 24
Policy Recommendations 27
3 Precarious Undertakings: Serving Vulnerable Communities through Non-Profit Work John Shields Donna Baines Ian Cunningham 31
The Dimensions of Precarity 32
The Non-Profit Sector and the Ontario Context 32
Neoliberalism and the Remaking of the Non-Profit Service Sector 34
The Precariousness of Non-Profit Employment and the Struggle for Decent Work 37
Serving the Community, Increased Vulnerability and the Muting of Community Voice 40
Conclusion 42
4 Sacrificing the Family for the Family: Impacts of Repeated Separations on Temporary Foreign Workers Aaraón Díaz Mendiburo André Lyn Janet McLaughlin Biljana Vasilevska Don Wells 44
Powerful Employers, Vulnerable Workers 46
Economic Impacts 48
Impacts on Spouses and Spousal Relationships 50
Impacts on Workers 51
Impaction Children 52
Policy Proposals and Conclusion 54
5 Precarious Students and Families in Halton, Ontario: Linking Citizenship, Employment and Filipino Student Success Jennilee Austria Philip Kelly Don Wells 57
Halton's Growing Filipino Community 59
Haltan's Context of Social Inequality 61
Our Survey 61
Precarious Families 62
Precarious Employment 64
Precarious Students 67
Conclusion 72
Part III Resisting Precarity 75
6 $14 Now!: Voices of the Minimum Wage Campaign (Serene K. Tan) 76
Backgrounding the Minimum Wage Campaign 78
Individual Participation in Collective Action 80
Recognizing Private Labour behind Public Action 81
The Voluntary Nature of Organizing 82
Networks and Connections 84
Centralization and Locational Specificity 87
Conclusions and Lessons Learned 89
7 Re-Scripting Care Work: Collaborative Cultural Production and Caregiver Advocacy Philip Kelly Conely de Leon 91
Participatory Arts, Solidarity and Caregivers 94
Kwentong Bayan: Labour of Love 96
The Nanny Project 97
"Kwento ng Caregiver" 99
Operetang Maynila 100
Beyond Unskilled Work 101
Beyond Confined Places and the Scale of the Home 103
Beyond Abject Labour 105
Conclusion 107
8 Cleaners Against Precarity: Lessons from a Vulnerable Workforce Sean Patterson Jenny Carson Myer Siemiatycki 109
Toronto Municipal Cleaners Under Attack 112
City Cleaners Push Back: The Justice and Dignity for Cleaners Campaign 113
Private Sector Cleaners 116
Union Organizing of Private Sector Cleaners 117
Contract Flipping 119
Resisting Precarity Going Forward 120
9 Austerity, Precarity and Workers' Voice: Representation for Precarious Workers in Non-Union Social Services Ian Cunningham Donna Baines John Shields 123
Representation at Work and the Representation Gap 124
Representation for Precarious Workers in the Non-Profit and Social Services Sector 126
Austerity and Precarious Conditions at Work 127
Approaches to Employee Representation 130
The Effectiveness of Non-Union Forms of Participation 130
Are Unions the Answer? 132
Conclusion and Discussion 134
10 The Immigrant Discount Working on the Edges of the Labour Market Diane Dyson Nasima Akter 137
Survival Jobs 139
Working Conditions 141
Ontario's Employment Standards 142
Bullying, Harassment and Discrimination 143
Awareness of Employment Rights 144
Implications 146
Part IV What to Do About Precarity? 149
11 Workers' Precarity: What to Do About It? Wayne Lewchuk Stephanie Procyk 150
Making Employment Less Precarious 152
Enabling Voice for Workers in Precarious Employment 158
Enhancing Social and Community Supports 161
Conclusion 163
Resources 166
Calculating your Employment Precarity Score 166
Interested in Learning Where Your Organization's Employment Policies Are on the Issue of Workforce Security? 166
PEPSO Website 166
References 167
Acknowledgements 184
Contributors 187
