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Freedom to Strike in Canada: A Brief Legal History

Fudge, Judy (2010) Freedom to Strike in Canada: A Brief Legal History. Canadian Labour and Employment Law Journal, 15 (2). pp. 333-354. ISSN 1196-7889. (The full text of this publication is not currently available from this repository. You may be able to access a copy if URLs are provided) (KAR id:35349)

The full text of this publication is not currently available from this repository. You may be able to access a copy if URLs are provided.

Abstract

This paper looks at the "deep roots" of striking as a social prac-

tice in Canada, by providing an analytic framework for approaching the

history of the right to strike, and then sketching the contours of that his-

tory. Focusing on the three key worker freedoms - to associate, to bar-

gain collectively, and to strike - the authors trace the jural relations

between workers, employers and the state through four successive

regimes of industrial legality in Canada: master and servant; liberal

voluntarism; industrial voluntarism; and industrial pluralism, the latter

marked by the adoption of the Wagner Act model. On the basis of their

review of those regimes, the authors argue that long before the modern

scheme, workers enjoyed a virtually unlimited freedom to strike for col-

lective bargaining purposes. Although government-imposed restrictions

on the freedom have increased significantly, especially under industrial

pluralism, legislatures have typically provided workers with compensat-

ing trade-offs, including rights enforceable against their employers.

However in contrast to the historical pattern, public-sector workers

have with growing frequency been subjected to "exceptionalism," i.e. the

suspension or limitation of freedoms without a grant of compensatory

rights. In the authors'view, it is the imposition of such measures that will

likely provide the context for consideration of whether the Canadian

Charter of Rights and Freedoms protects the right to strike.

Item Type: Article
Subjects: K Law
Divisions: Divisions > Division for the Study of Law, Society and Social Justice > Kent Law School
Depositing User: D.A. Clark
Date Deposited: 02 Oct 2013 09:40 UTC
Last Modified: 16 Nov 2021 10:12 UTC
Resource URI: https://kar.kent.ac.uk/id/eprint/35349 (The current URI for this page, for reference purposes)

University of Kent Author Information

Fudge, Judy.

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