Unions in Court

Organized Labour and the Charter of Rights and Freedoms

Charles W Smith author Larry Savage author

Format:Paperback

Publisher:University of British Columbia Press

Published:1st Oct '17

Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back

Unions in Court cover

Savage and Smith demonstrate how and why labour’s long-standing distrust of the legal system has given way to a controversial Charter-based legal strategy designed to protect and enhance workers’ rights and freedoms.

A book that is suitable for scholars with an interest in contemporary labour relations, labour law, and the discourse of rights, as well as labour movements.

Since the turn of the twenty-first century, Canadian unions have scored a number of important Supreme Court victories, securing constitutional rights to picket, bargain collectively, and strike. But how did the labour movement, historically hostile to judicial intervention in labour relations, come to embrace legal activism as a first line of defense as opposed to a last resort? Unions in Court documents the evolution of the Canadian labour movement’s engagement with the Charter, demonstrating how and why labour has adopted a controversial, Charter-based legal strategy to challenge and change legislation that restricts union rights. This book’s in-depth examination of constitutional labour rights will have critical implications for labour movements as well as activists in other fields.

"Larry Savage and Charles Smith in Unions in Court: Organized Labour and the Charter of Rights and Freedoms provide a lively and illuminating account of the evolution of Canadian labour law[…]"

-- Braham Dabscheck * Industrial Relations / Relations industrielles *
Unions in Court is a key account of a vital piece of Canadian history and is a must-read for anyone involved in labour law. It should find its way into public, academic, courthouse, and government libraries, and, of course, the collection of any private firm with a labour department. -- Ken Fox, Reference Librarian, Law Society of Saskatchewan Library * Canadian Law Library Revi

ISBN: 9780774835398

Dimensions: unknown

Weight: 420g

280 pages