ABSTRACTS/RÉSUMÉS
Excavating the Labour Dispute Data from Statistics Canada: A Research Note
Linda Briskin with Kristine Klement
Abstract
Has worker militancy changed as a result of restructuring
and globalization? Have the gender-specific impacts of the 'new economy'
politicized women workers in particular, especially those in the public sector?
These two research questions are guiding this project.
The first step has been to seek out the available Canadian statistical data
which might help map worker militancy. This research note introduces the reader
to the ways that Statistics Canada surveys handle militancy. The Labour Force
Survey [LFS] and the Survey of Labour and Income Dynamics [SLID], in which the
proxy for the larger concept of 'worker militancy' is 'labour dispute' will help
make visible the demographic characteristics of the striker. The Workplace and
Employee Survey [WES] differentiates 'work-to-rule, work slowdown, strikes,
lockouts and other labour related actions' and will offer a profile of the
striker in the worker questionnaire, and a profile of the firm in the employer
questionnaire.
Although the statistical tables have not yet arrived, the design of the surveys provides an interesting window into Statistics Canada's perceptions about unions and their relevance. In fact, the process of excavating these surveys reveals absences that are intensely ideological and ways of posing questions that prevent the significance of union activity from emerging.