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Michael Lynk on Labour Law and the New Inequality

by David Doorey June 10, 2009
written by David Doorey June 10, 2009

   A while back, I advertised that Professor Michael Lynk of Western Law School was presenting the Rand Memorial Lecture on labour law at the University of New Brunswick.  His talk is now a law journal article that will be published in the forthcoming UNB Law Journal.  A copy of the paper is now available for free download on Michael’s SSRN site.  Here is the link:
Here is the abstract:

Rising economic inequality in Canada and the Western world has become an 
unspoken but influential political theme over the past quarter century. 
The Great Compression between the late 1940s and the 1980s – which 
brought an unlamented end to the pre-war Gilded Age and its social 
inequities, established a post-war middle-class society in the 
industrial democracies, and created a host of equalizing institutions, 
including a vibrant union movement – has been unravelling since the rise 
of modern political conservatism. A hydraulic relationship exists 
between unionization and inequality. Countries that have higher 
unionization rates tend to have lower patterns of economic inequality. 
And as unionization rates decline, inequality tends to rise. In Canada, 
the political impulse to reform labour laws has been waning since the 
early 1990s, shortly after Canadian unions had reached their numerical 
zenith. As income and wealth inequality levels rose, labour’s share of 
the Gross Domestic Product has declined to record lows in the post-war 
era, wages have stagnated and most of the economic productivity gains 
over the past 25 years have been captured by those at the very top of 
the income scale. One significant explanation for the eroding levels of 
unionization in Canada has been the country’s stagnant labour laws. In 
particular, statutory changes to the union certification process in a 
number of Canadian jurisdictions has diminished the ability of unions to 
protect their representational levels. Empirical social science suggests 
that labour laws matter, not only for unionization levels, but as an 
important tool to enhance economic egalitarianism.

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David Doorey

Professor Doorey is an Associate Professor of Work Law and Industrial Relations at York University. He is the Director of the School of HRM at York and Director of Osgoode Hall Law School’s executive LLM Program in Labour and Employment Law and on the Advisory Board of the Osgoode Certificate program in Labour Law. He is a Senior Research Associate at Harvard Law School’s Labor and Worklife Program and a member of the International Advisory Committee on Harvard University’s Clean Slate Project, which is re-imaging labor law for the 21st century

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RSandillRicha Sandill@RSandill·
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@SCLSclinic and I were so fortunate to represent this client last year. I am thrilled that this decision brings more clarity for family status accommodations rights amidst a pandemic that has tested parents, caregivers, and families like never before. https://twitter.com/CanLawWorkForum/status/1364605259071561730

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New from @RSandill (counsel for applicant), discussing important new "family status" discrimination decision from OHRT:

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TheLawofWorkDavid J. Doorey@TheLawofWork·
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Here's my latest in @jacobinmag.

If Ontario's labor laws applied in Alabama, the Amazon vote would have been held months ago so workers could get back to their jobs. Instead, the NLRA permits Amazon to conduct a months' long onslaught of anti-union propaganda. https://twitter.com/jacobinmag/status/1364613560425275392

Jacobin@jacobinmag

Amazon workers in Alabama are voting on whether to unionize, but the company is bombarding them with anti-union propaganda. In Canada, by contrast, votes are held quickly, making it harder for companies to stack the deck — a model that can work in the US. http://jacobinmag.com/2021/02/amazon-alabama-canada-labor-law-union-vote

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CanLawWorkForumCLWF@CanLawWorkForum·
24 Feb

New from @RSandill (counsel for applicant), discussing important new "family status" discrimination decision from OHRT:

"Kovintharajah v. Paragon Linen & Laundry: When Failure to Accommodate Child Care Needs is “Family Status” Discrimination"

https://lawofwork.ca/13360-2/

Reply on Twitter 1364605259071561730Retweet on Twitter 13646052590715617304Like on Twitter 13646052590715617304Twitter 1364605259071561730
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