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Labor Union Response to Diversity in Canada and the United States
Author(s) -
Hunt Gerald,
Rayside David
Publication year - 2000
Publication title -
industrial relations: a journal of economy and society
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.61
H-Index - 57
eISSN - 1468-232X
pISSN - 0019-8676
DOI - 10.1111/0019-8676.00174
Subject(s) - diversity (politics) , race (biology) , sexual orientation , equity (law) , political science , movement (music) , ethnic group , labor union , african american , scale (ratio) , gender equity , demographic economics , political economy , gender studies , sociology , labour economics , economics , law , geography , philosophy , ethnology , cartography , aesthetics
Canadian and American research finds that organized labor's engagement with race, ethnicity, gender, and sexual orientation until recently has been largely exclusionist. The Canadian labor movement emerges as having been somewhat more responsive to equity issues, particularly gender and sexual orientation, and at an earlier stage than its U.S. counterpart. The American movement, however, did create limited room for African‐American issues and unionization from early this century and now shows signs of broader engagement with diversity issues in general. The literature is strong in case studies pointing to exceptional situations involving minority militancy and union acceptance and in highlighting the role of activists inside and external to the labor movement. It suffers from a lack of large‐scale analysis and comparison.