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Distributed for University of British Columbia Press

Unions in Court

Organized Labour and the Charter of Rights and Freedoms

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. Unions in Court documents the evolution of the Canadian labour movement’s engagement with the Charter, demonstrating how and why labour’s long-standing distrust of the legal system has given way to a controversial, Charter-based legal strategy. This book’s in-depth examination of constitutional labour rights will have critical implications for labour movements as well as activists in other fields.

280 pages | © 2017

Law and Society


Table of Contents

Introduction: Law, Workers, and Courts

1 Labour Rights in the Pre-Charter Era

2 Disorganized Labour and the Charter of Rights

3 Canadian Labour and the First Era of Charter Challenges

4 A Legal Response to Neoliberalism

5 The Possibilities and Limitations of Constitutional Labour Rights

6 A New Era of Constitutional Labour Rights

Conclusion: Which Way Forward?

Notes; References; Index

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