About BC Books Online
BC Books Online was created for anyone interested in BC-published books, and with librarians especially in mind. We'd like to make it easy for library staff to learn about books from BC publishers - both new releases and backlist titles - so you can inform your patrons and keep your collections up to date.
Our site features print books and ebooks - both new releases and backlist titles - all of which are available to order through regular trade channels. Browse our subject categories to find books of interest or create and export lists by category to cross-reference with your library's current collection.
A quick tip: When reviewing the "Browse by Category" listings, please note that these are based on standardized BISAC Subject Codes supplied by the books' publishers. You will find additional selections, grouped by theme or region, in our "BC Reading Lists."
Description
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.
Contributor Notes
Larry Savage is director of the Centre for Labour Studies at Brock University and a former member of the Executive Council of the Ontario Federation of Labour. He has authored and edited multiple books on labour and politics.
Charles W. Smith is an associate professor of political studies at St. Thomas More College, University of Saskatchewan and coeditor of Labour/Le Travail: Journal of Canadian Labour Studies. He has authored several articles on labour and the law in addition to editing a book on Canadian provincial politics.
Editorial Reviews
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.
— Canadian Law Library Review
"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[…]"
— Industrial Relations / Relations industrielles
