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In recent years much criticism has been levelled at the so-called labour bias of protection in the advanced economies. A series of empirical studies have attempted to test the hypothesis that United States tariffs are designed to provide higher rates of protection for labour intensive manufacturing industries. In Canada the assumption of a labour bias has been implicit in much of the literature, but no study had previously been undertaken to collaborate this claim. Theoretical justification of the labour bias argument is found in the Samuelson-Stolper model. From this base certain measures of labour intensity and of protection were developed. Several primary factor inputs were introduced. In addition to the quantity of labour input, an attempt was made to identify qualitative differences in the labour factor. In addition, physical capital and resources were considered as important primary factors. There was some question of the relevance of some of these, particularly the physical capital and resource factors, in comparative advantage arguments concerning Canadian trade in manufactured goods. Certain conceptual problems regarding the use of "direct" versus "direct-plus-indirect" factor inputs were also involved in this part of the analysis. Two measures of protection were identified, nominal tariff rates and effective protection rates. Since the study chose to utilize only "direct" factor inputs the latter measure of protection was considered to be more relevant. Effective rates are a relatively new concept, however, and so the more common measure was also included. The results of the analysis indicated that there was, in fact, a significant labour bias in the structure of the Canadian tariff on manufactured goods. The evidence suggested that when the primary factors were combined the bias was stronger than when any one factor was considered alone relative to labour. The evidence also indicated that two primary factors, human capital (the quality of labour) and resources, relative to labour appeared to account for the bias. Unexplainably, the results pointed to a somewhat stronger relationship when nominal rates rather than effective rates were considered. / Arts, Faculty of / Vancouver School of Economics / Graduate

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The debate over the quality of work has been on-going for a number of years. Recently, non-standard work has figured predominantly in that debate. Some researchers have argued that the rise of non-standard work is evidence of the declining quality of work since it offers few benefits, little job security and lower incomes. Other research has indicated that it is the effect of job characteristics themselves that determine quality of work, whether in standard or non-standard employment. Other researchers have noted that it is the profile of workers in these jobs that is a good indicator of whether the employment is "good" or "bad" since most individuals who are from groups on the periphery of the labour force tend to be in jobs of lesser quality. / This study addresses the quality of work in the Canadian context from 1989 to 1994, by exploring its connection to all three of these theories: the rise of non-standard work, the decline of "good" job characteristics and the changing profile of workers in non-standard work. What was found may be an interesting trend. Non-standard employment is becoming more mainstream and may even be influencing the characteristics of standard employment. The demographic profile of non-standard workers is also beginning to resemble that of standard workers. It could be concluded that the quality of work is indeed shifting. However, it was difficult to determine whether the shifts were indeed long-term or indicative only of difficult economic times in Canada. The issue of job quality is complex and better definitions of quality of work and longer timeframes should be considered in future research, to better understand what was/is happening in the Canadian labour market. If non-standard employment is truly "bad" work and it continues to increase, there will be fundamental implications for the quality of work in Canada.

This thesis examines the history of female immigrant domestic labour in Canada from a socialist feminist perspective. Over the past hundred years, Canadian immigration policy with respect to domestic workers became increasingly regressive with the shift in the racial composition of foreign female domestics. The women's movement contributed to this change as gains in Canadian women's public rights did not effectively challenge the dominant social paradigm of women's roles, and so left intact the public-private divide and the sexual division of labour to which were allied biases of race and class. The women's movement thus became an unwitting participant in the formulation of regressive immigration policies which rebounded on the women's movement itself, reinforcing its internal divisions.

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No description available.

The basic research question this thesis addresses is how the secondary status of Bangladeshi women is reinforced through household labour. It is argued that gender relations and housework shape each other. To develop this, it examines the degree of participation of women in different areas of housework and family decisions. The thesis further explores whether the autonomy of women coming from the traditional Bangladeshi family set-up has increased as a result of their immigration to Canada and their exposure to Canadian family values. This is done by a comparison of the family experiences of Canadian and Bangladeshi women. Finally, it is suggested that age, position in the family and length of immigration are the indices of the autonomy of Bangladeshi women in Canada.

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This study investigates some factors involved in the genesis of political deviance by regarding established values and norms as major sources of deviant behavior. Important kinds of political deviance in North American society are seen as emerging from a cleavage in perspective which originates in the different social backgrounds of elites and non-elite groups. 'Elites' are groups of individuals who hold positions at the apex of the various institutions, and who can appreciably influence the life chances of others. The term 'non-elite groups' refers to those groups of persons who have no such prerogative. Existing standards of behavior are taken as a point of departure by regarding them as alienating conditions from the viewpoint of some non-elite members of society. Such non-elite estrangement from existing values and norms may result in protest which, in a given circumstance, officialdom may define as deviant conduct. In order to dissolve the challenge which this deviance signifies to commonly accepted standards the authorities may react to it by the enacting and/or application of rules. The types of devices the authorities will apply to control the deviant conduct depend upon the conditions they perceive as motivating it. Two social conditions are here assumed to be frequent sources of alienation and, ultimately, deviance. One such condition has its origin in the man-work relationship and can be described in terms of the orthodox Marxian notion of alienation from work. Another condition refers to the total disenchantment of a group of individuals with established values and norms. These assumptions suggest the interrelation of the three major sociological concepts of alienation, deviance and social control in order to demonstrate that the phenomena represented by them manifest themselves in a temporal sequence that is integral to the process of becoming deviant. This theoretical outline guided the sociological interpretation of historical materials that encompass some of the activities engaged in by radical labor movements in North America during the post-World War I and II periods. Documents from Labor, business and government sources were introduced as the data. The study confirms an often-made assumption that political deviance and possibly other forms of deviance emanate from a cleavage in perspective that arises from the different social experiences common to elites and non-elite groups. Where such cleavage is appreciable, the authorities frequently perceive Labor's conduct as motivated by a Communist conspiracy that aims at the replacement of existing standards with the objectives of the "co-operative commonwealth". Where this cleavage is less pronounced, the authorities perceive some groups of individuals as disaffected from the work role. A comparison of the U.S. and Canadian perspectives of the events examined generally reveals only minor differences between the U.S. and Canadian Labor Movements. These differences are here regarded as resulting from the evolution of the North American Trade Union Movement itself. No important differences are found to exist between the perspectives of these incidents by the U.S. and Canadian authorities in the two historical periods examined. / Arts, Faculty of / Sociology, Department of / Graduate