IDRL 215 Notes

Lesson 1: What is Labour Relations?

Sentence
1. How do we define labour (industrial) relations?
2. How does labour relations differ from human resource management?
3. What are some of the reasons to study labour relations?
4. What are the key pieces of legislation governing labour relations in Canada?

Paragraph
1. How do we define labour relations? Does it matter whether we define the term
narrowly or more broadly?
2. Does labour relations bring a different perspective to work than human resource
management?
3. How would you describe the “average” unionized worker in Canada, given the
information provided in the reading?

Lesson 2: The Employment Relationship

Sentence
1. What are labour and capital? And how do their interests converge and conflict in the
employment relationship?
2. How is employment a social, as well as an economic, relationship?
3. What is a labour market and how does it work?
4. What sorts of challenges and tasks face employers when trying to turn the capacity to
work into actual work?
5. What are the common law duties and obligations of employers and employees?
6. How do these duties and obligations differ, and what do these differences tell us about
the nature of the common law employment relationship?

Paragraph
 1. In what ways do the interests of labour and capital converge and conflict in the
employment relationship? How is this evident in the operation of a labour market?
2. Why is it important to remember that employers have purchased only a worker’s
capacity to work? And how does this relate to the basic tension between the interests of
employers and those of employees?
3. How do the common law rights and obligations of employers and employees affect the
distribution of power in the employment relationship? Is the law neutral or does it
advantage one side?
4. Can you think of an example from your own experience that demonstrates how an
employer has used its economic and legal advantage in a way that negatively affects its
employees? How did the employees react?

Lesson 3: Role of the State

Sentence
1. How does government differ from the state?
2. What are the different roles the state plays in labour relations?
3. How does the way the state fulfills each role affect the dynamics of labour relations?
4. Is the state a neutral party in labour relations?

Paragraph
1. Do you agree or disagree with the following statement: “The state is a neutral party in
labour relations with no stake in its outcomes.” Why or why not?
2. Identify the key regulative actions the state takes. How do these actions restrict or
expand the scope of the labour relations system?
3. What are some examples of the state fulfilling its role to increase the power of workers
in labour relations? What are some examples of it increasing the power of employers?

Lesson 4: Perspectives in Labour Relations

Sentence
1. What are the theories of the formation and function of unions historically?
2. What are the five ideological perspectives of labour relations?
3. Which of the perspectives is seen as the dominant perspective in Canadian labour
relations today?
 4. What are the main elements distinguishing unitarism, pluralism, and radicalism?

Paragraph
1. How does the adoption of a particular perspective alter one’s approach to labour
relations?
2. For each of Godard’s five ideological perspectives, describe what the role of the union
should be in labour relations.
3. How might the three theoretical perspectives (unitarism, pluralism, radicalism) be seen
as a critique of one another?
4. Why is there a debate about whether unions should be agents for social change?