Qui donc parlait de « contradiction secondaire » déjà? Femmes, programmes d’accès à l’égalité et syndicats

Après avoir rappelé l’histoire de l’émergence des programmes d’équité canadiens et québécois, les débats auxquels cette émergence a donné lieu dans les milieux syndicaux et patronaux et l’opposition soulevée par l’inclusion de mesures de redressement temporaires dans ces programmes, l’auteure souligne que les retombées en fait de désagrégation du marché du travail sont minces, particulièrement dans les emplois de cols bleus. Elle aborde trois pistes d’explication mentionnées dans les milieux de pratique et d’action et par quelques chercheuses et chercheurs, pour ensuite en envisager une nouvelle, tenant à la relation propre qu’entretiennent les organisations syndicales avec les notions d’égalité et d’équité.After evoking the history of the emergence of Canada’s and Québec’s equity programs, debates that took place around that emergence within the unions and managerial associations, and the resistance stirred up by the temporary affirmative action per se measures, the author stresses the scant de-segregation effects in the labor market, especially in blue collar jobs. She discusses and dismisses three current explanations among both labor relations professionals and activists and researchers, and then considers a new one, based on the particular uses and norms regarding equity and equality in the unions as organisations

Is there such thing as employment and pay equity for the less educated in Québec?

In this paper I will show two things: first, that the labour market is still very divided with respect to gender and, second, that the material impact of this division differs sharply by level of education; among occupations that require the least education, women pay a very high price for this gender-based division of employment. In contrast with occupations where more education is needed, those requiring the least education show a huge difference in wages according to whether they are predominantly male or predominantly female. This difference is a widespread phenomenon that favours so-called male occupations. The corresponding pay gap, in favour of men, in occupations requiring a high school diploma (Secondary 5 in Quebec) or less, is shrinking only slightly, whereas the gaps between men and women in occupations requiring more education are clearly closing. Given that pay is not the only factor in determining the quality of a job, nor even the only criterion job seekers base their decisions on, the Institut de la statistique du Québec (ISQ) has developed a typology of job quality that has the advantage of allowing comparisons of all salaried or wage-earning jobs (self-employed workers are excluded) in a given economic territory, between them and over time, as well as comparisons of groups of workers having specific characteristics (sex, age, union status, ethnic origin). In short, the ISQ’s job quality typology indicates a gap to the detriment of women in good-quality jobs, although the gap narrowed between 1997 and 2007. A breakdown of the men’s and women’s groups by level of education (highest diploma/degree earned) shows that the gap really affects the women in the least-educated group. The article then demonstrates that three often mentioned options for action, at present, offer little hope to counter that particular phenomenon: Quebec’s Pay equity act application, collective bargaining and internal promotion. Yet, this problem still affects approximately 500,000 women, after 25 years of equal access programs and close to 15 years of implementation of the Pay Equity Act. Employment equity programs are the most promising initiatives, given that they find their way into the affected employment sectors

Comment jouer la régulation dans l’industrie du jeu vidéo?

Cet article étudie les choix des concepteurs de jeux vidéo en matière de représentation de leurs intérêts à la lumière de la théorie de la mobilisation de Kelly (1998), cela dans le but de mesurer leur disposition à l’action collective. Si le modèle de Kelly permet en principe d’asseoir des projections concernant la syndicalisation d’un secteur, tel n’est pas le cas ici. Notre étude nous amène plutôt à mesurer l’ampleur de la transformation du marché de l’emploi depuis l’élaboration de ce modèle et la distance qui sépare les besoins des travailleurs du savoir, d’une part, et les options que leur propose l’action syndicale traditionnelle telle que présentée par le modèle de Kelly, d’autre part. Le régime général d’accréditation fondé sur l’entreprise-employeur pose plusieurs problèmes concrets aux concepteurs de jeux. Par ailleurs, leurs formes d’action collective sont inspirantes. ---------------------ENGLISH ---------------------Using Kelly’s mobilisation theory (1998) to assess their propensity to collective action, this article examines where videogame developers stand regarding the representation of their interests. These workers are good examples of knowledge work in project-based organisations. If Kelly’s model allows in general for projections of unionisation in a given sector, we find this is not the case here. Rather, our study leads us to observe how much the labour market has changed since the elaboration of Kelly’s model, and how much these workers’ needs differ from the options laid out by traditional unions’ action as presented by Kelly. This group fulfills two conditions leading to collective action: it has identified shared working problems across the industry and it primarily attributes the responsibility of these to the management. Still, three important conditions hinder any coalition movement under Kelly’s model. For one, the group is divided on whether to define its interest in collective or individual terms. It is also divided regarding the degree of injustice or illegitimacy of the situations that they face. Moreover, when these workers make a cost/benefit analysis regarding collective action, any traditional enterprise-based certification and unionisation project poses many challenges. Therefore, Kelly’s model would not predict mobilization. However, in place of unionization, videogame developers practice their own types of collective action that allow them to come to terms with the constraints of their environment. This brings us to conclude that Kelly’s mobilization theory needs to be re-examined such that collective action is not limited to traditional union action

Why Might a Videogame Developer Join a Union?

This paper contributes to the union renewal literature by examining the union voting propensity of workers in the high-tech tertiary sector of video game development toward different forms of unionization. We used exclusive data from a survey of video game developers (VGDs) working primarily in Anglo-Saxon countries. When looking at the factors related to voting propensity, our data indicated that the type of unionism matters and that industry/sectoral unionism is an increasingly salient model for project-based knowledge workers. This is an important policy dimension given that the legal structures and norms in Anglo-Saxon countries still tend to support decentralized enterprise-based unionism. It is also important for unions insofar as their organizing tactics remain geared toward a shop by shop approach or, at least, a localized geographical approach. Though additional work is required, our analyses lend support to the argument that high commitment and high involvement workplaces can engender a desire for collective representation and voice such as is offered through unionization. Whether this is because such workplaces step over a breaking point line where the requirement for full alignment with employer goals becomes untenable and a source of discontent, whether this represents the existence of dual commitment where a representative agent like a union is seen as necessary to protect the work that people love, or whether there is a combination of these forces is not yet clear, but is a critical area of future study for project-based knowledge workers

Représentation collective et citoyenneté au travail en contexte de projet

L’étude comparée de deux groupes de travailleurs (concepteurs de jeu vidéo et artistes interprètes) incombant à une même figure du travail contemporain, soit le travail du savoir très qualifié, mobile et organisé sous la forme de projets, met en évidence non seulement de nouveaux modes de représentation mais un nouveau citoyen au travail, à la recherche de droits et d’avantages différents du citoyen industriel de l’ère fordiste, dans un espace plus large que celui de l’entreprise. En s’appuyant sur la théorie de la citoyenneté sociale de Linda Bosniak, l’article distingue à la fois un nouveau sujet, en quête d’une nouvelle substance dans un nouveau domaine de la citoyenneté au travail qui contribuent à mettre à jour la notion de citoyenneté industrielle attachée à l’organisation fordiste du travail. ______________________________________________\ud The study compares two groups of workers (videogame developers and performance artists), whose occupations embody similar characteristics: knowledge work which is highly qualified, mobile and organized by project. The study not only brings to light new modes of representation, but also a new citizen at work who is seeking different rights and benefits than the industrial citizen of the Fordist era and in an area than goes beyond that of the employer organization. Drawing on Bosniak’s social citizenship theory, the paper identifies a new subject of citizenship at work who is searching for new substance in a new territory of citizenship. All these elements contribute to an update of the old notion of industrial citizenship that belongs to Fordism

Strategic Human Resources management is irrelevant when it comes to highly skilled professionals in the new economy

The goal of this paper is to explain the commitment behaviour of highly skilled professionals in Canadian business-to-business (B2B) technology services companies that do not have a formal and explicit managerial commitment strategy and to emphasize the need to take the organizational context into consideration when developing a theory that seeks to account for differences in employee’s organisational commitment. Our contribution is to reappraise the relevance of the traditional organizational commitment definition in this organizational context, a new organizational form. We demonstrate that in the companies which are different from the traditional bureaucratic organizational forms and which employ highly qualified professionals, the employment relationship is based on a psychological contract that is not accounted for in the strategic HRM theory. \ud Indeed, the basic principles of strategic HRM dictate that an organization’s most valuable asset is its employees; it is therefore incumbent on management to do whatever is necessary to retain its workforce, readily described as a key resource and to use human resources management (HRM) practices as tools to elicit commitment. In a study of highly skilled workers in Canadian business-to-business (B2B) technology services companies belonging to the so-called “new economy