Limitations to Inclusive Unions from the Perspectives of White and Aboriginal Women Forest Workers in the Northern Prairies

Several authors have argued that broadening the traditional understandings of union solidarity is necessary for union renewal. Concerns specific to workers from marginalized groups have been shown to challenge traditional understandings of union collectivity. This paper draws on interviews with white and Aboriginal women forest processing workers to argue that interrogating marginalized workers' negative representations of their unions can provide insights that will help to broaden traditional understandings of union solidarity. I use thematic analysis followed by critical discourse analysis to examine women workers' negative talk about unions. I present examples of how women's negative representations of their unions can be understood as different forms of collectivism when examined in the context of their lived experiences of work and unionism. Some white and Aboriginal women's representations of their unions wove individualistic anti-union statements together with their previous experiences of work highlighting the inequality between unionized and non-unionized workers in the community. The talk of other Aboriginal women critiqued the union for not representing them while demonstrating a sense of collectivity with other Aboriginal workers. By exploring linkages between women's negative representations of unions and their work experiences, unions can better understand the negative union sentiment of marginalized workers and use this to create more inclusive forms of solidarity

Women's experiences and representations of diversity management and organizational restructuring in a multinational forest company

This thesis examines the relationship between worker identity and workplace practices from the perspectives of white and Aboriginal women working in a multinational forest company in the northern prairies. Over the course of three manuscripts I demonstrate the salience of ascribed and constructed identities of women to their experiences and representations of forest employment and corporate discourse. Setting the context for the remainder of the thesis, the first manuscript presents an analysis of employment segregation by gender and Aboriginal identity in Canada’s forest sector in 2001 using segregation indices. Results demonstrate that forest employment was vertically segregated by both gender and Aboriginal ancestry in the forest sector in 2001. Men and women of First Nations ancestry were over represented in less-stable and lower paying occupations in woods based forest industries, and both white and First Nations women were over represented in forest services and clerical occupations. To explore women’s perceptions of company practices of diversity management and restructuring, I then analysed interviews with women working in forest processing using critical discourse analysis. In my second manuscript, I demonstrated how women’s representations of diversity management practices were linked to their social identities in terms of Aboriginal identity and class. Yet, as a whole, these representations prompted a questioning of the meaning of difference within diversity management, and of diversity management’s ability to further the interests of marginalised workers. My third manuscript examining representations of restructuring, argues that there is a two way relationship between women’s identities as workers and their representations of restructuring. Whether women reproduced or resisted restructuring was linked to their presented work identities and restructuring and practices in turn were helping to shape women’s worker subjectivities. Results from this thesis demonstrated that how women represent themselves and workplace practices is related to their different experiences in the specific set of social relations of forestry work in the northern prairies

Gendering Environmental Assessment: Women’s Participation and Employment Outcomes at Voisey’s Bay

This paper examines the effect of Inuit and Innu women’s participation in environmental assessment (EA) processes on EA recommendations, impact benefit agreement (IBA) negotiations, and women’s employment experiences at Voisey’s Bay Mine, Labrador. The literature on Indigenous participation in EAs has been critiqued for being overly process oriented and for neglecting to examine how power influences EA decision making. In this regard, two issues have emerged as critical to participation in EAs: how EA processes are influenced by other institutions that may help or hinder participation and whether EAs enable marginalized groups within Indigenous communities to influence development outcomes. To address these issues we examine the case of the Voisey’s Bay Nickel Mine in Labrador, in which Indigenous women’s groups made several collective submissions pertaining to employment throughout the EA process. We compare the submissions that Inuit and Innu women’s groups made to the EA panel in the late 1990s to the final EA recommendations and then compare these recommendations to employment-related provisions in the IBA. Finally we compare IBA provisions to workers’ perceptions of gender relations at the mine in 2010. Semi-structured interviews revealed that, notwithstanding the recommendations by women’s groups concerning employment throughout the EA process, women working at the site experienced gendered employment barriers similar to those experienced by women in mining elsewhere. We suggest that the ineffective translation of EA submissions into EA regulations and the IBA, coupled with persistent masculinity within the mining industry, weakened the effect of women’s requests for a comprehensive program to hire and train Indigenous women.Dans cet article, nous nous penchons sur la participation des femmes inuites et innues aux processus d’évaluations environnementales (EE) et sur l’effet de cette participation sur les recommandations des EE, les négociations relatives à l’entente sur les répercussions et les avantages (ERA) et les expériences de travail à la mine de la baie Voisey, au Labrador. La documentation portant sur la participation indigène aux EE fait l’objet de critiques, en ce sens qu’elle accorderait trop d’importance aux processus et pas suffisamment à l’examen de la manière dont le pouvoir influence les décisions prises dans le cadre des EE. Dans cette optique, deux questions critiques se posent par rapport à la participation aux EE : la manière dont les processus des EE sont influencés par d’autres institutions susceptibles de favoriser la participation ou de lui nuire, et à savoir si les EE permettent aux groupes marginalisés à l’intérieur des communautés indigènes d’influencer les résultats des projets d’exploitation. Pour approfondir ces questions, nous avons examiné le cas de la mine d’exploitation du nickel de la baie Voisey au Labrador, pour lequel des groupes de femmes indigènes ont présenté plusieurs mémoires collectifs se rapportant à l’emploi pendant l’EE. Nous comparons les mémoires présentés par les groupes de femmes inuites et innues à la commission de l’évaluation environnementale vers la fin des années 1990 aux recommandations finales de l’EE, puis nous comparons ces recommandations aux dispositions relatives à l’emploi de l’ERA. Et enfin, nous comparons les dispositions de l’ERA aux perceptions des travailleurs en ce qui a trait aux relations entre les deux sexes à la mine en 2010. Des entrevues semi-structurées ont révélé que, nonobstant les recommandations des groupes de femmes en matière d’emploi dans le cadre du processus de l’EE, les femmes qui travaillent à la mine ont connu des obstacles en raison de leur sexe, à l’instar des obstacles que doivent surmonter les autres femmes du domaine de l’exploitation minière. Nous suggérons que la traduction inefficace des mémoires de l’EE en règlements de l’EE et de l’ERA, jumelée à la masculinité qui prévaut au sein de l’industrie minière, ont eu pour effet d’affaiblir les demandes des femmes préconisant un programme exhaustif d’embauche et de formation de femmes indigènes

Client experience of rape victims accessing governmental post-rape services in South Africa

This study aims to better understand the experiences of rape victims accessing governmental post-rape services in South Africa. It was part of a larger intervention to develop an e-governance mobile phone ratings app for reporting user satisfaction with post-rape services, which aimed to improve accountability and responsiveness. Participants highlighted positive, negative and often mixed experiences in accessing post-rape services. Entry to centres was often delayed due to low levels of awareness, indirect referrals and delays at police stations. Positive experiences were characterised as welcoming, friendly, empathetic and non-judgemental. Negative experiences were characterised as threatening, blaming, physiologically taxing and lacking in empathy. Inadequate follow-up, delays in progress of cases, and poor communication and quality of information contributed to dissatisfaction with services. The findings of the study were used to inform the design and content of the app, as well as its technology platform and the content of marketing material. These contributed to its successful piloting and use.DFIDUSAIDSIDAOmidyar Networ

Feasibility and acceptability of a mobile phone intervention to improve post-rape service delivery in South Africa

Mobile health (mHealth) interventions – in which mobile phones are used to advance positive health outcomes – have only recently been applied to addressing broader questions of health governance. This report discusses research on a mobile phone app that was designed to create a coordinated platform through which rape victims could express their views on the quality of services and support offered by police and health-care workers in South Africa, in order to promote greater accountability between service providers and clients.The study, which assessed the feasibility and acceptability of the proposed app, comprised qualitative and quantitative research with rape victims and caregivers accessing follow-up services at four rape care centres in Tshwane district, Pretoria. Of 140 participants enrolled in the study (108 rape victims and 32 caregivers), 86.4% reported owning a mobile phone. However, the results also revealed that mobile phone theft during sexual assault was common, with 34 out of 63 participants (55%) who did not bring their mobile phones to their first visit to the facility reporting that their phone had been stolen during the assault. Nonetheless, the findings confirmed the feasibility of the app, which was subsequently developed and piloted. In addition, high levels of interest in using mobile phones to provide feedback on the quality of service delivery (95%) showed the potential value of such an intervention for improved communication between service users and providers.DFIDUSAIDOmidyar NetworkSID

Fractures and Alliances: Labour Relations and Worker Experiences in Construction

Construction is important by virtue of its prevalence in Canada; it is one of the most common types of employment held by men, employing approximately 1.4 million people. Its ubiquity, in addition to its connection to growth in other sectors, has meant that the construction sector is closely followed by governments, who often view construction employment as both an indicator of growth and a source of economic stimulus.3 Despite this, however, labour scholars have paid less attention to construction than to other sectors of employment. Though there is a sizable literature on health and safety and on gender in the construction trades, research about contemporary labour relations is notably sparse. Undeniably, conducting research on construction workers and unions is challenging. The mobile and fragmented character of the construction industry makes recruiting interview participants difficult, and labour unions are often secretive and reluctant to share information with researchers. Unions in the sector also have a mixed history, on the one hand giving voice to workers’ concerns and providing for worker protection, while on the other hand supporting right-leaning governments, promoting business unionism and creating divisions between unionized and non-unionized workers and skilled and unskilled workers. Understanding the complexity of the industry, both its organized and its unorganized elements, is thus a demanding research endeavour

Maternal and infant factors influencing infant feeding – a longitudinal study

Introduction: There has been a lack of longitudinal studies on maternal and infant factors associated with feeding difficulties. Feeding difficulties are common, cause much anxiety for parents, and are associated with a range of child health and behavioural outcomes. This study aims to gain an understanding of the prevalence and type of feeding difficulties found in a community sample, the prevalence of maternal mental ill-health and identify maternal and infant factors predictive of feeding difficulties. A final aim is to identify factors associated with successful and unsuccessful feeding experiences from a maternal perspective. Method: A short questionnaire with questions about support and help-seeking was compiled, and several standardised measures were included in the pack; a measure of maternal mood (DASS-21), social support (SOS-S), and eating disorder symptomatology (EAT-26). Questionnaires were given to mothers in pregnancy, and again when infants were around 3 and 7 months old. An adapted version of the Child Feeding Assessment Questionnaire, and the food fussiness subscale from the Children’s Eating Behaviour Questionnaire examined feeding behaviour and maternal response. The Infant Temperament Questionnaire examined maternal perception of infant temperament. Content analysis was used to identify themes in mother’s narrative about factors which help feeding and barriers to a successful feeding experience. A within subjects design was employed to examine predictors of infant feeding difficulties. Results: 23% of mothers of 3 to 5 month old infants, and 13% of mothers of 7 to 10 month olds reported their child as having one or more feeding difficulties. Levels of stress remained stable across the length of the study, but prevalence of maternal anxiety and depression reduced. 47% of those mothers who breast fed found breast feeding difficult or very difficult. Maternally identified barriers to successful feeding with feeding were child illness, and painful or difficult breastfeeding. Mothers wanted an improvement in support and knowledge of health professionals, and a reduction in pressure from health professionals in relation to feeding method. Maternal depression and stress were correlated with severity of food refusal in infants, as well as maternal anxiety and food fussiness, prior to post-hoc analyses. Following post-hoc analyses these relationships were no longer significant. Discussion: Relationships between infant behaviour, maternal health and feeding difficulties are explored. The low prevalence of feeding difficulties and reasons for negative findings in relation to predictors of feeding difficulties are discussed. Implications for health services are presented in the light of maternal views about support and barriers to successfully feeding their child

Infrequent expression of the Cancer-Testis antigen, PASD1, in ovarian cancer

Ovarian cancer is very treatable in the early stages of disease; however, it is usually detected in the later stages, at which time, treatment is no longer as effective. If discovered early (Stage I), there is a 90% chance of five-year survival. Therefore, it is imperative that early-stage biomarkers are identified to enhance the early detection of ovarian cancer. Cancer-testis antigens (CTAs), such as Per ARNT SIM (PAS) domain containing 1 (PASD1), are unique in that their expression is restricted to immunologically restricted sites, such as the testis and placenta, which do not express MHC class I, and cancer, making them ideally positioned to act as targets for immunotherapy as well as potential biomarkers for cancer detection where expressed. We examined the expression of PASD1a and b in a number of cell lines, as well as eight healthy ovary samples, eight normal adjacent ovarian tissues, and 191 ovarian cancer tissues, which were predominantly stage I (n = 164) and stage II (n = 14) disease. We found that despite the positive staining of skin cancer, only one stage Ic ovarian cancer patient tissue expressed PASD1a and b at detectable levels. This may reflect the predominantly stage I ovarian cancer samples examined. To examine the restriction of PASD1 expression, we examined endometrial tissue arrays and found no expression in 30 malignant tumor tissues, 23 cases of hyperplasia, or 16 normal endometrial tissues. Our study suggests that the search for a single cancer-testes antigen/biomarker that can detect early ovarian cancer must continue

Anthropogenic noise playback impairs embryonic development and increases mortality in a marine invertebrate

Human activities can create noise pollution and there is increasing international concern about how this may impact wildlife. There is evidence that anthropogenic noise may have detrimental effects on behaviour and physiology in many species but there are few examples of experiments showing how fitness may be directly affected. Here we use a split-brood, counterbalanced, field experiment to investigate the effect of repeated boat-noise playback during early life on the development and survival of a marine invertebrate, the sea hare Stylocheilus striatus at Moorea Island (French Polynesia). We found that exposure to boat-noise playback, compared to ambient-noise playback, reduced successful development of embryos by 21% and additionally increased mortality of recently hatched larvae by 22%. Our work, on an understudied but ecologically and socio-economically important taxon, demonstrates that anthropogenic noise can affect individual fitness. Fitness costs early in life have a fundamental influence on population dynamics and resilience, with potential implications for community structure and function