• In-person event
• 202, Tory Building, Carleton University
• 1125 Colonel By Drive, Ottawa, ON, K1S 5B6

• Contact
• Natalia Fierro Marquez, natalia.fierromarquez@carleton.ca

FOUNDERS SEMINAR

Presents
Dr. Suzanne Mills
McMaster University

Place-based rights and mobile jobs: the new political economy of work in northern resource development.

(Light refreshments will be available) ALL WELCOME

Abstract:

Over the past thirty years northern Indigenous peoples and governments have sought to challenge employment practises that facilitate the flow of workers from the south to the north. Through provisions in Community Benefit Agreements signed with project owners, Indigenous governments have begun to play a role in the regulation of northern employment. Efforts to challenge the allocation of work in resource industries, however, are embedded in broader shifts in the organization of resource work: declining union power, the use of fly-in, fly-out labour regimes, the internationalization of labour practices and the increased use of subcontracting. In this talk, I draw on case studies from Labrador and Northern Ontario chart how obstacles to the success of CBA provisions for the inclusion of northern Indigenous workers inform our understanding of the contemporary political economy of resource work. I argue that the experiences of Indigenous peoples provide insights into two questions that are central to labour geography: “How do place-based identities structure job competition among workers?” and, “How is worker power shaped and re-shaped by the shifting geography of institutions regulating employment?”

Bio:

Suzanne Mills is an Associate Professor in Labour Studies and Geography and Earth Sciences at McMaster University. Over the past ten years she has conducted about work in resource industries in Canada’s provincial and territorial norths. Her research has described how the growing concentration of resource capital and the increasing influence of Indigenous communities are reshaping patterns of employment in Canada’s north and the relations between unions and Indigenous governments. Suzanne’s research has also drawn on the experiences of Indigenous workers to identify factors that aid or hinder employment in resource industries.