Quelle est la valeur du travail?
Passé, présent et futur de la classe ouvrière
et des études sur le travail
Capitalisme, travail domestique et organisation collective
Renovate! Recycle! Invest! Domestic Labour and Urbanization in Chatelaine Magazine, 1970-1990
Sinead Petrasek
This paper undertakes a textual analysis of issues of popular Canadian women’s magazine Chatelaine from 1970 to 1990 to investigate how the debate concerning the value of unpaid domestic labour was disseminated and eventually transformed through this form of media. My analysis demonstrates how this question of value was transferred into methods for home improvement and environmental custodianship that did not resist, but reproduced and reinforced abstractions of urban space. Bringing the past to bear on the present, I offer a deeper understanding of contemporary struggles at the intersection of gender, labour and space.
The Fight for Wages in the Household: The Household Workers’ Association and Support Networks for Black Household Workers in Montreal, 1975-1987
Adia Giddings
This presentation explores the vital community network formed between the Household Workers’ Association (later renamed the Association for the Defense of Household Workers) and the broader Black community in Montreal. While the association collaborated with various cultural and social organizations across the city, its connection to key institutions within Montreal’s Black community, like Union United Church and the Negro Community Centre, were significant due to the legacy of programs like the West Indian Domestic Scheme.
By examining these relationships, the presentation highlights the necessity of coalition-building in an occupation defined by isolation. In 1980, five years after its founding, the association succeeded in securing the inclusion of household workers under Quebec’s labor standards. However, their struggle persisted, as the legislation excluded workers taking care of a child, disabled, or elderly person, which was a substantial segment of the workforce. This gap sparked a campaign to pressure the Quebec government to extend labor protections to all household workers. The association’s political organization at this moment derived from the ongoing and sustained labour often required by activists organizing workers. The support from community members and organizations was crucial in spreading awareness of the association’s services and driving collective action to advance their campaigns and causes.
Un mouvement ouvrier Urbi et Orbi? Les prêtres-ouvriers et l’émancipation collective des milieux populaires au Québec (1964-1980)
Frédéric Barriault
La parution du documentaire Les Fils de Manon Cousin a relancé l’intérêt des chercheuses et chercheurs pour l’expérience des prêtres-ouvriers au Québec. Largement documenté en France, l’histoire des « curés rouges » est à l’état embryonnaire de ce côté-ci de l’Atlantique. Loin de se cantonner au travail en usine et à l’engagement syndical, l’action des prêtres-ouvriers repose sur une vision élargie de l’émancipation collective des milieux populaires. En résonance avec les manifestes syndicaux des années 1970 qui refuse de cantonner l’action syndicale à la seule négociation de conventions collectives et à l’amélioration des conditions de travail. Conscients qu’il y a une vie à l’extérieur des murs de l’usine, prêtres-ouvriers et syndicalistes prolongent leurs engagements dans l’émancipation collective des habitants des faubourgs populaires, à travers la conscientisation et la politisation de ces derniers. À milles lieues d’une vision apolitique et affairiste du mouvement ouvrier.
- Denyse Baillargeon
Biographies
Sinead Petrasek is an urban scholar with a strong focus on social reproduction. Prior to pursuing my doctoral studies, I worked in community engagement. I have a background in art that informs my attention to the visual culture of labour history. Most recently, I published « The Toronto Wages for Housework Committee: A Contribution to the Critique of Society and Space » in Gender, Place and Culture (2023) and « Social Reproduction in the Gentrified City: Resisting Displacement in Marketized Toronto » with Sophie O’Manique in Research Agenda for Gentrification (2023) edited by Leslie Kern and Winifred Curran. I also want to highlight my role as a Research Assistant with the Kensington Market Community Land Trust, University of Toronto (PI: Susannah Bunce) during their first acquisition of a member-owned building in the market. I have taught for several courses in the department of Geography and Planning at the University of Toronto, most recently Labour Geographies with Deborah Leslie. Since 2024, I have been serving as a member representative of CUPE 3902 in discussion with the employer regarding childcare benefits.
Adia Giddings is a second-year history master’s student at Concordia University. She earned a bachelor’s degree in history and political science from Concordia. Her research focuses on racialized migration, black Canadian studies, and Canadian labor history. In 2023, she was the Black History Archives Student Resident at Concordia’s Special Collections, where she examined the connections between Montreal’s Black community and organizations advocating for the rights of foreign household workers. Her master’s research explores the history and activism of English-speaking Caribbean domestic workers in Montreal from 1975 to 1981, tracing their struggles through earlier programs like the West Indian Domestic Scheme.
Frédéric Barriault est doctorant en histoire à l’Université Laval. Sous la direction de Martin Pâquet (Université Laval) et de Catherine Foisy (UQAM), il complète une thèse sur la trajectoire du jésuite Jacques Couture qui a été tour à tour prêtre et militant sociocommunautaire dans le quartier Saint-Henri, candidat à la mairie de Montréal, député péquiste de Saint-Henri, ministre du Travail et de l’Immigration dans le gouvernement de René Lévesque, puis missionnaire à Madagascar. Spécialiste de l’histoire du catholicisme québécois contemporaine, ses recherches s’intéressent au christianisme social et aux mobilisations de la gauche chrétienne en solidarité avec les mouvements sociaux dans la deuxième moitié du 20e siècle. Avec un intérêt marqué pour l’histoire du mouvement ouvrier.