Making Prison Work: Prison Labour and Resistance in Canada

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dc.contributor.advisorPilon, Dennis
dc.contributor.authorHouse, Jordan Lorne
dc.date.accessioned2020-11-13T13:57:37Z
dc.date.available2020-11-13T13:57:37Z
dc.date.copyright2020-09
dc.date.issued2020-11-13
dc.date.updated2020-11-13T13:57:37Z
dc.degree.disciplinePolitical Science
dc.degree.levelDoctoral
dc.degree.namePhD - Doctor of Philosophy
dc.description.abstractThis dissertation examines prisoner-worker organizing in Canada by considering three case studies in detail: first, the successful unionization of an experimental privately managed abattoir at the Guelph Correctional Centre, a provincial jail in Ontario, in 1977; second, efforts by federal prisoners to unionize, with a particular focus on the efforts by the Prisoners Union Committee in 1975 and the Canadian Prisoners Labour Confederation, between 2010-2015, and; third, the nation-wide federal prison strike in response to prisoner wage cuts in 2013. Through these cases, this study examines the similarities and differences between prisoner-workers and their non-incarcerated counterparts, and considers the methods and motivations of prisoner organizers, as well as the substantial legal and organizational barriers that Canadian prisoners face in their organizing efforts. Working prisoners are one of many groups who labour on the margins of society and the economy, and who have been largely overlooked or dismissed by both scholars of work and labour and the labour movement. This study seeks to expand conventional definitions of who is a workerand what constitutes the working classby demonstrating ways that prisoners have asserted their rights as workers and the legitimacy of their organizations and struggles. Through these struggles, which have been conceptualized not only as economic, but also as political struggles, prisoners have contested their state of privation and laid claim to new sets of rights. At their most successful, the organizing efforts of working prisoners have resulted in not only improvements to their working lives, but also expanded rights and freedoms in relation to their incarceration.
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/10315/37965
dc.languageen
dc.rightsAuthor owns copyright, except where explicitly noted. Please contact the author directly with licensing requests.
dc.subjectPolitical Science
dc.subject.keywordsPrison labour
dc.subject.keywordsInmate labour
dc.subject.keywordsPrison industry
dc.subject.keywordsInmate wages
dc.subject.keywordsPrisoner organizing
dc.subject.keywordsPrison strike
dc.subject.keywordsPrison protest
dc.subject.keywordsPrison justice
dc.subject.keywordsPrisons in Canada
dc.subject.keywordsPenology
dc.subject.keywordsGuelph Correctional Centre
dc.subject.keywordsCorrectional Service of Canada
dc.subject.keywordsCORCAN
dc.subject.keywordsCanadian Prisoners' Labour Confederation
dc.subject.keywordsPrisoner Union Committee
dc.subject.keywordsSocial movements
dc.subject.keywordsLabour movement
dc.subject.keywordsLabour unions
dc.subject.keywordsCanadian Food and Allied Workers
dc.subject.keywordsStrikes
dc.subject.keywordsPolitical economy
dc.subject.keywordsMeat packing industry
dc.subject.keywordsEssex Packers
dc.subject.keywordsBetter Beef Limited
dc.subject.keywordsCollective action
dc.subject.keywordsCollective resistance
dc.titleMaking Prison Work: Prison Labour and Resistance in Canada
dc.typeElectronic Thesis or Dissertation

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