What is the Institute for Work in a Global Society (WIGS)?

WIGS is an interdisciplinary research group affiliated with the Labour Studies Programme at McMaster University. We bring a social science perspective to issues of direct concern to paid and unpaid workers, and the institutions representing their interests. We have established links with researchers in the trade union community and at universities in a number of countries. WIGS facilitates research, holds regular seminars, and plans occasional conferences. We can facilitate trade unionists, researchers, faculty and graduate students wishing to visit McMaster and participate in our activities.

Spring 2010 Research Grants Competition Announcement and Research Grant application form (Word)

Click on the headings below to find out more information.

Quality of Life at Work
Researchers in this area are involved in both historical studies on health and safety issues and analysis of the impact of work reorganization on the quality of life at work. Robert Storey and Wayne Lewchuk have recently completed a comprehensive historical study of asbestos use at the Bendix Brake plant in Windsor. Donna Baines is focusing on the impact of work reorganization in the public sector and in particular amongst social workers. Wayne Lewchuk is working with the CAW on a major workplace study of how work reorganization affects the work life of automobile workers. This project received substantial new funding in the fall of 1999 from the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board. The original work will be extended to include an examination of how work organization affects blood pressure and hypertension.

Trade Unions
Charlotte Yates is engaged in a number of research projects on unions and how they are responding to global pressures. As well as her work on union mergers, she is currently funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council to study organizing strategies on unions in Canada. She is also the Canadian co-ordinator of the Future of Unions Network (FUN) an international network of academic and trade union researchers from the United States, Britain and Australia. FUN's initial conference was held in Hamilton in the spring of 1999 and future meetings are planned in Britain and Australia.

Globalization
Don Wells is currently working on a number of projects related to union responses to globalization. As well as his work on how Canadian unions are establishing links with unions in other countries, he is helping to coordinate an international network of scholars studying the impact of globalization on autoworkers and their unions. The International Research Network on Autowork in the Americas (IRNAA) brings together researchers from Canada, Mexico and the United States and is a joint project of McMaster University, Wayne State University and the University of Puebla. It examines a wide range of issues related to autowork with a special emphasis on how modularity is reshaping the industry.

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The papers are available for viewing or download in Adobe Acrobat format. The Adobe Acrobat Reader is available free of charge from Adobe's website.

• Employment Strain: The Hidden Costs of Precarious Employment Final Research Report for the WSIB RESEARCH ADVISORY COUNCIL (PDF)
  Wayne Lewchuk, Marlea Clarke, Alice de Wolff, and Andy King
  McMaster University, May 2007.
• Labour as a Competitive Advantage in the Canadian Automotive Parts Industry: A study of Canada and Four Local Labour Markets (PDF) (Brantford, Stratford, Guelph, Windsor) Charlotte A.B. Yates and Sam Vrankulj, revised October 31, 2006. Funded by Auto 21, a Network of Centres of Excellence grant.
• Work reorganization and stress in the Ontario public sector & Under-Staffing, Long Hours of Work and Health: The Don Jail (PDF)
  Wayne Lewchuk, Labour Studies Programme, McMaster University.
  These reports prepared for OPSEU presents new evidence that work is being reorganized in the public sector with little concern for the health of workers.
• Social Services: Stress, Violence and Workload Research Project:
• Preliminary Report (PDF)
• Site Two (PDF)
• Site Three (PDF)
• Final Report (PDF)
• The Healthy Workplace Index and the Canadian Automobile Industry (PDF)
  Wayne Lewchuk, Labour Studies Programme, McMaster University, David Robertson, Director, Work Reorganization and Training, Canadian Auto Workers. (Paper prepared for Canadian Economics Association Conference University of Toronto, May 28-30, 1999.)
• From Dust to Dust: Asbestos & The Struggle for Worker Health and Safety at Bendix Automotive (PDF)
  Robert Storey, Associate Professor, Labour Studies and Sociology, and Chair, Masters in Work and Society, McMaster University and Wayne Lewchuk, Professor, Economics and Labour Studies, McMaster University.
  
• Learn More (PDF)

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To learn more about our activities or to be added to our mailing list contact:

Labour Studies Programme
McMaster University
1280 Main Street West
Kenneth Taylor Hall, Room 717
Hamilton, ON L8S 4M4 CANADA
(905) 525-9140 ext. 24692

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