AN INTRODUCTION TO THE CANADIAN LABOUR MOVEMENT
Purpose - The goal of the assignment is to help students develop the skills required to understand the scholarly writing on labour. For this assignment, the amount of material students are required to handle is relatively small, but what is required is that students show a command of the material. The assignment also challenges students to write efficiently, covering a number of issues in a small amount of space.
Assignment - Write a report on one of the first three articles in your course pack. Two to three pages of the report should be devoted to answering one of the following questions:
For Rusty Carolyn Podruchny, "Unfair Masters and Rascally Servants? Labour Relations among Bourgeois, Clerks and Voyageurs in the Montréal Fur Trade, 1780-1821":
Is it fair to say that voyageurs were always in the same subordinate, exploited position in the Montréal Fur Trade, or this claim too simplistic?
For Bettina Bradbury, "Gender At Work At Home: Family Decisions, the Labour Market, and Girls' Contributions to the Family Economy":
How did working class families strategize to survive and what factors shaped how sons and daughters contributed to family survival?
For Greg Kealey, "The Honest Workingman and Workers' Control: The Experience of Toronto Skilled Workers, 1860 - 1892":
Is it fair to say that the first industrial revolution simply wiped out the power and influence of craft workers and any resistance to the changes was futile?
In addition, approximately one page of the report should be devoted to discussing whether you were convinced by the author's argument. This discussion may address any of the following:
Is the author effective in explaining and developing the key arguments?
Did you think any key factors or considerations were left out?
Did the author have enough evidence to support the key claims?