Stephanie Ross – The Conversation

For workers whose wages have fallen behind, the prospect of not having to strike is tantalizing. Buttons on a person in a picket line outside the Toronto District School Board head office in December 2019. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Cole Burston

August 29, 2023

For Ontario teachers, arbitration is no substitute for the right to strike

Stephanie Ross, McMaster University and Larry Savage, Brock University

Trading the right to strike for binding interest arbitration is a minefield for unions.

Ontario Federation of Labour rallies in May called for improving workers’ rights and repairing deep inequalities that have been highlighted and deepened by the pandemic. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Cole Burston

June 6, 2022

Collectivism — not individualism — is the path to reducing social and economic inequality

Peggy Nash, Toronto Metropolitan University and Stephanie Ross, McMaster University

In this time of unrest, insecurity and fear, unions and their new, more diverse leadership offer a path to improving workers’ rights and repairing deep social and economic inequalities.

Thousands of teachers from the Peel District School Board hold a one-day strike in Mississauga, Ont., in February 2020. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Nathan Denette

August 4, 2021

The advantages of unionization are obvious, so why don’t more workers join unions?

Stephanie Ross, McMaster University and Larry Savage, Brock University

Wanting a union and securing a union are two very different things. That’s because there are enduring obstacles to unionization that make it incredibly difficult for workers to unionize.

Workers manufacture partitions made from cardboard and chipboard material in Mississauga, Ont., in January 2021. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Nathan Denette

May 5, 2021

Survey shows some bosses are using the pandemic as an excuse to push workers

Stephanie Ross, McMaster University and Wayne Lewchuk, McMaster University

The pandemic has changed many aspects of our lives, and new study shows it’s also changed workplace dynamics — mostly to the detriment of workers.

About 150 nursing union members show support for long-term care workers at the Orchard Villa Long-Term Care in Pickering, Ont., in June 2020. The facility was hit hard by COVID-19 infections. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Frank Gunn

August 26, 2020

How women are changing the face of Canada’s union leadership

Stephanie Ross, McMaster University and Larry Savage, Brock University

Unions must continue to try to recruit and sustain a critical mass of women, particularly visible minority and LBGTQ women, into leadership roles in the years to come.

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