Past, Present, Future: The Challenges and Value of Organized Labour (CIRHR Directors Debate Series/ERSA Research Series)

"Canada has a long history of union victories that have defined national events and made for a more just and humane society, led by Canada’s most prominent unions," writes Christo Aivalis in the Globe and Mail, December 2018. And in Maclean's (August, 2018), "Today’s trade unionists and their political allies must lay the groundwork for a new economic order, where no matter what happens to the concept of jobs as we understand them, there will be a social and economic role for the Canadian working class." 

Christo Aivalis is a SSHRC Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of History at the University of Toronto. He is an Editor of Active History, and is also the author of The Constant Liberal Pierre Trudeau, Organized Labour, and the Canadian Social Democratic Left. His most recent project has been a new introduction for a primary source book on the Winnipeg General Strike, and he currently is working on a biography of Canadian labour leader A.R. Mosher. He is a regular voice on Canadian news radio and television, and his writing has appeared in The Globe and Mail, The Washington Post, and Maclean's.

The CIRHR Director's Debate is a new series of public talks given once a term aimed at students and alumni of the Centre for Industrial Relations and Human Resources program and those interested in real-world HR and Labour Relations issues. Information about speakers and their presentations is available from the CIRHR Library after the event.

The Employment Relations Students’ Association (ERSA) is an organization of undergraduate Industrial Relations and Human Resources students at U of T. Its purpose is to enhance the experience of Employment Relations students beyond the classroom by organizing social and career-related events.