Contact info

If you need assistance with library research, please email Moninder Lalli moninder_lalli@sfu.ca, Librarian for Labour Studies, or use the Ask a Librarian link.

Research process

Start Your Research Here - This page gives you an overview of the research process, or in other words how to find materials for your essay.

Selected encyclopedias and handbooks

Use encyclopedias, dictionaries and handbooks to obtain definitions and overviews of a topic and also to identify key authors.

• Handbook Global History of Work
• Handbook of the Politics of Labour, Work and Employment

Find journal articles

Databases let you easily to search for articles from within scholarly journals for a discipline.

• How to find journal articles tutorial. 
• What is a scholarly (or peer-reviewed) journal?

If the full-text of the article is not available within the database then use the "Get@SFU" link to find it or to initiate an inter-library loan request.

• ProQuest Sociology Collection  International literature in sociology and social services, and related fields. 
• Social Sciences Full Text  Includes full-text articles from hundreds of journals, covering the latest concepts, theories and methods from both applied and theoretical aspects of the social sciences.
• Business Source Complete - Offers information in virtually every area of business including accounting & tax, banking, finance & insurance, economics, labour, human relations, and much more.
• Political Science Complete - has a worldwide focus, reflecting the globalization of contemporary political discourse and general topics in labour studies 
• CBCA Complete - Canadian Business & Current Affairs (CBCA) includes scholarly journal articles, trade publications, books, newspapers and magazines.
• Canadian Newsstream  - full text of over 350 Canadian newspapers from Canada's leading publishers. 
• Canadian Research Index  - indexes Canadian government publications. All the older documents found in the database are available in the Microlog microfiche collection (JL 044 37) on the Sixth Floor of the Bennett Library. Individual reports are filed by the MICROLOG NUMBER.  For current reports, search the internet using a web browser such as Google, Firefox, etc.
• CANLII - Provides access to legal documents from Canada's federal, provincial and territorial governments, including laws & legislation, and cases.

Find books in the Library

How to use the Library Catalogue 

Do a Library Catalogue search to see if the Library owns or provides access to the sources that you've identified. 

For known items it is best to check search for the "title of the book" using "Browse by title"

Search by topic, using Basic or Advanced Search

Note: In the searches below,  you can limit results to"Resource type" of "Books" and "Subjects"

• community organizing AND (labor OR labour OR worker*)
• (worker* OR workplace* OR labor OR labour) AND (activi* OR organizing OR organis* OR resist* OR voice* OR justice)
• (workplace OR working condition* OR contract* OR dispute* OR bargain* OR occupational) AND (union* OR "organizing labor")
• (teachers OR teachers' union*) AND (working conditions OR workplace)
• (food service OR janitor OR "cleaning staff") AND (working conditions OR workplace)
• (marginal* OR visible minorit* OR LGBT* OR women) AND (worker* OR workplace* OR labor OR labour) AND (activi* OR organizing OR organis* OR resist* OR voice* OR justice)
• ("invisible labor" OR "invisible labour" OR worker* OR staff* OR assistant* OR secretar* OR cleaning OR janitor* OR food) AND (workplace OR working condition* OR contract* OR union* OR dispute* OR bargain* OR occupational)
• (worker* OR workplace* OR labor OR labour OR employee* OR unions OR sweatshop* OR EDZ OR export development zone*) AND (decolon* OR imperial* OR capitalis* OR exploit* OR rights OR justice* OR injustice* OR unjust* OR fair)

Combine different concepts using AND
Combine same concepts using OR
Use quotation marks to search for a phrase
Use brackets for synonyms
Use asterisk (*) for different endings of wordsUse pull-down menu and select, "Source Types" as "Books"Note:  For Catalogue Search, when combining concepts, use CAPITAL letters ( "OR", "AND")

Selected books

• An agency of their own : sex worker union organizing [print]
• Arise : power, strategy and union resurgence
• BC disadvantage for women : earning compared with other women in Canada
• Building a better world : an introduction to the labour movement in Canada [print]
• Building the power : the Labourers' Union in British Columbia
• Canadian labour in crisis : reinventing the workers' movement [print]
• Collective bargaining : what you always wanted to know about trade unions and never dared to ask 
• Collective bargaining and gender equality
• Creation of a shared prosperity in Canada : unions, corporations and countervailing power
• Democratic Work: Radical Democracy and the Future of Labour
• Employee Voice in the Global North: Insights from Europe, North America and Australia
• Employee Voice in the Global South: Insights from Asia, Africa and South America
• Equity, Diversity & Canadian Labour
• Evaluation of the Labour Standards Program : final report
• Exploring trade union identities : union identity, niche identity and the problem of organising the unorganised 
• From demonized to organized : building the new union movement
• Labour politics in Canada
• Migrants and the COVID-19 Pandemic: Communication, Inequality, and Transformation
• Migration and Domestic Work: The Collective Organisation of Women and Their Voices from the City
• No Shortcuts: Organizing for Power in the New Gilded Age
• Organizing at the Margins: Theorizing Organizations of Struggle in the Global South
• Organizing matters : two logics of trade union representation
• Perspectives on Justice, Indigeneity, Gender, and Security in Human Rights Research
• Power in Coalition : Strategies for Strong Unions and Social Change
• Protecting the future of work : new institutional arrangements for safeguarding labour standards
• Sex Work, Labour and Relations: New Directions and Reflections
• Sex Worker Unionization: Global Developments, Challenges and Possibilities
• Solidarity forever? : an analysis of changes in union density
• Suburban Sweatshops: The Fight for Immigrant Rights
• Towards a Politics of the Rainbow : Self-Organization in the Trade Union Movement
• Trade unions and democracy : strategies and perspectives
• Union organizing : campaigning for trade union recognition
• Union recognition : organising and bargaining outcomes 
• Union Voices: Tactics and Tensions in U.K. Organizing 
• U.S. labor movement in the 20th and early 21st century: a critical analysis
• Women, Work, and Activism : Chapters of an Inclusive History of Labor in the Long Twentieth Century

Browse Books in the Library Catalogue Using Subject Headings

Catalogue Search / Browse then change "Title" to "Subject" and enter your subject term

• Collective bargaining -- Canada
• Discrimination in employment
• Discrimination in employment -- Canada
• Industrial relations
• Labor -- Canada
• Labor -- Social aspects
• Labor laws and legislation -- Canada
• Labor movement -- Canada
• Labor policy
• Labor policy -- Canada
• Labor unions -- [name of the country]
• Labor unions -- Canada
• Labor unions -- United States
• Labor unions -- Organizing
• Labor unions -- Political activity
• Pay equity
• Pay equity -- Canada
• Wages

Library guides

• Library Research Skills [interactive tutorial]
• Popular versus scholarly sources [video]
• What is a scholarly, peer-reviewed journal?
• What is plagiarism? [guide]
• Evaluating sources
• How to Write an Annotated Bibliography
• Referencing and citation management software  For help, please contact us at citation-managers@sfu.ca
• More Tutorials

Presentation skills

• Resources on developing your participation skills
• Resources to help you improve your presentation skills

Writing help

See the Student Learning Commons for expert and friendly help with academic writing, learning, and study strategies.