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Labour Studies Program, University of Manitoba
Winnipeg, Manitoba
June 3-5, 2026
Contact: [email protected]
The conference organizing committee invites submissions for the 12th annual meeting of the Canadian Association for Work and Labour Studies (CAWLS) to be hosted by the Labour Studies Program at the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg.
The committee welcomes proposals on all topics that focus on the past, present and future of work and labour studies. Our goal is to create a conference program reflective of the broadest range of methodological, theoretical, and disciplinary themes and approaches. The committee welcomes proposals for single papers, thematic streams, multiple-paper panels, roundtables and workshops. The participation of researchers in union and community settings is strongly encouraged.
“An injury to one is an injury to all.” For over a century, this has been the guiding philosophy of the workers’ movement. Though labour organizations have often not matched words with actions, solidarity remains the foundational principle upon which organized labour rests. In our current moment, however, intersectioning crises in contemporary capitalism challenge us to again rethink, deepen and broaden our commitment to solidarity.
This year, the conference organizing committee encourages participants to engage with the theme of solidarity and interrogate anew how struggles for economic and social justice necessitate building alliances across boundaries.
In particular, this year’s conference will meet at the University of Manitoba, whose campuses and research spaces are located on Treaty One territory, the original lands of Anishinaabeg, Ininiwak, Anisininewuk, Dakota Oyate, Dene and Inuit, and on the National Homeland of the Red River Métis. Challenging settler colonialism is especially pressing in Manitoba, where 1 in 5 people identify as Indigenous. The organizing committee therefore encourages participants to think about the potential of uniting struggles for workers’ rights with Indigenous resistance and the fight against settler colonialism.
In the spirit of building solidarity, panel and paper submissions might consider the following questions:
- How has contemporary capitalism transformed the conditions for solidarity between workers?
- How has capital undercut, deformed or re-organized workers’ power and solidarity?
- How are current anti-immigrant, anti-trans, “anti-woke” and/or other reactionary campaigns affecting working-class solidarity?
- How can workers build power and solidarity at different scales?
- In what ways has capitalism opened new possibilities for building solidarity between workers, communities and peoples?
- How have struggles against racism, sexism, homophobia and other forms of oppression deepened or reframed labour solidarity?
- How do struggles over the recognition of unpaid work and social reproduction push the labour movement to widen its conception of social solidarity?
- How can the labour movement build stronger ties of solidarity with Indigenous peoples and others fighting settler colonialism?
- How can anti-colonial struggles be understood as battles over the conditions and form of social reproduction?
- How might broadening our understanding of solidarity help us address the climate crisis and the need for a just transition?
Participants are not required to limit themselves to the above list of questions. Submissions may also address other areas of critical concern to workers, unions, activists and all those working to build a more just and fair world, such as:
- Imperialism, colonialism, and labour solidarity
- Youth and student labour activism
- Struggles over and critiques of the family, unpaid work, and social reproduction
- Anti-racist and intersectional struggles and their relation to labour
- Worker and union fights to secure pension, unemployment, disability, and other forms of economic security
- Technology, app-based work, and other forms of digitally-mediated labour
- Workplace health and safety and disability justice
CAWLS 2026 welcomes submissions from researchers in university, union, and community settings. All participants must be members in good standing at the time of the conference.
Panel, roundtable and workshop proposals are due December 15, 2025.
Individual paper submissions are due January 15, 2025.
Submissions and any other questions about the conference can be sent to [email protected]
