Savage and Smith demonstrate how and why labour’s long-standing distrust of the legal system has given way to a controversial Charter-based legal strategy designed to protect and enhance workers’ rights and freedoms.

Since the turn of the twenty-first century, Canadian unions have scored a number of important Supreme Court victories, securing constitutional rights to picket, bargain collectively, and strike. But how did the labour movement, historically hostile to judicial intervention in labour relations, come to embrace legal activism as a first line of defense as opposed to a last resort? Unions in Court documents the evolution of the Canadian labour movement’s engagement with the Charter, demonstrating how and why labour has adopted a controversial, Charter-based legal strategy to challenge and change legislation that restricts union rights. This book’s in-depth examination of constitutional labour rights will have critical implications for labour movements as well as activists in other fields.

"

"Larry Savage and Charles Smith in Unions in Court: Organized Labour and the Charter of Rights and Freedoms provide a lively and illuminating account of the evolution of Canadian labour law[…]"

"Unions in Court is a key account of a vital piece of Canadian history and is a must-read for anyone involved in labour law. It should find its way into public, academic, courthouse, and government libraries, and, of course, the collection of any private firm with a labour department." - Canadian Law Library Review