WEBINAR

30 April 2025 – ZOOM Platform

CRIMT is pleased to invite you to the webinar titled: The Auto Industry in an Age of Tariff Disruptions: What About the Workers?, scheduled for Wednesday, April 30, from 12:00 PM to 1:30 PM (ET).

Registration is free but required. You will automatically receive the Zoom link after registering.

Register

For three decades, the North American auto industry has been at the forefront of the globalization movement and the deployment of international value chains, structuring highly interdependent transcontinental production networks between Canada, the United States and Mexico. Since January 2025 with the inauguration of the second Trump’s administration, and particularly with the recent implementation of tariffs on auto production, this internationalizing trajectory might have come to an end. While there is a fair amount of coverage on the potential consequences on major auto companies and on the multiple suppliers in the value chain, this CRIMT webinar focuses on the experience and fate of autoworkers and their trade unions in this new and highly disruptive context.

Join Us for an Engaging Panel Discussion on Tariffs and Labour, featuring leading experts from across North America.

Panelists:
 
Jorge Carrillo, El Colegio de la Frontera Norte (Mexico)
Angelo DiCaro, Unifor (Canada) 
Ian Greer, ILR School, Cornell University (USA)  
Jim Stanford, Centre for Future Work (Canada)  
Charlotte Yates, University of Guelph (Canada)  
 
Moderator: 

Mathieu Dupuis, Université Laval (Canada)
 
Together, they will explore three key dimensions of how tariffs are reshaping the world of work:
 
1. Impacts on employment and workers’ livelihoods
  
2. Consequences for the green transition and the shift to electric vehicles

3. Strategic responses by unions and autoworkers themselves

To make this event as accessible as possible, simultaneous interpretation will be available in both English and French.
 
We look forward to welcoming you to this timely and thought-provoking conversation!  

WEBINAR

9 May 2025 – ZOOM Platform

Join us on May 9th, 2025, at 9:30 AM (Montreal) | 2:30 PM (London) | 3:30 PM (Brussels) for a timely and thought-provoking Zoom webinar on Workplace Geopolitics, the focus of an upcoming special issue of the Journal of Industrial Relations, edited by Huw Thomas (University College Dublin) and Harry Pitts (University of Exeter). 
 
Hosted by the Interuniversity Research Centre on Globalization and Work (CRIMT) and its Student Affairs Coordinating Committee, this event is presented in collaboration with the University of Exeter, University College Dublin, and BUIRA – The British Universities Industrial Relations Association.
 
Registration is free but required. You will automatically receive the Zoom link after registering.

Register
 
Upon registering, you will automatically receive the Zoom link. Simultaneous interpretation will be provided (English ↔ French).
 
The world of work is in flux. Trump’s re-election and similar political events worldwide have sent shockwaves across the globe. As mounting tensions reshape the political and economic landscape, this webinar will examine how shifting geopolitical dynamics—such as trade wars, state capitalism, the return of industrial policies, and green transitions—are fundamentally transforming labour markets, industrial relations and, ultimately, the essence of work itself, for better or worse.
 
Bridging the disciplines of international relations and industrial relations, and grounded in a long-wave historical perspective, the discussion will spotlight the renewed relevance of state power, strategic industries, and union strategies in today’s volatile world order. This is an invitation to rethink globalization and the politics of production through a geopolitical lens, and to explore what this means for workers and their representatives.
 
The discussion, moderated by Dalia Gesualdi-Fecteau, Director of CRIMT and Professor at the University of Montreal, will commence with three with three initial, complementary, and interrelated presentations:
 
Huw Thomas (University College Dublin) and Harry Pitts (University of Exeter) will set the stage with a conceptual framing that builds on both the special issue’s call for papers and their Futures of Work publications from 2021 and 2023.
 
Jeffrey Hilgert (Université de Montréal) will then offer an analysis of the geopolitical underpinnings of industrial relations theory. His contribution will trace the historical evolution of the field and propose a renewed theoretical framework to better address contemporary global challenges, drawing from his recent article in Globalizations (Geopolitics and industrial relations theory: intellectual history and future reconfigurations, 2024).
 
Wrapping up the first round of contributions, Valeria Pulignano (KU Leuven) will present an applied perspective on how labour actors are navigating the climate crisis amid current European geopolitical challenges, informed by her 2025 article with Jane Parker and Bianca Luna Fabris (ETUI) in Global Social Policy (Just Transitions, Trade Unions and the Need for a New (European) Eco-Social Contract, 2025)
 
Taken together, these three opening contributions will prompt participants to critically engage with questions of globalization, production politics, and shifting forms of worker agency within a geopolitical framework. The session will then open to questions from the audience.

CONFERENCE

9-10 May 2025 – ILR Conference Center, USA

The transition from manufacturing internal combustion engine vehicles (ICEVs) to electric vehicles (EVs) has become a key priority for governments worldwide in their efforts to cut human-made greenhouse gas emissions and decarbonize transportation. However, the implications of this shift for the global automotive workforce remain uncertain. The extent to which it results in job losses, deteriorating working conditions, or evolving skill requirements will largely depend on factors such as labor market policies, institutional frameworks, government support, and union influence.

Organized by Cornell University’s ILR School in collaboration with the Interuniversity Research Centre on Globalization and Work (CRIMT), the Labor and the Transition to Electric Vehicles conference seeks to foster a global perspective on the EV transition and its impact on workers. Bringing together research on both traditional automakers and suppliers as well as emerging industry players—EV manufacturers and firms in the electric battery value chain—the event will explore developments across key regions, from major automotive hubs to critical sites of production and raw material extraction.

Following the conference, selected authors will be invited to refine their papers for inclusion in an edited volume to be published by Cornell University Press in late 2025. This book will be among the first contributions to the literature examining the EV transition’s effects on workers.

The full conference program will be announced in spring 2025.
Program (coming soon)

CONFERENCE

6 June 2025 – Université Laval, Canada

On June 27, 2025, the 50th anniversary of the adoption of the Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms will be celebrated. To mark this significant event in Quebec’s history, the Faculty of Law and the Department of Industrial Relations at Université Laval, in collaboration with the Interuniversity Research Centre on Globalization and Work (CRIMT) and Wilson & Lafleur, are organizing a one-day conference. This event will be held at the Charles-De Koninck Pavilion of Université Laval and will bring together, among the speakers, around fifteen researchers and doctoral students from CRIMT.

Program

Registration for the symposium will open in March 2025.

TEAM MEETING – RS4

9-10 June 2025 – HEC Montréal, Canada

A Magog @ Montréal 2025 meeting is currently being organized. This retreat-style event follows the recent renewal of CRIMT’s funding under the Strategic Clusters (RS) program of the Fonds de recherche du Québec (FRQ). It will bring together CRIMT’s coresearchers as well as PhD students in Quebec.

INTERNATIONAL SEMINAR

17-20 June 2025 – Université de Bordeaux, France

A collaboration between the Interuniversity Centre on Globalization and Work (CRIMT) and the Centre de droit comparé du travail et de la sécurité sociale (COMPTRASEC) will see the University of Bordeaux host the third edition of the International Seminar on Comparative Social Law in June 2025.

This annual event, alternating between Laval University and the University of Bordeaux, brings together researchers from various fields to discuss comparative issues related to work and employment. It also provides a valuable opportunity for graduate students to explore and analyze these topics from an international perspective.

Focusing on the theme “Employment Policies Facing the Challenge of Age,” this third edition will build upon discussions initiated during the second edition at Laval University in 2024. Age, more than just a number, significantly influences working conditions, career paths, occupational health, and the adaptation of work environments to meet individual needs. It also raises issues related to discrimination, legal disputes in labor matters, and the unique characteristics of unionized workplaces.

The event’s program will be announced in the spring of 2025.

SASE 2025 – CRIMT PARTNERSHIP • NETWORK K

9-12 July 2025 – Centre des congrès, Montreal, Canada

Since 2015, CRIMT holds an annual conference (Network K) as part of the Society for the Advancement of Socio-Economics (SASE). Network K is dedicated to facilitating discussions on organizational and institutional experimentation, exploring its potential to either enhance or hinder work.

The 2025 Network K conference, developed from the communication proposals received in response to a call for contributions issued in the fall of 2024, will feature 26 workshops focused on the theme of institutional experimentations for better (or worse) work.

Program (coming soon)

AUTHORS MEET CRITICS

1 October 2025 – Webinar

On October 1st, 2025, CRIMT will host an “Authors Meet Critics” roundtable discussing the book The Politics of Unpaid Labour: How the Study of Unpaid Labour Can Help Address Inequality in Precarious Work (Oxford University Press), authored by Valeria Pulignano, Professor of Sociology of Work at KU Leuven and co-researcher in the CRIMT Partnership, and Markieta Domecka, Senior Lecturer at the University of Roehampton.

This online event will include a presentation of the book by the authors, followed by a panel of academics engaging in a discussion over its key findings and contributions to the field of industrial relations.

Registration for the webinar will open in September 2025.

MULTIMEDIA RESOURCES

The CRIMT is pleased to announce the launch of its new multimedia portal dedicated to its 2024 International Conference – Work on the Brink. Better Work for a Just and Sustainable Future.

Designed as an extension of this significant event, the portal aims to share, explore, and promote the ideas and insights generated from the conference.

You will find exclusive access to a diverse array of content organized into three main thematic sections, highlighting the key moments of the conference: the opening plenary session, the community forum, and the scientific workshops.

The first two sections feature contributions in both French and English, while the scientific workshops are presented in one language or the other, depending on the contributions.