Adam King

• LABR 3050 - Issues in Occupational Health and Safety and Workers' Compensation 
• LABR 3060 - Workplace Health and Safety
• LABR 3070 - Labour Relations and Occupational Health and Safety Law

I am an assistant professor in the Labour Studies Program at the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg, Treaty 1 territory and the homeland of the Métis Nation. Prior to joining Labour Studies, I was a social and economy policy researcher in the labour movement. 

My research broadly addresses the regulation of labour and employment. I have published articles and book chapters on the politics and social consequences of deindustrialization, employment standards enforcement, union organizing, and labour market policy.

At present, my research projects include examinations of employment standards enforcement in Canada's federal jurisdiction and the contested regulation of Indigenous labour relations. I am also a co-investigator on a SSRHC Partnership Grant, "Liberating Migrant Labour? International Mobility Programs in Settler-Colonial Contexts," which addresses the interconnections between labour migration and settler colonialism in Canada, the United States, Australia, and Aotearoa/New Zealand.

I frequently comment on labour issues in local and national media, including for CBC, The Globe and Mail, Winnipeg Free Press, Global News, CTV, City News Winnipeg, The Hill Times, among others. I also write a weekly article and newsletter about Canadian labour called "Class Struggle" in The Maple.

• PhD (Sociology), York University, 2019
• MA (History), University of Toronto, 2011
• BA (Sociology/History), Trent University, 2010

Research interests

• Labour and employment regulation
• Employment standards enforcement
• Indigenous labour 
• Deindustrialization
• Labour market policy 

Peer-reviewed articles

• “The Origins and Application of ‘the Core of Indianness’ in Indigenous Labour Relations: Returning to Four B Manufacturing v. United Garment Workers of America.” Labour/Le Travail 92, (Fall, 2023): 123-148 (with Olena Lyubchenko, Veldon Coburn, Leah F. Vosko, Andrea M. Noack and Rebecca J. Hall). 
• “Superstack Nostalgia: Miners and Industrial Heritage in Sudbury, Ontario.” Invited paper for special issue “Deindustrializing Canada/La Désindustrialisation au Canada.” Labour/Le Travail 91 (Spring, 2023): 201-225.
• “Determining the ‘Core of Indianness:’ A Feminist Political Economy of NIL/TU,O v. BCGEU.” Aboriginal Policy Studies 10(1): 63-89 (with Veldon Coburn, Leah F. Vosko, Rebecca J. Hall, Olena Lyubchenko and Andrea M. Noack).
• “Precarious Design: Creative Workers’ Organizations and the Union Affiliation of the Associated Designers of Canada.” Alternate Routes: A Journal of Critical Social Research 32, 1 (2021): 87-110 (with Conor Moore)
• “Model Regulators? Investigating Reactive and Proactive Labour Standards Enforcement in Canada’s Federally-Regulated Private Sector.” International Journal of Comparative Labour Law and Industrial Relations 37, 2 (2021): 161-182 (with Leah F. Vosko, Andrea M. Noack, Victoria Osten and Emily J. Clare). 
• “Critical Reflections on the Job Guarantee Proposal.” Studies in Political Economy 101, 3 (2020): 230-244. 
• “Right-Wing Populism, Organized Labor, and White Workers in Sudbury, Ontario: A Cautionary Tale from the 2018 Ontario Election.” Journal of Labor and Society 23, 4 (2020): 485-501. 
• “When Capital comes North: The Discursive Challenges to International Solidarity among Nickel Miners in Sudbury, Ontario.” Global Labour Journal 11, 3 (2020): 254-270.
• “Gender and Working-Class Identity in Deindustrializing Sudbury, Ontario.” The Journal of Working-Class Studies 4, 2 (2019): 79-101. 
• “The Forgotten Work of Cultural Workers.” Labour/Le Travail 84 (Fall, 2019): 259-278 (with Katherine Bischoping).

Book chapters

• “Precarious Employment in Canada’s Federally-Regulated Private Sector,” in Canadian Labour Policy and Politics, edited by J. Peters and D. Wells (Vancouver: UBC Press): 107-21 (with Leah F. Vosko, Andrea M. Noack, and Rebecca Hii).