THE WORK STOPPAGES DATA FROM HUMAN RESOURCES AND SKILLS DEVELOPMENT CANADA [HRSDC]": A

he most illuminating studies of worker militancy may be in-depth accounts of particular struggles. However, the current context of restructuring and globalization, in which Canadian workers face deteriorating conditions of work, competitive wage bargaining across national boundaries, dismantling of social programs, decreases in the social wage and a discursive shift to radical individualism, prompts questions about the overall patterns of worker militancy. Have economic and political changes shifted the understanding and practice of worker militancy? Have the gender-specific impacts of the 'new economy ' politicized women workers in particular, especially those in the public sector, and brought them to the forefront of resistance? These are the two key research questions guiding this project. The first step in this research has been to seek out the available Canadian statistical data which might make visible the profile of worker militancy.2 This research note introduces the reader to the work stoppages data from Human Resources and Skills Development Canada [HRSDC] (previously Human Resources Development Canada [HRDC]). I have negotiated access to the HRSDC work stoppage data which include 26,193 records, one for each Canadian strike from 1946-20013; my focus is on the 21,261 strikes from 1966-2001. In order to make the data set more manageable, the decision was made to focus on the years 1966 to the present. In the mid-1960s strike activity began to rise; in fact, although 1966 is not the year of the most strikes, it is the year which marks the beginning of a dramatic increase in person days lost to the economy:.34 % of working time compared to.17 % of working time in 1965 (Peirce, 2003: 343-4). During this time frame, there has also been a gradual and significant rise in women's labour force participation, and women as a percentage of the total employed. In 1964 women made up 28.4 % of the labour force; by 2001 this ha