York University Professor Carla Lipsig-Mummé has been named the 2018 winner of the Sefton-Williams Award for Contributions to Labour Relations. It honours those who have made a significant contribution to the field of labour relations and human rights.
The Sefton-Williams award is presented by the University of Toronto’s Woodsworth College and the Centre for Industrial Relations and Human Resources. Both practitioners in labour relations as well as academics have received this award.
“Professor Lipsig-Mummé’s research and activism in the labour relations field, most recently and innovatively exploring the link between climate change and the world of work, has bridged the gap between practitioner and scholar,” said Professor Rafael Gomez, director of the Centre for Industrial Relations and Human Resources. “The Sefton-Williams committee felt compelled to honour these achievements.”
Lipsig-Mummé joins the ranks of eminent Canadians who have been honoured with the Sefton-Williams award, including former President of the Canadian Auto Workers and the Canadian Labour Congress Bob White, feminist labour activist and Professor Emeritus of Women’s Studies at York University Linda Briskin, and former Leader of the New Democratic Party of Canada Ed Broadbent.
Lipsig-Mummé is a professor of work and labour studies at York University, and is currently principal investigator of the “Adapting Canadian Work and Workplaces to Respond to Climate Change (ACW)” project, which brings together 56 individual researchers and 25 partner organizations and unions in seven countries. Its ground-breaking work has been recognized by the Secretariat of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
The Sefton-Williams Award for Contributions to Labour Relations is named in honour of Larry Sefton and Lynn Williams, two accomplished leaders of the United Steelworkers of America. The award ceremony and memorial lecture will be held on Thursday, March 29, 2018 from 4 to 6pm in the Kruger Hall Commons, Woodsworth College, 119 St. George St., Toronto. Juliet Schor, professor of sociology at Boston College, will deliver the memorial lecture entitled, “Dependence and Precarity in the ‘Sharing’ Economy.”