Dr. Jason Foster is a Professor of Human Resources and Labour Relations at AU. He is also Director of Parkland Institute, a public interest research institute affiliated with the University of Alberta. Prior to his academic career, Jason spent many years working in the non-profit sector and with the labour movement, including eleven years as the Director of Policy Analysis at the Alberta Federation of Labour. Jason likes to say his area of study is "work". His varied research interests include union renewal, labour and employment policy, occupational health and safety, migrant workers in Canada, and labour history. He prioritizes making academic research accessible to a wider audience, speaking to media and contributing to publications with a public audience whenever possible. He is the past President of the Canadian Industrial Relations Association.
PhD., Business Administration (Management), St. Mary’s University, 2015
Master of Arts, Work and Society (Labour Studies), McMaster University , 2003
Bachelor of Arts (Honours), Political Science, University of Alberta, 1991
Professional affiliations
Parkland Institute, University of Alberta
Canadian Industrial Relations Association
Canadian Association of Work and Labour Studies
Foster, J. Reading the Zoom Room: Union Negotiators’ Experience of Virtual Bargaining During COVID-19. Labour/Le Travail. (2025) 95, 185-208. https://doi.org/10.52975/llt.2025v95.009
Foster, J., Barnetson, B and Cake, S. (2024). From Advice to “Secret Mandates”: The Evolution of Government Intervention in Public-Sector Bargaining in Alberta, Canada. Relations Industrielle/Industrial Relations 79(1), 1-17. https://doi.org/10.7202/1112835ar
Barnetson, B. and Foster, J. (2024). The Practice of Human Resource Management in Canada. Edmonton: AU Press.
Foster, J. (2023). Gigs, Hustles and Temps. Toronto: James Lorimer & Company Publishing.
Foster, J., Barnetson, B. and Cake, S. (2023). Catch Me If You Can: Changing Forms of Permanent Exceptionalism in Response to Charter Jurisprudence. Canadian Labour and Employment Law Journal 25(1), 1-23.
Foster, J, Cake, S., Barnetson, B. (2022). Profits First, Safety Second: Canada’s Occupational Health and Safety System at Fifty. Labour/Le Travail 90, 179-202.
Foster, J. (2022). “Because She Was Born Here”: How Children with Citizenship Rights Affect Precarious Status Migrant Worker Experiences in Canada. International Journal of Migration and Border Studies, 7(1), 89-106.
Foster, J. (2021). Tracking Precarity: Employment Pathways of Precarious Status Migrant Workers in Canada. Canadian Journal of Sociology 46(3), 62-84.
Foster, J. (2018). Defying Expectations: The Case of UFCW Local 401. Edmonton: AU Press.
Barnetson, B., Foster, J., & Matsunaga-Turnbull, J. (2018). Estimating Under-Claiming of Compensable Workplace Injuries in Alberta, Canada. Canadian Public Policy, 44(4), 400–410.
Foster, J., Barnetson, B., & Matsunaga-Turnbull, J. (2018). Fear Factory: Retaliation and Rights Claiming in Alberta, Canada. Journal of Workplace Rights (Sage Open), 8(2), 1-12.
Foster, J., Barnetson, B., & Matsunaga-Turnbull, J. (2018). Don’t fear the reaper: Distortive media effects on workers’ perceptions of injury. Labour & Industry: A Journal of the Social and Economic Relations of Work, 28(4), 244–260.
Foster, J. (2017). Accidental Revitalization? Looking at the Complex Realities of Union Renewal. Labor Studies Journal, 42(4), 322–344.
Foster, J., & Barnetson, B. (2017). Who’s on Secondary?: The Impact of Temporary Foreign Workers on Alberta Construction Employment Patterns. Labour / Le Travail, 80, 27–53.
Foster, J., & Barnetson, B. (2017). Dead Today, Gone Tomorrow: The Framing of Workplace Injury in Canadian Newspapers, 2009-2014. Canadian Journal of Communication, 42(4), 611-629.
Foster, J. (2016). Solidarity on the TransCanada: The Role of Immigrant Activism and Innovative Union Tactics in the 2005 Lakeside Packers Strike. Labour / Le Travail, 78(1), 197–218.
Foster, J. & Barnetson B. (2016) Health and Safety in Canadian Workplaces. Edmonton: AU Press