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The article reviews the book, "Labour before the Law: The Regulation of Workers' Collective Action in Canada, 1900-1948," by Judy Fudge and Eric Tucker.

In most advanced capitalist societies, the feminist challenge to labour unions began well over twenty-five years ago. This essay examines the history of the ambivalent relationship between women and unions and assesses the difference feminism has made in terms of the structure, practices and overall vision of unions' role and goals. Has feminism helped to renew union movements across the capitalist world and moved them at all towards socialism? The answer to this is complex and involves assessing both the different strands of feminist influence and the way these were interwoven with the attack on unions and working people that occurred in the 1980s and 1990s.

What kinds of associations did Canadian 'civil servants' form in the postwar period? Why and how did they learn to become 'uncivil', transforming themselves into militant unionists during the 1980s and 1990s? These questions are addressed theoretically and empirically through a case study of the Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC). In 1966, PSAC leaders adopted a consultative, harmonious approach to staff relations, organizing the newly formed union to reflect the federal civil service's structure and practice. Class and gender divisions were submerged, hidden beneath the historical and ideological construction of the civil service as a distinctive, politically neutral category. Cracking apart of the unity of federal 'civil servants' began to occur in the 1960s. Class and gender divisions started to come to the fore with the expansion of the Canadian federal state, the increase of women in administrative support roles, and the enactment of collective bargaining rights. During the 1970s and 1980s, working class formation and capacity developed within the Canadian labour movement in concert with feminism, even though the legal structuring of labour relations continued to limit this class and gender formation. In this respect the Public Service Staff Relations Act and the Public Service Employment Act continued to reproduce the practices of the social category of civil servants. Nevertheless, within the PSAC, collective bargaining, the right to strike and the pay equity provisions of the Canadian Human Rights Act produced openings for learning and strategizing around subordinate class and gender issues and demands. Predominately female clerical workers, successfully challenged the structure and practices of the traditional 'civil service' associations. They learned to strategize and to incorporate a working class, feminist discourse into the union's practices. In the process the demand for pay equity was redefined and transformed into a demand of wage equity for all members, thus becoming a source of solidarity during the PSAC's 1991 general strike. PSAC activists learned to use openings in state structures to transform union agency, despite the existence of a legal regime that continues to constrain the development of working class and feminist capacities.

The courier industry in Canada is rapidly expanding. This is due to a number of factors including greater international trade in goods; more use of just-in-time inventory strategies; and the rapid development of internet commerce. Significant technological and organizational developments within the industry have led to greater segmentation of markets. As a result, large national and international parcel delivery firms dominate the international and intercity markets, while there has been a proliferation of smaller firms in the same-city, same-day markets. The research findings from a case study conducted in Winnipeg reveal that couriers in certain parts of the industry are relatively well paid, with benefits and employment conditions negotiated by their union, while others are independent contractors with low incomes, no benefits and insecure tenure. The article compares the experience of these two types of couriers and examines what is being done to improve the terms and conditions of work for same-day couriers. It is concluded that nature of the same day courier industry means that union organizing will be very difficult and there is no guarantee of success. Unionization, however, is a necessary prerequisite for the improvement of conditions and wages in this growing industry.

Contrasts the administrative structure of the Public Service Alliance of Canada, which has undermined its effectiveness, with that of Union of Postal Workers, which in the mid-1960s transformed into a democratic, militant bargaining agent for its workers. Concludes that both unions are in a weakened state, and that only through a broader coalition of forces can the neoliberal agenda of the federal government be fought.

[The authors] explore the narrow and legalistic form of labour solidarity entrenched and institutionalized in the wake of the Second World War, and argue that the seeds of labour's current political impasse are to be found in that era. --Editor's introduction

Introduced by editors Sangster and Smith, this roundtable offers papers by former students of Panitch on his multifaceted legacy. Themes include Panitch as organic intellectual (Warskett), the fall and future of social democracy (Blanc), money and the critique of capitalism between political sociology and political economy (Konings), Panitch and the practice of socialist mentorship (Maher), and Panitch as a transformative teacher (Ross).

[This book] is a collection of original papers that presents a vision of an invigorated and vibrant labour movement, one that would actively seek the full participation of women and other traditionally excluded groups, and that would willingly incorporate a feminist agenda. This vision challenges union complicity in the gendered segmentation of the labour market; union support for traditionalist ideologies about women's work, breadwinners, and male-headed families; union resistance to broader-based bargaining; and the marginalization of women inside unions. All of the authors share a commitment to workplace militancy and a more democratic union movement, to women's resistance to the devaluation of their work, to their agency in the change-making process. The interconnected web of militancy, democracy, and feminism provides the grounds on which unions can address the challenges of equity and economic restructuring, and on which the re-visioning of the labour movement can take place. The first of the four sections includes case studies of union militancy that highlight the experiences of individual women in three areas of female-dominated work: nursing, banking, and retailing. The second and third sections focus on the two key arenas of struggle where unions and feminism meet: inside unions, where women activists and staff confront the sexism of unions, and in the labour market, where women challenge their employers and their own unions. The fourth section deconstructs the conceptual tools of the discipline of industrial relations and examines its contribution to the continued invisibility of gender. --Publisher's description. Contents: Foreword / Judy Darcy -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction: The Feminist Challenge to the Unions / Linda Briskin and Patricia McDermott. Part 1. Women on Strike. The Eaton's Strike: We Wouldn't Have Missed It for the World! / Patricia McDermott -- Alberta Nurses and the 'Illegal' Strike of 1988 / Rebecca Coulter -- Reflections on Life Stories: Women's Bank Union Activism / Patricia Baker. Part 2. The Politics of Gender within the Union Movement. Union Women and Separate Organizing / Linda Briskin -- Trade Union Leadership: Sexism and Affirmative Action / Carl J. Cuneo -- Women Working for Unions: Female Staff and the Politics of Transformation / Jane Stinson and Penni Richmond -- Black Women Speak Out: Racism and Unions / Ronnie Leah -- Unionism and Feminism in the Canadian Auto Workers Union, 1961-1992 / Pamela Sugiman. Part 3. Unions and Women Workers. Patterns of Unionization / Julie White -- Collective Bargaining and Women's Workplace Concerns / Pradeep Kumar -- The Gendered Dimension of Labour Law: Why Women Need Inclusive Unionism and Broader-based Bargaining / Judy Fudge -- Can a Disappearing Pie be Shared Equally?: Unions, Women, and Wage 'Fairness' / Rosemary Warskett -- Unions and Women's Occupational Health in Québec / Karen Messing and Donna Mergler -- From the DEW Line: The Experience of Canadian Garment Workers / Armine Yalniziyan -- Professions, Unions, or What?: Learning from Nurses Pat Armstrong. Part 4. Studying Women and Unions. A View from Outside the Whale: The Treatment of Women and Unions in Industrial Relations / Anne Forrest.