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The article reviews the book, "A History of Migration From Germany to Canada 1850-1939," by Jonathan Wagner.

Global market conditions have led to large corporate bankruptcies in recent years, particularly in the steel sector. Bankruptcy restructuring under the u.s. Chapter 11 or Canadian Companies' Creditors Arrangement Act [CCAA] places employee pensions at risk. In response to concessionary restructuring, the U.s. arm of the United Steelworkers [USW] intervened in several steel sector bankruptcies, developing restructuring solutions that led to partial or near-complete restoration of pensions and collective agreements. In Canada, during Stelco's troubled bankruptcy process between 2004 and 2006, Steelworker locals employed this interventionist method to prevent pension and collective agreement concessions. Scholars, such as Frost and Bacon, implicitly provide a rationale for union intervention into bankruptcy restructuring. They argue that union intervention in general corporate restructuring allows workers a greater voice in the process, leads to optimal results, and prevents union irrelevance. Frost outlines several criteria for maximizing union success during restructuring: the strength of union intra-organizational and external ties; the responsiveness of the union leadership towards the interests of the membership; and the ability of the union to access information and participate at all levels of the process. Many of Frost's recommendations were critical to the success of the USW locals at Stelco in achieving their bargaining and restructuring goals. Unlike in the more cooperative restructuring examples studied by Frost and Bacon, however, Stelco's Canadian locals employed a very assertive stance, since management exhibited initial hostility to union intervention. The union also found it necessary to enlist the help of government. While union intervention in bankruptcies remains a controversial process, it is one possible solution for troubled manufacturing unions, represents an overall USW push towards greater involvement in management, and may even lead towards an exit for labour from the discarded "post-war compromise."

The article reviews the book, "The Struggle against Wage Controls: The Saint John Story, 1975-1976, by George Vair.

The article reviews the book, "Punk Rockers' Revolution: A Pedagogy of Race, Class and Gender," by Curry Malott and Milagros Peña.

Explores the implications of the 2001 revisions to the Employment Standards Act in Ontario, which increased the weekly maximum number of work hours to 60 while loosening the requirements for overtime pay. Based on a case study involving interviews with several workers from the Ontario Toyota plant, the author argues that the changes involve a re-regulation of the labour market that enhances employer-centred flexibility via the construction of a new form of time discipline.

The article reviews the book, "Sick Building Syndrome and the Problem of Uncertainty: Environmental Politics, Technoscience and Women Workers," by Michelle Murphy.

Recent demographic projections based on Statistics Canada data indicate that persons designated as belonging to a visible minority group will comprise 20 per cent of the Canadian population by 2017. In Canada's major cities, the proportion of persons classified as visible minority is expected to exceed 50 per cent. What is race, and how should racism be studied sociologically? What differences exist in patterns of structural incorporation within and among ethno-racial groups in Canada? What factors influence upward social mobility? Are Canadian institutions capable of meeting the needs of the country's increasingly diverse ethno-racial population? These are some of the questions that this volume addresses. This collection of original articles identifies future research directions for racism in Canada based on important changes taking place in the country. It also offers the basis for a more complete understanding of racism and social change in Canada.

I discuss the recent union renewal strategies adopted by UNITE-HERE Local 75, the union representing a majority of Toronto’s organized hotel workers—a fragmented and diverse labour force. Local 75’s renewal strategies are multiscalar with knowledge and resources flowing through the organization forming a spatial circuit of union renewal. Conceptualizing union renewal as a spatial circuit maps the interdependencies of different scales of labour organization and the tensions that emerge among such scales. The paper focuses on the hotel union’s strategic attempts to (re)create pattern bargaining at local and international scales and organize new hotels prior to their construction. I conclude with a brief discussion linking the recent merger of UNITE-HERE and its departure from the AFL-CIO to broader renewal processes.

The article reviews and comments on three books including "Paradise Laborers: Hotel Work in the Global Economy," by Patricia Adler and Peter Adler, "Class Acts: Service and Inequality in Luxury Hotels," by Rachel Sherman, and "Differences That Matter: Social Policy and the Working Poor in the United States and Canada," by Dan Zuberi.

The article reviews several books including "Globalization and Social Exclusion: A Transformationalist Perspective," by Ronaldo Munck, "Global Citizens: Social Movements and the Challenge of Globalization," by Marjorie Mayo, and "Identity, Place, Knowledge: Social Movements Contesting Globalization," by Janet M. Conway.

The article reviews the book, "Self-Employed Workers Organize: Law, Policy and Unions," by Cynthia J. Cranford, Judy Fudge, Eric Tucker and Leah F. Vosko.

The article reviews the book, "Le droit de l’emploi au Québec," 3rd edition, by Fernand Morin, Jean-Yves Brière and Dominic Roux.

The article reviews the book, 'Globalization and the Future of Labour Law," edited by John D.R. Craig and S. Michael Lynk.

The article reviews the book, "Authentic Indians: Episodes of Encounter From the Late-19th-Century Northwest Coast," by Paige Raibmon.

The article reviews the book, "Taxi! Cabs and Capitalism in New York City," by Biju Mathew.

The article reviews the book, "Tell the Court I Love My Wife: Race, Marriage and Law: An American History," by Peter Wallenstein.

The article reviews the book, "Discourses of Denial: Mediations of Race, Gender and Violence," by Yasmin Jiwani.

The article reviews the book, "Anna May Wong: From Laundryman's Daughter to Hollywood Legend," by Graham Russell Gao Hodges.

This paper discusses interactive service employment within the hospitality industry. Using research undertaken at a downtown hotel in a Canadian city, the paper examines front-line customer service workers engaged in guest interaction. It employs the concept of 'emotional labour', as developed by Hochschild, to illuminate not only managerial discourses, but also the work experiences of those women employed at the front desk (reception) and reservations. The women are shown to engage in intense and prolonged emotional labour, including having to routinely deal with 'irate guests'. The front office workers are shown to engage in covert resistance strategies in order to help them cope with the demands of the job including from aggressive guests. The paper also discusses the way that the work of women room attendants involved a guest interaction element, one that could involve doing emotional labour. The paper concludes by suggesting policy and further research implications, including on what the long-term effects of emotional labour might be.