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In the Weber case, the Supreme Court of Canada enlarged the scope of jurisdiction of labour arbitrators by holding that they have exclusive jurisdiction over all disputes arising not only expressly, but also "inferentially," from a collective agreement. Unfortunately, the expanded jurisdiction conferred on arbitrators was not accompanied by any direction as to where they should look for the normative standards necessary to adjudicate claims where those stan- dards are not provided by the collective agreement, creating the potential for what scholar and arbitrator Brian Etherington has called a Weber gap. There is the potential for such a Weber gap in relation to workplace pension issues, which have traditionally been dealt with by the courts. In Bisaillon v. Concordia University, the Supreme Court of Canada applied a liberal version of the Weber test to a pension dispute, holding that it belonged within the exclusive jurisdic- tion of an arbitrator. Courts and arbitrators have had starkly different responses to this decision: courts have embraced the Court's liberal approach and refused jurisdiction over many pension claims they would previously have dealt with, while arbitrators have taken a narrower view and have been hesitant to expand their own jurisdiction. This divergence has led in practice to an enforcement gap that may leave some unionized employees without access to an effective forum in which to vindicate pension rights. The author proposes that this problem could be addressed through a liberalization of arbitral practice, through collective bargaining, or through legislative reform.

This research project reviews and evaluates the academic literature relating to obtaining and maintaining collective bargaining rights under the OLRA. Research indicates that procedural changes to representation processes including the mandatory representation vote significantly reduced the likelihood of certification, and that these effects were concentrated in more vulnerable units. This may partly be due to greater opportunity for delay and employer resistance under vote procedure compared to under card-based certification. The research also indicates that delay has significant effects on certification outcomes, as do ULP complaints and employer resistance tactics. ULPs have negative long-term effects, and are associated with difficulties in bargaining and early decertification. Research also suggests that employer resistance, including ULPs, is common and often intentional. Little research on decertification exists, but offers some indication that employer actions contribute to decertification, and that decertification is concentrated in smaller, low-skill, low bargaining power units.

This paper aims to discover the theatrical relationship between the working class and the factory of war. In that, it strives to prove that the lower income labourer is the cog of the machine: a nameless entity with an inescapable destiny. Through the paper and the subsequent production of Oh, What A Lovely War! I intend to give a voice to the worker and will struggle with my own blue collar identity, just as Joan Littlewood did in years past. This production and paper therefore is one of self-discovery and acceptance. In addition, it aims to prove that without the heroic efforts of the laboring class, there would be no war, as the cowardice of capitalism would fall without its soldiers.

This article reviews the book, "24/7: Late Capitalism and the Ends of Sleep," by Jonathan Crary.

In 1932, coal miners inside of Alberta's Crowsnest Pass struck for 195 days over working conditions. I use a multi-perspective approach and found my analysis on the basis of community to increase our understanding on industrial disputes. I explore the strike from the viewpoint of coal operators, miners, union organizers, women, the RCMP, and other residents inside the region to contextualize the experience of the strike. By using the starting point of community, I add to the ‘labour versus capital’ paradigm often employed in writings on industrial disputes. The Mine Workers Union of Canada represented the striking miners but it became clear that community consensus to support for the union was never reached. Resistance against the union formed on several fronts and often pitted strike supporters against those who disagreed. The strike is a reminder that tensions not only existed between classes but also within classes.

This concise and readable book provides non-specialist readers with all the information they need to understand how capitalism works (and how it doesn’t). Economics for Everyone, now in its second edition, is an antidote to the abstract and ideological way that economics is normally taught and reported. Key concepts such as finance, competition and wages are explored, and their importance to everyday life is revealed. --Publisher's description

This paper explores some of the complex legal issues that a pension plan sponsor may face when making changes to plan design, particularly where those changes may have a negative impact on benefits. Pension standards legislation in Canada generally permits prospective amendments to a pension plan, pro- vided they do not affect vested rights. However, as the author explains, deter- mining the nature and extent of permissible changes may be complicated by differences in the language of the applicable legislation, which varies across jurisdictions. Furthermore, the key terms "accrued" and "vested" have not been interpreted in a consistent way by courts and tribunals. Turning specifically to the question of which pension benefits can be changed and which ones cannot, the author argues that pension standards law protects only accrued benefits, and not a particular plan design or all "rights" which might be said to arise from plan membership. The paper goes on to review the limited circumstances in which changes can be made to vested pension benefits.

Examines the controversy surrounding the passage of Bill C-377 by the Canadian federal parliament in 2012. Introduced as a private member's bill by Conservative MP Russ Hiebert in 2011, the legislation required unions to disclose publicly all of their activities to the Canada Revenue Agency under the Income Tax Act. The paper analyzes the anti-labour origins of the bill, which mirrored the union disclosure provisions of the US Taft-Hartley Act; it also considers the role of LabourWatch, the bill's principal private-sector Canadian advocate, as well as the Nanos Research polls commissioned by LabourWatch that appeared to show wide public support for the bill.

The article reviews the book, "A Freedom Budget for All Americans: Recapturing the Promise of the Civil Rights Movement in the Struggle for Economic Justice Today," by Paul Le Blanc and Michael D. Yates.

This article reviews the book, "Redeeming Time: Protestantism and Chicago’s Eight-Hour Movement, 1866-1912," by William A. Mirola.

In the Waterman case, the Supreme Court of Canada decided - at least with respect to the defined benefit pension plan under review - that pension benefits received by a wrongfully dismissed employee during the reasonable notice period are not deductible from any severance pay in lieu of reasonable notice that is otherwise payable. A majority of the Court held that the pen- sion benefits constituted a form of deferred compensation that was not intended to indemnify against income loss due to a wrongful dismissal, while the min- ority maintained that pension benefits received during the notice period must be deducted to prevent the dismissed employee from obtaining an undeserved windfall. In this article, the author reviews the law relating to the deductibility of various benefit payments from wrongful dismissal damages. In his view, the Waterman majority judgment does not provide wrongfully dismissed employees with an improper windfall, and there is no principled reason why pension bene- fits should be deducted from a damages award and thereby placed on a separate footing from other benefits that are components of an employee's overall com- pensation package.

This article reviews the book, "Seasons of Change: Labor, Treaty Rights and Ojibwe Nationhood," by Chantal Norrgard.

The article reviews the book, "D'où vient l'emploi ? Marché, État et action collective" by Frédéric Hanin.

Avec le décès de Pierre Verge, la revue Relations industrielles/Industrial Relations perd un réputé contributeur et un précieux ami. À la demande de la direction de la revue, la professeure Guylaine Vallée, qui connaît bien l’oeuvre de Pierre Verge et qui a travaillé avec lui, a accepté de rédiger ce texte hommage faisant état de sa contribution à l’avancement du droit de travail et des relations industrielles au Québec et au Canada. // An obituary is presented for Pierre Verge, a contributor to this journal, professor emeritus at the Law Faculty at the University of Laval in Québec, Québec, humanist, author, and advocate for the advancement of labor laws and industrial relations in Québec and Canada.

Cette étude examine l’influence d’engagements multiples envers l’organisation et le groupe de travail dans la prédiction des départs volontaires, en considérant les interactions entre les deux cibles et les effets principaux des dimensions d’engagement. Ce faisant, la présente étude innove en poursuivant une ligne de recherche émergente sur la façon dont des engagements multiples envers des cibles de travail emboitées s’articulent dans leur influence sur l’occurrence des départs volontaires. De plus, notre attention se porte particulièrement sur les interactions entre l’engagement organisationnel normatif et les dimensions d’engagement envers le groupe. En effet, des travaux récents suggèrent que l’engagement normatif peut voir sa signification perçue se modifier suivant le contexte intra-personnel créé par les autres dimensions d’engagement (Gellatly, Meyer et Luchak, 2006 ; Meyer, Stanley et Parfyonova, 2012). Nous explorons donc l’idée que l’engagement organisationnel normatif pourrait avoir des effets différents sur le risque de démission suivant qu’il s’accompagne d’un engagement affectif, normatif ou de continuité élevé envers le groupe. Sur la base d’une étude en deux temps de mesure espacés d’un an ( N = 268), les analyses révèlent que l’engagement organisationnel normatif présente un effet de réduction du risque de démission plus important lorsque l’engagement affectif envers le groupe est élevé, mais un effet de réduction du risque de démission plus faible lorsque l’engagement normatif envers le groupe est élevé, indiquant des interactions opposées entre les cibles d’engagement. De plus, l’engagement par manque d’alternatives est lié à un risque réduit de démission, cela seulement lorsque l’engagement de continuité envers le groupe est élevé. Enfin, l’engagement organisationnel affectif et l’engagement organisationnel par sacrifice perçu sont associés à un risque réduit de démission alors que l’engagement de continuité envers le groupe de travail augmente ce risque. Nous discutons la portée de ces résultats pour la compréhension du rôle des engagements multiples dans la rétention des employés. // English title: Well-being at Work: Contributions of a Person-centred Study. (English). This study examines the influence of multiple commitments toward the organization and the workgroup in predicting voluntary turnover by considering the interactions across foci and the main effects of commitment dimensions. In doing so, the present study innovates by pursuing an emerging line of research on how multiple commitments toward nested work foci combine each other in influencing the likelihood of voluntary leaving. In addition, we particularly focus on the interactions between normative organizational commitment and the dimensions of commitment to the workgroup. Indeed, recent studies suggest that normative commitment’s perceived meaning can change depending on the intra-personal context provided by the other commitments (Gellatly, Meyer, and Luchak, 2006 ; Meyer, Stanley, and Parfyonova, 2012). We thus explore the idea that normative organizational commitment may have different effects on the likelihood of leaving depending on whether it is accompanied by high affective, normative, or continuance commitment to the workgroup. Based on a study involving two measurement times spaced by one year (N = 268), analyses indicate that normative organizational commitment displays a stronger negative effect on turnover at high levels of affective commitment to the workgroup but a weaker effect on turnover at high levels of normative commitment to the workgroup, indicating opposite interactions across foci. In addition, lack of alternatives commitment is related to reduced turnover only when continuance commitment to the workgroup is high. Finally, affective organizational commitment and perceived sacrifice organizational commitment are associated with lower turnover while continuance commitment to the workgroup is related to higher turnover. We discuss the implications of these results for our understanding of the role of multiple commitments in employee retention.

Discusses the turbulent history surrounding the screening of the film, "Salt of the Earth," by Local 480 of the Mine, Mill and Smelter Workers' union in Trail, BC, in 1954. The Hollywood film, which is based on a true story of Chicano workers on strike at a mine in New Mexico, was blacklisted during the McCarthy era, as were many of the production's personnel. The paper is framed by the reminiscence of Anita Torres, who participated in the original 15-month-long strike, and who attended the screenings both in 1954 and in 2014 when it was commemorated.

The emergence of the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) in the 1970s as the largest union in Canada was a major development in Canadian labour history and the result of extensive efforts to organize unorganized civil servants and public employees. Public sector union growth has often been thought to have differed fundamentally from the experience of private sector unions, on the grounds that union rights were extended to public sector workers without struggle. The history of CUPE New Brunswick, established in 1963, and its predecessor unions in the 1950s demonstrates the complex struggles of civil servants and public employees to acquire and then to apply collective bargaining rights in the province of New Brunswick. While the enactment of the Public Service Labour Relations Act (PSLRA) in 1968 provided a legal means for civil servants to join a union and bargain collectively, public sector workers continued to struggle for improved wages and working conditions throughout the 1970s and 1980s. These conflicts, which drew on both membership mobilization and legal strategies, are shown in detail in the experience of CUPE members in Local 963, New Brunswick Liquor Store Workers, and Local 1252, New Brunswick Council of Hospital Unions, the umbrella organization representing hospital support workers. While locals within CUPE New Brunswick worked independently of one another, the more than 200 CUPE locals in the province joined together in 1992 to resist measures introduced by the provincial Liberal government. While this was essentially a defensive struggle to protect existing rights, it also represented a challenge to the emerging policies of neo-liberalism and a culmination of a tradition of collective action within the union.

Based on qualitative interviews of workers, managers and labour inspectors in China, we examine how employers adjust, often in subtle fashions, to minimum wage increases. Our findings highlight the “law of unintended consequences” in that their effects are often “undone” or offset by subtle adjustments such as reductions in fringe benefits and in overtime work and overtime pay premiums that are otherwise valued by employees. Employees often feel that they are no better off in spite of minimum wage increases because of these offsetting adjustments. This study also suggests possible reasons for the small or zero effect of minimum wage on employment in China. Lack of enforcement may be one of the reasons, but the employees we interviewed seem well aware of the legal minimum wage and employers do not want to get involved in disputes over this matter. For employers who would otherwise be affected by the minimum wage increase, the cost increase is mitigated by the offsetting adjustments. As a result, minimum wages do not seem to weaken the competitive position of employers in China.

This article reviews the book, "Ain’t Got No Home: America’s Great Migrations and the Making of An Interracial Left," by Erin Royston Battat.

The article reviews the book, "Locked Out: A Century of Irish Working-Class Life," edited by David Convery.