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Interrogates the currents of scholarly inquiry into the Italian emigration of the 19th and 20th centuries. Argues for a woman-centred, gendered, and proletarian history of this diaspora, and suggests new areas of investigation.

Cet article propose une conceptualisation de l’action syndicale à l’échelle des milieux de travail illustrée par le cas québécois.La construction du concept de logique représentative permet de cerner les fondements de l’action syndicale. Des résultatsd’enquêtes de terrain, menées principalement dans le secteur manufacturier, sont utilisés pour décrire les changements à l’oeuvredans le champ des relations du travail. La description des conséquences de ces changements et l’analyse subséquente conduisentà proposer que la logique représentative traditionnelle des syndicats est ébranlée et qu’à terme, c’est le sens de l’actionsyndicale qui en est altéré.

C'est un portrait contrasté qu'il faut faire de l'année syndicale 1995-1996. D'une part, les organisations syndicales ont été extrêmement présentes dans la vie politique québécoise, à leur initiative mais aussi en raison du statut privilégié qu'on leur confère dans les pratiques gouvernementales (québécoises) de consultation. D'autre part, si l'on considère la mission première des organisations syndicales, qui est de défendre les conditions de travail de ses membres et plus généralement des salariés, on constate que l'année écoulée a été marquée par la «défensivité». Hors quelques coups d'éclat, le syndicalisme québécois n'a guère réussi à renverser les tendances à la rationalisation et donc aux baisses d'effectifs salariés. Qu'il s'agisse du secteur public ou du secteur privé, les syndicats sont loin d'être les meneurs de jeu. --Introduction

The article reviews the book, "Management de la flexibilité," by Christophe Everaere.

The article reviews the book, "Angels of the Workplace: Women and the Construction of Gender Relations in the Canadian Clothing Industry, 1890-1940," by Mercedes Steedman.

Ce livre amorce une réflexion sur la mobilité des travailleurs miniers du Nord en exploitant une variété de sources, parmi lesquelles figurent les archives des sociétés mineurs qui composent le matérial le plus riche de l'ouvrage. Non seulement la mobilité géographique des travailleurs y est examiné, mais aussi leur mobilité interne. En fait, les mines ont aussi une lieu d'apprentissage pour une minorité des travailleurs et non uniquement une lieu de confrontation, comme les historiens ont l'habitude de la faire. Un des thèmes marquants de l'étude demeure le fait que les politiques d'embauche des entreprises ont fortement influencé la composition ethnique de la force de travail, et conséquemment, celle de la population de nord ontarien et québécois. --Quatrième de couverture

The article reviews the book, "Just Another Car Factory ? Lean Production and its Discontents," by James Rinehart, Christopher Huxley and David Roberts.

The article reviews the book, "After Marxism," by Ronald Aronson.

The article reviews the book, "'We Are All Leaders': The Alternative Unionism of the Early 1930's," edited by Staughton Lynd.

This paper adopts a critical sociological approach to analyze how labor law shaped a 23-day strike at a western Canadian university in the fall of 1995. A chronology of the strike is provided, followed by a brief analysis of how both economic and sociological models contribute to understanding the rationale of the strike. The implications of specific labor laws for this rationale are discussed, with an extension of the critical legal studies tradition by an establishment of how legal biases against unions shape strike activity.

The article reviews the book, "Hard Bargain: Transforming Public Sector Labour-Management Relations," by Peter Warrian.

Analyzes the 1997 film, "Good Will Hunting," as a romantic comedy that foregrounds character-in-spiritual-at the expense of any serious consideration of class or the individual's position within the social. The author also discusses the film's reception, including by her students.

The article reviews the book, "San'ya Blues: Laboring Life in Contemporary Tokyo," by Edward Fowler.

Facing industrial unrest in each of its Canadian petroleum refineries, the Imperial Oil Company embarked on a wide-ranging industrial-relations initiative in 1919. Patterned after Mackenzie King's "Rockefeller Plan," the logic was clear: joint worker-management councils would alleviate shop-floor discontent; a package of welfare benefits would reduce absenteeism and turnover; and a share-purchase plan would enhance worker loyalty to the Company. Where similar attempts at corporate welfarism in Canada generally failed, Imperial Oil enjoyed a union-free status until 1946, and freedom from work stoppages until the early 1950s. What made it unique in this regard was its willingness and capacity to buy labour harmony; and in an era hostile to organized labour, its workers succeeded in extracting important monetary concessions as the price of their loyalty. Imperial Oil thus offers a cogent example of the conditions necessary for King's variant of welfare capitalism to flourish.

The application of merit pay in Canadian universities is examined. Designed to motivate and reward greater productivity, the effectiveness of merit pay depends upon the relative importance of competitive versus cooperative behavior in the academic workplace, the capacity to evaluate individual performance, and the ability to design clear financial signals appropriate to the objectives of the institution. Differences among universities can be expected to produce differences in compensation methods. A logit analysis is conducted that suggests that an institution's likelihood of having a merit pay scheme varies according to region; that it increases with the emphasis placed on graduate training and research; and that it declines in the presence of a unionized faculty association. This suggests that the adoption of performance-based pay is apt to meet stronger resistance in undergraduate and unionized institutions.

The article reviews the book, "The New Left and Labor in the 1960s," by Peter B. Levy.

The pressures for the harmonization of labor laws and policies under trade liberalization are outlined, with particular attention to inter-jurisdictional competition for investment and jobs. This is followed by an analysis of the linkages that are necessary for there to be downward harmonization, with some discussion of the empirical evidence (and lack of evidence) on those linkages. Opposing pressures towards divergence and away from convergence and harmonization are also discussed. The paper concludes with some observations on the advantages and disadvantages of harmonization and the appropriate policy responses.

The recent accession to power of a conservative government in Australia would seem to mark a major change in Australian industrial relations. However, a more subtle reading of events suggests that key ingredients of the new government's reform package were actually foreshadowed, even partially implemented, by the former Australian Labor Party government. The latter was well known for its enthusiastic implementation of orthodox economic policies, albeit in a context of corporatism. This suggests a degree of continuity between the policies of the ALP and Liberal/National Coalition governments. At the same time, there are ingredients of significant change, some of them on the face of it minor, but which, over time, are likely to erode the power of unions and sharpen the divide between the union and non-union sectors.