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While the union's duty of fair representation (DFR) toward its members is well established in Canadian labour law, relatively little research has examined Canadian DFR cases or factors that may affect the outcome of DFR complaints. This paper examines 138 DFR cases filed with the British Columbia Labour Relations Board between 2000 and 2006. Only eight of the 138 cases resulted in a decision in favour of the complainant The most common reasons for DFR complaints were the union's alleged failure to pursue grievances relating to termination or to pursue grievances relating to job changes. The majority of complainants represented themselves in the process. Future research could expand upon these findings to improve understanding of the duty of fair representation and its application.

Black Canadians provides an authoritative reference for teachers, students and the general public who seek to know more about the Black Diaspora in North America. Arguments made in this book may be unpleasant for those with little appetite for pointed, provocative views and analysis from the standpoint of Black people. For those with a genuine interest in venturing beyond established orthodoxies and simplistic solutions to the contentious ethno-racial problems in Canada, this book will be insightful and worthy of close attention. This new edition expands the regional coverage of Black history, updates all the statistics with the 2006 census data, and adds important new material on multiculturalism and employment equity. --Publisher's description

The article reviews the book, "Power Struggles: Hydro Development and First Nations in Manitoba and Quebec," edited by Thibault Martin and Steven M. Hoffman.

Through late 1973, the Artistic Woodwork strike captivated not only the left-wing milieux of Toronto - from young New Leftists, to rank-and-file union members, to activists from a plethora of political groups - but also the entire city. Artistic was a first contract strike by immigrant workers organized by the Canadian Textile and Chemical Union (CTCU). The narrative of the strike came to be dominated by supporters after many of the workers picketing left due to both fear and the availability of alternative employment. By November, mass pickets of four hundred people added to political pressure and helped secure a first contract settlement. Coming at the end of a period of intense political debate and discussion concerning the agent of social change and the role of the working-class, Artistic assumed special significance in the personal trajectories of many supporters. On these violent picket lines, supporters had an opportunity to act out the prevailing Marxist sociology of the time. Artistic demonstrates the confluence of a variety of forces at the end of the long sixties: the widespread turn towards Marxism and the working-class as a necessary component of social and political change; the importance of nationalism as a unifying feature between some New Leftists and unions such as the CTCU; and the continuing social responsibility of the student and the intellectual. While Artistic was decertified in 1975, we can take valuable lessons from the strike concerning the impact of allowing strikebreakers as well as the power and importance of a social network in garnering widespread strike support.

This study examines the changing mentalité as well as the shifting accumulation and political strategies of Canada's big bourgeoisie during the transformative period from 1917 to 1947. Engaging literatures from a range of disciplines and subfields within history, the study pursues biographical case studies of five leading business and political figures from different regions and associated with different sectors of the economy. The group includes Howard P. Robinson (1874-1950), Charles Dunning (1885-1958), Sir Edward Beatty (1877-1943), Sam McLaughlin (1871-1972), and C.D. Howe (1886- 1960). In an era when American investment surpassed British investment for the first time and created a new dependency for the country's economic elite, the crisis of the old political economy of the National Policy period became apparent as business leaders and institutions struggled to maintain their economic and political power. This challenge became more pronounced with the onset of the Great Depression and the rise of social democratic and socialist alternatives, including a strong labour movement. For members of the economic elite whose residual worldview was associated with finance capital, compromise on key issues was difficult and some members questioned the efficacy of democratic governance in a time of economic crisis, but the eventual political defeat of this response cleared the way for ideological and political adjustments. The tendency of the scholarly literature to focus on the themes of economic dependency and political continuity in this period has concealed the more complex story told in this study: of finance capital's political failure and the eventual triumph of a form of managerial capitalism that accepted government intervention without ceding ideological ground.

The article reviews the book, "The Rise of Canadian Business," by Graham D. Taylor.

The article reviews the book, "The Labor of Job: The Biblical Text As a Parable of Human Labor," by Antonio Negri.

We introduce the term “relational activism” to call attention to the way that relationship-building work contributes to conventional activism (re-activism) and constitutes activism in and of itself. In so doing, we unravel Mohai’s paradox – a long-standing “ironic contrast” that notes that women’s environmental concern is not reflected in greater contributions to activism than men’s. We position relational activism as a bridging concept between re-activism and social capital. Relational activism differs from re-activism in four key areas: the role of the individual, effectiveness, motivating values, and temporal scale. To support these claims, we draw upon 26 ethnographic interviews conducted with families in Edmonton, Alberta, who strive to reduce their environmental impact.

The article reviews the book, "Heavy Burdens on Small Shoulders: The Labour of Pioneer Children on the Canadian Prairies," by Sandra Rollings-Magnusson.

A survey of the global trajectory of labour history. Specially commissioned essays by labour historians of international repute consider: early labour history traditions, new conceptions of class, gender, ethnicity, culture, community and power. Whether the 1960s can be regarded as turning point in labour history the general historiographical climate in the mid-twentieth century the institutional context (e.g. the evolution of labour history societies, historical associations and journals) links between labour history and the labour movement Many authors are connected with the British Society for the Study of Labour History; all are experts in the labour history of particular countries. They analyse key debates, question dominant paradigms, acknowledge minority critiques and consider future directions. --Publisher's description.

The article reviews the book, "Workers of the World: Essays Toward a Global Labor History" by Marcel van der Linden.

Women's structures have long featured in many UK and Canadian unions, and their forms and functions continue to widen. Extant literature highlights their concern with improving female union members' conditions in the workplace, but a growing body of scholarly work observes that women's structures may act as change agents within the trade union setting. Drawing on recent survey and interview evidence, this paper examines various equality achievements for women within UK and Canadian unions, before seeking to account for the extent of this progress with regard to women's structures' presence and activity. The empirical findings then inform a discussion which focuses on women's structures' contribution to women's equality within unions, and the implications of prevailing measures of internal equality progress for union influence.

The article reviews the book, "The Failure of Global Capitalism: From Cape Breton to Colombia and Beyond," by Terry Gibbs and Garry Leech.

The article reviews the book , "Harlem vs. Columbia University: Black Student Power in the 1960s," by Stefan M. Bradley.

The article reviews three books: "Making History: Organizations of Labour Historians in Britain since 1960," edited by John McIlroy, Alan Campbell, John Halstead, and David Martin; "Histories of Labour: National and International Perspectives," edited by Joan Allen, Alan Campbell, and John McIlroy; and "Rethinking U.S. Labor History: Essays on the Working-Class Experience, 1756-2009," edited by Donna Haverty-Stacke and Daniel J. Walkowitz.

The article reviews the book, "Condensed Capitalism: Campbell Soup and the Pursuit of Cheap Production in the Twentieth Century," by Daniel Sidorick.

This article assesses one of the longest private sector strikes in Canadian history — the United Steelworkers (USW) Local 6500 strike at Vale in Sudbury, 2009-2010. It argues that in the context of corporate globalization and the recent financial crisis, Vale took full advantage of its economic power to win major concessions from Local 6500. The USW's community, political, and corporate campaigns were unable to pressure the company or the federal and provincial government effectively and the result was that a powerful international corporation prevailed in its efforts to erode the material well-being of its Canadian workforce. Such a defeat, alongside the recent collective bargaining concessions by auto workers in Canada and the United States, is a major blow to the North American labour movement. Trade unions must therefore develop more successful strategies of resistance and begin the process of reforming and rejuvenating themselves as organizations defending workers. If this is not done the future of North American labour is bleak indeed.

The article reviews the book, "Uniting in Measures of Common Good: The Construction of Liberal Identities in Central Canada," by Darren Ferry.

This paper explores the structures and practices of temporary migrant worker programs (TMWP) as they operate in Canadian agriculture. Acting within highly competitive, globalized markets, agri-food employers rely on the availability of migrant workers to achieve greater flexibility in their labor arrangements, drawing on employment practices beyond those possible with a domestic workforce. Most recently, changes to Canada’s two TMWP schemes have provided employers with greater scope to shape the social composition of their workforce. The paper analyzes these changes while exploring their implications for workplace regimes in agriculture.

Few Canadian data sources allow the examination of disparities by ethnicity, language, or immigrant status in occupational exposures or health outcomes. However, it is possible to document the mechanisms that can create disparities, such as the over-representation of population groups in high-risk jobs. We evaluated, in the Montréal context, the relationship between the social composition of jobs and their associated risk level. We used data from the 2001 Statistics Canada census and from Québec's workers' compensation board for 2000-2002 to characterize job categories defined as major industrial groups crossed with three professional categories (manual, mixed, non-manual). Immigrant, visible, and linguistic minority status variables were used to describe job composition. The frequency rate of compensated health problems and the average duration of compensation determined job risk level. The relationship between the social composition and risk level of jobs was evaluated with Kendall correlations. The proportion of immigrants and minorities was positively and significantly linked to the risk level across job categories. Many relationships were significant for women only. In analyses done within manual jobs, relationships with the frequency rate reversed and were significant, except for the relationship with the proportion of individuals with knowledge of French only, which remained positive. Immigrants, visible, and linguistic minorities in Montréal are more likely to work where there is an increased level of compensated risk. Reversed relationships within manual jobs may be explained by under-reporting and under-compensation in vulnerable populations compared to those with knowledge of the province's majority language.