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The article reviews the book, "A Power Among Them: Bessie Abramowitz Hillman and the Making of the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America," by Karen Pastorello.

In the summer of 2005, the Society of Energy Professionals Hydro One Local engaged in unprecedented strike action that lasted 105 days. This article documents the strike, and explores how and why it occurred, and with such significant support and participation from the 1000 members of a union that had no militant history. I trace the build-up, progression and resolution of the strike, drawing from Society materials, media reports and ethnographic observation, as well as the insights of elected leaders, staff representatives, and rank and file members of the Society collected through interviews and written questionnaires. I conclude that government policy and management behaviour caused worker anger but that union education, organization and democracy were integral to moving these "professional" workers into job action.

Le groupe des jeunes voyageurs combinant le travail dans leur expérience de voyage constitue le segment du marché touristique mondial qui enregistre la croissance la plus importante cette dernière décennie. Certaines économies régionales dépendent de cette force de travail temporaire. C'est le cas de l'industrie agricole des vallées de l'Okanagan-Similkameen et de Creston en Colombie-Britannique qui accueille annuellement des milliers de migrant fruit pickers provenant majoritairement du Québec. Ce mémoire porte sur le quotidien de ces jeunes québécois et s'attarde à comprendre le sens qu'ils accordent à leurs projets de mobilité. Sur la base d'entretiens, je dégage l'imaginaire commun, les mythes, les idéaux et les représentations qui ont incité les jeunes à partir: Les résultats indiquent que ces jeunes inscrivent leur mouvement dans une double logique de quête et de fuite et que le sens attribué à l'expérience de vacances-travail diffère entre les nouveaux arrivants et ceux qui reviennent d'année en année.

European Unions: Labor's Quest for a Transnational Democracy, by Roland Erne, is reviewed.

Based on a qualitative study of the trajectories of 22 workers aged 50 or older who lost or left a standard job and then undertook some form of non-standard employment, this article wants to shed light on the quality of non-standard jobs often held by seniors. Can these jobs be categorized as precarious, and if so, what are the dimensions of this precariousness? Our analysis enabled us to identify three main profiles: early retirees, "competitive" non-standard workers, and vulnerable non-standard workers. This diversity is mainly related to the characteristics of the previous occupational trajectory but also to the characteristics of the repositioning job, the type of skills the worker has, gender, age, and the fact of living or not with a spouse.

Employment Regimes and the Quality of Work, edited by Duncan Gallie, is reviewed.

The Supreme Court of Canada’s decision in B.C. Health Services, holding that collective bargaining attracts Charter protection, emphasizes the importance of context in constitutional interpretation. The author agrees with the Court in looking to context as part of a purposive approach to interpretation of laws, and he argues that such an approach can be compared to the way in which labour laws have been developed in Israel — a country which, in his view, is a useful source of comparative law for Canada. In an effort to respond to changing realities in the labour market and labour relations (most notably the weakening of trade unions), Israeli judges have in recent years created a number of collective rights in the area of freedom of association, collective bargaining, and strikes. On the basis of the experience of Israeli courts in developing new workplace protections where they are needed, the author contends that the Supreme Court of Canada should now take the next step and extend Charter protection to the right to strike.

De nombreux travaux ont mis au jour l’inadéquation existant entre les lois du travail conçues pour des relations bipartites entre un salarié et un seul employeur clairement identifiable et les relations de travail tripartites qui découlent des nouveaux modes d’organisation de la production qu’adoptent les entreprises en quête de flexibilité. Le présent texte porte de manière particulière sur l’application d’une importante loi québécoise, la Loi sur les normes du travail, aux relations tripartites découlant du recours à des agences de location de personnel. Cette loi édicte des conditions de travail minimales en matière notamment de rémunération, de durée de travail, de congés ou de protection de d’emploi. Elle met aussi en place des mécanismes particuliers de mise en oeuvre de ces normes qui confèrent un rôle important à un organisme administratif spécialisé, la Commission des normes du travail. L’étude s’appuie sur l’analyse qualitative des plaintes déposées entre 2004 et 2006 par des salariés d’agences auprès de la Commission ainsi que sur des entrevues réalisées avec des membres de son personnel. Les résultats révèlent l’effectivité toute relative de la loi dans le contexte des relations de travail tripartites. Ils illustrent, d’une part, des problèmes concrets d’application qui ont été regroupés sous trois grands types : les difficultés liées à la complexité inhérente aux relations tripartites; les contournements ou les fraudes à la loi; et les défaillances structurelles de la loi. Ils témoignent, d’autre part, des difficultés dans le traitement des plaintes relatives à des relations de travail tripartites. Même si les intervenants (inspecteurs-enquêteurs et procureurs) de la Commission développent des pratiques d’application adaptées aux relations tripartites en tentant d’impliquer toutes les parties qui se partagent le pouvoir de direction du salarié dans la recherche d’une solution, il reste que, conformément au mandat de la Commission, plusieurs plaintes se concluent par des règlements, au demeurant rarement tripartites. Ces pratiques d’application n’ont pas de portée normative au-delà de la sphère d’intervention de la Commission et ne peuvent influencer le traitement judiciaire des litiges soulevant l’application du droit du travail à des relations tripartites. C’est pourquoi des réformes législatives doivent être envisagées. Celles-ci sont d’autant plus nécessaires que le recours à des salariés d’agences de location de personnel n’est pas un phénomène marginal et temporaire. À cause de son expansion et de la diversification de son offre de services, l’industrie de la location de personnel est un phénomène susceptible de transformer profondément le marché du Numerous studies have highlighted the existing mismatch between labour laws conceived for bipartite relations involving an employee and a single and clearly identifiable employer, and tripartite labour relations ensuing from the new modes of

This paper considers the relationship between equaliy rights and the right to freedom of conscience and religion, in the context of employ- ment discrimination by religious organizations. The author points out that while some human rights statutes in Canada grant religious organ- izations an exemption from the prohibition against discrimination, oth- ers provide such organizations with access to a BFOR defence. She explains the importance of the distinction between these contrasting appraches, and discusses how courts and tribunals have interpreted and applied them. The paper also includes an overview of the "special case" of denominational schools in Canada, whose rights and privileges are specificall protected by the Constitution Act, 1867. The author then turns to a consideration of which of the two approaches - the BFOR defence or the exemption - is to be preferred. In this respect, she dis- agrees with Alvin Esau, who has argued (most recentl, in a paper pub- lished in this issue of the Journal) that only the exemption approach is capable of effectivel guaranteeing the exercise offreedom of religion. Rather basing her analysis on the model of separation of church and state set out in Locke's Letter Concerning Toleration, she contends that although the two approaches will often yield the same result in a given case, the BFOR defence approach is preferable, because it better pro- tects both equality rights and freedom of religion.

Introduction : Doctorat honorifique décerné au professeur Mark Thompson/Honorary Doctorate Awarded to Professor Mark Thompson

This article investigates management commitment to workplace health and safety through an analysis of the implementation of participatory ergonomic (PE) interventions in three worksites. The PE programs were established to address the burden of work-related musculoskeletal disorders. Drawing upon interview and observational data, the analysis examines the evolution of managerial support for PE programs over time and in the context of pressures internal and external to the worksites. Ergonomic Change Teams in all three sites experienced problems establishing authority to act as change agents and in accessing employee time to carry out their activities. Resolution of these problems was heavily contingent on the commitment of senior management, and the efforts of individual management personnel to intervene in support of the PE program. Our findings highlight that "management" is not a monolithic entity and managerial structures are often marked by divisions in priorities, including health and safety.

The Supreme Court of Canada ruled in the recent B.C. Health Services case that the protection of "freedom of association" in s. 2(d) of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms should be interpreted to provide "at least as much protection" for associational rights as is provided by Convention No. 87 of the International Labour Organization. The ILO Committee on Freedom of Association sees the convention as giving trade unions a right of access to employer property when attempting to organize employees. However Canadian statute and common law provides employers with an almost unfettered right to exclude union organizers, even when allowing them to have access would not interfrre with the employer's production interests. This paper examines whether that law will have to be rethought in the wake of the Supreme Court s decision.

Affectées par des changements nombreux, les équipes syndicales doivent elles-mêmes se transformer. Comment comprendre leurs cheminements divers dans ces péripéties ? Une comparaison entre des établissements canadiens et européens permet de fonder empiriquement et théoriquement une analyse de ces phénomènes. Les auteurs formulent le concept de « syndicalismes référentiels ». Il articule les principales dimensions à travers lesquelles se dessinent les transformations des acteurs : répertoires d’action, identités collectives, ressources, capacité représentative, capacité stratégique. En retenant les cas de deux établissements, canadien et français, l’article illustre la place respective et les interactions de ces dimensions. Leur hiérarchisation au sein de l’action collective permet de comprendre pourquoi des situations institutionnelles inégales peuvent donner lieu à des évolutions analogues. L’incertitude, les pertes de repère caractérisent une phase paradoxale où les acteurs collectifs ne peuvent échapper aux risques d’une redéfinition.

[C]onsists of an interview conducted by [the author] with Beverley Johnson, a long-time union activist, and her daughter, Marie Clarke Walker, currently an executive vice-president with the Canadian Labour Congress. It documents the historic and ongoing struggle for equity waged by people of colour, and the continuing acute problem of racism in Canada and within unions. --Editor's introduction

The election of William Kolisnyk as alderman for Winnipeg's Ward Three in the fall of 1926 was celebrated as one of the first times that any candidate in North America running under the banner of a Communist Party was elected to public office. Although he was only an alderman for four years, a study of Kolisnyk's political life contributes to the study of communist history in several ways. His term in office was split roughly in half by the introduction of Third Period ideology. As the Communist Party's sole elected representative. at the time, Kolisnyk's political activity demonstrates the practical implications of this dramatic policy shift. While the Third Period radically changed Kolisnyk's politics, several local issues significantly influenced his politics. Ethnicity, both within the Party and in Kolisnyk's constituency, profoundly affected his career. The paper also examines the political issues pursued by communists at the municipal level and the communist community that brought Kolisnyk to office. Therefore, this examination of William Kolisnyk's aldermanic career reveals the importance of international influences as well as the political realities of Winnipeg's communist community, both of which contributed to the political activities of one of Canada's first elected communists.

In Heintz v. Christian Horizons, the Ontario Human Rights Tribunal upheld an employment discrimination claim against an evan- gelical Christian organization that operated community living homes for the developmentally disabled, providing services not ony to co-religion- ists but also to the general public. The Tribunal concluded that in light of its activity in the public arena, Christian Horizons did not qualify under Ontario's Human Rights Code as a "special employer" entitled to an exception from the prohibition against discrimination and that, in any event, conformity with afaith-based moral code imposed by the organi- zation on its employees was not a BFOR. The effect of this ruling, the author notes, is that Christian Horizons was precluded from hiring or firing employees for any positions whatsoever based on prohibited grounds (in this case, sexual orientation), nor could the organization impose a moral code on any employee if the code discriminated on such grounds. The author is strongly critical of the Tribunal's decision, argu- ing that it took an unduly narrow approach to the "special employer" exception - one that denies to religious organizations "equal space" with other service providers operating in the public square. He also con- tends that, by rejecting conformity with the organization's moral code as a BFOR, even for managerial or higher ministerial positions, the Tribunal simply acted on a value choice that the right not to be discrim- inated against should trump the right to religious freedom. In the author's view, that value choice is evident in the way the Tribunal delinked the nature of the employment from the employment itself, and adopted a purely "instrumental" (as opposed to "organic ") understand- ing of the complainant's job duties. The author goes on to argue that Professor of Law, University of Manitoba. This paper was prepared on the invi- tation of the Canadian Constitutional Foundation for its Conference on "Race, Religion, Equality and Freedom," held in Toronto in October 2009. My thanks to lain Benson, Craig Jones, and Andrew Lokan for comments, although it should be noted that they do not necessarily agree with what I say in this paper.

Providing his prognosis for the future of a right to strike, in light of the Supreme Court of Canada's decision in B.C. Health, the author argues that the Court will likely recognize constitutional protection for such a right. In his view, based on the scope offreedom of association set out in that decision, as well as the adoption of a "substantial interfer- ence" test, government measures will probably be held to violate s. 2(d) of the Charter if they totally remove the right to strike, or restrict it so severely as to deny access to a meaningful process of collective bargain- ing. However, turning to a consideration of the problems and concerns that would arise from Charter protection for a right to strike, the author suggests that recognition of a broad, open-ended right may open the door to challenges to the numerous restrictions on strike activity found in Canadian labour relations statutes, and embroil the courts in ongoing review of legislative choices on policy issues. Thus, he expects that the Supreme Court will recognize only a limited right to strike - one in which the legislature would be permitted to substitute strikes with some other fair impasse resolution mechanism (such as interest arbitration), in situations where there are policy reasons for withholding the right to strike or for bringing an end to a strike that threatens the public interest.

The article reviews the book, "Regulating Flexibility: The Political Economy of Employment Standards," by Mark P. Thomas.