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The article reviews the book, "The Manly Modern: Masculinity in Postwar Canada," by Christopher Dummitt.

A new study of farm work in BC reveals systematic violations of employment standards and health and safety regulations, poor and often dangerous working conditions, and dismal enforcement by government agencies. The study’s authors propose comprehensive policy changes that would ensure farmworkers — most of whom are immigrants and temporary migrants — are no longer relegated to second-class status. “Farmworkers are at the mercy of a complex and confusing system that exploits, threatens and silences them while putting their lives in danger,” says study co-author Arlene McLaren, Professor Emerita of Sociology at Simon Fraser University. The study draws from numerous sources, including interviews with key informants in government and the farm industry, interviews with 53 Indo-Canadian immigrant and Mexican migrant farmworkers, a survey 87 Mexican migrant farmworkers, and a review of better practices in other jurisdictions. The study is part of the Economic Security Project, a joint initiative of the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives and Simon Fraser University. --Publisher's description

The article reviews the book, "Bounded Rationality and Policy Diffusion: Social Sector Reform in Latin America," by Kurt Weyland.

The article reviews the book, "Forgotten Families: Ending the Growing Crisis Confronting Children and Working Parents in the Global Economy," by Jody Heymann.

The article reviews the book, "On the Side of the People: A History of Labour in Saskatchewan," by Jim Warren and Kathleen Carlisle.

Nation and Society: Readings in Post-Confederation Canadian History offers students a sample of some of the best recent scholarship on the history of Canada since Confederation. The readings are grouped in a combination of time periods and themes that are commonly used in studies of the post-Confederation period: “Inventing Canada, 1867-1914”; “Economy and Society in the Industrial Age, 1867-1918”; “Transitional Years: Canada 1919-1945”; “Reinventing Canada, 1945-1975”; and “Post-Modern Canada.” --Publisher's description. Contents: Pt. 1. Inventing Canada, 1867-1914. Dispossession vs. accomodation in plaintiff vs. defendent accounts of Métis dispersal from Manitoba, 1870-1881 / D.N. Sprague -- Remoulding the constitution / Christopher Armstrong -- "The cititzenship debates": the 1885 Franchise Act / Veronica Strong-Boag -- Categories and terrains of exclusion: constructing the "Indian woman" in the early settlement era of western Canada / Sarah Carter -- Eldorado / William R. Morrison. Pt.2. Economy and society in the industrial age, 1867-1918. "Care, control and supervision": native people in the Canadian Atlantic salmon fishery, 1867-1900 / Bill Parenteau -- Necessary for survival: women and children's labour on prairie homesteads, 1871-1911 / Sandra Rollings-Magnusson -- Exclusion or solidarity? Vancouver workers confront the "Oriental problem" / Gillian Creese -- North of the colour line: sleeping car porters and the battle against Jim Crow on Canadian rails, 1880-1920 / Sarah-Jane (Saje) Mathieu -- Unmaking manly smokes: church, state, governance, and the first anti-smoking campaigns in Montreal, 1892-1914 / Jarrett Rudy -- The roots of modernism: Darwinism and the higher critics / Ramsay Cook -- Remembering armageddon / Jonathan E. Vance. Pt. 3. Transitional years, 1918-1945. Dancing to perdition: adolescence and leisure in interwar English Canada / Cynthia Comacchio -- "The best man that ever worked the lumber": aboriginal longshoremen and Burrard Inlet, BC, 1863-1939 / Andrew Parnaby -- Indispensible but not a citizen: the housewife in the Great Depression / Denyse Baillargeon -- Introduction to Myths, memories and lies: Quebec's intelligentsia and the Fascist temptation, 1939-1960 / Esther Delisle -- Starting into the abyss / J.L. Granatstein. Pt. 4. Reinventing Canada, 1945-1975. Psychology and the construction of the "normal" family in postwar Canada, 1945-1960 / Mona Gleason -- "I'll wrap the f*#@ Canadian flag around me": a nationalist response to plant shutdown, 1962-1984 / Steven High -- "Character weakness" and "fruit machines": towares an analysis of the anti-homosexual security campaign in the Canadian civil service / Gary Kinsman -- People in the way: modernity, environment, and society on the Arrow Lakes / Tina Loo -- A Newfoundland culture? / James Overton -- Allegories and orientations in African-Canadian historiography: the spirit of Africville / James W. St. G. Walker -- "The Rocket": newspaper coverage of the death of a Québec cultural icon, a Canadian hockey player / Howard Ramos and Kevine Gosine. Pt. 5. Post-modern Canada. "This little piggy went to the prairies": growth and opposition to the prairie hog industry / Michael J. Broadway -- Political economy of gender, race, and class: looking at South Asian immigrant women in Canada / Tania Das Gupta -- Rights in the courts, on the water, and in the woods: the aftermath of R. v. Marshall in New Brunswick / Margaret McCallum -- Family policy, child care and social solidarity: the case of Quebec / Jane Jenson -- No exit: racial profiling and Canada's war against terrorism / Reem Bahdi.

Les services essentiels doivent être assurés tout en permettant l’exercice légal du droit de grève. Après avoir fait un rappel historique des services essentiels, le présent article étudie l’exercice définitionnel de ces services et tente de mettre en lumière la manière dont est déterminée l’essentialité légale des services à maintenir en cas de grève. Aux termes du Code du travail, il n’existe qu’un seul et unique critère définitionnel des services essentiels, c’est-à-dire la « santé ou sécurité publique ». Mais, depuis peu, comme l’illustre la jurisprudence du Conseil des services essentiels, se dessine une tentative d’extension des services essentiels. L’article présente trois facteurs qui concourent à cette extension., In the event of a legal strike affecting the provision of some public services and the public and parapublic sectors, the parties in the dispute must ensure that the activity is partly maintained due to its critical nature. In other words, the legislator sometimes compels them to provide essential services. This notion exists at both the supra-state and national levels. However, there is no universal legal definition. It is interpreted more or less broadly, depending on the meaning of the concept in use in a particular legal system. In Quebec, the notion of essential services has been constructed over the years. Its history is long and marked by the evolving labour relations in the area of public services and the public and parapublic sectors. It first appeared in the law in 1965 and has continued to evolve ever since: it has become more precise, more refined, but has also expanded. Two important events have marked the history of this notion: the Martin-Bouchard Commission (1978) and the creation of the Conseil des services essentiels (essential services council) (1982). The implementation of essential services gives rise to issues of a political, economic or legal nature. A fundamental legal issue relates to the methods used to define these services. The law stipulates the use of a single criterion to determine essential services, that is, “public health or public safety.” According to the International Labour Organization and the Quebec legislator, essential services are those which when interrupted would endanger the safety or health of a person, in the entire population or in a segment of a population. The Council is the Quebec organization responsible for ensuring protection of the population’s health and safety in the event of a strike. Under this mission, the only relevant criterion it can use is the impact of the provision or non-provision of services on the health and safety of the public. However, the Council can use various subcriteria to determine in a concrete way the essential nature of services, involving, for example, the duration of the strike, the time of year in which the strike takes place, or the characteristics of the services provided. The inconvenience caused by a strike is considered to be normal. Thus, subject to special obligations, the inconvenience, impracticability or discomfort generated by a strike, and its economic impact do not in any way constitute relevant factors in determining the sufficiency of essential services. The Quebec legislation is particularly consistent in this matter. On the one hand, one single definitional criterion is used throughout the process of implementing essential services: from when agreements are worked out between the parties to when they are applied and subsequently controlled. On the other hand, the sole parameter constituted by public health or safety is imposed on very different environments: the health and social services sector, the provision of public services and the civil service. More specifically, it constitutes the basic definitional instrument of the notion of essential services which is adjusted based on the specific characteristics of each “sector.” The Council’s case law effectively clarifies the idea of an activity’s essential nature. Although, for a long time, public health or safety has been the sole criterion that can be applied and is applied, recent case law reveals several phenomena which tend to increase the number of services maintained in the event of a strike in the public services and the public and parapublic sectors. First, the definitional criterion is interpreted broadly. The examination of case law shows that a greater number of services are today considered to be essential. The disputes in the transportation sector are an apt illustration of this finding. Whereas for about 20 years, the way essential services were defined in public transport involved providing service during the peak hours of the week, they now include bus service during the week-end. Second, a number of provisions in the LabourCode related to institutions in the health network are applied beyond the legal requirements. Thus, two trends have emerged: the voluntary application of percentages of employees to be maintained at work that are higher than those set out by law (section 111.10 LC); and the conventional extension of the scope of application of the law by organizations not specified by the legislator that voluntarily apply the rules imposed on institutions in the health network. The application of the LabourCode beyond the legal requirements can be explained in part by the evolving methods used by the state in the area of health management. Third, new criteria have appeared because of the extension of the Council’s field of jurisdiction. Current practices in the public service show that criteria other than public health or safety are being used. In particular, the parties are using the following criteria: public health or safety, the independence of the judiciary, parliamentary privilege and contingent loss of rights or the fact that university training is now included among the essential services to which anyone is entitled. The appearance of these new criteria is acceptable insofar as it leads to the consideration of the specific characteristics pertaining to each sector that has recently come under the Council’s jurisdiction., Los servicios esenciales deben ser asegurados al mismo tiempo que se permite el ejercicio legal del derecho de huelga. Después de hacer un esbozo histórico de los servicios esenciales, el presente artículo estudia el ejercicio de definición de estos servicios y intenta esclarecer la manera como es determinada la esencialidad legal de los servicios que deben ser mantenidos en caso de huelga. Según los términos del Código del trabajo, existe un solo y único criterio de definición de los servicios esenciales, es decir la “salud o seguridad pública”. Pero desde hace poco, como lo ilustra la jurisprudencia del Consejo de servicios esenciales, se bosqueja una tentativa de extensión de los servicios esenciales. El artículo presenta tres factores que concurren a esta extensión.

The article reviews the book, "The Emergence of Feminism in India, 1850-1920," by Padma Anagol.

The NDP was founded out of the ashes of the Co-Operative Commonwealth Federation to cooperate with the Canadian Labour Congress to become the 'political arm of organized labour' in Canada. The NDP has long claimed they are the party which represents the policy goals of organized labour in Canada: that the NDP alone will fight for trade union rights, and will fight for Canadian workers. Divergent Paths is an examination of the links between the labour movement and the NDP in an era ofneo-liberalism. Provincial NDP governments have become increasingly neoliberal in their ideological orientation, and have often proved to be no friend to the labour movement when they hold office. The Federal party has never held power, nor have they ever formed the Official Opposition. This thesis charts the progress of the federal NDP as they become more neoliberal from 1988 to 2006, and shows how this trend effects the links between the NDP and labour. Divergent Paths studies each federal election from 1988 to 2006, looking at the interactions between Labour and the NDP during these elections. Elections provide critical junctions to study discourse - party platforms, speeches, and other official documents can be used to examine discourse. Extensive newspaper searches were used to follow campaign events and policy speeches. Studying the party's discourse can be used to determine the ideological orientation of the party itself: the fact that the party's discourse has become neoliberal is a sure sign that the party itself is neoliberal. The NDP continues to drive towards the centre of the political spectrum in an attempt to gain multi-class support. The NDP seems more interested in gaining seats at any cost, rather then promoting the agenda of Labour. As the party attempts to open up to more multi-class support, Labour becomes increasingly marginalised in the party. A rift which arguably started well before the 1988 election was exacerbated during that election; labour encouraged the NDP to campaign solely on the issue of Free Trade, and the NDP did not. The 1993 election saw the rift between the two grow even further as the Federal NDP suffered major blowbacks from the actions of the Ontario NDP. The 1997 and 2000 elections saw the NDP make a deliberate move to the centre of the political spectrum which increasingly marginalised labour. In the 2004 election, Jack Layton made no attempt to move the party back to the left; and in 2006 the link between labour and the NDP was perhaps irreparably damaged when the CAW endorsed the Liberal party in a strategic voting strategy, and the CLC did not endorse the NDP. The NDP is no longer a reliable ally of organized labour. The Canadian labour movement must decide whether the NDP can be 'salvaged' or if the labour movement should end their alliance with the NDP and engage in a new political project.

The article reviews the book, "Global Labour History: A State of the Art," edited by Jan Lucassen.

The article reviews the book, "Trinity of Passion: The Literary Left and the Antifascist Crusade," by Alan M. Wald.

The article reviews several books including "Miners and the State in the Ottoman Empire: The Zonguldak Coalfield, 1822-1920," by Donald Quataert, "The Face of Decline: The Pennsylvania Anthracite Region in the Twentieth Century," by Thomas Dublin and Walter Licht, and "The Struggle for Dignity: Industrial Politics and the 1926 Lockout," edited by John Mcllroy, Alan Campbell, and Keith Gildart.

In June 2007, the Supreme Court of Canada expressly overruled 20 years of jurisprudence that interpreted the freedom of association as excluding collective bargaining. This about-face by the Supreme Court was unexpected. What gave rise to this remarkable decision and what does it portend for the role of the courts in labour relations in Canada and beyond? The recent successes before courts have led some observers to suggest that it may now be a propitious time for a coordinated and proactive litigation strategy to vindicate labour's collective rights. This article offers some preliminary answers to these broader questions and issues by focussing on the Supreme Court's decision in the Health Services and Support case.

The article reviews the book, "Fragments sur l’essentiel du droit de l’emploi," by Fernand Morin.

The article reviews the book, "The Business of Everyday Life: Practice and Social Politics in England c. 1600-1900," by Beverly Lemire.

The article reviews the book, "Latina Activists Across Borders: Women's Grassroots Organizing in Mexico and Texas," by Milagros Pena.

À partir des fiches du personnel et de livres de paie de deux sociétés minières de Kirkland Lake, la Lake Shore Gold Mines et la Wright-Hargreaves Mines, l’auteur aborde la question des absences au travail entre 1927 et 1943. Les mineurs examinés, qui font partie des travailleurs les mieux payés du secteur industriel canadien, ont profité d’une organisation du travail qui les sollicite à faire des heures supplémentaires ou à toucher des primes de rendement. Ces revenus additionnels tout comme les hauts salaires que commande leur travail contribuent à une pratique d’absentéisme occasionnel qui se présente sous deux formes : des semaines de vacances non payées et le prolongement du congé dominical pour profiter de ce qu’on appellera la fin de semaine. Ces pratiques, qui varient d’une mine à l’autre et selon le type de travail, sont ainsi en place bien avant l’adoption des deux semaines de vacances en Ontario en 1944 et bien avant l’adoption de la semaine de travail de 40 heures au début des années 1950. Les absences au travail ne seraient donc pas seulement provoquées par des accidents, des maladies ou du chômage, mais elles pourraient être aussi volontaires, signalant ainsi la très grande indépendance de ces travailleurs face au patronat.

The article reviews the book, "Labor's Cold War: Local Politics in a Global Context," edited by Sheldon Stromquist.

Ce travail vise à comprendre comment des intérimaires subissant ce statut y font face. Il apparaît que confrontés à une situation vécue comme stigmatisante, ces salariés réagissent de façon différente selon les raisons qui les ont conduits vers le travail temporaire, selon les ressources qu’ils parviennent à mobiliser pour définir et poursuivre différents objectifs et, en partie au moins, selon la durée de leur passage dans cette forme d’emploi. Trois réponses émergent : la résignation, la résilience et l’adaptation. Loin des schémas explicatifs unidimensionnels valorisant un précaire contraint ou acteur de son développement de carrière, cette recherche suggère une réaction au travail contingent subi qui questionne les différents modèles de coping, c’est-à-dire de stratégies adaptatives., Insecure and discontinued work has spread significantly in France and in other developed industrialized countries over the last thirty years. A significant number of employees are experiencing precarious employment, for lack of finding a secure job which remains a strong social norm in France. This situation of imposed insecurity is to be found in particular in temporary employment and concerns two million employees in France, predominantly low-skilled or unskilled young people. Many studies tend to show that low-skilled contingent workers accept their situation very passively, having no real means to do anything about it, waiting for the situation to improve. On the other hand, in contrast, one can find the description of self-willed, better skilled, mobile workers who implement strategies including chosen mobility to develop their employability, helped by their independence and their ability to diversify their competencies. In spite of the relevance of this dichotomy that enables us to characterize two typical situations, it has a downside which is to assume that involuntary contingent workers have almost no room at all for maneuver. We have tried to understand to what extent low-skilled, involuntary contingent workers get organized to make do with and face up to their difficulties. We then tried to distinguish how they reacted, the strategies and the tactics they adopted to put up with their situation, and if need be, how they tried hard to turn it around to their benefit. We carried out a field survey in the Paris area among 16 temporary work agencies belonging to three large temporary work companies and an SME in the sector to collect data that would enable us to know more about the subject. Resorting to semi-directive interviews, in situ observations, and questionnaires put to temporary workers as well as to the permanent employees of the agencies that employed them, we identified three types of response to the constraint on the part of low-skilled workers. The first type of response was adjustment, and corresponded to constructive acceptance of the situation the worker was confronted with, by trying to optimize the conditions in which it was experienced; the objective was to force the constraint to find a way out. The worker displayed conspicuous good will, as well as permanent cooperation with the agency during his assignment to serve this adjustment, aimed at showing that he was a good and reliable contingent worker even if his main objective was to become a good stable employee. The second type of response was resilience and consisted in doing everything in order not to give up in the face of difficulties, acting with a view to attempting to access stable employment which was the permanent hope. The worker tried to respond to the constraint so as to create an opportunity for development. This posture often involved a twofold refusal of being victimized as a contingent worker on the one hand, and being trapped in this status on the other. This translated into asserting the reasons for and objectives of resorting to temporary work presented as a moment in one’s career that was accepted if not really chosen, and during which the worker refused to be the victim of circumstances. This positive re-interpretation led to the adoption of active individual tactics. The third type of response was resignation and defined the position of those who felt unable to react to the constraint imposed on them and which generated a lot of suffering. The wide gap between the stable employment they aspired to and the durable job insecurity they suffered put these workers in front of a gap between expectations that could only be coped with by being on the defensive. This frequently led, often after many years, to a passive approach similar to a descent into despair. In quite a few cases, we noticed a scenario in which the three attitudes appeared successively: adjustment, which often characterized the first phase, was followed by a phase of resilience during which the worker tried to get organized so as to hold out without suffering too much, followed by resignation when the time spent in contingent work lasted and generated the feeling that one was trapped within precariousness, from which one increasingly felt unable to escape. However, this succession did not take place systematically in this order; neither did it affect all the career paths of the contingent workers studied. Available professional capital (experiences, acquired experience) and social capital (support, know-how) as well as socio-demographic (age, ethnic origin) and family (parents, spouses able or not to provide emotional and material support) characteristics were elements that were often correlated with the level of reactivity and, in particular, the ability to avoid falling into depression. There again, however, it was difficult to establish very recurrent causality links On the other hand, however, it appeared possible to assert that the duration of contingent work suffered and the fact of being stuck in a position which one hoped would be temporary gradually atrophied the ability of many actors to act with a minimum of room for maneuver and often reduced them to being less efficient agents before sometimes turning them into agents in search of collective reasons that accounted for their situation and their helplessness in escaping from it., Este trabajo se propone comprender cómo los trabajadores temporales bajo este estatuto hacen frente a la situación. Confrontados a una situación vivida como estigmatizante, estos trabajadores reaccionan de manera diferente según las razones que les han conducido hacia el trabajo temporario, según los recursos que logran movilizar para definir y conseguir diferentes objetivos y, al menos en parte, según la duración de su pasaje en este tipo de empleo. Tres respuestas emergen: la resignación, la resilianza y la adaptación. Lejos de los esquemas explicativos unidimensionales que valorizan un trabajador precario obligado o actor del desarrollo de su carrera, esta investigación sugiere una reacción al trabajo eventual no deseado que cuestiona los diferentes modelos de “coping”, es decir de estrategias adaptativas.