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In the fall of 1873 Joseph Arch, the president of England's National Agricultural Labourers' Union (NALU), embarked on a mission to scout Canada as an emigration destination. He was received with much hospitality in Canada. Large-scale migration of British farmworkers had the support of an extraordinary consensus between the NALU, Canadian political and business elites, and Toronto labor leaders who wielded enormous influence over the labor movement in Ontario. The consensus was the result of developments in British agricultural unionism, Ontario's farming sector, Canada's immigration policy, and the Toronto labor establishment's approach to immigration. However, during the mission, tensions emerged between Arch and the Toronto labor establishment that strained the appearance of international union solidarity. These tensions revealed the treacherous nature of a relationship between labor leaders in an immigrant-receiving country and an organization, even a union, looking to promote emigration.

The article reviews the book, "La négociation au travail," edited by Michèle Grosjean and Lorenza Mondada.

The article reviews the book, "British Trade Unions since 1933," by Chris Wrigley.

Si le concept de « contrat psychologique » est désormais largement répandu dans la littérature, les instruments de sa mesure font encore défaut. Rousseau a proposé en 1990 le Psychological Contract Index (PCI), qu’elle a actualisé en 1998-2000. Cet article vise à adapter cet outil en France et à le compléter en testant deux mesures de la réalisation du contrat psychologique : une mesure directe et une mesure soustractive. Il pose aussi le problème de la mesure de la réciprocité propre au contrat psychologique et s’appuie sur le modèle de Morrison et Robinson pour tester une relation modératrice entre les scores de réalisation de l’entreprise et ceux de l’employé. Les résultats d’une enquête menée auprès de 217 cadres français confirment partiellement les hypothèses de l’auteure. Ils montrent que la structure factorielle du PCI manque de stabilité et doit faire l’objet de nouvelles recherches quant à sa validité : 14 facteurs sont identifiés au lieu des sept avancés par Rousseau dans le PCI. Conformément aux hypothèses posées, c’est la mesure directe de la réalisation du contrat qui démontre la meilleure validité. En outre, l’auteur valide le rôle modérateur de la réalisation du contrat psychologique par le salarié.

The article reviews the book, "The No-Nonsense Guide to Global Media," by Peter Steven.

This book deals with the Crown Employees Collective Bargaining Act and the Public Service Act, the statutes that primarily govern unionized and non-unionized employment and labour relations in the Ontario Public Service and Crown Agencies. The book provides a full review of all sections, and all judicial and arbitral consideration, of both acts. It also discusses the unique treatment of the Crown and its employees in the Public Sector Labour Relations Transition Act and the Employment Standards Act.

A comic book is an unlikely entrée into the history of logging in coastal British Columbia, but Bus Griffiths’ 1978 graphic novel "Now You’re Logging" provides an intriguing window onto work in the woods in the 1930s. Griffiths worked for years as a logger on the coast, experiencing the camps of the 1930s directly. ..."Now You’re Logging" offers a particular version of the loggers’ life, but it still captures many aspects of work in the coastal forests of the 1930s, and does so in an accessible manner. There are many popular histories of British Columbia coastal logging, chock full of photographs, but Griffiths offers black-and-white drawings, and, as bird watchers inspecting field guides know, drawings often provide a more effective way of presentation. As a work of fiction it stands comfortably with other narratives, such as Haig-Brown’s "Timber" and Martin Allerdale Grainger’s "Woodsmen of the West," in giving helpful perspectives on the history of the loggers’ world. --From author's introduction and conclusion

The article reviews the book, "Wealth by Stealth: Corporate Crime, Corporate Law and the Perversion of Democracy," by Harry Glasbeek.

Cet article se veut une réflexion sur la mise en relation de l’équité salariale avec le concept de citoyenneté. Ainsi, la pérennité de l’équité salariale serait tributaire du partage des valeurs associées au travail féminin et de la reconnaissance collective du « care », le travail centré sur autrui, qui le caractérise. À partir d’un questionnement sur le caractère universel et inclusif de la citoyenneté et sur sa présomption d’égalité, le texte converge vers une représentation citoyenne susceptible de légitimer davantage le travail féminin. De plus, l’impulsion donnée par sa croissance, couplée à une identité imprégnée de valeurs associées au « care », pourraient contribuer à une meilleure reconnaissance salariale. L’équité salariale serait l’expression cohérente et effective d’une citoyenneté, qui passe par une reconnaissance juste et équitable du travail centré sur autrui.

The book Reforming Pensions in Europe: Evolution of Pension Financing and Sources of Retirement Income, by Gerard Hughes and Jim Stewart, is reviewed.

Workers traditionally accommodated co-workers. But, as accommodation law developed, tensions emerged. In Meiorin: accommodation is the norm. Employers must eliminate standards, rules, practices, etc. that discriminate on prohibited grounds, up to undue hardship. In the Canadian Human Rights Act, undue hardship includes only cost, health and safety. Other jurisdictions, following Central Alberta Dairy Pool, consider: impact on the collective agreement, other workers’ rights, employee morale, size of operation, workforce and facility adaptability. O’Malley clarifies adverse affect discrimination. A rule, although made in good faith, may discriminate “if it affects a person … differently from others”. Accommodation may override contract provisions (Renaud), including seniority (Goyette). While employers have principal responsibility for accommodation, unions have a role too (Gohm). Unions reduce accommodation tensions by: auditing collective agreements, reviewing accommodation procedures, educating members and leaders.

De tout temps, les travailleurs et les travailleuses se sont accommodés les uns les autres. Cependant, l’adoption de lois sur l’adaptation a semé des tensions entre eux. Avec Meiorin: l’adaptation est la norme. Les employeurs doivent éliminer les normes, règles, pratiques, etc., qui établissent une distinction fondée sur un motif illicite, pourvu que cela ne leur impose pas une contrainte excessive. Dans la Loi canadienne sur les droits de la personne, la contrainte excessive ne comprend que le coût et les considérations relatives à la santé et à la sécurité. Par suite de la décision Central Alberta Dairy Pool, d’autres ressorts tiennent en outre compte des répercussions sur la convention collective, des droits des autres travailleurs et travailleuses, du moral du personnel, de la taille de l’organisation, de son effectif et de sa facilité d’adaptation. La décision O’Malley éclaircit la discrimination par suite d’un effet préjudiciable. Toute règle, même si elle a été adoptée de bonne foi, peut être discriminatoire si elle influence une personne « d'une manière différente par rapport à d'autres personnes visées ». L’obligation d’adaptation peut l’emporter sur les dispositions des conventions collectives (Renaud), y compris celles qui portent sur l’ancienneté (Goyette). Bien que la responsabilité d’adaptation incombe principalement aux employeurs, les syndicats doivent en assumer une partie (Gohm). Les syndicats réduisent les tensions relatives à l’adaptation en vérifiant les conventions collectives, en examinant les procédures d’adaptation et en sensibilisant leurs membres et leurs chefs.

For most Canadians today, Labour Day is the last gasp of summer fun: the final long weekend before returning to the everyday routine of work or school. But over its century-long history, there was much more to the September holiday than just having a day off. In The Workers' Festival, Craig Heron and Steve Penfold examine the complicated history of Labour Day from its origins as a spectacle of skilled workers in the 1880s through its declaration as a national statutory holiday in 1894 to its reinvention through the twentieth century. The holiday's inventors hoped to blend labour solidarity, community celebration, and increased leisure time by organizing parades, picnics, speeches, and other forms of respectable leisure. As the holiday has evolved, so too have the rituals, with trade unionists embracing new forms of parading, negotiating, and bargaining, and other social groups re-shaping it and making it their own. Heron and Penfold also examine how Labour Day's monopoly as the workers' holiday has been challenged since its founding, with alternative festivals arising such as May Day and International Women's Day. The Workers' Festival ranges widely into many key themes of labour history - union politics and rivalries, radical movements, religion (Catholic and Protestant), race and gender, and consumerism/leisure - as well as cultural history - public celebration/urban procession, urban space and communication, and popular culture. From St. John's to Victoria, the authors follow the century-long development of the holiday in all its varied forms. --Publisher's description

The article reviews and comments on "I Was Content and Not Content: The Story of Linda Lord and the Closing of Penobscot Poultry" by Cedric Chatterley and Alicia J. Rouverol, "Capital Moves: RCA’s 70-Year Quest for Cheap Labor" by Jefferson Cowie, "Beyond the Ruins: The Meaning of Deindustrialization" edited by Jefferson Cowie and Joseph Heathcott, and "Steeltown U.S.A.: Work and Memory in Youngstown," by Sherry Lee Linkon and John Russo.

The article reviews and comments on "Behind the Backlash: White Working-Class Politics in Baltimore, 1940-1980" by Kenneth D. Durr, "Victory at Home: Manpower and Race in the American South During World War II" by Charles D. Chamberlain, "Civil Rights Unionism: Tobacco Workers and the Struggle for Democracy in the Mid-Twentieth Century South" by Robert Rodgers Korstad, and "Black Freedom Fighters in Steel: The Struggle for Democratic Unionism" by Ruth Needleman.

Since the 19th century Toronto, Ontario's working-class delinquent boys have been subjected to intense scrutiny and control. The deviant and criminal conduct that brought working-class juvenile offenders to police and court attention did not change significantly over the late 19th and early 20th centuries. However, how their conduct was understood and governed was in a constant state of change and adjustment. This article explores how Toronto's working-class delinquent boys were represented and governed by elites, reformers, juvenile justice officials, medical experts, and university-trained psychologists from 1860 to 1930. More specifically, it demonstrates how the 19th-century male juvenile offender, judged the product of injurious circumstances, was reinvented by eugenicists as the mentally deficient subject of the late 1910's and again (re)defined as an environmental psychiatric subject after 1925. These representations often overlapped, were discontinued, conflicted, and were in constant tension. Despite theoretical and practical differences, elites, eugenicists, and environmental psychologists were all particularly troubled by working-class male delinquency.

The article reviews the book, "Sweated Work, Weak Bodies: Anti-Sweatshop Campaigns and Languages of Labor," by Daniel E. Bender.

This essay will attempt to depict the dramatic impact that the violent wrecking of machines had on entrepreneurial decision-making and state action in England and France [in the 18th and 19th centuries]. Resistance to the machine must be situated in its local, regional, national, and international contexts in order to understand the consequences of organized, violent machine-breaking on the course of industrial development. The movements that led to the widespread destruction of machines were organized regionally rather than locally and the patterns of entrepreneurial reaction, technological development, and technology transfer, as well as mechanization, also varied by region. --From author's introduction

The article reviews the book, "Fighting for Dignity: The Ginger Goodwin Story," by Roger Stonebanks.