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Argues that class analysis is still relevant to coalition building. Analyzes the UPS strike of 1997 which focused successfully on gaining broad support for part-time workers. Abridged version of a conference paper given in January 1998 at the Catholic University Leuven (Belgium).

Although there is substantial evidence that, on average, employee profit sharing improves company performance, little is known about the conditions under which it does so or the mechanisms through which it operates. This study identifies possible consequences and moderators of profit sharing, and then utilizes a data set from 108 Canadian profit-sharing firms to empirically examine them. Virtually all of the predicted consequences emerged, although to varying degrees. Three main factors moderated their emergence. Results were significantly more favorable in firms that had a high involvement managerial philosophy, that communicated extensively about profit sharing, and that allocated the profit-sharing bonus according to measures of individual employee performance.

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

The article reviews the book, "States, Markets, Families: Gender, Liberalism and Social Policy in Australia, Canada, Great Britain and the United States," by Julia S. O'Connor, Ann Shola Orloff and Sheila Shaver.

The article reviews the book, "Strategic human resource management: a reader," by Christopher Mabey.

Employs class analysis to compare the position of the working class during the Russian revolution(s) of 1917 with the collapse of the Soviet regime in 1991. Concludes that the working class was much weaker in 1991, with little or no say on the outcome. The conclusion also comments that the peoples of the former Soviet Union paid a heavy price for the absence of socialism in the West.

Patrick Lenihan: From Irish Rebel to Founder of Canadian Public Sector Unionism, edited by Gil Levine, is reviewed.

As a park warden in the national parks of Canada's Rocky Mountains, Sid Marty came to know that beautiful and treacherous landscape as few men or women do. He was a mountain climber, rescue team member, firefighter, wildlife custodian, and adviser to tourists, adventurers, and people passing through. At all times, he was an acute observer of human and animal behaviour. In these pages he records with wry wit and bitter insight true stories of heroism and folly drawn from life in the high country. Marty writes vividly about a land and a way of life that are increasingly endangered. The visceral energy of his prose compels attention. This is a compulsive, alarming, and often hilarious read. --Publisher's description

This study builds on the union organizing and free-rider literature by examining determinants of dues-paying membership in the Temple Association of University Professionals. The TAUP, an American Federation of Teachers affiliate, is the collective bargaining representative for 992 members of the Temple University faculty, 52% of whom are dues-paying members. Results indicate that attitudes about unions in general, the cost of union dues, the perception of alternative faculty governance effectiveness, and the beliefs about the appropriateness of unionization for professional employees were related to joining behavior. In contrast, job attitudes about the employer, perceived bargaining unit effectiveness, and political ideology were not significant predictors of membership status.

The article reviews and comments on several books including "We Have a Glowing Dream: Recollections of Working-Class and People's Struggles in B. C. from 1935 to 1996" by Maurice Rush, "Cold Warrior: C.S. Jackson and the United Electrical Workers" by Doug Smith, and "Red Bait!: Struggles of a Mine Mill Local" by Al King with Kate Braid.

A controversial and chilling examination of child labour in Canadian coal mines, Boys in the Pit shows that beginning early in the nineteenth century, thousands of boys, some as young as eight, laboured underground - driving pit ponies, manipulating ventilation doors, and helping miners cut and load the coal that fuelled the industrial revolution. Boys died in the mines in explosions and accidents but they also organized strikes for better working conditions. Robert McIntosh recasts these wage-earning children as more than victims, illustrating that they responded intelligently and resourcefully to their circumstances. Boys in the Pits is particularly timely as, despite the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, accepted by the General assembly in 1989, child labour still occurs throughout the world and continues to generate controversy. McIntosh provides an important new perspective from which to consider these debates, reorienting our approach to child labour, explaining rather than condemning the practice. Within the broader social context of the period, where the place of children was being redefined as - and limited to - the home, school, and playground, he examines the role of changing technologies, alternative sources of unskilled labour, new divisions of labour, changes in the family economy, and legislation to explore the changing extent of child labour in the mines. --Publisher's description

The turn of the millennium also marks the centenary of Canadian socialism, dated from 1901 (the first free-standing country-wide organization) or 1905 (the formation of the first electorally successful socialist party). By probing the logic and rhetoric of key texts from the Canadian socialist movement, we can discern four distinct formations--evolutionary science, revolutionary praxis, national State management, and revolutionary humanism and national liberation--in a history marked throughout by a hegemonic liberal order. These strategies are worth careful, sympathetic, and critical study as socialist movements regroup in the 21st century.

The article reviews the book, "Who's Not Working and Why ? Employment, Cognitive Skills, Wages, and the Changing U.S. Labor Market," by Frederic L. Pryor and David L. Schaffer.

Jusqu'à une période très récente, les réticences des organisations syndicales et patronales françaises envers l'engagement contractuel ainsi que l'emprise des normes étatiques ont considérablement limité la place de la négociation collective dans la régulation des relations du travail. Mais un nouveau régime de la négociation collective est en voie d'émerger : l'autonomisation de l'entreprise comme instance de régulation accompagne et favorise le passage d'une négociation orientée vers la régulation salariale à une négociation de régulation de l'emploi. Celle-ci est porteuse de nouvelles exigences et de nouveaux risques pour l'acteur syndical. Elle appelle sans doute une meilleure prise en compte des dynamiques territoriales dans les institutions de la négociation collective, mais qui pour l'heure bute sur la structuration des acteurs sociaux.

The article reviews the book, "Steelworker Alley: How Class Works in Youngstown," by Robert Bruno.

The article reviews the book, "Social Exclusion: An ILO Perspective," edited by Jose B. Figueiredo and Arjan de Haan.

When W.O. Mitchell died in 1998 he was described as “Canada's best-loved writer.” Every commentator agreed that his best – and his best-loved – book was Who Has Seen the Wind. Since it was first published in 1947, this book has sold almost a million copies in Canada. As we enter the world of four-year-old Brian O’Connal, his father the druggist, his Uncle Sean, his mother, and his formidable Scotch grandmother (“she belshes…a lot”), it soon becomes clear that this is no ordinary book. As we watch Brian grow up, the prairie and its surprising inhabitants like the Ben and Saint Sammy – and the rich variety of small-town characters – become unforgettable. This book will be a delightful surprise for all those who are aware of it, but have never quite got around to reading it, till now. --Publisher's description

The article reviews the books, "Unemployment Insurance in the United States : Analysis of Policy Issues," edited by by Christopher J. O'Leary and Stephen A. Wandner, and "Topics in Unemployment Insurance Financing" by Wayne Vroman.

The article reviews the book, "Le travail sans qualités : les conséquences humaines de la flexibilité," by Richard Sennett.