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The period 1935 to 1947 provides an excellent opportunity to investigate the ways in which the employment and training policies of Canadian welfare state forms delineated the boundaries of gender, race, class and nation in ways that actively constituted (il)legitimate social and economic forms of work, of motherhood, of sexuality and citizenship. Covering attempts starting in the Depression and accelerating during the Second World War into the postwar period, this study tracks the constitution and deployment of government attempts at mapping the female labour supply, of monitoring the activities of women in the labour market, of charting and opening up to scrutiny the conditions of women's labour force attachment: all in an effort to predict and prescribe patterns of women's employment and problems of female unemployment. I approach government reports, studies, commissions and committees as policy events—exercises in governance—as markers for policy analysis which signified important shifts in governmental approaches to the phenomenon of female participation in the formal waged economy. Viewed during the war as a crucial national resource, central to the war effort, women war workers would be cast as a largely ‘unskilled female labour reserve’ by war's end. I examine how ideas about mental testing, intelligence and human capacities—ideas that comprised the foundation of the mental hygiene programme during this period—informed employment and training policies in the formation of the Canadian welfare state for the period 1935–1947. During the Depression, studies of the labour force produced classifications of unemployed women and men. Scrutiny of female employment patterns resulted in the production of categorical knowledges about employability. These practices were further elaborated through the unprecedented research opportunities presented by the war. Suitable vocation, aptitude, and measures of intelligence: these concepts were drawn upon as part of a growing apparatus of employment policy intended to facilitate the smooth transition into the postwar period. I argue that the roster of policies and programmes devised in the name of postwar rehabilitation constituted ideas about female employability which were deeply imbued with the principles of scientific racism and sexism at the core of the mental hygiene program. Vocational planning, counselling and training practices reorganised relations of employment and of unemployment in ways that reflected the managing principles of the risk society. Postwar planning drew upon and constituted new areas of activity for government and community agencies, creating opportunities for the deployment of knowledge-practices such as personnel selection while opening up the interior of the subject as an object of governance, by assessing and calibrating allegedly innate human capacities.

A Memoir of the Spanish Civil War is one man's bittersweet account of fighting with the International Brigades against the forces of General Francisco Franco in Spain from 1936 to 1939. Douglas Patrick (Pat) Stephens was born in Armenia in 1910 and emigrated with his family to Canada in 1926. Like countless others, his dream of finding a new and more prosperous life was severely shaken by the onset of the Great Depression, and he turned to the Communist Party of Canada in an attempt to combat the political and economic deterioration which had gripped much of the world. Franco's attempt to overthrow by military force the republican government of Spain seemed to Pat Stephens the ideal opportunity to put his political convictions into action. Through his connections in the Communist Party, he became one of some 1400 Canadians, and 40,000 International Volunteers in all, who went to Spain. Many of the volunteers, including the Canadians, went to Spain against the laws and the wishes of their governments. Many of them never came back. Stephens' memoir, dictated to his wife Phyllis Stephens shortly before his death in 1987, puts a very human face on this strange and complex war. It is a portrait of political and moral conviction tinged by creeping disillusionment. It is also a compelling depiction of the strength, frailty, doubt, and courage which can result from the sometimes incongruous intersection of the personal and the political. A Memoir of the Spanish Civil War is a valuable contribution to our understanding of the conflict which immediately preceded World War II, and of Canada's role in that conflict. -- Publisher's description

Discusses the unveiling of a plaque on 26 June 1999 at the site of No. 1 Mine in Nanaimo, B.C., where coal was mined from 1883 to 1938. The No. 1 Mine disaster in 1887 was the worst in British Columbia's history.

In the mid-1970's, workers and local union activists at Bendix Automotive in Windsor, Ontario, became aware that the brake shoes they manufactured contained asbestos and that the dust that regularly filled the air in sections of the company's two plants contained asbestos dust. Workers and local United Automobile Workers (UAW) union activists at Bendix pressured the company and the Ontario government to clean up and eliminate asbestos from their workplace. In the midst of this struggle Bendix management announced that, for solely economic reasons, it was closing down its operations in Windsor. The shutdown highlighted the tensions and contradictions confronting workers and unions in the area of health and safety. While Bendix workers wanted their workplace to be safe and healthy, they also needed their jobs. At the same time, local and national union UAW officials, while trying to secure a safe and healthy working environment for their members, confronted the possibility of the plant shutting down if they pushed too hard on asbestos. In the end, the ability of Bendix to close down its operations, with minimal legal and no statutory sanctions, demonstrated the power of corporate capital and the conflicting and constrained nature and extent of workers' choices under capitalism in the arena of worker health and safety.

Values at Work: Employee Participation Meets Market Pressures at Mondragon, by George Cheney, is reviewed.

The article reviews the book, "Labor and the State in Egypt," by Marsha Pripstein Posusney,

The article reviews the book, "Le droit de l'emploi au Québec," by Fernand Morin and Jean-Yves Brière.

The article reviews the book, "Libertad sindical," edited by J.A. Bouzas Ortiz.

Employs data and qualitative analysis to demonstrate that the editorial cartoons of three Toronto newspapers - the conservative "Evening Telegram," the liberal "Toronto Star," and the communist "Worker" - are illustrative of their ideological stances and readerships during the period 1929-33. Concludes that the "Worker" was the only paper focused on social and class conflict issues. More generally, although not always political, the three newspapers' cartoons reflected the social tensions, political partisanship, personal rivalries, and class struggle evident in both Toronto and Canada during the early Depression years.

The first in-depth analysis of temporary work in Canada, this book by Leah F. Vosko examines a number of trends, including the commodification of labour power; the decline of the full-time, full-year job as a norm; and the gendered character of prevailing employment relationships. Spanning the period from the late nineteenth to the late twentieth century, Temporary Work traces the evolution of the temporary employment relationship in Canada and places it in an international context. It explores how, and to what extent, temporary work is becoming the norm for a diverse group of workers in the labour market, taking gender as the central lens of analysis." "Recent scholarship emphasizes that the nature of work is changing, citing the spread of non-standard forms of employment and the rise in women's participation in the labour force. Vosko confirms that important changes are indeed taking place in the labour market, but argues that these changes are best understood in historical, economic, and political context. This book will be invaluable to academics in a variety of disciplines as well as to policy analysts and practitioners in government, industry, and organized labour. --Publisher's descsription

The article reviews the book, "Temps: The Many Faces of the Changing Workplace," by Jackie Krasas Rogers.

The article reviews the book, "Converging Divergences: Worldwide Changes in Employment Systems," by Harry C. Katz and Owen Darbishire.

The article reviews the book, "La représentation syndicale: visage juridique actuel et futur," by Gregor Murray and Pierre Verge.

In February 1997, Canada Post privatized its ad-mail services and in the process terminated 10,000 Canadian Union of Postal Workers. These events became a part of the central driving force which derailed contract negotiations and led to the November 1997 postal strike. The purpose of this article is to expose the process and consequences of this major event in the industrial relations of Canada Post; to examine the role and positions of the three major institutions involved — the government, the corporation (Canada Post) and the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW), and to explore the implications of privatization with regards to industrial relations in Canada Post. The article also documents the fate of the 10,000 workers through a survey of their status six months after the privatization.

Virtually absent in the arbitration literature is the voice of the grievor. Post-reinstatement experiences are examined primarily from the perspectives of a group of 7 Alberta grievors. First, a review is presented of the declining frequency of Alberta arbitrations, the extent to which dismissal cases form a proportion of the arbitral caseload, and the relatively low rate of reinstatement. Findings are: 1. Grievors are unaware of the public availability of arbitration awards. 2. Reinstated grievors are critical of the union that successfully defended them. 3. They have a more benign view of management. 4. Very little reinstatement assistance is offered. 5. Grievors' positive attitudes to their worksites are more determinative if successful reinstatement than remorse and acceptance of culpability.

Examines the complexity of capital, state, and labor relations during the early 20th century through a case study of British Columbia employers' associations. To evaluate the sources of employers' strength and to determine the restrictions placed on their dominance, this study uses current theories of the state as a framework. They provide opportunities to examine British Columbia's government as either a "captive state," in a position of relative autonomy, or autonomous. No single theory explains the events of this period. In some sectors of the economy, employers were able to control state policy, but the contradictions created by the state's two primary objectives of capital accumulation and legitimation insured that it would take steps to retain its autonomy in order to maintain capitalist class institutions.

In response to a sense of crisis precipitated by the 1995 election of the provincial Conservative government in Ontario and more anti-union employers, unions in Ontario have increased resources invested in and priority attached to organizing the unorganized. This article examines how unions have reoriented their organizing strategies to increase organizing effort in the private service sector and amongst women while at the same time experimenting with certain innovative rank-and-file intensive strategies that have significant positive effects on the outcome of organizing drives. The paper concludes that if unions follow through with this renewed commitment to organizing, they are likely to prevent a more serious membership crisis from erupting.

Contingent Work: American Employment Relations in Transition, edited by Kathleen Barker and Kathleen Christensen, is reviewed.

This review article critically analyzes and synthesizes the academic literature on nonstandard work and its gender, race and class dimensions. We argue that it is important and crucial to understand these dimensions of nonstandard work in order to develop appropriate labour policies. We present our discussion in a conceptual framework of duality within which nonstandard workforms are located. We discuss the role the unions could play in achieving equity in labour markets and conclude the paper with recommended labour policy changes to respond to the needs of women, particularly those racial minority and low economic class women employed in nonstandard jobs.

The article reviews the book, "Building Little Italy: Philadelphia's Italians before Mass Migration," by Richard N. Juliani.