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Recent labour historiography on the strike wave of 1919 has debated whether events are better explained within a framework of western exceptionalism (that is, stressing regional factors) or of a national revolt (that is stressing class tensions). A study of Calgary suggests that neither of these interpretations is fully satisfactory. Calgary workers, by 1919, certainly displayed a class identity and a class consciousness, but these were tempered by broader cultural bonds and by continuing entrepreneurial aspirations. Despite a generation of economic disillusionment, characterized by falling real wages and the high frequency of unemployment, labour continued to place faith in craft unions, political reforms, and class co-operation. Fitting neither of the established interpretation frameworks, the experience of workers in Calgary, 1919, indicates the need for a reassessment of current conceptions of class relations.

The purpose of this study was to examine class and gender relations in the Toronto printing trades during a period of intensive industrial capitalist growth between 1870 and 1914. Consistent with socialist feminism, it is argued that the experience of class cannot be comprehended without a consideration of gender relations. -- During the late nineteenth century segmentation and specialization occurred within the Toronto printing industry with technological innovations in the production process, the emergence of the daily press, and a proliferation of firms specializing in a product line or in a particular aspect of the production process. Throughout the period from 1870 to 1914 male workers dominated the Toronto printing trades. Women were segregated in those jobs socially designated as unskilled, specifically, pressfeeding, and folding, stitching, and collating in the binderies. -- The bulk of the study focuses on printing-trades workers employed at the Methodist Book and Publishing House, a large Church-owned multi-faceted printing and bookbinding establishment. An analysis of a select group of printing-trades workers derived from the firm's extant payrolls for the fiscal years 1882-83 and 1890-91, and for the calendar year 1902, and identified by occupation through linkages with the city directories, revealed a hierarchical and gender division of labour typical of the broader late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Toronto printing industry. Developing the argument that to understand fully the complex interaction of patriarchy and capitalism we must go beyond the workplace and consider the family, the household economies of the sample group of Methodist Book Room workers were analysed using linkages between the decennial census manuscripts and the municipal tax assessments. The majority of Book Room workers studied lived in subsistence-level conditions and tended to rely on the income of one or more secondary wage earners. A breadwinner wage was a reality only for comparatively few skilled male printing-trades workers. -- In the latter part of the study, the trade unionism of Toronto printing-trades workers was explored. Male unionists in Toronto Typographical Union, Local 91 successfully defended their skilled-worker status with industrial capitalist incursions and effectively excluded women compositors from membership in the local typographical union. Considerable attention was also given to the organization of bookbinders, including the formation of the short-lived Women's Bindery Union. -- The study is thus an attempt at a convergence between socialist feminist theory, and working-class and labour-history, feminist history, and family history.

J.K. Bell was one of the finest labour leaders of his time. Born in Halifax, Nova Scotia at the turn of the century, Jimmy Bell headed down the proverbial road to Toronto to find work as the depression years began. When war broke out, he returned to Saint John, New Brunswick and went to work at the dry dock where he founded a local of what would become the Maritime Marine Workers' Federation. For many years, Bell was ostracized by the labour movement because of his leftwing views. As the Cold War whipped the country into hysteria, Bell was "purged" from the provincial labour federation in 1949, and didn't succeed in being re-elected until 1965. Nonetheless, he managed to play a key role, and in this book, he remembers the events and recalls the characters with fondness and humour. --Publisher's description

The article reviews the book, "Descent into Discourse: The Reification of Language and the Writing of Social History," by Bryan D. Palmer.

The legacy of the Socialist Party of Canada has come down to us in phrases such as economic determinism, mechanistic materialism, impossiblism, and sectarianism. The life of Bill Pritchard reveals the humanist roots of the SPC and what the party's leading thinkers owed to William Morris and the British ethical socialist tradition. That tradition was about `making socialists' who were educated, organized, and prepared to implement fully a socialist society. Bill Pritchard and other Marxian socialists, as much as they supported the Russian Revolution, were unwilling to submerge that goal in the program of the Third International. Their humanism, as much as their determinism, explains the choices they made and the legacy they left.

The article reviews the book, "The Untold Story of Ontario's Bushworkers," by Bruce Magnuson.

The article reviews the book, "Le Syndicalisme au Québec," by Bernard Dionne.

The article reviews the book, "Labour Arbitration Yearbook," by William Kaplan.

During the years 1941 to 1968, issues relating to workers’ compensation in British Columbia were subjected to the unprecedented number of three royal commissions. An explanatory framework that evaluates the merits of the commissions and their recommendations, both perceived and otherwise, and the degree to which governments adopted the recommendations, is presented in this paper. The framework is designed to make use of the available relevant primary sources, particularly minutes of the commission proceedings, newspaper accounts and legislative statutes. All three of the Commissions were thorough, well-received exercises whose recommendations were almost wholly adopted by B.C. governments, though in differing time frames. The need for the second Commission, which was created a mere six years after the finish of the first, primarily arose because of rapid developments in the B.C. labour movement during the mid-1940’s. An infusion of leaders with communist ties caused it to harden demands for workers’ compensation benefits and reforms. The first Commission had been considered a success by all parties, but the context of its recommendations had changed due to the increase in labour’s militancy. This second Commission was also considered to be reasonably successful. However, dissatisfaction with a Workmen’s Compensation Board that had completely turned over shortly after the second Commission, led to demands, particularly by labour, to create another commission to review its work and procedures. Board members, at that time, were subject to long tenures and were without any formal mechanism with which to be reviewed. Critical to the success of the three Commissions was the independent, non-partisan nature of their proceedings and recommendations. Because of this, the credibility accorded to the recommendations, particularly by labour, caused the Commissions to supercede the traditional mode of cabinet or legislative committtee deliberation for public policy formation in this case. The series of Commissions ended because of satisfaction with the Workmen’s Compensation Act, a much higher turnover rate of the Board and increased strength of the provincial labour-backed New Democratic Party. Thus, the Commissions and the three B.C. Supreme Court Justices that served as the Commissioners, must go down in history has having played a significant role in the evolution of occupational safety and health policy in British Columbia.

Contents: Adjustment and restructuring in Canadian industrial relations: challenges to the traditional system / Richard P. Chaykowski and Anil Verma -- Industrial relations in the Canadian automobile industry / Pradeep Kumar and Noah M. Meltz -- Industrial relations in the Canadian steel industry / Anil Verma and Peter Warrian -- Industrial relations in the Canadian mining industry: transition under pressure / Richard P. Chaykowski -- Industrial relations in the construction industry in the 1980s / Joseph B. Rose -- Industrial relations in the clothing industry: struggle for survival / Michael Grant -- Industrial relations in the Canadian textile industry / Terry Thomason, Harris L. Zwerling, and Pankaj Chandra -- Restraint, privatization, and Industrial relations in the public sector in the 1980s / Mark Thompson and Allen Ponak -- Industrial relations in elementary and secondary education: a system transformed? / Bryan M. Downie -- Canada's airlines: recent turbulence and changing flight plans / E.G. Fisher and Alex Kondra -- Industrial relations in the Canadian telephone industry / Anil Verma and Joseph M. Weiler -- Canadian industrial relations in transition / Richard P. Chaykowski and Anil Verma

According to the side-bet theory, organizational commitment increases with the accumulation of side bets or investments. Cross-national data for 7 side-bet indexes (age, tenure, education, marital status, salary, gender, and hierarchical position) were used to test the theory's generalizability. Four hundred and sixty-three white-collar employees in Canada and the US were surveyed. The findings indicate that while organizational commitment levels between Canadian and US respondents were similar, the effects of various side-bet indexes differed between the 2 countries. The results suggest that previously reported correlations between age, tenure and organizational commitment cannot be replicated.

Discusses the economic independence and position of strength of the Nishga and Tsimshian women of the northern Pacific coast from 1830-1900. Despite the beliefs that the fur trade and missions had a negative impact upon the roles and status of native women, the status of women in the northern Pacific coast did not decline. The roles and status of Canada's northern Pacific coast women, which moved from a position of strength in the traditional era to a position of strength in the mission era, are examined.

A recent study presents regression results that can be used to calculate the impact on the unemployment rate of women and youth in Ontario of a variation in the minimum wage. These regressions yield results very similar to those obtained for Quebec, an economy whose structure is fairly similar to that of Ontario. These results indicate that the proposed increase in the minimum wage in Ontario would lead to a one-percentage-point increase in the unemployment of women and youth in the province, which in terms of the unemployment rate of 1991, is approximately a 10% increase in employment. Such a result is in agreement with economists and should be taken into account by policymakers.

The article reviews several books including "The Skilled Metalworkers of Nuremberg: Craft and Class in the Industrial Revolution," by Michael J. Neufeld, "Mercedes in Peace and War: German Automobile Workers, 1903-1945," by Bernard P. Bellon, and "A History of Foreign Labor in Germany 1880-1980: Seasonal Workers/Forced Laborers/Guest Workers," by Ulrich Herbert.

The article reviews the book, "Le discours de presse - L'image des syndicats au Québec (1982-1983)," by Mayrse Souchard.

The article reviews the book, "Repenser le travail. Quand les femmes accèdent à l'égalité," by Ginette Legault.

Cet article compare les résultats obtenus suite à l'utilisation de deux méthodes de comparaison des emplois pour réaliser l'équité salariale dans les organisations. Les deux indicateurs retenus sont la proportion d'emplois à prédominance féminine dont le salaire horaire serait ajusté à la hausse et l'ampleur des ajustements mesuré en pourcentage du salaire. Les résultats obtenus révèlent que la moyenne des ajustements salariaux ne varie pratiquement pas, peu importe la méthode utilisée. La méthode «emploi à courbe» semble cependant supérieure à la méthode «emploi à emploi» en ce qui concerne la proportion d'emplois ajustés, en particulier dans les trois organisations où le nombre d'emplois de bureau à prédominance féminine était le plus élevé.

A meta-analytical framework is used to examine the true impact of specific beliefs about unions, general beliefs about unions, job satisfaction, sex, race, and Southern US residence on union voting intent. The results strongly suggest that union voting intent is affected by both specific and general instrumentality, with specific instrumentality being a more important predictor of union voting intent than general instrumentality. The results also indicate that non-whites and women are more likely to express a pro-union voting intent, while those with high job satisfaction are more likely to express an anti-union voting intent. Meta-analysis results show that even Southerners are likely to express a pro-union voting intent, but that the magnitude of this effect is very small compared with other factors. All of the factors considered in the study do affect union voting intent regardless of the situation, but the incidence of some of the factors on union voting intent could vary across situations.

The article reviews the book, "The Souls of the Skyscraper: Female Clerical Workers in Chicago, 1870-1930," by Lisa M. Fine.

Social support is examined as a correlate of perceived job demands and psychological strain and as a moderator of the relationship between stimulus and response, according to personality traits. An occupational stress questionnaire was administered to 807 hospital employees. Data were obtained regarding 2 sources of job demands, 3 psychological symptoms, 4 categories of personality, and 3 areas of social support. The strongest evidence favors a non-specific direct correlation between all dimensions of social support and all the strain symptoms analyzed. The differences between personality types are relative exceptions to the general trend. There is also evidence supporting a direct relationship between job demands and social support, as well as strain symptoms. Extrinsic job demands appear to be a strong correlate of both. Here again, the emphasis is on interdependency and not necessarily on causality. The results offer some support for the role of social support as a moderator variable in the relationship between occupational demands and psychological strain.