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The article reviews the book, "Guantánamo: A Working-Class History Between Empire and Revolution," by Jana K. Lipman.

The article reviews the book, "Until the End: Memoirs of Sinter-Plant Activist Jean L. Gagnon," by Adelle Larmour.

This dissertation traces a shift in the Communist Party of Canada, from the 1929 to 1935 period of militant class struggle (generally known as the ‘Third Period’) to the 1935-1939 Popular Front Against Fascism, a period in which Communists argued for unity and cooperation with social democrats. The CPC’s appropriation and redeployment of bourgeois gender norms facilitated this shift by bolstering the CPC’s claims to political authority and legitimacy. ‘Woman’ and the gendered interests associated with women—such as peace and prices—became important in the CPC’s war against capitalism. What women represented symbolically, more than who and what women were themselves, became a key element of CPC politics in the Depression decade. Through a close examination of the cultural work of two prominent middle-class female members, Dorothy Livesay, poet, journalist and sometime organizer, and Eugenia (‘Jean’ or ‘Jim’) Watts, reporter, founder of the Theatre of Action, and patron of the Popular Front magazine New Frontier, this thesis utilizes the insights of queer theory, notably those of Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick and Judith Butler, not only to reconstruct both the background and consequences of the CPC’s construction of ‘woman’ in the 1930s, but also to explore the significance of the CPC’s strategic deployment of heteronormative ideas and ideals for these two prominent members of the Party.

The article reviews the book, "The Fishermen's Frontier: People and Salmon in Southeast Alaska," by David F. Arnold.

Feminism and the political left come to life in this account of an important early twentieth-century social activist. The political movements and social causes of the turbulent 1920s and 30s are brought to life in this study of the work and times of feminist, socialist, and peace activist Rose Henderson (1871-1937). Her commitment to social justice led to frequent monitoring and repression by the authorities but her contributions to activist thought continue to pose challenges for interpretations of the history of Canada, leftism, labour, and women. In the first biography of Henderson, Peter Campbell provides a broader vision and deeper analysis of the period, drawing together the history of labour and of women's movements in French and English Canada, as well as the rise of the Cooperative Commonwealth Federation and its relationship with the Communist Party. Through analysis of Henderson's ground-breaking ideology Campbell shows that in the interwar years she and her comrades developed a distinctive feminism that differs from that of the first and second waves of feminist thought. A fresh look at the turmoil of the early twentieth century from an eye in the storm, Rose Henderson: A Woman for the People brings well-deserved attention to an influential feminist and leftist. --Publisher's description.

The article reviews the book, "Le Japon au travail," by Bernard Bernier, with the collaboration of Vincent Mirza.

A cogent analysis of North American trade unions' precipitous decline in recent decades. As companies increasingly look to the global market for capital, cheaper commodities and labor, and lower production costs, the impact on Mexican and American workers and labor unions is significant. National boundaries and the laws of governments that regulate social relations between laborers and management are less relevant in the era of globalization, rendering ineffective the traditional union strategies of pressuring the state for reform. Focusing especially on the effects of the North American Free Trade Agreement and the North American Agreement on Labor Cooperation (the first international labor agreement linked to an international trade agreement), Norman Caulfield notes the waning political influence of trade unions and their disunity and divergence on crucial issues such as labor migration and workers' rights. Comparing the labor movement's fortunes in the 1970s with its current weakened condition, Caulfield notes the parallel decline in the United States' hegemonic influence in an increasingly globalized economy. As a result, organized labor has been transformed from organizations that once pressured management and the state for concessions to organizations that now request that workers concede wages, pensions, and health benefits to remain competitive in the global marketplace. --Publisher's description. Contents: Labor and global capitalism in North America, 1850-1970 -- The politics of Mexican labor and economic development in crisis -- Mexican labor and workers' rights under NAFTA and NAALC -- Labor mobility and workers' rights in North America -- The crisis of union-management relations in the United States and Canada -- The North American auto industry: the apex of concessionary bargaining -- Veba Las Vegas! unions play casino capitalism : autoworkers lose.

The dominant story of matrimonial property law reform in English Canada treats the farming family case of Murdoch v. Murdoch as the great catalyst for change, but there are persistent inequalities affecting farm women, even in provinces that have made progressive changes in the law of relationship breakdown. The farm is the quintessential family business and is both place of residence and source of income. Since the farm is not readily divisible, it is not surprising that all the major marital property law cases to reach the Supreme Court of Canada have involved farm property. What is surprising is that most provincial property reforms, though inspired by the Murdoch case, explicitly exclude farms from division, and those that include farms in the property to be divided still have mechanisms that tend to favour husbands. This article examines Canadian courts’ gendered conceptualization of what constitutes a family business by examining the cases on farm property and the related legislative reforms. Feminists, and all women who have benefited from matrimonial property law reform, have an obligation to recognize the problems created by our persistent failure to understand the farm as simultaneously home and place of business.

The paper explores the distinctive regulatory space in which care workers' wages and conditions are determined. It draws on a case study of the non-profit sector of Toronto illustrated by the experience of four social services agencies located there. In doing so it examines the intersection between industrial regulation and practice, and other regulatory constraints or mechanisms identified by Lessig (1988). In community services these mechanisms include funding models, the gendered social norms that presume and underpin the valuation of paid care work and the organization of care work in diverse care settings. It is the mix of these regulatory forces and the specific contexts within which they interact that effect particular wage and non-wage outcomes for care work.

The article reviews the book, "Migration, Class, and Transnational Identities: Croatians in Australia and America," by Val Colic-Peisker.

As media companies grow in profits and economic significance, workers in these industries are experiencing precarious forms of employment and declining union power. This article provides insight into the experiences of a growing segment of the media labour force in Canada: freelance writers, who face declining rates of pay, intensified struggles over copyright, and decreasing control over their work. At the same time, freelancers are currently experimenting with various appoaches to collective organizing: a professional association, a union, and an agency-union partnership. As part of a larger project on freelance writers’ working conditions and approaches to organizing, this article provides an overview of three organizational models and raises some early questions about their implications.

L’immixtion de l’acteur syndical dans la gestion des caisses de retraite a fait l’objet d’études au Canada et aux États-Unis. Les résultats auxquels elles aboutissent sont contrastés. Certaines déplorent de telles initiatives, car elles conduisent à diluer l’acteur syndical et ses valeurs. D’autres au contraire y voient l’opportunité d’étendre la fonction de représentation du syndicat. Au-delà de leur polarité, ces études analysent les ingrédients et le résultat de l’innovation, mais délaissent le processus de construction, soit le pourquoi et le comment l’acteur investit la sphère financière, et en quoi cette innovation s’aligne-t-elle sur les objectifs du renouveau syndical?C’est précisément l’objectif de cet article de répondre à ces questions en mobilisant le concept d’entrepreneur institutionnel (Campbell, 2004) pour envisager l’acteur syndical sous l’angle d’un entrepreneur à l’oeuvre qui « bricole » pour produire le changement. L’étude de cas porte sur une institution québécoise, le Comité syndical national de retraite de Bâtirente qui, fondé par la Confédération des syndicats nationaux (CSN) en 1987, a pour mission d’offrir aux membres de cette centrale des régimes de retraite. Après une série d’entrevues et l’analyse de contenu de différents documents traitant de Bâtirente, nos résultats démontrent qu’il a été créé par et pour les membres en collaboration avec la centrale. Dans une première phase, Bâtirente ne se dissocie guère d’autres investisseurs du milieu de la finance. Il imite leurs façons de faire et cherche avant tout à remplir sa mission et à devenir un acteur légitime dans ce milieu. Par contre, dans une seconde phase, en tant qu’entrepreneur institutionnel, Bâtirente innove en affirmant son allégeance syndicale : il introduit des critères environnementaux, sociaux et de gouvernance (ESG) dans sa gestion, mène des actions concrètes (vote de proposition d’actionnaires, etc.) et finalement participe indirectement au renouveau syndical.

The article reviews the book, "La précarité : une relation entre travail, organisation et santé," edited by Gilbert de Terssac, Corinne Saint-Martin and Claire Thébault.

La croissance de la proportion des travailleurs indépendants au sein de la main-d’oeuvre, ainsi que les nouvelles caractéristiques de ces travailleurs, expliquent sans doute qu’on ait vu naître des associations vouées à leur promotion, à leur défense ou à leur représentation. L’objectif de cet article est d’analyser l’action collective organisée mise en oeuvre par des associations regroupant des travailleurs indépendants, du point de vue des logiques d’action qu’elles introduisent et des nouvelles règles qu’elles contribuent à créer dans le champ des relations industrielles. Après avoir exposé le cadre analytique et la méthodologie de recherche, nous présentons et illustrons cinq logiques d’action idéal-typiques : entrepreneuriale, syndicale classique, syndicale élargie, professionnelle et des normes minimales universelles.Chacune de ces logiques introduit dans le champ des relations industrielles un nouveau problème ou une nouvelle réalité, qu’il s’agisse de travailleurs indépendants pour lesquels une entité, qui n’a pas le statut légal d’employeur, contrôle des pans importants de la prestation de travail, de travailleurs mobiles qui font affaire avec plusieurs donneurs d’ouvrage, voire exercent plusieurs métiers; de travailleurs professionnels qui évoluent hors de l’orbite du système qui régule les professions reconnues, et finalement de travailleurs précaires, faussement désignés comme autonomes.Chacune mobilise une identité particulière, qui souvent diffère des identités traditionnelles en relations industrielles. Chacune finalement intervient au moins partiellement pour transformer les règles du jeu. Si certaines plaident pour le maintien ou du renforcement des règles actuelles, qui définissent le travailleur indépendant comme un entrepreneur, d’autres favorisent l’extension à certains groupes de travailleurs indépendants de la protection offerte aux salariés par les lois du travail, alors que d’autres encore promeuvent la mise en place de nouvelles règles, visant la négociation à l’échelle sectorielle de conditions minimales de travail pour des entrepreneurs indépendants. D’autres recherches seraient nécessaires pour mieux appréhender l’impact de ces nouveaux acteurs et de ces nouvelles règles sur les conditions de travail des indépendants, sur les acteurs traditionnels du champ des relations industrielles et sur le modèle de représentation collective.

The article reviews the book, "Staley: The Fight for a New American Labor Movement," by Steven K. Ashby and C. J. Hawking.

The article reviews the book, "Shadow of the Racketeer: Scandal in Organized Labor," by David Witwer.

In Chapter 9, Andrea Doucet describes patterns of paid and unpaid work in families, first by looking at what has been an important topic in sociology: the relationship between gender and paid work. She considers how paid work has been dominated by a male model of employment and then discusses the changes to that model in recent years. Historically and even today, paid work, like unpaid work, has been and is gendered. Doucet examines the gender division of labour with respect to the connections between paid and unpaid work, the relationship between paid and unpaid work and state policies, and the differences and inequalities in paid and unpaid work. --Editor's summary

The article reviews the book, "Les droits fondamentaux au travail : origines, statut et impact en droit international," by Claire La Hovary.

The article discusses the career of historian Henry (Harry) Ferns and his writing with Bernard Ostry of the controversial biography, "The Age of Mackenzie King," published in 1955.

Understanding Labour and Employment Law in China, by Ronald C. Brown, is reviewed.