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The article reviews the book, "Working-Class Cultures in Britain, 1890-1960: Gender, Class, Ethnicity," by Joanna Bourke.

The article reviews the book, "On Her Their Lives Depend: Munitions Workers in the Great War," by Angela Woollacott.

The article reviews the book, "Immigrés et créations d'entreprises : Montréal 1990," by Denise Helly and Alberte Ledoyen.

The article reviews the book, "Solidarity and Survival: An Oral History of Iowa Labor in the Twentieth Century," by Shelton Stromquist.

A poor but independent Dominion in the British Empire until 1949, Newfoundland and Labrador is now Canada's poorest province. This thesis argues that capital's uneven development of Newfoundland helps to explain its economic, social, and political troubles in this century. The uneven course of development left Newfoundland with an archaic fishery, enclaves of modern industry dependent on outport labour and external forces, and a state which lacked sufficient resources to save itself or its people during the Great Depression. The uneven pattern of development also impeded the full development of a proletariat which might have challenged the island's dominant interests and created a more equal and prosperous society. The outcome of these "developments" was confederation with Canada and enduring economic and social problems. Focusing on the period 1929-1959, the thesis develops this argument through a study of the pulp and paper industry, one of Newfoundland's major land-based enterprises in this century. It reveals that forest capital's reliance on seasonal outport labour in its woods operations propped up merchant operations in the inshore fishery. Merchant capital profited from fishers' work in the woods as wages paid debts and purchased fishing and consumption supplies. Throughout the period, the Newfoundland state defended forest capital's interests, and not incidentally the course of uneven development. It did so because the industry's mills and company towns were among the few successes of a national policy to diversify an economy dependent on the export of a single staple. Forest capital exploited fabled interior resources and employed thousands in its mills and woodlands which reduced pressure on an unproductive fishery and on a state often burdened with heavy relief bills. Although Newfoundland loggers confronted the combined power of capital and the state, they struggled to resist their exploitation and to improve the lives of their households and communities. In this way, they challenged the course of development in Newfoundland. During the 1930s, loggers staged strikes and joined Newfoundland's first loggers' union. In 1940, disruptive class conflict ended when forest capital and the state spearheaded the creation of the Woods Labour Board. The Board, which included representatives of capital, labour, and the state, inaugurated a conservative period of class collaboration, and continuous production until the tumultuous 1959 International Woodworkers of America strike. During the 1940s and 1950s, the Board helped forest capital accumulate profits in an industry dominated by Fordist-like production forces in the mills and primitive production forces in the woods. The Board's downward pressure on wages and conditions, union representatives separated from their members, and a work force dominated by outport fishers who continued to require seasonal wages, explains the 1959 conflagration. The dissertation concludes that the loggers' 1959 defeat by the combined forces of capital and state followed an historical pattern determined by the uneven pattern of development. This pattern, therefore, helps to explain enduring poverty in outport Newfoundland and the difficulties workers faced to challenge the conditions of their existence.

The article reviews the book, "Labour's Apprentices: Working-Class Lads in Late Victorian and Edwardian England," by Michael J. Childs.

Jamie Swift combines sharp-eyed journalism that brings out the nuances of daily life with a penetrating analysis of jobless recovery. He describes the emerging world of work through the eyes and experiences of people in Kingston and Windsor-two Ontario cities with roots in the pre-industrial past, places poised for the post-industrial information age. --Publisher's description

The article reviews the book, "Power and Pauperism: The Workhouse System 1834-1884," by Felix Driver.

Introduced by Pierre Berton, the article presents socialist journalist Phillips Thompson's eclectic musings on labour and land reform, banking, the money system, and capitalism. Written in 1888-89, Thompson's journal reflects his visit to the UK during this period, where met with Peter Kropotkin and heard a speech by William Morris. Henry George appears in the entries, and there are quotations from a variety of sources including William Lloyd Garrison and Harriet Martineau. The journal manuscript is kept at Library Archives Canada with the Thomas Phillips Thompson papers.

The Changing Workplace: Reshaping Canada's Industrial Relations System by Daniel Drache and Harry Glasbeek is reviewed.

The article reviews the book, "The Course of Industrial Decline: The Boott Cotton Mills of Lowell, Massachusetts, 1935-1955," by Lawrence Gross.

The article reviews the books, "Demon Rum or Easy Money: Government Control of Liquor in British Columbia From Prohibition to Privatization," by Robert A. Campbell and "Drink in Canada: Historical Essays," by Cheryl Krasnick.

Plusieurs spécialistes notent l'affaiblissement de la recherche en relations industrielles en Amérique du Nord. Un aspect important fut le déplacement de l'intérêt envers les institutions et les processus vers l'étude des individus. Des disciplines telles le comportement organisationnel et l'économique du travail ont progressé. Un autre développement fut la croissance de la gestion des ressources humaines (GRH) qui a défié l'approche traditionnelle, axée sur l'étude du syndicalisme et de la négociation collective. Cet article présente une situation différente en Grande-Bretagne. Il s'agit d'un essai interprétatif et sélectif basé sur le développement de la recherche. Il ne s'agit pas ici d'examiner des questions théoriques plus larges. Une vue théorique est cependant implicite : la recherche a avancé par un programme progressif d'analyse et cela a produit de nouvelles connaissances. On peut de loin être plus optimiste quant à l'état de la discipline que ne le suggèrent certaines évaluations récentes de la théorie. La force de la recherche britannique reflète plusieurs développements. D'abord, les chercheurs institutionnalistes et pluralistes britanniques ont été plus flexibles dans la définition de leur sujet que ne l'ont été leurs collègues américains. Cela leur a permis d'aborder les sujets associés à la nature de la relation d'emploi, plus particulièrement la négociation continue des dispositions du contrat de travail. Ensuite, l'absence d'obligation légale d'appliquer les conventions a laissé beaucoup de sujets à être réglés au niveau de l'atelier. Cela signifie que les relations de négociation sont demeurées centrales. Finalement, le résultat fut que la tradition d'études de cas est demeurée plus significative qu'en Amérique du Nord. Cette orientation de la recherche a permis aux relations industrielles de contrer le double défi de la croissance de la GRH et du changement dans les politiques publiques, lesquels mettaient en cause les conceptions traditionnelles quant à la valeur de la négociation collective. La conception même de notre champ de recherche a évolué vers la relation d'emploi plutôt que le fonctionnement de la négociation collective. De là, les chercheurs étaient bien placés pour examiner ce que la GRH signifiait en pratique et comment on expérimentait de nouvelles initiatives sur les lieux de travail. Cette approche est illustrée en considérant l'évolution de la méthode d'études de cas et l'éclairage particulier que la recherche en relations industrielles a jeté sur la nature du management. Les études de cas ont de plus en plus fait le lien entre le détail du site à l'étude et des questions plus larges sur la gestion des entreprises et les généralisations pouvant en être tirées. La méthode s'est aussi développée par l'étude comparative et par une plus grande utilisation de techniques d'entrevues structurées. Sur le management, l'emphase que mettent les chercheurs en relations industrielles sur la négociation et le conflit favorise une analyse différente des politiques de gestion. Cela inclut la conceptualisation du processus de gestion et des études empiriques sur les pratiques des gestionnaires. Ces travaux empiriques ont appuyé une analyse critique de la GRH reliant celle-ci a ses contextes et explorant son rôle symbolique. Les chercheurs britanniques se penchent de plus en plus sur des sujets européens et comparatifs. Les bénéfices de la tradition d'études de cas sont ici substantiels puisqu'elle permet d'explorer la dynamique de différents systèmes de régulation du travail. Cependant, la recherche doit rencontrer de nouveaux défis. Peut-on solutionner les difficultés théoriques et pratiques associées aux études transnationales ? De façon plus générale, à mesure que les relations industrielles ouvrent leur champ d'intérêt au management et aux questions internationales, de nouvelles questions de recherche seront soulevées. Évoluer dans cette voie, tout en conservant les forces traditionnelles de la discipline, représente un défi significatif.

Causation analysis is densely political in at least three ways. First, because causation is crucial to our system of attributing moral, legal, and political responsibility, causation arguments are advanced for purely instrumental purposes. They do political work. Second, because any particular occurrence is the outcome of an almost infinite number of antecedent events, “but for” causation analysis produces trivial results. A judgment about causal significance is required and will depend, in part, on the goals of the analysis. The choice of goals is political, but unstated goals and hidden assumptions often exclude consideration of some possible causes as significant. Theses politics of causation need to be made explicit. Third, the institutional setting in which official determinations of causation are made influence the outcome. Hence, it is necessary to explore these as well. Each of these three dimensions of the politics of causation is explored through an analysis of the 1992 Westray Mine disaster which killed 29 miners in Nova Scotia, and the official responses to it. It is argued that if the goal is to protect workers and nothing else, the political-economic context that promotes the creation of hazardous conditions must be considered a significant cause of harmful occurrences. It is unlikely, however that any of the official responses to the disaster will take this approach.

The article reviews the book, "Strangers at Our Gates: Canadian Immigration and Immigration Policy, 1540-1990," by Valerie Knowles.

A study explores the reaction of shareholders to layoff announcements. Shareholders' reactions to 137 layoff announcements by 57 Canadian firms over the period January 1989 to August 1992 were examined. Shareholders are found to react negatively to announcements of a layoff in their company. Shareholders have a greater negative reaction to a company's first layoff than to subsequent layoff announcements. Moreover, shareholders respond more negatively to large-scale layoffs than to those involving small percentages of the workforce. The implications of these findings for human resource management are discussed.

L'ancienneté du salarié est une notion présente dans plusieurs systèmes de relations du travail. Cette commune importance de l'ancienneté conduit à étudier sa nature juridique en débordant les cadres d'un système particulier. Après avoir examiné les thèses dominantes quant à la nature juridique de l'ancienneté du salarié en France et au Québec et avoir décrit les diverses manifestations de l'ancienneté dans ces deux systèmes, l'auteur conclut que l'ancienneté du salarié est une notion individualiste fondée sur l'appartenance à l'entreprise ou sur l'existence d'un lien contractuel avec l'employeur.

The article reviews the book "Spectres of Marx: The State of the Debt, the Work of Mourning and the New International," by Jacques Derrida.

The article reviews the book, "Critique du droit du travail," by Alain Supiot.

The article reviews the book, "Le droit des salariés à la négociation collective : principe général du droit," by Marie-Laure Morin.