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The article reviews the book, "New Labor in New York: Precarious Workers and the Future of the Labor Movement," edited by Ruth Milkman and Ed Ott.

Released in advance of the Ontario government’s consultation process to review the Employment Standards Act and the Labour Relations Act, this report draws on Statistics Canada data to track a growing reliance on low-wage, precarious employment in Ontario, and how precariously employed workers have less access to the protections of membership in a trade union. The report also highlights the need to modernize the outdated regulatory laws for workers in Ontario, and concludes there is scope for the province to raise the minimum wage, to require employers to schedule more predictable work hours, to set a higher standard for paid leave, and to make it easier for lowwage workers to unionize.

Cet article s’intéresse aux négociations locales ayant eu lieu dans le réseau québécois de la santé et des services sociaux entre 2005 et 2008 suite à la mise en oeuvre de la Loi concernant les unités de négociation dans le secteur des affaires sociales et modifiant la Loi sur le régime de négociation des conventions collectives dans le secteur public et parapublic (L.R.Q., c. U-0.1), mieux connue sous le nom « Loi 30 ». Cette dernière a profondément modifié les règles du jeu quant aux rapports entre les gestionnaires et les syndicats locaux du secteur de la santé québécois, cela en imposant de nouvelles unités d’accréditations syndicales et en décentralisant une partie de la négociation des conventions collectives. Dans le cadre d’une recherche menée entre 2008 et 2011, nous avons cherché à comprendre les impacts de cette décentralisation sur le travail des gestionnaires locaux. Plus spécifiquement, nous avons voulu vérifier si, du point de vue des gestionnaires locaux, l’augmentation des marges de manoeuvre managériales qui devaient découler de cette décentralisation s’est reflétée dans les premières négociations locales. Les propos des gestionnaires rencontrés sont plutôt mitigés. En effet, il appert que l’encadrement restrictif des négociations, combiné au contexte organisationnel dans lequel celles-ci se sont réalisées, a limité, malgré les marges de manoeuvre théoriquement permises par la décentralisation, la capacité des gestionnaires locaux d’adapter l’organisation du travail aux réalités des établissements. // Decentralized Bargaining in the Quebec Health and Social Services Sector: What Do Local Managers Say? (English). This article focuses on local bargaining that took place in the Quebec health and social services network between 2005 and 2008 following implementation of the Act respecting bargaining units in the social affairs sector and amending the Act respecting the process of negotiation of the collective agreements in the public and parapublic sectors (QLR, c. U-0.1), better known as Bill 30. This legislation drastically changed the rules regarding relations between local managers and unions in the Quebec healthcare sector by imposing new union accreditation units and decentralizing part of the collective bargaining process. As part of a study conducted between 2008 and 2011, I endeavored to understand the impact of this decentralization on the work of local managers. More specifically, I sought to determine, from the point of view of local managers, whether the increased managerial flexibility that was supposed to have resulted from this decentralization was reflected in the initial local negotiations. The managers interviewed had mixed feelings. It appears that, in practice, the restrictive bargaining framework, combined with the organizational context in which bargaining took place, limited the ability of local managers to adapt work organization to their institutional realities.

The article reviews the book, "How the Other Half Ate: A History of Working Class Meals at the Turn of the Century," by Katherine Leonard Turner.

The article reviews the book, "Milk Spills and One-Log Loads: Memories of a Pioneer Truck Driver," by Frank White.

The article reviews the book, "Families Apart: Migrant Mothers and the Conflicts of Labor and Love," by Geraldine Pratt.

This article reviews the book, "Time, Work and Leisure: Life Changes in England since 1700," by Hugh Cunningham.

The article reviews and comments on the books, "Labour Markets and Identity on the Post-Industrial Assembly Line," by Anthony Lloyd, "Answer the Call: Virtual Migration in Indian Call Centres," by Aimee Carrillo Rowe, Sheena Malhotra, and Kimberlee Perèz, and "Call Centers and the Global Division of Labor: A Political Economy of Post-Industrial Employment and Union Organizing," by Andrew J.R. Stevens.

[This article] aims to contribute to knowledge of proletarian literature in post–Confederation Canada in three related ways: by briefly outlining the early history of the Clarion; by describing the Clarion’s use of articles, extracts, leaflets, pamphlets, poems, short stories, novels, and cartoons to define and popularize the platform of the Socialist Party of Canada; and by investigating how such communicative practices shaped and were shaped by the maintenance of identity and group formation, especially as the SPC attempted to increase the Clarion’s circulation and further socialist representation across Canada.

This article reviews the book, "Joining Empire: The Political Economy of the New Canadian Foreign Policy," by Jerome Klassen.

The article reviews the book, "Epidemic Encounters: Influenza, Society, and Culture in Canada, 1918-20," edited by Magda Fahrni and Esyllt W. Jones.

This study examines the views of full-time unionized university faculty at four primarily undergraduate universities in Ontario, Canada, on a broad range of issues related to postsecondary education, faculty associations, and the labor movement. The purpose of the study is twofold: first, to better understand the views of unionized professors regarding the role and effectiveness of their faculty unions and of labor unions more generally, and second to explore what impact such views might have on shaping the strategic orientation and political priorities of faculty associations in a context of unprecedented austerity measures and neoliberal restructuring in Ontario's postsecondary education sector. Based on the findings of a mixed-methods survey, we found that university professors were relatively satisfied union members with a healthy degree of union—as opposed to class—consciousness, but had little appetite for engaging in political activities beyond the narrow scope of postsecondary education. This finding, we argue, reinforces the false division between the “economic” and the “political” in the realm of labor strategy, thus potentially undermining the capacity of unionized faculty associations to effectively resist neoliberal restructuring both on campus and in society more broadly.

Introduces papers given at a Brock University panel on the television show, "Bomb Girls." The series, which was described as a "'World War II drama-cum-soap opera focusing on the Canadian homefront and the gals (and guys) working at a munitions factory,'" aired on the Global Television Network during the 2012-13 seasons.

CAWLS is joining the Canadian Committee on Labour History family. The journal is now co-published by CCLH and Athabasca University Press, in affiliation with CAWLS.

This article reviews the book, "Another Politics: Talking across Today’s Transformative Movements," by Chris Dixon.

This article reviews the book, "Theorizing Anti-Racism: Linkages in Marxism and Critical Race Theories," edited by Abigail Bakan and Enakshi Dua.

This article reviews the book, "Wisdom, Justice, and Charity: Canadian Social Welfare Through the Life of Jane B. Wisdom, 1884–1975," by Suzanne Morton.

Explores the economy of the Cape Breton fishery by examining the ledger books of Philip Robin and Company in the Acadian fishing community of Chéticamp in the mid-19th century. The research complements the work of Rosemary Ommer, who studied the Jersey firm's associated company that dominated the Bay of Chaleur region of the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Concludes that the truck system used between the Acadians, who had returned to the area in the decades after their deportation by the British in 1750, and the firm was indicative of an integrated relationship. The finding contrasts sharply with the studies of Harold Innis and others, whose portrayal of the Newfoundland, Labrador and Maritime cod fishery often painted a much darker picture of exploitation and constrained local development.

L’impact du passage d’une évaluation collective à une évaluation individuelle de la performance, ou inversement, sur les équipes de travail et leur rendement est étudié en contexte réel au sein de deux équipes ayant récemment vécu le passage d’une évaluation collective à une évaluation individuelle pour l’une, et inversement pour l’autre. Si dans nos deux échantillons, l’évaluation individualisée s’accompagne d’une individualisation du rapport au travail, les effets sont plus contrastés en ce qui concerne le vécu individuel, la qualité des relations interpersonnelles et la performance. Lorsque, du fait des critères d’évaluation retenus, les contributions individuelles à la performance collective sont indétectables en l’absence d’évaluation individualisée, l’évaluation collective est associée à la suspicion et à une moindre performance en comparaison de l’évaluation individuelle. À l’inverse, lorsque selon les critères retenus pour évaluer la performance les membres de l’équipe peuvent aisément s’entraider pour améliorer la performance collective, l’évaluation collective est mieux perçue et est associée à de meilleures relations interpersonnelles et une meilleure performance que l’évaluation individuelle. Alors que l’évaluation individuelle est généralement privilégiée dans les entreprises, cette étude apporte des résultats empiriques à l’appui des recherches qui postulent que l’évaluation collective des équipes de travail est susceptible de renforcer la performance globale, en comparaison de l’évaluation individuelle de leurs membres, car elle favorise l’entraide et la régulation collective. Toutefois, ces résultats mettent en évidence que l’effet positif de l’évaluation collective en comparaison de l’évaluation individuelle n’est observé que lorsque les critères d’évaluation favorisent la régulation collective de la performance. Cette étude permet d’identifier ces deux éléments : 1- dans quel cas telle modalité d’évaluation semble préférable à telle autre; et 2- quels critères d’évaluation adopter pour favoriser les effets positifs de l’évaluation collective sur la performance engendrés par l’entraide et la régulation collective en cours d’activité.

My focus here will be on whether the decision in Saskatchewan Federation of Labour v. Saskatchewan2 will give an impetus to the success of constitutional challenges to laws governing the right to strike. While Saskatchewan Federation of Labour dealt with restrictions on that right in essential services legislation, i.e. legislation that provided for "controlled" strikes, this paper will for the most part address other forms of "strike laws." Briefly, I believe that while the Supreme Court's decision in Saskatchewan Federation of Labour is a welcome event in the evolution of labour relations in Canada, it is unlikely to revolutionize our labour relations regime. --From author's introduction