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The article reviews the book, "Ruling Canada: Corporate Cohesion and Democracy," by Jamie Brownlee.

The article reviews the book, "Radio Active: Advertising and Consumer Activism, 1935-1947, by Kathy M. Newman.

Chronicles the Ontario years of Madeleine Parent and Kent Rowley, including the founding of the Council of Canadian Unions (later the Confederation of Canadian Unions) in Sudbury in 1969.

The article reviews the book, "Human Capital in the United States from 1975 to 2000 : Patterns of Growth and Utilization," by Robert H. Haveman, Andrew Bershadker and Jonathan A. Schwabish.

Les chartes des droits de la personne, les lois protégeant ces mêmes droits et la jurisprudence qu’elles engendrent provoquent des bouleversements dans les milieux de travail régis par le droit des rapports collectifs de travail et dans les règles de fonctionnement syndical. Les cas des femmes intégrant des secteurs d’emploi non traditionnellement féminins par le truchement des programmes d’accès à l’égalité et des associations regroupant les syndiqués contestant les effets des clauses de disparité de traitement sont ici utilisés pour illustrer la profondeur du choc entre les nouvelles règles fondées sur l’équité qu’introduisent les droits de la personne et les règles de l’égalité formelle entre syndiqués qui ont traditionnellement régi le fonctionnement syndical.

The article reviews the book, "L’aveuglement organisationnel ou comment lutter contre les malentendus," by Valérie Boussard, Delphine Mercier and Pierre Tripier.

We still know relatively little about how young people rationalize their educational and occupational plans and what this might tell us about the relationship between structure and agency in school-work transitions. In this paper, based on a multi-method comparison of youth apprentices in Canada and Germany, the range of school-work transition alternatives realistically under consideration was circumscribed by socio-economic status, habitus, cultural capital, and institutional factors. While their vocational choices reproduced their class position, youth apprentices nevertheless saw their entry into the trades as an expression of a preference for, and identity with, working-class ideals of manual work. Further analysis suggests, however, that these narratives can also be interpreted as post-facto rationalization strategies in response to public discourses that equate life course success with ever higher levels of educational attainment.

Portrays Madeleine Parent's life and times.

"[B]rings together some of the papers presented at the conference, "Madeleine Parent, ses lutes et ses engagements /Madeleine Parent and her struggles," held in March 2001 at McGill University under the auspices of the Quebec Studies Programme and the McGill Centre for Research and Teaching on Women." -- Editor. Translation of: Madeleine Parent, militante (2003). Contents: Portfolio of photographs -- Introduction: setting the stage; Student life at McGill, 1936-1940 / Andrée Lévesque -- Textile strikes in Quebec: 1946, 1947, 1952 / Denyse Baillargeon -- Carrying on the struggle in Ontario, 1952-1973 / John Lang -- The Atlantic connection / John St-Amand -- The women's movement in Canada: setting the agenda / Lynn Kaye & Lynn Mcdonald  -- The importance of being Madeline: how an inactivist won the heart of Quebec's immigrant and minority women -- A tribute to a valiant lady / Françoise David -- Madeleine Parent: an unfailing ally of native women / Michèle Rouleau -- An iron will and a string of pearls / Rick Salutin -- A friend, a role model / Monique Simard.

Annotated reproductions of photographs of Parent as well as pertinent news clippings.

Discusses Parent's education at McGill University in the late 1930s, including professors who influenced her and student associations to which she belonged.

This article examines union members’evaluation of the relevance of unions and their identification with a traditional collective value frame for union action. It seeks to take account of the impact of increasing labor market heterogeneity, declining instrumentality, and the behavior of unions and employers. Using Canadian data gathered from individual union members and their local union leaders, the study finds that new labor market identities are notlinked to weaker belief in the relevance of unions but are associated with weaker identification with the traditional value frame. Although declining instrumentality and hostile employer behavior are associated with greater identification with traditional value frames, greater union democracy is associated with less membership disaffection on both the relevance of unions and their collective modes of action. Union democracy is therefore found to be a key tool to address membership disaffection and to generate collective identities for a renewed union project.

The article reviews the book, "The Workers' Festival: A History Of Labour Day In Canada," by Craig Heron and Steve Penfold.

This article reports a new conceptual approach to measuring the characteristics of precarious employment and their effect on health. Our starting point is the Karasek 'job strain' model. We argue that 'job strain' focuses on the health effects of work once people are employed. It is less effective in capturing the health effects associated with the employment relationship, the process by which workers acquire work, keep work and negotiate its terms and conditions. We develop a new construct, 'employment strain' to measure these aspects of work organisation. Evidence presented indicates employment strain is associated with poorer health outcomes.

Under the auspices of the International Transport Workers' Federation's (ITF) Flag of Convenience campaign, maritime unions have developed transnational global structures exploiting interdependencies in transportation production chains. The ITF, a London-based association of transport unions, connects the struggles of seafarers and port workers through a global strategy of union networking and coordinated industrial action. Seafaring unions draw on the industrial leverage of port workers to negotiate minimum standard pay agreements, while dock unions leverage the growing influence of the ITF in fighting union busting in ports. A global transnational ship inspector network provides the power basis for imposing collective agreements on shipowners. Although conceived as a resource for organizing seafarers, the inspectorate also provides port unions with leverage.

The article reviews the book, "Hidden Knowledge : Organized Labour in the Information Age," by D. W. Livingstone et Peter H. Sawchuk.

This research has focused on re-analyzing data from previous large-scale Canadian surveys that include information on education and training activities and union status, as well as other demographic and organizational factors, most prominently the 1993 and 1997 Adult Education and Training Surveys. In contrast to some recent studies, we find that union status has had consistent positive individual-level effects in Canada on participation in adult education courses and employer-sponsored courses in general, and especially for women union members. In addition, our analysis of data from the 1998 national survey on informal learning finds that in this much more extensive form of learning, unionized workers are significantly more likely than non-unionized workers to participate in more directly empowering forms of knowledge including learning about workers’ rights and political issues.

Compilation of recent English/French publications on Canadian labour history that emphasize the period 1800-1975. Materials pertaining to the post-1975 period may also be included, although more selectively. [See the database, Canadian Labour History, 1976-2009, published at Memorial University of Newfoundland.]

This paper seeks to examine the renewal of the Caribbean Public Sector trade unions (CPSU), and make a number of recommendations as it regards the capacity building and institutional strengthening of these unions. The paper begins with an introduction that lays the foundation for the discussion of capacity building for CPSU. It continues with a socio-historical background to the current difficulties facing the CPSU, and continues with an examination of a number of regional concerns for the CPSU. Based on the Regional concerns identified and the fact that CPSU need to step out of their traditional role of representation and, in addition, become concerned with national issues, the paper concludes with a number of recommendations for the way forward for the CPSU. // Cet article examine le renouveau des syndicats du secteur public des Caraïbes (SSPC) et établit un certain nombre de recommandations eu égard à leur capacité de consolidation institutionnelle. L’introduction expose les éléments de fonds qu’il s’agit d’avoir à l’esprit pour comprendre la capacité d’action des SSPC. S’en suivent une présentation des conditions socio-historiques qui expliquent leurs difficultés actuelles, puis un examen des questions régionales auxquelles ils font face. De là, et prenant parti que les SSPC doivent sortir de leur rôle traditionnel de représentation, y inclus une prise en compte des questions nationales, l’article conclut en identifiant des voies d’avenir.

The book The Future of Worker Representation, edited by Geraldine Healy, is reviewed.