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This paper describes a case study of a particular form of knowledge worker, lawyers and their efforts to achieve collective bargaining. Within self-regulated professions like law, the professional regulatory body controls much of the labour process and defines the body of professional knowledge. Apprenticeships, such as clinical locums in medicine and articles in law, play an important role in the transfer of labour process norms. However, more and more professionals seek employment in large organizations where the autonomy historically enjoyed by the self-employed worker and crafted in the confines of mentorships is increasingly subject to bureaucratic and administrative controls. In large employment settings rules and policies may interfere with workers' exercise of professional discretion and full utilization of their knowledge. The result of the erosion of traditional labour process power under bureaucratic forms of organization leads professionals to seek alternate forms of control. Many turn to collective bargaining as a means to wrest back control over the application of discretionary judgment from large, often public sector, employers.

We study public-sector bargaining and contract outcomes using Canadian data from 1978 to 2008. We have a number of interesting results, but our principal findings are from our analysis of wage settlements. We find that the essential services designation, which only allows non-essential members of a bargain unit to strike, is associated with decreases in wages. Our estimates also suggest that there is an arbitration wage premium and that making adjustments to the ability to pay criterion used by arbitrators to determine awards does not affect this premium. We also discuss the implications of our estimates.

We examine the effects of collective bargaining legislation, such as (among others) bans on replacement workers and reinstatement rights, on private sector strike activity and wage settlements using Canadian data from 1978 to 2008. Our estimates indicate that this legislation does not have a statistically significant effect on the incidence of strikes. However, we do find that some of the policy variables have a statistically significant effect on strike duration and wage settlements.

This paper examines the Amalgamated Transit Union’s (ATU) discussion of environmental issues since the mid 1980s. We explore the trialectic relationship between capital, labour and nature in Canada’s public transit unions, primarily through the lens of labour geography. In a review of union documents and Canadian newspapers we find the state uses the environment as a wedge issue in its ‘war or position’ with unions, representing workers’ strike actions as harmful to the environment and the community. The state’s positioning of ATU members as crucial to both the functioning of communities and environmental sustainability lends itself to counter-hegemonic campaign strategies. We examine a recent campaign by Toronto’s ATU Local 113 entitled “Protecting What Matters” as a local union’s community and environmental strategies during a period of austerity. The paper concludes with lessons learned from a labour geography perspective and calls for a more community based approach to resistance.

The article discusses the relation of comic books and graphic novels to academic research and political activism. Topics include educational theorist Paulo Freire's notion of conscientization, "The 500 Years of Resistance Comic Book," written and illustrated by Gord Hill, and "Shift in Progress: A Not-So-Comic Book," by J. D. Gysbers and M. von Gaza. The comic book "A People's History of American Empire," by Howard Zinn with Paul Buhle and Mike Konopacki is noted.

This case study explores some of the strategies, challenges, and paradoxes of producing and mobilizing alternative knowledge in the prosecution of a “war of position" against neoliberal hegemony. Since its founding in 1980, the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA) has become the key labour-supported “think tank” of the left in Canada, contributing to the process of social democratization by acting as a collective organic intellectual for a wide range of oppositional groups and networks that, we suggest, make up a social democratic community of practice. The CCPA has developed a number of strategies aimed at democratizing knowledge production, perhaps unique in the context of Canadian policy groups. Nonetheless, it faces a number of challenges in following through with these strategies and potential paradoxes in simultaneously engaging both the mainstream (general public and policymakers) and the various counterpublics that make up its community of practice.

This paper examines a relative rarity in recent Canadian labour-state relations: the successful resistance by public sector workers and their allies to government-driven employment precarity. At stake was Toronto mayor Rob Ford's determination to contract out a thousand jobs held by city cleaners. In response, the cleaners and the city's labour movement launched a Justice and Dignity for Cleaners campaign to preserve these jobs as living wage employment. Effective coalition building behind a morally compelling campaign, together with some fortuitous political alignments, has forestalled city efforts to privatize a significant yet undervalued segment of the workforce. Our examination of the Justice and Dignity for Cleaners campaign reveals that resistance to precarity is not futile, notwithstanding some attendant ambiguity of what constitutes a labour victory.

For the purpose of trade union renewal, it is suggested that trade unions need to convert themselves from being institutions centred on employer-employee relations to open source ones engaged with broader social justice issues. In this article, we offer two elements to the debate on trade union revival: first, we focus on two rapidly emerging economies with a corporatist and state-centered union structure (i.e., Brazil and India); second, in the context of these two countries, we challenge the idea that informal workers are a burden for trade union organizations. We consider the possible contributions that informal workers could make towards the renewal of trade unions in these two countries. We argue that trade unions could take advantage of these contributions if they overcome the employee horizon, which originated in Western countries and excludes millions of workers from its purview in Brazil and India. We propose the concept of "homo faber" as a new horizon for trade union organization, which is inclusive of both formal as well as informal workers.

This article reviews the book, "Weavers of Dreams, Unite! Actors' Unionism in Early Twentieth-Century America," by Sean P. Holmes.

Argues that academic historians should accept some of the responsibility for the cuts to heritage institutions under the Harper government. Urges historians to make changes to their teaching and publishing, including the reward system for publication, as well as to the curriculum design for history in the public school system.

Équité en emploi - Équité salariale, by Marie-Josée Legault, is reviewed.

This article reviews the book, "The Broken Table: The Detroit Newspaper Strike and the State of American Labor," by Chris Rhomberg.

During the Spring of 2012, Québec experienced one of the most important social movements of its contemporary history. The Maple Spring started as a student protest against tuition fee hikes but ended up as a much broader social upheaval against austerity and the authoritarianism of the provincial government. This article investigates the role and position of the labor movement during the Maple Spring. It argues that the events of the Maple Spring demonstrate how the Québec labor movement was put under pressure by the politics of austerity and revealed its internal contradictions. More broadly, this article makes the case for a dialectical approach to understanding the labor movement that takes into consideration its internal diversity and tensions.

We assessed the degree of alignment of organizational strategies with telework using Statistics Canada's 2005 Workplace and Employee Survey data. We consider telework to be 'employee-oriented' when an employee works at home to address his and her family-related or personal wants or needs, and 'employer-oriented' otherwise. We found that employers focusing on innovation were significantly more likely to use both types of telework, with greater emphasis on employee-oriented telework, whereas employers favouring an involvement strategy were somewhat less likely to use either type of telework. We did not find a statistical relationship between a cost containment strategy and telework. Overall, the results suggested that employers are not universally aligning the implementation of the two types of telework with their organizational strategies.

The article reviews the book, "Wildlife, Conservation, and Conflict In Quebec: 1840-1914," by Darcy Ingram.

Review of: Un salariat au-delà du salariat ? by Marie-Christine Bureau and Antonella Corsani .

This article provides new evidence on the economic assimilation of immigrants from the British Isles in Canada during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Using data from the 1901 and 1911 censuses and a pseudo-cohort methodology, we estimate both entry and assimilation effects. We find a non-negligible decline in entry earnings among successive cohorts of British and Irish immigrants, previously overlooked in the literature. Our estimates also reveal that the economic performance for Irish and older British arrival cohorts was better than previously reported. Overall, slow economic assimilation and sparse occupational mobility of immigrants have been a long-standing issue in the Canadian labour market.

La France, comme de nombreux pays occidentaux, est confrontée depuis trente ans à un vieillissement de sa population en général, et de sa population active en particulier. Dans une optique d’équilibre des systèmes de retraite, des directives de l’Union Européenne, déclinées dans chaque pays sous forme d’accords ou plans nationaux, ont eu pour objectif répété de reculer l’âge de départ en retraite et de promouvoir l’emploi des salariés les plus âgés. Les enquêtes menées jusqu’ici montrent cependant que les attitudes et les pratiques des entreprises n’évoluent pas rapidement et qu’il est judicieux de considérer les conditions de travail comme un des vecteurs du maintien en emploi des seniors.Cet article présente les résultats d’une étude empirique menée en France, à la demande du Conseil d’Orientation des Conditions de Travail (COCT), auprès de treize entreprises de taille et secteur d’activité variés qui ont inscrit dans leur plan ou accord « seniors » des dimensions relatives aux conditions de travail. Les monographies ainsi réalisées ont pour objectif d’éclairer les politiques publiques dans la perspective d’une démarche compréhensive favorisant une approche intégrée de la question du maintien en emploi des seniors. Elles permettent de pointer les limites mêmes des catégorisations que l’on pourrait tenter (« seniors », « conditions de travail », etc.) et les risques de cloisonnement associés. Elles permettent aussi de préciser la vitalité de démarches décloisonnées, leurs retombées, et les enseignements que l’on peut en tirer pour les politiques publiques.

RésuméAujourd’hui largement diffusée, la gestion des compétences continue à faire face à trois questions fondamentales. D’abord, celle de la pertinence de son instrumentation : les outils de gestion des compétences restent critiqués pour leur réductionnisme, leur rapide obsolescence et leur manque de fiabilité. Ensuite, celle de son désajustement organisationnel : les pratiques de gestion des compétences semblent souvent faire abstraction des spécificités des contextes organisationnels dans lesquels elles émergent. Enfin, celle de son articulation stratégique : comment comprendre et gérer le lien entre les pratiques de gestion des compétences centrées sur l’individu et un pilotage stratégique de l’entreprise fondé sur ses compétences-clés ? En réponse à ces questions, cette contribution vise à mettre en évidence des configurations cohérentes d’instruments, de contextes organisationnels et de finalités stratégiques susceptibles de sous-tendre les dispositifs de gestion des compétences. L’analyse repose sur sept études de cas menées dans des entreprises contrastées, publiques ou privées et de tailles diverses.L’analyse comparative des cas fait émerger quatre modèles distincts de gestion des compétences : 1- un modèle de la normalisation centré sur des comportements partagés à large échelle et visant l’homogénéisation culturelle; 2- un modèle de la polyvalence permettant l’allocation flexible des ressources humaines au sein d’un périmètre d’activité; 3- un modèle du talent individuel faisant des qualités et aptitudes personnelles génériques la clé de la performance individuelle et collective; 4- et, enfin, un modèle de l’expertise centré sur la maîtrise de compétences techniques complexes et la livraison de prestations à haute valeur ajoutée. Cette modélisation permet de resituer les pratiques de gestion des compétences dans leur contexte organisationnel. Elle clarifie la valeur ajoutée qu’un système de gestion des compétences peut apporter à la réalisation d’une stratégie d’entreprise. Enfin, les choix opérationnels faits dans la construction des référentiels de compétences peuvent être compris et réfléchis à la lumière du modèle retenu., SummaryIt is widely accepted that competency-based management continues to face three acute issues. The first concerns the relevance of its toolkit: competency-based management tools continue to be criticized for their reductionism, rapid obsolescence and lack of reliability. The second issue concerns its organizational maladjustment: competency-based management practices often seem to ignore the specificities of the contexts from which they emerge. Finally, the third issue pertains to its strategic articulation: how to understand and manage the link between competency-based management practices that are centred on the individual and the strategic management of the company based on its core competences? In responding to these issues, this paper aims to highlight the mechanisms, organizational contexts and strategic objectives that are likely to underpin competency-based management practices. The analysis is based on seven case studies conducted within contrasting companies: public and private, and of various sizes.Comparative analysis of these cases allows four distinct competency-based management models to emerge: 1- a standardized model centred around behaviours that are shared on a wide scale and aimed at cultural homogenization; 2- a polyvalent model that allows for the flexible allocation of human resources within an area of activity; 3- an individual talent model that makes generic personal skills and aptitudes the key to individual and collective performance; 4- and, finally, an expertise model centred around technically complex competencies and the delivery of high value-added services. This modelling enables us to situate competency-based management practices in their organizational context. It clarifies the added value that a competency-based management system can bring to the realization of a corporate strategy. Finally, the operational choices that are made in the building of competencies frameworks can be understood and considered in the light of the chosen model., ResumenAmpliamente difundido en este momento, la gestión de competencias continúa de hacer frente a tres cuestiones fundamentales. Primero, la pertinencia de su instrumentación: los útiles de gestión de competencias siguen siendo criticados por su reduccionismo, su rápida obsolescencia y su falta de fiabilidad. Segundo, su desajuste organizacional: las prácticas de gestión de competencias parecen hacer abstracción de manera frecuente de las especificidades de los contextos organizacionales dentro de los cuales éstas emergen. Por último, su articulación estratégica: ¿cómo comprender y dirigir el vínculo entre las prácticas de gestión de competencias centradas en el individuo y un pilotaje estratégico de la empresa basado sobre sus competencias claves? En respuesta a estas cuestiones, esta contribución busca poner en evidencia las configuraciones coherentes de instrumentos, de contextos organizacionales y de finalidades estratégicas susceptibles de servir de base a los dispositivos de gestión de competencias. El análisis reposa en siete estudios de caso llevados a cabo en empresas contrastadas, públicas o privadas y de talla diversa.El análisis comparativo de casos revela cuatro modelos distintos de gestión de competencias: 1- un modelo de la normalización centrado sobre los comportamientos compartidos a gran escala y destinado a la homogenización cultural; 2- un modelo de la polivalencia que permite la asignación flexible de recursos humanos dentro de un perímetro de actividad; 3- un modelo del talento individual que convierte las cualidades y aptitudes personales genéricas en la clave del rendimiento individual y colectivo; 4- y, por último, un modelo de pericia centrado en el control de competencias técnicas complejas y la prestaciones de servicios de alto valor agregado. Esta modelización permite de resituar las prácticas de gestión de competencias en su contexto organizacional. Esto clarifica el valor agregado que un sistema de gestión de competencias puede aportar a la realización de una estrategia de empresa. Para terminar, las decisiones operacionales adoptadas en la construcción de referenciales de competencias pueden ser comprendidas y esclarecidas con el modelo retenido.

This article reviews the book, "After Civil Rights: Racial Realism in the New American Workplace," by John D. Skrentny.