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This article explores the dynamics of labour organizing among migrant and immigrant workers in Canada, focusing on two case studies: first, recent efforts to organize migrant farmworkers in the Seasonal Agricultural Workers’ Program; and, second, the work of the Immigrant Workers’ Centre in Montreal. The Seasonal Agricultural Workers’ Program, which employs workers from Mexico and Caribbean countries, is often viewed by policymakers and employers as an example of ‘best practices’ in migration policy. Yet workers in the program experience seasonal employment characterized by long hours and low wages, and are exempt from many basic labour standards. The Immigrant Workers’ Centre formed in 2000 to provide a safe place for migrant and racialized immigrant workers to come together around problems in their workplaces. Through these case studies, we examine labour organization efforts including advocacy and grassroots organizing through the Immigrant Workers’ Centre and legal challenges attempting to secure recognition of freedom of association rights for farmworkers. The article explores the ‘limits and possibilities’ of these strategies, and concludes by assessing the implications for labour organizing among the growing numbers of migrant and immigrant workers employed in a wide range of low-wage, low-security occupations due to the recent expansion of Canada’s Temporary Foreign Worker Program.

The article reviews the book, "Jobs and Justice: Fighting Discrimination in Wartime Canada, 1939-1945," by Carmela Patrias.

De nombreuses recherches présentent le soutien social perçu comme un levier efficace de gestion du stress au travail. Notre recherche propose de vérifier cette hypothèse en interrogeant le rôle modérateur attribué au soutien social perçu provenant des supérieurs et des subordonnés dans les relations entre les conflits de rôle et le stress chez des managers intermédiaires (MI) et des managers de proximité (MP) du secteur public. Le modèle exigences-ressources professionnelles (Bakker et Demerouti, 2007) nous a servi de cadre théorique. D’après ce modèle, le soutien social perçu constitue une ressource professionnelle permettant d’atténuer les effets délétères des exigences professionnelles sur la santé mentale. Les données collectées auprès de 310 managers dans des administrations publiques locales confirment partiellement cette hypothèse. En effet, notre recherche ne permet pas d’appuyer dans un premier temps l’influence modératrice du soutien social perçu provenant des supérieurs et du soutien social perçu provenant des subordonnés dans la relation entre les conflits de rôle et le stress perçu chez les MI. Des résultats similaires sont observés dans certains cas chez des MP. Conséquemment, l’hypothèse de la non-mobilisation du soutien social comme une ressource professionnelle par les managers dans certaines conditions est avancée pour discuter ces résultats. Ces derniers révèlent dans un second temps que l’efficacité du soutien social perçu dépend de plusieurs facteurs : la nature et la source du soutien social perçu, le type de conflit de rôle en présence et le niveau hiérarchique des managers bénéficiaires (MI et MP). Ainsi, plus que MI, les MP semblent plus réceptifs au soutien social d’estime perçu provenant de leurs supérieurs lorsqu’ils sont confrontés aux conflits de rôle. Par conséquent, leur niveau de stress diminue. Afin de gérer le stress des MP occasionné par les conflits de rôle, nos implications managériales sont orientées vers une reconnaissance de leurs compétences professionnelles.

The article reviews the book, "Brève histoire des femmes au Québec," by Denyse Baillargeon.

The article reviews the book, "Making Feminist Politics: Transnational Alliances Between Women and Labour," by Suzanne Franzway and Mary Margaret Fonow.

Work-related musculoskeletal disorders (WMSDs) represent a complex and multi-faceted challenge, requiring multi-disciplinary, multi-perspective research approaches ranging from fundamental, basic science research to studies of applied workplace-based interventions. Members of the MSD Research Axis of the Quebec Occupational Health and Safety Research Network have been actively engaged in WMSD research across this full spectrum, contributing to significant knowledge advances on WMSD. Despite this, many facets of WMSDs remain insufficiently understood, and WMSDs remain a considerable problem for our society. Advances on interventions to decrease risk and improve workers' health are notable, although the level and quality of evidence about the effectiveness of ergonomic interventions must be improved. This paper highlights contributions of the group towards the advancement of understanding and prevention of WMSDs.

Retail workers are a significant but largely unorganized group in Canada and the United States. However, in recent years, there has been a marked increase in efforts to organize retail workers, including pursuit of innovative structures and strategies. The author focuses on the dominant threads of contemporary retail organizing work in Canada and the United States, outlining three current organizing vehicles: unionization, store-based networks, and occupation or sector-based associations. The author then reflects on the strengths, weaknesses, and possibilities of these approaches, independently and collectively, and emphasizes the need to confront the social and cultural as well as the economic devaluation of retail workers.

L’élaboration du droit de l’emploi au Québec : ses sources législatives et judiciaires, by Fernand Morin, is reviewed.

Dans un contexte où la qualité de vie au travail, le bien-être et la santé psychologique des employés sont actuellement au coeur des préoccupations des gestionnaires et des milieux de travail, les enjeux de santé organisationnelle deviennent incontournables. Or, malgré l’intérêt grandissant des chercheurs et des praticiens, la notion de santé organisationnelle a été l’objet de diverses conceptualisations et représente encore aujourd’hui un objet d’étude en pleine évolution. Dans cet ordre d’idées, cet article propose de faire une synthèse des approches contemporaines de la santé organisationnelle et d’investiguer comment cette thématique est abordée par les chercheurs québécois. Pour ce faire, une recension des écrits a d’abord été effectuée afin d’établir un portrait des connaissances acquises à ce jour. Ensuite, une enquête consultative a été réalisée auprès d’experts scientifiques québécois. À la fois les écrits et les experts consultés rapportent que la santé organisationnelle est un concept qui prend plusieurs sens, qui nécessite l’adoption d’une perspective plus globale et qui s’élargit à d’autres sphères que le travail. Or, contrairement à la documentation, les experts abordent surtout les aspects de la santé psychologique et moins la santé physique, et ils considèrent essentiellement les facteurs organisationnels comme des préoccupations de recherche future dans le domaine. Les résultats obtenus permettent de dresser un état des connaissances sur le concept de santé organisationnelle et son évolution, tout en identifiant les tendances émergentes susceptibles d’influencer les orientations scientifiques futures pour le regroupement stratégique en santé psychologique au travail du Réseau de recherche en santé et sécurité du travail du Québec.

The article reviews and comments on the books, "Caring For America: Home Health Workers in the Shadow of the Welfare State" by Eileen Boris and Jennifer Klein, "Forced to Care: Coercion and Caregiving in America" by Evelyn Nakano Glenn and "Reshaping the Work-Family Debate: Why Men and Class Matter" by Joan C. Williams.

The article reviews the book, "Gouverner les fins de carrière à distance. Outplacement et vieillissement actif en emploi," by Thibauld Moulaert.

This paper provides a careful review and analysis of employment-based pensions and other post-retirement benefits that may be available to Canadian workers when they retire, with particular emphasis on the extent to which such benefits are vulnerable to unilateral employer alteration or cancellation, or to the risks which arise in the event of the employer's insolvency. Taking stock of key differences between the rights of unionized employees and non-unionized ones, the author argues that the legal regimes governing common law employ- ment, collective bargaining and pensions offer varying degrees of security for post-retirement benefits, depending on the type of regime applicable to the work- place and the type of benefit. However, as the paper goes on to explain, the situ- ation changes dramatically if the employer becomes insolvent - all the more so because the federal legislation which regulates creditors' rights in an insolvency enjoys paramountcy over the provincial legislation that deals with employment, collective bargaining and pensions (including any provision made in that prov- incial legislation for so-called "deemed trusts"). The author sets out and weighs the numerous risks confronting employees' pension and post-retirement benefit entitlements in both an insolvency proceeding and in a restructuring, again drawing attention to the different dynamics that may come into play in unionized and non-unionized workplaces. In general, he finds, the security of pensions is stronger than that of non-pension benefits, but will still depend on the adequacy of the pension plan's funding before insolvency.

Editorial introduction to the issue.

This paper contributes to current debates around neoliberalism and subnational developments in Canadian immigration policy. In response to critiques of neoliberalism’s “promiscuity,” scalar and governmentality frameworks are used to analyze Nova Scotia’s failed economic nominee category experiment. The competing choices, calculations, and commitments at stake at “meso”- and “micro”-scales reveal a more complex and compelling reality that underscores the contributions and challenges of a range of political actors. This, in turn, suggests possible disruptions to neoliberalization and seeks to strike a better balance between structure and agency, as well as economic and social immigration priorities.

The article reviews the book, "Offshore Petroleum Politics: Regulation and Risk in the Scotian Basin," by Peter Clancy.

The nanotechnology field is a growing industry, particularly in Quebec: occupational exposure risks already exist and should increase exponentially. In recent years, work has been undertaken in Quebec to develop knowledge for improving the prevention of nanomaterial-related risks. In particular, a group of researchers, professionals and students involved in the nanotechnology field was created in 2006 under the aegis of the Quebec Occupational Health and Safety Research Network. Its aim is to share the expertise of the different stakeholders in this field in order to promote multidisciplinary collaboration and more rapid advancement in research.

The article reviews the book, "Emotionalizing Organizations and Organizing Emotions," edited by Barbara Sieben and Asa Wettergren.