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This article discusses Unfair Advantage: Workers' Freedom of Association in the United States under International Human Rights Standards and Your Voice at Work: Global Report under the Follow-up to the ILO Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work. During the past decade a strong international consensus has emerged that holds that a set of core labor rights should be regarded as fundamental human rights. The appearance of these 2 reports indicates that the situation is rapidly changing.

What Workers Say: Employee Voice in the Anglo-American Workplace, edited by Richard B. Freeman, Peter Boxall and Peter Haynes, is reviewed.

Labour and Employment Law: Cases, Materials and Commentary, 8th edition, compiled by the Labour Law Casebook Group, is reviewed.

The book, "International and comparative employment relations: Globalization and the Developed Market Economies," edited by Greg J. Bambier, Russell D. Lansbury, and Nick Wailes, is reviewed.

The author analyses the operation of employment standards in Ontario using the industrial relations Systems framework.

This article reviews the book, "Industrial Relations in the Future. Trends and Possibilities in Britain over the Next Decade," by Michael Poole, William Brown, Jill Rubery, Keith Sisson, Roger Tarling & Frank Wilkinson.

This article reviews the book, "Industrial Relations in Europe. The Imperatives of Change," by B.C. Roberts, Otto Jacobi, Bob Jessop, Hans Kastendiek & Marino Regini. This article reviews the book, "Economic Crisis. Trade Unions and the State," by Otto Jacobi, Bob Jessop, Hans Kastendiek & Marino Regini.

A Commission of Inquiry on Educational Leave and Productivity recommended the establishment of a training levy scheme in Canada. In this paper the author discusses why such a scheme is necessary, how it might work, what it might cost, and what it would accomplish.

The proposed British legislation is modelled on that of the United States which has been a clear failure in its stated goal of encouraging the practice and procedure of collective bargaining (Adams, 1993). It has instead perpetuated a culture of labour-management animosity that many other nations have 113been able, to their benefit, to overcome (Adams, 1995c).

[The author] reports on his research into the failure of Canadian governments to protect and promote the collective bargaining rights of both unionized and non-unionized workers in this country. Far from honouring their solemn commitments to the UN’s International Labour Organization, our governments have blatantly and repeatedly violated them. Their many strike-breaking actions and arbitrarily imposed contract settlements have been condemned by the ILO, which has cited Canada as one of the world’s worst violators of basic labour rights. In exposing the appalling anti-labour record of our federal and provincial governments, Adams includes his exchange of correspondence with Canada’s labour ministries on their dismal labour-law policies. --Publisher's summary Contents: Why collective bargaining is a human right -- Industrial democracy achieved in Europe, thwarted in Canada -- Exclusive-agent certification, quagmire on the road to industrial democracy? -- Alternatives to exclusive-agent certification -- Why unions rely on certification -- How Canadian practice legitimizes employer opposition in collective bargaining -- Constitutional, non-statutory collective representation: the SASSEA and McMaster examples -- Recent developments and their implications for labour policy -- What our governments ought to be doing -- What our governments are actually doing --The union response -- The NUPGE/UFCW campaign. Includes bibliographical references (pages 147-152);

In many industrialized countries over the past twenty years, including Canada, the supply of "good" jobs for those with low formal education has declined relative to demand. While the contributors to this volume do not agree on which labor policies are best, they share a common dissatisifaction with the current way of doing things. --Publisher's description. Includes separate bibliographies at the end of most chapters.

Most scholars and business people have traditionally regarded industrial relations in the United States and Canada to be so different from practices in other liberal democracies as to render comparison of little practical utility. Fundamental differences, such as the influence of "pure and simple" business-like philosophy on the American and Canadian labor movements in contrast to the socialist agenda of trade unions in other industrialized countries, have prompted observers to question the value of comparative analysis. Roy Adams, however, challenges this view by constructing a theoretical framework within which the comparison of industrial relations across the advanced liberal democratic world may be made comprehensible. --Publisher's description.

Commentary on Brian Langille's paper, "Can We Rely on the ILO?”

This article is a critical review of "Constitutional Labour Rights in Canada: Farm Workers and the Fraser Case," by Fay Faraday, Judy Fudge and Eric Tucker.

The article reviews the book, "Management And Labour In Europe," by Christel Lane.

This exploratory survey aims at presenting some of the characteristics of full-time union field officers.

In this article, the "solidarity" argument is questioned on both theoretical and empirical grounds. It is argued instead that the unionization differential between the two continents may be more adequately explained in terms of differences on key dimensions of the existing industrial relations systems.

In recognizing a constitutional right to strike in its Saskatchewan Federation of Labour decision, the Supreme Court of Canada reaffirmed that workers in Canada are entitled to freedom of association rights that are at least equivalent to those provided by international human rights instruments. This paper considers the implications of this principle for employees in the private sector, where unionization rates have been in continual decline for sev- eral decades, by focusing on the potential of "minority" unionism for realizing Canada's international law obligations. The author notes that the ILO's super- visory committees have approved three options as being consistent with ILO principles on freedom of association: minority worker associations, each of which has full rights to represent its own members; unions which, though not representing a majority of the workers in the bargaining unit, are recognized as being the "most representative," and as such have the right to conclude a col- lective agreement applicable to all the workers; and unions certified under the North American Wagner Act model, through a majoritarian procedure. Thus, while ILO member-states are permitted to adopt legislation based on majoritar- ian exclusivity, such legislation cannot have the effect of depriving non-majority unions of the right to bargain collectively on behalf of their members, in those workplaces where no exclusive agent has been certified. With a view to ensuring that labour law and practice in Canada conform to international standards, the author proposes that every Canadian jurisdiction revise its legislation to provide for certification of the "most representative" minority union in a work- place, while retaining the existing procedures for certification of an exclusive bargaining agent. Under this proposal, the most representative union (or coali- tion of unions) in a bargaining unit would have all the rights and duties of an exclusive agent, but not an exclusive right of representation. In this way, the author contends, Canada could live up to its international law commitment to "promote" collective bargaining.

The article reviews the book, "Firms as Political Entities -- Saving Democracy through Economic Bicameralism," by Isabelle Ferreras.