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"Heal Thyself:" Managing Health Care Reform, by Pat Armstrong, Hugh Armstrong, Ivy Bourgeault, Jacqueline Choiniere, Eric Mykhalovskiy and Jerry P. White, is reviewed.

Dependent Self-Employment: Workers on the Border between Employment and Self-Employment, by Ulrike Muehlberger, is reviewed.

Editorial introduction to the articles in the issue. Includes bibliography.

The article reviews the book, "Labor Relations In Europe: A History Of Issues And Developments, by Hans Slomp.

Consulted to Death, by Doug Smith, is reviewed.

The article reviews the book, "The Rise and Fall of Corporate Social Responsibility," by Douglas M. Eichar.

This study explores the subject of cross-national variations in industrial conflict, looking specifically at a 'matched set' of factories in Canada and Britain. The comparison between these two countries is intriguing. Since 1943, Canadian governments have sought to regulate industrial conflict by a distinct formula whose three pillars are a) legally enforceable collective agreements meant to circumscribe disputable issues, b) the outlawing of strikes during the term of the collective agreement, and c) the substitution, for industrial action, of a well-defined grievance and arbitration procedure to settle the disputable issues arising during that term. Dispute resolution is formal, collective agreements are comprehensive and arbitral jurisprudence is encyclopaedic. In Britain, on the other hand, dispute resolution has been left almost entirely to the parties themselves. Collective agreements are not enforceable and sketch the barest details of co-regulation. An ill-defined body of 'custom and practice' still governs in most day-to-day disputes. Strikes are legally possible for all groups of employees at any time on any issue related to the workplace. And arbitration, though available, is voluntary and widely shunned by both parties. Dispute resolution is highly informal. While one might, from this comparison, predict a higher level of strike activity in Britain, Canada has equalled or surpassed Britain over the past twenty-five years in industrial conflict. Why might this be so? The study reviews several sets of theories on cross-national variations in industrial conflict and finds that the Canada-Britain comparison does not fit any of them. Suggesting a synthesis of the "institutional" and "political economy” theoretical approaches, it proposes to concentrate on the political struggle over production at the shop floor in a "politics of production" approach. Defining four "political apparatuses of production" (interests, rights, adjustments and enforcements), the study examines how these "microinstitutions" for conflict-handling articulate with three key loci on the frontier of control where conflict can erupt (discipline, the structuring of the internal labour market and job control). Through the use of intensive interviews in four workplaces (two in each country) in the brewing and aluminium fabrication industries and the analysis of general data on industrial relations in the two countries, the analytical framework is applied to examine the generation and resolution of industrial conflict.

The article reviews the book, "What workers want," by Richard B. Freeman and Joel Rogers.

This paper reports on a remarkable partnership between Saskatoon Chemicals and a local of the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union. The partnership emerged after years of bitter relations and, on the basis of great union strength, progressed to involve continuous, interest-based bargaining and an extensive, jointly determined work redesign process. Both parties achieved significant benefits from the high performance partnership before the high performance work system was developed. Evidence also shows that continuous bargaining can work. Divisions within the union over its appropriate role and accountability helped to prevent co-optation, and ultimately led to a return to a more traditional labor-management relationship. The case raises important questions for unions, regarding industrial democracy in a rapidly changing work context.

Editorial introduction to the theme of the issue. Includes bibliography.

Have Mulroney, Reagan and Thatcher beaten labour into the ground? Are unions a spent force? Do ordinary people in Canada, the United States and Great Britain truly believe in the so-called free market? How are the Swedish social democrats handling challenges to their consensus society? Is there indeed a neo-conservative hegemony for the nineteen-nineties? These are some of the questions which the authors of this sixth Socialist Studies Annual try to answer. They present case studies from various countries, using the social and political insights of Gramsci and other progressive thinkers. --Publisher's description

Contents: Introduction : the workplace and labor regulation in comparative perspective / P.K. Edwards, Jacques Bélanger, and Larry Haiven -- A comparison of national regimes of labor regulation and the problem of the workplace / P.K. Edwards -- Job control under different labor relations regimes : a comparison of Canada and Great Britain / Jacques Bélanger -- Workplace discipline in international comparative perspective / Larry Haiven -- Shopfloor relations at U.S. and Canadian plants of an automotive parts supplier, 1936-1988 / Stephen Herzenberg; Bargaining regimes and the social reorganization of production : the case of General Motors in Austria and Germany / Karen Shire -- New technology and the process of labor regulation : an international perspective / Anthony E. Smith -- Conflict and compliance : the workplace politics of a disk-drive factory in Singapore / Chung Yuen Kay -- The new international division of labor and its impact on unions : a case study of high-tech Mexican export production / Harley Shaiken -- Patterns of workplace relations in the global corporation : toward convergence? / Stephen Frenkel -- Conclusion : globalization, national systems, and the future of workplace industrial relations / Larry Haiven, P.K. Edwards, and Jacques Bélanger; Introduction : the workplace and labor regulation in comparative perspective / P.K. Edwards, Jacques Belanger, and Larry Haiven -- A comparison of national regimes of labor regulation and the problem of the workplace / P.K. Edwards -- Job control under different labor relations regimes : a comparison of Canada and Great Britain / Jacques Belanger -- Workplace discipline in international comparative perspective / Larry Haiven -- Shopfloor relations at U.S. and Canadian plants of an automotive parts supplier, 1936-1988 / Stephen Herzenberg; Bargaining regimes and the social reorganization of production : the case of General Motors in Austria and Germany / Karen Shire -- New technology and the process of labor regulation : an international perspective / Anthony E. Smith -- Conflict and compliance : the workplace politics of a disk-drive factory in Singapore / Chung Yuen Kay -- The new international division of labor and its impact on unions : a case study of high-tech Mexican export production / Harley Shaiken -- Patterns of workplace relations in the global corporation : toward convergence? / Stephen Frenkel -- Conclusion : globalization, national systems, and the future of workplace industrial relations / Larry Haiven, P.K. Edwards, and Jacques Belanger