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Between 1975 and 1997, school teacher bargaining was conducted under the School Boards and Teachers Collective Negotiations Act (Bill 100). By most accounts, the teacher bargaining law was successful in promoting bilateral settlements with minimal strike activity. Following its election in 1995, the Harris government reduced public expenditures and introduced educational reforms. This study finds that the government's blunt and heavy-handed efforts to control collective bargaining processes and outcomes, not only proved futile, but led to an increase in work stoppages and protracted guerilla warfare at the school board level.

The book, "The Paradox of American Unionism," by Seymour Martin Lipset and Noah M. Meltz, is reviewed.

The article reviews the book, "Robust Unionism. Innovations In The Labor Movement," by Arthur B. Shostak.

The article reviews the book, "Union-Management Relations in Canada," 3rd edition, by Morley Gunderson and Allen Ponak.

There is general agreement that public sector bargaining has evolved through three stages: the expansionary years (mid-1960s to 1982), the restraint years (1982-1990) and the retrenchment years (1990s). This paper argues that public sector collective bargaining entered a new stage of development around 1998. The post-retrenchment period or what is referred to as the consolidation stage was marked by economic expansion, the restoration of fiscal stability among the senior levels of government and increases in public employment. Under these conditions, governments and public sector employers sought to consolidate the gains they achieved during the retrenchment years through legislation and hard bargaining. Public sector unions attempted to improve their position by increasing membership and negotiating catch-up wage settlements. Based on a review of selected collective bargaining indicators, employers appear to have consolidated their gains from the retrenchment years.

The article reviews the book, "Regulating Flexibility: The Political Economy of Employment Standards," by Mark P. Thomas.

This article reviews the book, "Collective Bargaining in American Industry," by David B. Lipski & Clifford B. Donn.

The article reviews the book, "From Uniformity to Diversity : Industrial Relations in Canada and the United States," by Pradeep Kumar.

This article reviews "Cyclical Instability in Residential Construction in Canada" by Joseph H. Chung.

This paper examines the relatively recent movement by employers in the construction industry toward province-wide associations specializing in labour relations. Beginning with the formation of the Construction Labour Relations Association of British Columbia (CLRA) it reviews the influences of contractor cooperation, union opposition and labour laws on the ability of these organizations to bring unity to contractor ranks and alleviate what has been described as the imbalance of power in construction labour relations. There is also an examination of the organizational characteristics of these CLRA-type organizations which reveals how they have been able to maintain control of members and reduce fragmentation.

In this paper, the author aims at describing the various legislative approaches to accreditation which have been adopted and at evaluating the strengths and weaknesses of different efforts to reduce employer fragmentation and redress the imbalance of power within the industry.

The article reviews the book, "Unions and the City: Negotiating Urban Change," edited by Ian Thomas MacDonald.

One of the reforms proposed for Ontario's broader public sector by the Drummond Report is the establishment of centralized bar- gaining structures. As Chaykowski and Hickey have argued, such a reform "must consider whether, how, and in what context, alterna- tive bargaining structures and enhanced coordination could yield outcomes which promote efficiencies and improve value."' In this regard, the transformation of bargaining structures in the Canadian construction industry offers some lessons on structural realignment.

One of the prevailing concerns about compulsory interest arbitration is its possible effect on genuine collective bargaining. Numerous studies report overall settlement rates (i.e., the proportion of settlements achieve prior to the final impasse procedure) are lower in arbitration systems than in strike-based systems. A study attempts to provide a broader assessment of the effect of compulsory arbitration by calculating settlements rates for different settlement stages. Based on over 28,000 collective agreements negotiated in Ontario between 1982 and 1990, the results show that settlement rates were generally lower under arbitration. At the same time, settlement behavior varied considerably across arbitration systems. These differences are associated with specific institutional and organizational aspects in bargaining.

This article seeks to evaluate how legislations redesigning bargaining structures in the Ontario and Saskatchewan construction industry influenced employer and union organizations and to estimate its effects on strike activity, negotiated wage settlements and nonwage outcomes.

This paper consider the potential for union revival in Canada and the US. Although unions have devoted considerably energy and resources to new initiatives, the overall evidence leads to generally pessimistic conclusions. The level and direction of union density rates indicates the 2 labor movements lack the institutional frameworks and public policies to achieve sustained revival. Significant gains in union membership and density levels will require nothing less than a paradigm shift in the industrial relations systems - a broadening of the scope and depth of membership recruitment, workplace representation and political activities.

The authors présent an overview of union growth and highlight spécifie characteristics of national trade unions, review recent studies of union growth in Canada, examine their relevance to the rise of national unionism, develop an alternative model of union growth and test its applicability to national unions.

This paper re-examines the common views that presidential turnover occurs infrequently, is often the result of political forces and provides an adequate measure of union democracy. Moreover, the authors try to determine to what extent environmental factors influence annual presidential turnover rates among Canadian national unions.

American labour law is broken. As many as 60 percent of American workers would like to have a union, yet only 12 percent actually do. This is largely due to systematic employer interference, often in violation of existing laws. The Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA), currently before Congress, contains provisions to rectify this problem. Canada's experience with similar provisions can be helpful in evaluating the arguments surrounding this act. It suggests that the reforms proposed in EFCA can be expected to safeguard rather than deny employees' free choices. They will not alter the balance of power in collective bargaining, but only help to ensure that workers can exercise their basic right to meaningful representation at work and, potentially, to win gains that could help to reduce inequality and return America to prosperity.