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Advances in Industrial and Labor Relations, Vol 17, edited by David Lewin, Bruce Kaufman, and Paul J. Gollan, is reviewed.

The article reviews thee book, "Workplace Industrial Relations and the Global Challenge," edited by Jacques Bélanger, P.K. Edwards and Larry Haiven.

An acknowledgement speech by Mark Thompson, Professor Emeritus, Sauder School of Business, University of British Columbia, is presented. Firstly, Thompson would like to thank Laval University and his colleagues and friends in the Department of industrial relations for this great honor, one of the great moments of his life. This honor is even more significant taking into account the major role that the Department plays in the study of industrial relations in Canada. Thompson also would like to address the graduates. They were fortunate to study various subjects in industrial relations with well-known professors. In the future, they will have many occasions to recall what they learned in their studies.

The distinguishing features of the Canadian industrial relations system for research purposes are its fragmentation, its extensive legal regulation, and its pattern of strikes. Research needs should be based on this description of Canadian industrial relations, including the environment of the system, the major actors within the system, the processes of industrial relations, and the results of negotiation. Specific gaps in industrial relations research occur with regard to: 1. the treatment of regionalism or regional variables, 2. managerial policies and their determinants, 3. the theoretical bases of strikes, including noneconomic variables, interindustry variations, strike length, and mid-contract strikes, and 4. day-to-day relations among employees, management, and the union in the workplace. Greater attention to Canadian issues and closer integration with cognate disciplines will focus research efforts more effectively.

The article reviews the book, "Workers Compensation: Foundations for Reform," edited by Morley Gunderson and Douglas Hyatt.

The article reviews the book, "The Changing Workplace: Reshaping Canada's Industrial Relations System," by Daniel Drache and Harry Glasbeek.

This article reviews the book, "Labour Relations : An Experiential and Case Approach," by Roger Wolters & William H. Holley.

This article reviews the book, "Comparative Industrial Relations : An Introduction to Cross National Perspectives," by R. Bean.

This article reviews "Collective Bargaining in the Essential and Public Service Sectors" by Morley Gunderson.

Courts in Ontario have been increasingly willing to quash grievance arbitration awards. This article analyses the services of this conflict between the judiciary and arbitrators, the role the courts have assumed because of the compulsory use of arbitration, and the judges' reliance on precedent established British commercial arbitration. Most Ontario cases have involved one of four issues — evidence of intent, procedural violations of grievance clauses, disciplinary penalties, and denial of natural justice. In the first three areas especially, the courts have favoured narrow interpretations of collective agreements, limiting arbitrators' jurisdiction. This problem illustrates the difficulty in attempting to legislate a complex institution like grievance arbitration based on foreign experience, i.e. the United States.

Thiis article reviews the book, "Hell’s History: The USW’s Fight to Prevent Workplace Deaths and Injuries from the 1992 Westray Mine," by Tom Sandborn.

This article reviews the book, "White Collar Politics," by Martin Oppenheimer.

This paper examines the opinions of faculty members who work under collective bargaining regimes. It reports the results of a survey distributed at six Canadian universities where collective bargaining is in place and the faculty in a position tojudge its impact.

Examines labor relations between the state (federal and provincial governments) and public sector workers since the 1960s, including interventions into collective bargaining through wage control legislation, wage control policies, back-to-work legislation, and emergency no-strike legislation. Concludes that while Canadian governments have generally accepted the industrial relations system, they have not accepted the outcomes of bargaining. In addition, the authors conclude that there is little evidence to support the thesis of Wellington and Winters (1969) that public sector labor unions use their power to threaten democracy by settling agreements that are contrary to the mandate and best interests of the electorate.

This paper analyses possible differences in managerial attitudes toward unionism and collective bargaining in Canada and the United States. Divergent patterns of attitudes emerge that are consistent with other observable differences between Canadian and U.S. industrial relations.

The authors analyse possible differences in managerial attitudes toward unionism and collective bargaining in the public and private sectors in Canada. Distinct patterns of attitudes emerge showing more favorable views in the public se et or.

Symposium on the book, "Industrial relations theory: its nature, scope and pedagogy," edited by Roy J. Adams and Noah M. Meltz. Introduction to the symposium by Jean Boivin, with commentaries by Mark Thompson, Richard B. Peterson, and Jean Boivin.

Stuart Jamieson was the author of the first book in English on the subject of Canadian industrial relations, Industrial Relations in Canada, published in 1957. This classic work was concise, clearly written and notable for its analysis of Canadian industrial relations in the broader North American context. These two books were only part of Jamieson's contributions to industrial relations. His dissertation documented the struggle of American (and Canadian) farm workers to achieve representation. Stuart Jamieson taught economics and sociology at University of British Columbia from 1945 until his retirement in 1980.

A new study of farm work in BC reveals systematic violations of employment standards and health and safety regulations, poor and often dangerous working conditions, and dismal enforcement by government agencies. The study’s authors propose comprehensive policy changes that would ensure farmworkers — most of whom are immigrants and temporary migrants — are no longer relegated to second-class status. “Farmworkers are at the mercy of a complex and confusing system that exploits, threatens and silences them while putting their lives in danger,” says study co-author Arlene McLaren, Professor Emerita of Sociology at Simon Fraser University. The study draws from numerous sources, including interviews with key informants in government and the farm industry, interviews with 53 Indo-Canadian immigrant and Mexican migrant farmworkers, a survey 87 Mexican migrant farmworkers, and a review of better practices in other jurisdictions. The study is part of the Economic Security Project, a joint initiative of the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives and Simon Fraser University. --Publisher's description

The 1990s in Canada will probably go down as the most stressful decade for public-sector industrial relations since the inception, 25 years earlier, of collective bargaining in the public service. Government debt and defecits became the rationale for downsizing, outsourcing, privatization, layoffs, buyouts, and early retirement packages at both the federal and provincial levels. When workers' bargaining units did not bend to government demands at the negotating table, and when leaders did not blink at the threat of restrictive legislation, then governments of both the right and the left at times found it convenient to legislate rule changes to suit their fiscal or ideological purposes. The contributors to Public-Sector Labour Relations examine in depth the events of recent years in the public service of six jurisdictions―Nova Scotia, Ontario, Manitoba, Alberta, British Columbia, and the federal government. Trends in the other five Canadian provinces are also considered. Only in BC has there been an essentially co-operative labour relations environment, although even in this province, public service employment has dropped considerably. Overall, from 1991 to 1997, provincial civil service employment fell by 15 per cent, while the federal employment reduction was 14 per cent. (From the employment peak in 1993-4, the overall provincial reduction was over 22 per cent.) Although collective bargaining is still alive, a major conclusion of this study is that collective bargaining in the Canadian public sector is not well. The cases reported here demonstrate that governments have adopted the attitude and policy that they may engage in bargaining or suspend it whenever they find that course of action to be convenient. Viewed from a broader international context, as discussed in the concluding chapter, the casual suspension of bargaining by Canadian governments cannot be justified by the norms and agreements that Canada has shared with the international community. -- Publisher's description. Contents: Public-sector labour relations in an era of restraint and restructuring: an overview / Gene Swimmer -- Provincial government restructuring in Nova Scotia: the freezing and thawing of labour relations / Terry H. Wagar -- From softball to hardball: the transition in labour-management relations in the Ontario public service / Joseph B. Rose -- Fiscal restraint, legislated concessions, and labour relations in the Manitoba civil service, 1988-1997 / Paul Phillips and Carolina Stecher -- The logic of union quiescence: the Alberta case / Yonatan Reshef -- Labour relations in the BC public service: blowing in the political wind / Mark Thompson -- Restructuring federal public-sector human resources / Gene Swimmer and Sandra Bach -- Public-employee relations: Canadian developments in perspective / Roy J. Adams.