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The article reviews the book, "Union Revitalisation in Advanced Economies: Assessing the Contribution of Union Organising," edited by Gregor Gall.

Historically, teachers’ unions have been some of the major organizational sites of social justice leadership in K-12 education (Kuehn, 2007; M. Murphy, 1990; Urban, 1982), but until the mid 1990s, the term “social justice unionism” (Peterson & Charney, 1999) had little currency in teacher union circles. The purpose of this qualitative case study was to examine the concept of social justice unionism in context. In particular, I asked how teacher union activists contributed and responded to the institutionalization of social justice in their organization. I used a critical constructionist (Ball, 1987; Berger & Luckmann, 1966; D. E. Smith, 1987) perspective to analyze 25 career history (Goodson, 1994) interviews with teachers, staff and elected officials affiliated with the British Columbia Teachers’ Federation between 1967 and 2007, and found that successive generations of union-involved activists dedicated to labour solidarity, feminism, multiculturalism, anti-colonialism and anti-homophobia used networks of like-minded colleagues to counter bureaucratic norms within their organization, the education system and society. A qualitative depiction of these changes suggests that they were layered, multi-dimensional and uneven. They played out on a contested, uphill gradient shaped, but not determined, by four factors: the organizational prioritization of teacher welfare over social justice; historically persistent micro-political struggles between two federation caucuses; the centralizing tendencies of union leadership in response to the provincial government’s centralization of educational authority; and broader ruling relations in Canadian society. Still, despite this uphill gradient, all activist networks left a durable trace on federation history. The major significance of this finding for critical theorists and social justice activists is a modestly hopeful alternative to the traditional conceptions of change embedded in organizational theory: revolution, evolution or despair.

La Loi relative à l'extension juridique des conventions collectives de travail est adoptée par le gouvernement du Québec en 1934 pour protéger les travailleurs frappés par la crise économique et favoriser leur syndicalisation. Fruit de revendications des syndicats catholiques, elle porte un modèle particulier de relations de travail qui ne s'imposera pas ailleurs en Amérique du Nord. La loi, qui mise sur la collaboration patronale-syndicale, permet au gouvernement d'étendre par décret à toutes les entreprises d'un secteur industriel, dans un territoire déterminé, les termes d''une convention collective conclue par un syndicat. Sa philosophie est issue de la doctrine sociale de l'Église catholique avec comme but ultime la formation de corporation professionnelle, cellule de base de la société corporatiste. La loi est adoptée une année avant le Wagner Act, la «Magna Carta» du mouvement syndical aux États-Unis, qui inspire l'adoption de lois similaires Canada et au Québec pendant la Deuxième Guerre. Cette loi apporte une dure concurrence à la loi des décrets qui demeure présente cependant dans les industries où la concurrence est vive et où la main d'œuvre représente une forte proportion des coûts de production. Dans les années 1970, la loi connaît un regain d'intérêt du coté des syndicats et des spécialistes de relations indus- trielles afin de faciliter l'accréditation sectorielle ou multi patronale. On juge que le cadre de négociation très décentralisé selon le Code du travail ne répond plus aux transformations du marché du travail. Depuis les années 1980, le régime des décrets est touché par la libéralisation des relations de travail dans le sillage du courant de pensée néolibéral. Dans cet esprit, le gouvernement abolit en 1999 les décrets de l'industrie du vêtement, ce qui affecte 23 000 sala- riés. Au Québec comme ailleurs, c'est tout le système de relations de travail né des années 1930 qui s'érode à mesure que le gouvernement se laisse gagner par la déréglementation des rapports collectifs de travail.

Working Life: Renewing Labour Process Analysis, edited by Paul Thompson and Chris Smith, is reviewed.

[The author] argues that the union local, as an institution of working-class organization, was a key agent for the Canadian working class as it sought to create a new place for itself in the decades following World War II. Using UAW/CAW Local 27, a broad-based union in London, Ontario, as a case study, he offers a ground-level look at union membership, including some of the social and political agendas that informed union activities. As he writes in the introduction, "This book is as much an outgrowth of years of rank-and-file union activism as it is the result of academic curiosity." Drawing on interviews with former members of UAW/CAW Local 27 as well as on archival sources, Russell offers a narrative that will speak not only to labour historians but to the people about whom they write. --Publisher's description

Examines the representation of migrant workers in Canada, in particular the social representation of Chinese migrant workers in Québec City's daily newspapers from 1891 to 1926. The Chinese workers who established themselves in Québec City during this time period consisted mostly of men with a peasant background. Lacking education, they performed jobs such as catering and laundering. The daily newspapers mentioned include "L'Action Catholique," "Le Soleil," and "Quebec-Chronicle."

The article reviews the book, "Breadwinners: Working Women and Economic Independence, 1865-1920," by Lara Vapnek.

The article reviews the book, "Questions sociales : analyses anglo-saxonnes – Socialement incorrect ?," by Julien Damon.

Archival documents (news clippings, reports, photos, and sound recordings) with annotations on the causes and consequences of the Estevan Riot of 1931. The riot occurred during a strike of the United Mine Workers of Canada against the Estevan Bienfait Coal Mine. This website presentation was prepared for a history course offered by Saskatchewan Learning.

There are widely divergent views about racism in Canada. Some believe that racism is a fundamental feature of Canadian society and national identity. This dystopian view of Canada as a fundamentally and irrevocably racist society carries considerable currency in some academic and activist circles. Others argue that racism is oversold as a social problem: while pockets of racism do exist, Canada remains a fundamentally fair place for people of diverse backgrounds to prosper and flourish.Vic Satzewich's short and accessible book explores how racism operates in Canadian society, past and present. Racism is a complex aspect of Canadian society; while it may not be an inherent and invariant feature of our country, it is also more prevalent than many people may realize. The book examines a variety of issues including racism and the immigration system, racial profiling, racism and First Nations and Islamophobia. It concludes with a discussion of some of the dilemmas and challenges associated with anti-racism theory and practice. --Publisher's description

Nuclear energy is one of the predominant false solutions being offered up by contemporary capitalism's power elite in a futile effort to reconcile the goal of environmental sustainability with limitless growth, profit, and accumulation. Incorporating environmental needs into the economy ultimately means not only developing new eco-friendly products and technologies, but changing everything about how people produce and consume and how they travel and live. To this end, the contemporary labor movement needs to increasingly put its own independent and proactive vision of progress and ecological transformation on the table instead of simply allying with employers and perpetuating its dependence upon existing structures of production and consumption. The Canadian Nuclear Workers Council's (CNWC) alliance with the nuclear industry reflects not only the organization's stake in protecting jobs, but also its inability and unwillingness to challenge the deceptive employment versus environment discourse and the dominant mode of economic growth.

The article reviews the book, "The ABCs of Economic Crisis: What Working People Need to Know," by Fred Magdoff and Michael D. Yates.

The article reviews the book, "Work in a Modern Society: The German Historical Experience in Contemporary Perspective," edited by Jürgen Kocka.

The pipeline theory suggests that increasing the number of women in male-dominated fields should lead to more equality in the labour market. This presumes that women and men in the pipeline expect comparable career outcomes. This study explores differences in academic preparation, career expectations, and career priorities among 23,413 Canadian post-secondary students. Our results indicate that women have lower salary expectations and expect longer times to promotion than men, and this gap is greater in male-dominated fields. Furthermore, women pursue career priorities that are associated with lower salaries. Gender explained the greatest amount of variance in expectations, regardless of field of study, academic achievement, or career goals. Our findings suggest that inequities in the labour market originate as gendered expectations within the pipeline. We offer recommendations to increase gender equality.

Now in its second edition, this reader presents a critical examination of the changing structure of work in Canada and abroad. Its focus is on the role of Canadian labour in the globalized world. Contributors include David Livingstone, Pat Armstrong, Meg Luxton, Dave Broad, and other prominent Canadian scholars. Each of the seven themed sections begins with a contextual introduction by Vivian Shalla and concludes with critical thinking questions and suggestions for further reading. --Publisher's description.

The article reviews the book, "Education and Jobs: Exploring the Gaps," edited by D. W. Livingstone.

This thesis explores the role played by law in the current breakdown of the employment pension system, focusing on the legal status of pension plans within the employment relationship, and on the way lawmakers have defined, shaped and enforced employee pension rights. It traces the legal status of employment pensions from their 19th Century characterization as gifts to reward employees for long and faithful service, to their current 21st Century construction as terms of the contract of employment. The thesis argues that Canadian lawmakers within all three legal regimes structuring rights and obligations within the employment relationship – the common law, collective bargaining law and statute law – have contributed significantly to the overall dysfunction of the system by cultivating both substantive and procedural legal rules that locate critical issues concerning the scope, design, durability and distribution of employee pension rights within the control of employers. Predictably, Canadian employers have used that control to shape pension plans to meet their distinct business needs, needs that frequently collide with worker needs and expectations for good pensions. Even in the heyday of the ‘Fordist’ work structures that fostered employment pension plans, the system delivered benefits very unequally, privileging the interest of elite workers who fit the ‘male breadwinner’ mould, and failing to provide adequate and secure pensions for the majority of Canadian workers. Changes in the organization of work in Canada, including trends towards more precarious work, will continue to exacerbate the problems inherent in the system, escalating its distributional inequalities. In the current round of pension law reform, Canada’s policy makers should abandon the effort to repair a system which is flawed at its core, and should instead seek a new foundation for pensions outside the employment relationship, a foundation which will not subordinate the pension interests of workers to the business interests of employers.

The British Columbia Teachers' Federation (bctf), representing all public elementary and secondary school teachers in the province, is one of the largest and most powerful unions in British Columbia. bctf has always sought formal rights to full-scope collective bargaining, and unrestricted access to striking at the school board level. It has employed a sustained, sophisticated series of strategies to achieve these objectives, quickly adapting to changing political and legal environments. The bctf has had significant success in advancing its labour relations agenda, establishing a different trajectory for teachers than for most public sector workers in Canada. This article maps bctf's labour relations strategies and agenda against the backdrop of the political and legal environments, from bctf's inception to present-day. It argues that, as a result of these factors, BC teachers have experienced a different labour relations history than most public sector workers. Drawing on and adapting Rose's (2004) eras of public sector labour relations, this article identifies the following eras of BC teacher labour relations: an era of exclusion (to 1982); resistance and revitalization (1982-86); expansion (1987-93); reform (1994); reprieve (1994-2001); restraint and consolidation (2002-2007); and reaching an era of realignment beginning in 2007.

The article reviews the book, "From Victoria to Vladivostok: Canada's Siberian Expedition, 1917-1919," by Benjamin Isitt.

Following an introduction by Michael Lambek, the article presents the text of anthropologist Gavin Smith's speech on the occasion of his retirement from the University of Toronto in 2010.