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Globalization, Labor, and the Transformation of Work: Readings for Seeking a Competitive Advantage in an Increasingly Global Economy, edited by Jonathan H. Westover, is reviewed.

Working Bodies: Interactive Service Employment and Workplace Identities, by Linda McDowell, is reviewed.

Ce texte met en contexte l’usage du concept de précarité au Québec. Celui-ci a surtout été utilisé parmi beaucoup d’autres pour décrire la situation des jeunes au moment de la crise de l’emploi des décennies 1970 et 1980. Il a parfois contribué, par son attribution à l’ensemble des jeunes, à laisser les plus vulnérables dans l’ombre et à amplifier l’effet du travail atypique sur l’avenir de toute une génération. Un usage plus modéré du concept s’est imposé progressivement en présence de faits plus justement vérifiés. Sa force de persuasion a pu susciter des stratégies tant individuelles que collectives en faveur des jeunes. Ce retour dans le temps a permis de montrer que les jeunes sont sensibles à la conjoncture mais n’en restent pas pour autant les victimes. Est-ce à cause du type d’État (de Gøsta Esping-Anderson, évoqué par Mircea Vultur) que le concept n’a eu qu’une importance relative au Québec ? La question se pose-t-elle dans une approche pragmatique du changement ?

A leading textbook in industrial relations at the university level, this book is valuable both as a primary and as a supplementary text for students of industrial relations, sociology, labour studies, economics and management programs. The book contains highly accessible coverage of conventional topic areas, including the history of industrial relations, contemporary employer practices, labour unions, labour law, collective bargaining, and contract administration. Yet it also includes coverage of broader economic and social issues relevant to the study of labour and employment relations in both the union and non-union sectors. Readers are thus able not only to develop a strong practical knowledge of Canadian industrial relations, but also to ground this knowledge in a deeper understanding of these relations and the broader issues and debates that surround them. This latest edition incorporates up-to-date statistics relevant to the study of industrial relations (e.g., strike activity, union membership, income inequality) as well as recent developments in the literature. It also streamlines the previous edition. The chapters on management practices and the effects of high performance practices have been merged and edited down, as have the chapters on contemporary developments and contemporary alternatives. --Publisher's description. Contents: Foundations: concepts, issues, and debates -- The broader debate: three theses on the nature and development of industrial relations, the economy, and society -- Understanding labour-management relations -- Work and industrial relations in historical perspective -- Contemporary management practices -- Understanding and explaining management -- Labour unions as institutions -- Labour unions as organizations -- The role of the state -- Understanding the state -- Labour law: the regulation of labour-management relations -- Collective bargaining: structure, process, and outcomes -- Strikes and dispute resolution -- The grievance and grievance arbitration processes -- The collective agreement: content and issues -- Contemporary problems, challenges, and alternatives. Includes bibliographical references (p. [431]-452) and index.

Many Canadians believe that immigrants steal jobs away from qualified Canadians, abuse the healthcare system and refuse to participate in Canadian culture. In About Canada: Immigration, Gogia and Slade challenge these myths with a thorough investigation of the realities of immigrating to Canada. Examining historical immigration policies, the authors note that these policies were always fundamentally racist, favouring whites, unless hard labourers were needed. Although current policies are no longer explicitly racist, they do continue to favour certain kinds of applicants. Many recent immigrants to Canada are highly trained and educated professionals, and yet few of them, contrary to the myth, find work in their area of expertise. Despite the fact that these experts could contribute significantly to Canadian society, deeply ingrained racism, suspicion and fear keep immigrants out of these jobs. On the other hand, Canada also requires construction workers, nannies and agricultural workers — but few immigrants who do this work qualify for citizenship. About Canada: Immigration argues that we need to move beyond the myths and build an immigration policy that meets the needs of Canadian society. --Publisher's description. Contents: Introduction -- Immigration: a critical analysis -- Evolution of immigration policy: learning about the past to understand the present -- Immigration policy and practices: the mechanics of migration -- Immigrants and the labour market: devaluation, frustration and downward mobility -- Reception party: the settlement process for immigrants -- Revolving door: temporary workers in Canada -- Under the surface: Canada's hidden labour force -- Coming to a better place? Not always a happy ending.

This article explores the relationship between precarious employment and precarious migrant legal status. Original research on immigrant workers' employment experiences in Toronto examines the effects of several measures including human capital, network, labor market variables, and a change in legal status variable on job precarity as measured by an eight-indicator Index of Precarious Work (IPW). Precarious legal status has a long-lasting, negative effect on job precarity; both respondents who entered and remained in a precarious migratory status and those who shifted to secure status were more likely to remain in precarious work compared to respondents who entered with and remained in a secure status. This leaves no doubt that migrant-worker insecurity and vulnerability stem not only from having ‘irregular’ status. We introduce the notion of a work–citizenship matrix to capture the ways in which the precariousness of legal status and work intersect in the new economy. People and entire groups transition through intersecting work–citizenship insecurities, where prior locations have the potential to exert long-term effects, transitions continue to occur indefinitely over the life-course, and gains on one front are not always matched on others.

The State of Working America 2008/2009, by Jared Bernstein, Lawrence Mishel and Heidi Shierholz, is reviewed.

This article brings further historical and international perspective to the “labor rights as human rights” debate. It particularly contends that these perspectives need to be explored further in order to appreciate the extent to which the definitions and political implications of key ideologies behind labor and human rights activism are flexible and dependent on their context. It explores Canada in the 1940s and early 1950s, when there was major activity on the labor and human rights fronts. Although many Canadian organizations, legal systems, and campaigns were modeled on—or formally affiliated with—American ones in these years, the progress of labor and human rights activism followed a distinct path, and particularly unfolded at a distinct pace. This distinct pace, the relatively small size of ethnic and racialized minority populations, the basic political and legal structure, and rise of a leftist third party in the Cooperative Commonwealth Federation all helped labor and human rights activism fit together comfortably to a notable extent in Canada. This article will particularly show why the relationship between human rights and labor was significantly less fraught with potential downsides for Canadian labor leaders. It also highlights another important impact of context: the particular combination of conditions and forces in Canada produced a number of unexpected results.

The article reviews the book, "In the Province of History: The Making of the Public Past in 20th-Century Nova Scotia," by Ian McKay and Robin Bates.

The article reviews the book "Global Cities at Work: New Migrant Divisions of Labour," by Jane Will, Kavita Datta, Yarra Evans, Joanna Herbert, Jon May, and Cathy McIlwaine.

The article reviews the book, "Those Who Work, Those Who Don't: Poverty, Morality and Family in Rural America," by Jennifer Sherman.

The article reviews the book, "The Enduring Legacy: Oil, Culture, and Society in Venezuela," by Miguel Tinker Salas.

The article reviews the book, "Transforming Labour: Women and Work in Postwar Canada," by Joan Sangster.

Relying heavily on ILO standards, the Supreme Court of Canada in B.C. Health held for the first time that the Charter guarantee of freedom of association protects not only the right of unions to organize but also their right to bargain collectively. In the authors' view, the decision in B.C. Health calls into question the established legal framework of labour relations in Canada, according to which only those unions with majority support in the bargaining unit can exercise such rights, and implies that the state is under a duty to protect the associational rights of minority and non-statutory unions as well. This paper explores how the New Zealand experience with minority and pluralist unionism, as it has developed under that country's Employment Relations Act 2000, may provide guidance to Canada on what an alternative model might entail and on the consequences of adopting such a model. Emphasizing key points of comparison and contrast between New Zealand and Canada, the authors contend that a legal framework which supports majoritarian exclusivity can also allow and support minority unionism, in a way that is consistent with international standards on freedom of association.

This thesis explores the revolutionary adult education learning dimensions in a Canadian Black anti-racist organization, which continues to be under-represented in the Canadian Adult Education literature on social movement learning. This case study draws on detailed reflection based on my own personal experience as a leader and member of the Black Action Defense Committee (BADC). The analysis demonstrates the limitations to the application of the Gramscian approach to radical adult education in the non-profit sector, I will refer to as the Non-Profit Industrial Complex (NPIC) drawing on recent research by INCITE Women of Colour! (2007). This study fills important gaps in the new fields of studies on the NPIC and its role in the cooptation of dissent, by offering the first Canadian study of a radical Black anti-racist organization currently experiencing this. This study fills an important gap in the social movement and adult education literature related to the legacy of Canadian Black Communism specifically on the Canadian left.

The article reviews the book, "Mondialisation et recomposition des relations professionnelles," edited by François Aballéa and Arnaud Mias.

The article reviews the book, "I Have a Story to Tell You," edited by Seemah C. Berson.

The article reviews the book, "Mine Towns: Buildings for Workers in Michigan’s Copper Country," by Alison K. Hoagland.

Over the past decade the introduction of MP3’s, file sharing networks and illegal downloading has fundamentally changed the music industry, structurally and spatially. In the wake of this restructuring it is now estimated that 95% of all musicians in Canada operate independently of record companies (Canadian Independent Recording Artist Association or ‘CIRAA’). Digital technologies afford independent musicians greater freedom and control over how and where they live and work. Although economic geographers have been quick to examine the impact of the so called ‘MP3 Crisis’ on record sales and the major record labels, little is known about how changes at the macro-scale affect the working lives of individual musicians in specific locations. As a result, this dissertation focuses on the employment experiences and spatial dynamics of independent musicians in Toronto. Drawing on sixty-five in-depth interviews with musicians and key informants in the music industry, the thesis documents the intersections between technology, work and space. In particular, the analysis highlights the ways in which the new creative and spatial freedoms, associated with independent music production, are accompanied by intensified competition and employment risk, which musicians experience in an increasingly individualized way. Surviving in the current marketplace requires independent musicians to perform a range of new tasks and exhibit a higher degree of professionalism. Accordingly, the research outlines some of the reasons why some musicians are rejecting and reworking traditional bohemian lifestyles, spatial patterns and risk mediation strategies. In particular, there is growing evidence of new forms of networking and of the increased importance of strategic collaborations between musicians and fashion designers. There are also signs that some musicians are relocating from the downtown core to the surrounding suburbs, and that musical talent is becoming redistributed across the city-region. Ultimately, this dissertation demonstrates the need for specialized policies to incubate and retain creative talent in an increasingly global and digital marketplace.

This article explores the contradictions in the Canadian Auto Workers Union’s (CAW) approach to environmental issues, particularly climate change. Despite being one of the Canadian labor movement’s leading proponents of social unionism— understood as a union ethos committed to working-class interests beyond the workplace, and a strategic repertoire that involves community-union alliances— the CAW’s environmental activism demonstrates the contradictory way that social unionism can be understood and practiced by unions. Through a critical discourse analysis of CAW policy documents and leadership statements, we show the union has not reframed its bargaining demands to emphasize both economically and environmentally sustainable production. Instead, the CAW’s relatively uncritical defense of the North American auto industry and the jobs it provides, despite the clearly negative role such production plays in the climate crisis, its acceptance of the structures of automobility, and its emphasis on environmental issues that have little to do with the nature of their industry, indicates the way that social unionism can be an add-on rather than a fundamental reorientation of a union’s role and purpose. We argue that, for social unionist environmental activism to be effective, the CAW must incorporate social unionist goals and analyses into their bargaining priorities, and confront the contradictions between their members’ interests as autoworkers, on the one hand, and as workers and global citizens who require economically and environmentally sustainable livelihoods, on the other.