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In the summer of 2008, we set out to hear from Ontario´s growing population of temporary help workers, also known as, temporary service workers. Having already conducted studies of temporary help workers in the United States, we sought to compare the working conditions of temporary workers in Ontario to those of workers south of the border. We visited temporary agencies in Toronto and conducted in-depth interviews with over a dozen temporary help workers. Their circumstances are not unlike those of their U.S. counterparts — they are not adequately rewarded for their vital on-call role in contemporary capitalism and they become "stuck" in this relatively new type of work, unable to find and secure full-time employment.

A self-professed sceptic, the author argues that the recognition of a Charter right of employees to organize, bargain and strike would not likely improve labour's lot in an era of declining union membership and influence. In his view, it is doubtful whether Charter litigation has made much of a difference in Canada's social, economic and political life, which is largely determined not by the formal, juridical constitution but by what he calls the "real constitution" - the unequal distribution of wealth and power in society. Moreover, constitutionalization of collec- tive bargaining rights would probably undermine labour law's auton- omy and its effectiveness by promoting the design of industrial relations systems by judges rather than experts, with dysfunctional results. A reconceptualization of the constitutional significance of "labour" does in fact hold the potential to bring about far-reaching consequences for our approach to labour markets, employment standards legislation, pen- sion laws, and the collective bargaining regime. Howeve, the author says, Charter litigation has little capacity to realize that potential, given itsfocus on the juridical constitution and disconnectedness from the real constitution.

The article reviews the book, "The (Un) Making of the Modern Family," by Daniel Dagenais.

The present study examines the income growth of newly arrived immigrants in Canada using growth curve modeling of longitudinal data. The results from this study indicate that recent immigrants, regardless of visible minority status, face initial earnings disadvantage. However, while immigrants of European origins experience a period of "catch up" early in their Canadian careers, which allows them to overcome this earnings disadvantage, visible minority immigrants do not enjoy such a catch-up. This racial difference in recent immigrants' income growth is found to be caused by the fact that visible minority immigrants receive lower returns to education, work experience and unionization. Furthermore, visible minority recent immigrants face greater penalties for speaking a non-official first language than do their white counterparts.

As part of a broader assessment of how well the Government of Alberta's labour programming contributes to fair and, to a lesser degree, safe workplaces, this study examines how effectively the government enforces the Employment Standards Code provisions regulating child and adolescent employment. Enforcement strategies appear to emphasize softer forms of regulation and thereby create little disincentive for violations. Preliminary research into the employment levels of children (age 9-11) suggests over 11,000 children are employed, some perhaps illegally, and that further inquiry into their employment experiences is warranted.

The article reviews the book, "Solidarity First: Canadian Workers and Social Cohesion," edited by Robert O'Brien.

The opportunity structure facing waged agricultural workers seeking basic statutory employment rights in the Canadian province of Alberta is hostile, reflecting the intertwined political and economic interests of farmers, the provincial government, and agribusiness. This article outlines the contours of the political opportunities and constraints facing labour groups and agricultural workers seeking legislative change. Analysis suggests there is little opportunity at present to alter this legislative exclusion.

It is fair to say that the first two decades of labour's experience with Charter litigation raised a note of caution concerning its utility as a strategy for labour empowerment. The early refusal of the Supreme Court of Canada, in its widely known "labour trilogy" cases.' to find space within s. 2(d) of the Charter for protection of the right to engage in collective bargaining and the right to strike lett many within the labour movement and the academic community doubtful about labour's prospects in the realm of Charter litigation; such observers suggested that labour must, at a minimum, proceed with caution. There also remained liberal "romantics," who were convinced of the Charter's progressive potential for labour.2 Others associated the proliferation of Charter litigation with the rise of a so- called "Court Party," a complex network of social actors and activists with an increasingly privileged status in Canadian society.'

Trade unions face a range of challenges in a global world. As trade, production and consumption relations change, unions have begun to consider how they organize and operate. The argument is that for trade unions to effectively challenge key aspects of these global relations, they must take steps to rebuild the way they organize and operate at local levels. The conditions for this step are a reflective and experienced leadership, opportunities for leaders to meet each other, and for activists to develop practices of solidarity, information exchange and union cooperation with each other. To explore these themes we study a proto-typical case of inter-union coalition building. Over the last four years, three remote and local transport unions, in Victoria, Australia have developed the Victorian Group of the International Transport Federation. In doing this, these unions are building on existing forms of organization and in the process, they are reforging their relations with each other so as to have the potential to challenge international employers.

The article reviews several books including "Guarding the Gates: The Canadian Labour Movement and Immigration, 1872-1934," by David Goutor, "Gatekeepers: Reshaping Immigrant Lives in Cold War Canada," by Franca Iacovetta and "Breaking the Iron Wall: Decommodification and Immigrant Women's Labor in Canada," by Habiba Zaman.

The article reviews the book, "Emploi et travail : le grand écart," par Françoise Piotet.

...Despite the region’s importance in the turbulent histories of the One Big Union (OBU), Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), and Communist Party of Canada (CPC), scholars all too often neglect the Lakehead. Between 1917 and 1925, when mentioned at all, it is usually treated as an appendage to the Winnipeg situation in 1919 or western radicalism in general, and its contribution to the larger workers’ revolt spreading across the country at the time is ignored.5 While the underlying motivation of events at the Lakehead in 1919 was symptomatic of the larger national trend, research indicates that the issue at hand for workers in the area was whether or not to support their Winnipeg comrades. Historians have long presumed that labour in Port Arthur and FortWilliam, known throughout the pre-War period as part of one of the most unsettled regions of the country, supported the Winnipeg strikers without question. Yet no sympathy strike of any kind occurred. Considering the radical ideas and labour violence that characterized the pre-war socialist experience at the Lakehead and which marked the last years of the war, this apparent non-response in itself should be viewed as remarkable. It would be wrong to believe, however, that the absence of any labour action was synonymous with a lack of support for the Winnipeg strikers, or that the Lakehead was somehow immune from workers’ unrest that existed across the country. This article tells the story of working-class politics at the Lakehead, Northwestern Ontario’s metropole and a hotbed of labour radicalism, during the unrest of 1919. --From author's introduction

This article explores te extent to which Quebec can, in the face of global- ization, create its own distinct policies on labour and employment. The authors argue that although global economic restructuring poses serious challenges to local governance, national institutions will continue to play a key role in regulat- ing the employment relationship. In the case of Quebec, such institutions embody what the authors describe as a "hybrid" regime - i.e. a legal system that blends French-based civil law and the North American model of collective labour rela- tions, and an economic system that has elements of both the liberal market and the coordinated market types. The authors disagree with the suggestion that legal systems based on the civil law are less economically efficient than those based on the common law, and they see no reason why the hybrid nature of Quebec ' regu- latoryframework should be a disadvantage in a globalizing economy. They point out, however that globalization has accentuated the disjunction between eco- nomic activity, which is now continentally and internationally inregrated, and governance institutions that date Jrom the post-war period. 1/u.is problem is par- ticularly acute in Quebec and Canada because of their integ.ration into an eco- nomic region dominated by the U.S., and because the constitutional division of powers between the federal government and the provinces makes it difficult to achieve coherence between social and economic policies.

Labor protests accompanied the rise and maturation of industrial capitalism in Canada during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and continued in new forms afterwards. As the employment relationship became more common, workers sought to improve their economic position and the condition of their workplaces through collective action and protest, which in turn led to the birth of a more formal Canadian labor movement. -- Introduction

This article examines the social construction of migrant labour forces through an analysis of the exterior and interior conditioning in an agricultural contract labour programme between Mexico and Canada. I argue that forms of exterior conditioning, especially employers' point-of-production control, establishes the context within which migrant workers' experience unfolds, for which reason it contributes to their 'interior conditioning'. But I argue as well that the result is shaped by workers' employment of a 'dual frame of reference' through which they gauge Canadian wages and working conditions the only way they can, which is in relationship to Mexican ones. Given that neoliberal policies have reduced the options available in Mexico, and diminished the attractiveness of those that remain, contract labour in Canada presents one of the few opportunities many poor, rural Mexicans have to acquire the income necessary for a minimally dignified life. Consequently most workers in this programme do everything possible to please their employers and continue in the programme.

Grand centre d’exportation de bois, le port de Québec est aussi un lieu d’expérimentation hors du commun en matière de mutualisme et de syndicalisme. Les débardeurs, des Irlandais et des Canadiens français, ouvrent la voie en s’organisant au moyen d’une société de secours mutuel incorporée, en 1862, par un acte du Parlement de la Province du Canada. En 1865, ils revendiquent un salaire standard. Deux ans plus tard, ils ajoutent dix clauses syndicales aux règles de leur association. Combinant mutualisme et syndicalisme, ils construisent rapidement l’organisation syndicale locale la plus puissante au pays. Cette voie de la « société de secours mutuel se transformant en syndicat » suscite des émules chez les bateliers, les arrimeurs, etc. Elle soulève aussi la crainte des élites commerciales, judiciaires et politiques. S’ensuit alors un combat sur plusieurs fronts visant à ramener la société des débardeurs à des fonctions purement mutualistes, et par le fait même à fermer la porte à une méthode d’organisation jugée socialement dangereuse pour l’ordre établi. Bien que les ouvriers ne désarment pas, l’État québécois réussit à réduire substantiellement la « zone de tolérance » du mutualisme sur son territoire.

The article examines the historiography of the Kirkland Lake strike from 1941 to 1942 in Ontario. This strike opposed management and local 240 of the union of Mine, Mill and Smelter Workers. This article pays particular attention to one of the mines affected by the strike, the Lake Shore Gold Mines. The author points to this strike as important in Canadian history, the history of the labor movement, and the history of the Second World War. The work of historian Laurel Sefton MacDowell is examined in light of evidence that was released in 2005. This study examines job applications in addition to documents and newspaper reports that MacDowell had studied.

The article reviews the book, "Guantánamo North: Terrorism and the Administration of Justice in Canada," by Robert Diab.