Your search

David Bennett is the retired National Director of Health, Safety and Environment of the Canadian Labour Congress and the Book Review Editor of the journal New Solutions. Northern Exposures is the result of thirty years of work in the labor movement on workplace health and safety and environmental protection. In the 1990s, the author had a central responsibility in moving the Canadian Labour Congress from its established work in health and safety into environmental protection, a story detailed in Northern Exposures. The book is a collection of published articles and reviews, linked by a new Introduction that shows the development of the thinking and actions of the Canadian labor movement in areas that were in constant flux. --Publisher's description. Contents: The right to know about chemical hazards in Canada,1982-2006 -- Labour and the environment at the Canadian Labour Congress: the story of the convergence -- Occupational health: a discipline out of focus -- Pesticide reduction: a case study from Canada -- The Canadian Labour Congress' pollution prevention strategy -- Prevention and transition -- Cancer battles and the sleep of reason policy and science need not be related: review -- Book about cancer: pragmatic purpose, profound analysis: reviews -- The secret history of the war on cancer: review -- Industrial materials: a guidebook for the future: review -- 'Natural capitalism's' bold theory: review -- Beware ISO -- ISO and the WTO: a report to the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions' Working Party on Health, Safety, and Environment -- Health and safety management systems: liability or asset?

The last quarter of the nineteenth century is often referred to as the “Golden Age” of railroad building. More track was laid in this period in North America than in any other period. The building of railroads was considered synonymous with nation building and economic progress. Railway workers were the single largest occupational group in the period and among the first workers to be employed by large-scale, corporately owned and bureaucratically managed organizations. While there is a rich historiography regarding the institutional and everyday lives of railway workers and the corporations that employed them, the unit of analysis has been primarily bounded by the nation. These national narratives leave out the north-south connections created by railroads that cut across geo-political boundaries and thus dramatically increasing the flows of people, goods and services between nations on the North American continent. Does the story change if viewed from a continental rather than national perspective? Railroad Crossings tells the story of the people and places along the route of the Grand Trunk Railroad of Canada between Montreal, Quebec and Portland, Maine and the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad (and later of the Southern Pacific) between Benson, Arizona and Guaymas, Sonora. The study first takes a comparative view of the cross-border railroad development followed by a consideration of emerging patterns and practices that suggest a broader continental continuity. The evidence demonstrates that this broader continental continuity flows from the application of a certain “railroad logic” or the impact of the essence of railroad operations that for reasons of safety and efficiency required the broad standardization of operating procedures that in many ways rendered place irrelevant.

La croissance économique future a besoin d’un taux d’emploi plus important des travailleurs de plus de 55 ans. Par rapport à cette problématique grandissante, il est important d’identifier les solutions préconisées par les travailleurs âgés pour favoriser le maintien dans l’emploi. Ainsi, les travailleurs âgés de trois entreprises ont été interrogés à ce sujet. Ce travail avait pour objectif d’identifier les solutions privilégiées par les travailleurs, parmi celles proposées par la littérature et celles que les travailleurs proposent de manière spontanée. Nous avons également tenté de déterminer si les solutions sont différentes en fonction de la catégorie socio-professionnelle, du temps de travail et du type d’horaire. Finalement cette étude a permis de cibler les actions à mettre en place : actions concernant la discrimination, les conditions de travail, le temps de travail et le développement professionnel. Elle a permis surtout de constater que les actions relatives à la lutte contre la discrimination sont davantage demandées par les ouvriers, les travailleurs à temps partiel et à horaire variable. Dans ce sens, il semble pertinent de considérer les demandes des ouvriers différemment des demandes des cadres. Ces derniers cherchant davantage des possibilités de développement, tandis que les ouvriers cherchent plus une amélioration des conditions de travail.

The article reviews the book, "Teachers and Reform: Chicago Public Education, 1929-1970," by John F. Lyons.

An examination of the recent and contemporary Québec labour union movement and its relationship with the nationalist cause might incline the observer to conclude that this powerful synthesis of what are in fact two separate sets of collective interests is a recent phenomenon sparked by Québec’s Quiet Revolution. In fact, these two aspects of collective and individual self and their expression through institutional forms have evolved together over the last two centuries. A further examination of the broader historical pattern demonstrates that aspects of shared linguistic and cultural identity have always at the very least qualified, and most often significantly muted expressions of working class interests and identity. In fact, save for a brief period from the Quiet Revolution to the first mandate of the Parti Québécois in 1976, working class collaboration with other class fractions in Québec ostensibly made in the greater interests of linguistic and cultural solidarity have generally cost the working classes a premium, while actually working to the benefit of other class partners. This historical pattern combined with the increasing influence of a neo-liberal ideological position within the Québec “state” leads to a certain conclusion: that there is an essential incompatibility between institutions calculated to represent working-class interests and movements founded upon a struggle for cultural recognition and the assertion of national interests. While the former seek the elimination or reduction of socio-economic differences, the latter seek only a cycling of dominant elites, resulting in the same dominant class relations under a different cultural elite fraction. --Author's abstract ---------------- An examination of Quebec labour unions and French Quebec's nationalist movement, which the author argues evolved together over a 200 year period. The author devotes one chapter to the "second wave of unionisation that washed over employees at Concordia University in the mid-1980s." During this period the university experienced the creation of approximately half a dozen unions over the span of a very few years in an institution that was comparatively lightly touched by the union experience previously. The author devotes another three chapters to the successive historical periods as they apply to the evolution of the labour movement in Quebec. One of these chapters deals with the first embryonic forms of working class representation couched within the context of "working men's associations," "benevolent societies" and the like, to genuine trade and labour unions after 1872 when the act of combination was decriminalised in Canada. Reference is made to English-speaking associations and societies during this early period, such as Quebec City's Ship Labourers' Benevolent Society, founded in 1857, by Irish workers. The author concludes with an examination of the cultural and linguistic divisions within Quebec's union movements. -- Summary by Brendan O'Donnell, Bibliography on English-Speaking Quebec

Cette thèse de maîtrise retrace les parcours des travailleurs impliqués dans la grève des mines d'or de Kirkland Lake de 1941-1942. À partir de l'examen des fiches d'embauche et de service de la société aurifère la plus importante à Kirkland Lake, la mine Lake Shore, il a été possible de reconstituer, jour après jour, le déroulement du conflit, en y retraçant les va-et-vient précis de tous les travailleurs présents. À l'évidence, les itinéraires reconstitués des travailleurs sont multiples et divergents. Qu'il soit un employé de bureau ou un mineur, chaque travailleur a eu un parcours propre pendant la grève et a été susceptible de modifier à lui seul la tournure des événements, en adoptant, par exemple, des comportements non solidaires, ou en décidant de poursuivre la grève après sa fin officielle.

The article reviews the book, "When the Labor Party Dreams: Class, Politics and Policy in New South Wales 1930-32 " by Geoff Robinson.

The dominant representation of domestic work in the literature is quite negative, with uncaring employers, sexual, verbal, and physical abuse, and underpaid and overworked employees. However, the interviews conducted for this micro-study present an intriguingly different image. Young, immigrant Mennonite women who had come to Canada during the Second World War moved during the post-war period from their rural homes in the Fraser Valley, British Columbia, into the city of Vancouver. There, they were employed in domestic work and spent Thursday afternoons at the Maedchenheim, or girls’ home, with their peers. This thesis examines the disconnect between their accounts of domestic work and those of other domestics, with particular attention to how ethnoreligious understandings of gender, community, and survival informed my narrators’ memories and retellings of their experiences. It also explores whether the shift from a rural to an urban environment changed these women’s perceptions of their gender identity.

This study endeavours to investigate the effect of family-friendly practices (FFPs) on organizational attractiveness. Using a policy-capturing research design, we tested the distinct effect of four FFPs (i.e., on-site child care; generous personal leaves; flexible scheduling; and teleworking) on applicant attraction. We also tested the effect of organizational reputation and candidates' desire for segmentation. Our results indicate that FFPs do have a main effect on attractiveness. More specifically, the two scenarios that received the highest scores on attractiveness were personal leaves and flexible scheduling. Contrary to expectations, we did not find a significant "Desire for segmentation x Family-friendly practices" interaction. As expected, corporate reputation does have a significant main effect of attractiveness. Implications for research and practice are discussed.

The article reviews the books, "Sociologie des relations professionnelles, " new edition, by Michel Lallemant, and "Sociologie du travail : les relations professionnelles" by Antoine Bevort and Annette Jobert.

Following the Second World Congress of the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) held from June 21 to 25, 2010 in Vancouver, this article examines the changes undergone by international trade unionism in recent years. The increasing power of multinational corporations, as a result of globalization, has led to a transformation in international trade unionism which has produced a reorganization of its structures and the emergence of new forms of action to ensure the protection of workers´ rights worldwide. The key argument of this article is that the evolution of the structures and practices of international trade union organizations over the last two decades has been characterized by the implementation of strategies aimed, on the one hand, at reinforcing trade union unity and, on the other hand, at targeting multinational corporations. Lastly, although the transformation of international trade unionism has given rise to important structural changes, international trade union organizations continue to face formidable challenges in their efforts to effectively contribute to the regulation of the global economy.

Labour Conditions for Construction: Building Cities, Decent Work and the Role of Local Authorities, edited by Roderick Lawrence and Edmundo Werna, is reviewed.

The article reviews and comments on four books: "Democratizing Pension Funds: Corporate Governance and Accountability" by Ronald B. Davis; "When I'm Sixty-Four: The Plot against Pensions and the Plan to Save Them" by Teresa Ghilarducci; "No Small Change: Pension Funds and Corporate Engagement" by Tessa Hebb; and one other.

The article reviews the book, "Guantánamo: A Working-Class History Between Empire and Revolution," by Jana K. Lipman.

The article reviews the book, "Until the End: Memoirs of Sinter-Plant Activist Jean L. Gagnon," by Adelle Larmour.

This dissertation traces a shift in the Communist Party of Canada, from the 1929 to 1935 period of militant class struggle (generally known as the ‘Third Period’) to the 1935-1939 Popular Front Against Fascism, a period in which Communists argued for unity and cooperation with social democrats. The CPC’s appropriation and redeployment of bourgeois gender norms facilitated this shift by bolstering the CPC’s claims to political authority and legitimacy. ‘Woman’ and the gendered interests associated with women—such as peace and prices—became important in the CPC’s war against capitalism. What women represented symbolically, more than who and what women were themselves, became a key element of CPC politics in the Depression decade. Through a close examination of the cultural work of two prominent middle-class female members, Dorothy Livesay, poet, journalist and sometime organizer, and Eugenia (‘Jean’ or ‘Jim’) Watts, reporter, founder of the Theatre of Action, and patron of the Popular Front magazine New Frontier, this thesis utilizes the insights of queer theory, notably those of Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick and Judith Butler, not only to reconstruct both the background and consequences of the CPC’s construction of ‘woman’ in the 1930s, but also to explore the significance of the CPC’s strategic deployment of heteronormative ideas and ideals for these two prominent members of the Party.

The article reviews the book, "The Fishermen's Frontier: People and Salmon in Southeast Alaska," by David F. Arnold.

Feminism and the political left come to life in this account of an important early twentieth-century social activist. The political movements and social causes of the turbulent 1920s and 30s are brought to life in this study of the work and times of feminist, socialist, and peace activist Rose Henderson (1871-1937). Her commitment to social justice led to frequent monitoring and repression by the authorities but her contributions to activist thought continue to pose challenges for interpretations of the history of Canada, leftism, labour, and women. In the first biography of Henderson, Peter Campbell provides a broader vision and deeper analysis of the period, drawing together the history of labour and of women's movements in French and English Canada, as well as the rise of the Cooperative Commonwealth Federation and its relationship with the Communist Party. Through analysis of Henderson's ground-breaking ideology Campbell shows that in the interwar years she and her comrades developed a distinctive feminism that differs from that of the first and second waves of feminist thought. A fresh look at the turmoil of the early twentieth century from an eye in the storm, Rose Henderson: A Woman for the People brings well-deserved attention to an influential feminist and leftist. --Publisher's description.

The article reviews the book, "Le Japon au travail," by Bernard Bernier, with the collaboration of Vincent Mirza.

A cogent analysis of North American trade unions' precipitous decline in recent decades. As companies increasingly look to the global market for capital, cheaper commodities and labor, and lower production costs, the impact on Mexican and American workers and labor unions is significant. National boundaries and the laws of governments that regulate social relations between laborers and management are less relevant in the era of globalization, rendering ineffective the traditional union strategies of pressuring the state for reform. Focusing especially on the effects of the North American Free Trade Agreement and the North American Agreement on Labor Cooperation (the first international labor agreement linked to an international trade agreement), Norman Caulfield notes the waning political influence of trade unions and their disunity and divergence on crucial issues such as labor migration and workers' rights. Comparing the labor movement's fortunes in the 1970s with its current weakened condition, Caulfield notes the parallel decline in the United States' hegemonic influence in an increasingly globalized economy. As a result, organized labor has been transformed from organizations that once pressured management and the state for concessions to organizations that now request that workers concede wages, pensions, and health benefits to remain competitive in the global marketplace. --Publisher's description. Contents: Labor and global capitalism in North America, 1850-1970 -- The politics of Mexican labor and economic development in crisis -- Mexican labor and workers' rights under NAFTA and NAALC -- Labor mobility and workers' rights in North America -- The crisis of union-management relations in the United States and Canada -- The North American auto industry: the apex of concessionary bargaining -- Veba Las Vegas! unions play casino capitalism : autoworkers lose.