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The article reviews the book, "Fair Future: Resource Conflicts, Security and Global Justice," by Wolfgang Sachs and Tilman Santarius.

In late 2008, the world’s economy began to tumble at avalanche speed, and at the forefront of the manufacturing collapse were the Big Three automakers: Chrysler, General Motors and Ford. For decades, these companies had been shining stars, providing billions of dollars of new investments and thousands of well-paying jobs. Yet suddenly the heads of these and other manufacturing giants found themselves begging governments for financial packages to save their industries. What the hell happened? Buzz Hargrove, the former head of the Canadian Autoworkers (CAW), retired right before the collapse, but not before witnessing the decades of bad decisionmaking— by federal governments and CEOs—that set the stage for the sudden crisis. No one knows the ins and outs of manufacturing like Hargrove, a man who championed the cause of on-the-line workers but who also earned the immense respect of political and business leaders. In Laying It on the Line, Hargrove explains the crisis from his side of the table, what it means for Canada and how the manufacturing sector can again become this country’s foremost economic driver. Along the way, he shares the behind-the-door dealings with GM, Ford, Air Canada and others, explaining the controversial agreements he reached over his decades as Canada’s chief labour leader. Laying It on the Line is a timely call to arms for industry, governments and indeed all Canadians. --Publisher's description

The article reviews the book, "Canada's Rights Revolution: Social Movements and Social Change, 1937-1982," by Dominique Clément.

A strike is the withholding of labour by workers in order to obtain better wages or working conditions. A lockout is the opposite, being the temporary shutdown of a business by an employer to compel employees to accept certain conditions. Both have been important in establishing the working conditions of Canadians over the last two centuries....

The article reviews the book, "A Farewell to Alms: A Brief Economic History of the World," by Gregory Clark.

The article reviews the book, "Cross-Border Social Dialogue and Agreements: An Emerging Global Industrial Relations Framework?," edited by Konstantinos Papadakis.

In the first part of this paper, the author reviews the historical development of the right to strike in international instruments. In his view, that process was shaped during the Cold War by an artificial dis- tinction between socioeconomic rights and civil and political rights, resulting in a narrow interpretation of freedom of association. The author argues that while workers' rights have more recently been con- ceived of asfundamental human rights, an emphasis on social justice is equally necessary. In this context, the right to strike is critical to main- taining an equilibrium of power between labour and capital, and thus to protecting the dignity and human rights of workers. Turning to the chal- lenges posed by globalization, the author suggests that countries can gain a "comparative institutional advantage" by pursuing a program of rights-based regulation or "regulated flexibility." On this view, employ- ment rights - including the right to strike - are beneficial to economic development. The question, then, is whether constitutionalizing the right to strike is the best way to ensure Canada's comparative advantage. In considering this question, several issues arise, including whether consti- tutionalization would lead to excessive limitations on the right to strike; whether it would undermine the majoritarian character of our collective bargaining system; and whether the application of abstract constitu- tional principles by judges is a suitable way of settling labour disputes.

Over the past twenty years, International Labour Standards have been cited increasingly as the authoritative, worldwide body of jurisprudence on workers' rights as human rights. Continuing the debate on what constitutes labor rights, the author contrasts the definition of workers' rights under international human rights standards with U.S. labor history's notion of “pure and simple unionism,” examining the boundaries of rights defined by international standards in a comparative historical context. The standards examined include workers' right to organize; coercive employer speech; access to employer premises; nonmajority representation; the right to strike, picket, and boycott; union security clauses; the scope of bargaining; government enforcement; and the legal doctrine of employer association rights. Aligning U.S. labor relations law with international human rights standards would in part be a social advancement, but significant aspects of the standards advocate pure and simple unionism more than the original National Labor Relations Act, raising questions about how labor movements should use international standards as advocacy tools and public policy goals.

Working conditions have been an ongoing topic of scholarship and government for more than a century, yet the understanding that workers’ health and safety are human rights has a short history and has until recently not been a significant justification for industrial and labor relations policy. In this chapter I respond to this gap, challenging industrial relations and labor economics to examine the scope and nature of the problem and articulate a framework of workers’ health and safety as human rights concerns. The field of industrial relations has historically characterized workers’ health and safety as less than fundamental human rights. This paper is an exploration of the human rights framework and a response to critics in an effort to establish a new foundation for industrial relations scholarship and in turn build the human rights foundation for labor policy. --Author's introduction

The article reviews the book, "Canada's Jews: A People's Journey," by Gerald Tulchinsky.

The article reviews the book, "Union-Free America: Workers and Antiunion Culture," by Lawrence Richards.

Serving on the executive committee of CUPE 4163 at the University of Victoria and actively participating in the Victoria Communities Solidarity Coalition, I had the opportunity to experience these [public sector] struggles first hand. While I played only a marginal role (i.e., standing on picket lines, organizing discussion forums, and attending public meetings), I hope to contribute my perspective as a participant observer. This is not intended to be a detailed history; rather, I will draw on various interpretations of the struggles in BC to make a broader theoretical intervention in conceptualizing the defeat of the labour movement in the so-called “neoliberal era.” Viewing bureaucracy as an uneven field of struggle, I argue that the [Hospital Employees' Union] strike demonstrates the importance of distinguishing between different elements of BC’s labour leadership in challenging the provincial government’s denial of collective bargaining freedoms to public sector workers. --From introduction

Speaking from the U.S. experience, this paper argues that the exclusion of union speech, boycotts and picketing from constitutional protection has been harmful for labour and for the U.S. Constitution. The author points out that in recent decades the scope of speech that is protected under the First Amendment has expanded significantly, and now includes consumer boycotts, "symbolic speech" that combines con- duct and communication, and even threatening speech. All of these rights of expression are denied to unions, supposedly on the ground that labour rights should be, and are, regulated through a comprehensive administrative scheme. In the author's view, howeve, that scheme has become ossified, and has completely failed to keep up with developments in First Amendment law. As a result, union speech and action is uniquely disfavoured: flag-burning, cross-burning and the St. Patrick's Day parade are constitutionally protected forms of expression, but union picketing is not. Canadians, then, when considering a constitutional right to strike, should be wary, of the argument that the regulation of such a right is better assigned to administrators rather than the courts.

The article reviews the book, "Uprooted: The Shipment of Poor Children to Canada, 1867-1917," by Roy Parker.

The article focuses on the letters wrote by Elgin Neish, a member of the Labor-Progressive Party (LPP), during his seven week trip from Eastern Europe to Beijing, China in 1952. It explains that the letters offered a significant perspective of a radical British Columbia trade unionist during the Cold War as well as important global subjects. It notes that Neish traveled to Beijing to participate in the Asia and Pacific Rim Peace Conference, which reflected on the communist-led peace activism during the Cold War and the relationships between the Canadian and Chinese Communists, from October 2-12.

Dr. Nels Anderson (1889–1986) was among American sociologists a pioneer whose work is only now beginning to win the recognition it deserves, especially in Europe. His ethnographic studies of wandering workmen (The Hobo), frontier sectarians (The Desert Saints), and migrant laborers (Men on the Move) are seen as models of empirical research that provide insights into the lives of groups and classes marginalized by the wider society. [He also was a visiting professor and head of the Department of Anthropology and Sociology at Memorial University of Newfoundland.] --Introduction

The article reviews the book, "Carnal Crimes: Sexual Assault Law in Canada, 1900-1975," by Constance Backhouse.

The article reviews the book, "Women's Rights," by Geraldine Terry.

We consider the impact of changing Canadian national party finance laws that banned trade union donations on the relationship between the New Democratic party (NDP) and organized labour. Although the changed laws have required a restructuring of the relationship between the two actors, we find evidence of a continued commitment to co-operation. We conclude that accounts that stress the ideological affinity between the NDP and labour explain the preservation of the relationship better than political economy or rational exchange models.

In early February 2007, Hershey´s Chocolate Company announced its global supply-chain transformation plan to cut more than 1500 jobs from its Canadian and United States plants. Smiths Falls, the Chocolate Capital of Canada, lost its Hershey factory together with the closure of the Rideau Regional Centre, an institution for people with developmental disabilities. By the end of 2008, this Eastern Ontario town of roughly 9,000 people shed roughly 1700 jobs, constituting almost 40% of its active labour force (Sutton, 2009). Globalization, despite the confusion generated by the word, must be considered a core factor in the economic and social situation. Smiths Falls confronts these lay-offs from a position of economic and social strain already. The paper examines the broader changes in the world occurring through globalization and how the local society of Smiths Falls has adjusted in tandem. Such an analysis has likely been relevant to Smiths Falls since its inception; as a meeting point of transcontinental trade and a centre of manufacturing within an ever-expanding and more complex supply chain.