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Hired Hands or Human Resources? Case Studies of HRM Programs and Practices in Early American Industry, by Bruce E. Kaufman, is reviewed.

Social policy innovation in Canada remains stunted despite recent attempts at social policy renewal via intergovernmental agreements. The fusion of accountability and policy learning is typically blamed, yet this ignores other potential factors. This article examines the Labour Market Agreements for Persons with Disabilities to highlight impediments to social program expansion and reform within governments as well as between governments, and how the design of recent agreements serves to reinforce those impediments. We find that the linkage of accountability and policy learning means that learning gets caught up in long-standing federal-provincial disputes over jurisdiction, and leads to a perverse form of learning. We also [End Page 45] find significant barriers to innovation in the nature of federal government funding, which provides neither incentives for “have provinces” to expand their programming nor sufficient funds for “have not” provinces to successfully transform their programs.

The article reviews the book, "In Mixed Company: Taverns and Public Life in Upper Canada," by Julia Roberts.

The article reviews the book, "Class and Race Formation in North America," by James W. Russell.

La présente étude longitudinale, dans le prolongement de celle réalisée précédemment par Haines et Arcand (1997), vise à retracer et à analyser l’évolution de la profession ressources humaines sur une période de trois décennies, tout en situant cette évolution dans la perspective théorique de la professionnalisation (Wilensky, 1964).Pour ce faire, les chercheurs ont eu recours à l’analyse de contenu d’annonces de recrutement portant sur les emplois en gestion des ressources humaines parues dans le quotidien La Presse du samedi dans la section « carrières et professions » en 1975, 1985, 1995 et 2005. Les auteurs ont ensuite émis cinq hypothèses relatives à l’évolution des rôles et sept hypothèses relatives à l’évolution des compétences des professionnels en ressources humaines. Ces hypothèses sont, pour la plupart, confirmées. Ainsi, les résultats de l’étude tendent à démontrer une évolution marquée des exigences auxquelles doivent répondre les professionnels, notamment en termes de rôles et de compétences. Plus spécifiquement, les conclusions sont à l’effet que la profession ressources humaines a suivi un parcours marqué par l’appropriation d’un rôle stratégique et par une diversification des compétences. La période de référence de trente ans serait notamment marquée par l’augmentation de la demande pour un diplôme de deuxième cycle, une augmentation de la demande pour une expérience de travail dans le secteur d’activité qui recrute ainsi que par l’augmentation de la demande pour des connaissances telles la maîtrise de l’informatique, de l’anglais parlé ou écrit et d’habiletés comme l’esprit d’équipe, la communication et le leadership.Considérant le rôle important des professionnels en ressources humaines tant dans l’entreprise que dans le système de relations industrielles, alors même que l’on questionne à la fois l’avenir de la profession et sa légitimité sociale (Kochan, 2007), les résultats ont permis de dégager certaines pistes d’interventions, lesquelles devraient intéresser les personnes qui se préparent à exercer la profession, les institutions d’enseignements et les associations regroupant des professionnels en ressources humaines.

The article reviews the book, "Canadian State Trials, Volume III: Political Trials and Security Measures, 1840-1914," edited by Barry Wright and Susan Binnie.

The article reviews the book, "Les nouveaux cadres du dialogue social : Europe et territoires," edited by Annette Jobert.

The article reviews the book, "Gendered Struggles Against Globalisation in Mexico," by Teresa Healy.

The article reviews the book, "'A Happy Holiday': English Canadians and Transatlantic Tourism 1870-1930," by Cecilia Morgan.

The last two decades have seen an emergence of new forms of international employee representation within multinational corporations (MNCs). In EU member states, the management at MNCs find themselves having to deal with statutory European Works Councils (EWCs) while at a more global level some studies show a multiplication of solidarity networks and cross-border union alliances put in place by reinvigorated Global Union Federations (GUFs). In order to evaluate the extent to which these cross-border alliances can support the development of transnational collective bargaining within MNCs, this article draws on a single case study conducted recently in a Canadian MNC in the commercial printing industry, namely Quebecor World Inc. In recent years, before the dismantling of this Canadian multinational, union officials sought to coordinate the various unions in this company internationally and to open up a new space for collective bargaining at the transnational level by negotiating an international framework agreement with its management.

The article reviews the book, "Pubs, Pulpits and Prairie Fires" by Elroy Deimert.

During the winter of 1843, over one thousand Irish migrant labourers hired to work on the expansion of the Lachine Canal near Montreal struck for higher wages. In the months that followed, they employed a range of public spectacles including nocturnal processions, charivaris, riots, and parades to intimidate their economic rivals and lobby for support from the broader community. These crowd events played a pivotal role in the way that elites were re-conceptualizing the city, citizenship, and their own authority at the dawn of a period that would see Montreal transformed by mass immigration and the entrenchment of a capitalist economy. They also offer some insight into what the city meant to the striking canal workers as an engine of exploitation as well as a site of refuge and resistance.

From the late 19th to the late 20th century, the cities and industries of the world became increasingly reliant on fireproof materials made from asbestos. As asbestos was used more and more in building materials and household appliances, its harmful effect on human health, such as asbestosis, lung cancer and mesothelioma, became apparent. The dangers surrounding the mineral led to the collapse of the industry in the 1980s. While the market demand and medical rejection of asbestos were international, they were also experienced in the mining and processing communities at the core of the global industry. In the town of Asbestos, Quebec, home of the largest chrysotile asbestos mine in the world, we can see how this process of market boom and bust shaped a fierce local cultural identity. This dissertation examines the global asbestos industry from a local perspective, showing how the people of Asbestos, Quebec had international reach through the work they did and the industry they continue to support today. This thesis explores how the boundaries between humans and the environment were blurred in Asbestos as a strong cultural identity was created through the interaction between people and the natural world. This work advances our understanding of the interdependence of the local-global relationship between resource industries and international trade networks, illustrating the ways it shapes communities and how communities shape it. Bringing bodies of land, human bodies, and the body politic of Asbestos, Quebec into the history of the global asbestos trade helps demonstrate how this local cultural identity grew to influence national policy and global debates on commodity flows, occupational health, and environmental justice.

The "no" vote in the Irish referendum of June 2008 on the Lisbon Treaty — reversed in October 2009 — threw the European Union into crisis. Yet it reflected a familiar pattern of popular rejection of initiatives on European integration. This article provides an overview of such referendums in western Europe. It is evident that while mainstream trade unions (or at least their leaders) have usually endorsed the integration process, in most countries where referendums have been held their members have voted otherwise. Such rejection has often been based on "progressive" rather than "reactionary" grounds. Popular attitudes are malleable, but it requires a major strategic re-orientation if unions are to reconnect with their members in order to build a popular movement for a genuinely social Europe.

The article reviews the book, "Raise Shit: Social Action Saving Lives," by Susan Boyd, Donald MacPherson, and Bud Osborn.

The 1950 Vancouver convention of the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (ccf) opened against the backdrop of the Korean War and tense Cold War debates within Canada’s social democratic party. Providing a window into this moment of ideological tension, the gathering demonstrates how leftists sought to forge domestic and foreign policies amenable to the narrow public opinion of the McCarthy era. The convention also illuminates the complex character of British Columbia’s postwar left and the broader intellectual and political milieu of the early Cold War years in Canada – debates over the prohibition of atomic weapons and the relationship between markets and the state that would culminate in the ccf’s Winnipeg Declaration of Principles later in the 1950s. Finally, the Vancouver convention highlights the role of Trotskyists within the ccf, a strategy of ‘entryism’ that has been explored only peripherally in the historiography of social democracy in Canada. The ideological confrontation at Vancouver left the ccf squarely in the hands of ‘moderates,’ shaping ccf strategy and policy for its final decade of political activity, while muting the Canadian left’s independent voice in domestic and international affairs.

The article reviews a number of books, including: "Blowback: A Canadian History of Agent Orange and the War at Home" by Chris Arsenault; "The Black Book of Canadian Foreign Policy" by Yves Engler; "Afghanistan and Canada: Is There an Alternative to War?" edited by Lucia Kowaluk and Steven Staples; and three others.

This study focuses on the effectiveness of the federal Employment Equity Act (EEA). We assess the EEA with regard to female employees using quantitative data from employer reports published under the provisions of the EEA and the Canadian Census. Data in this study cover the period 1997 to 2004. The most significant finding is that employment equity has increased over time, but at a diminishing rate. If fact, there now may be something of a downturn in employment equity for women in the industries covered by the EEA. Several policy implications following from the study are provided.

One Hundred Years of Social Work is the first comprehensive history of social work as a profession in English Canada. Organized chronologically, it provides a critical and compelling look at the internal struggles and debates in the social work profession over the course of a century and investigates the responses of social workers to several important events. A central theme in the book is the long-standing struggle of the professional association (the Canadian Association of Social Workers) and individual social workers to reconcile advancement of professional status with the promotion social action. The book chronicles the early history of the secularization and professionalization of social work and examines social workers roles during both world wars, the Depression, and in the era of postwar reconstruction. It includes sections on civil defence, the Cold War, unionization, social work education, regulation of the profession, and other key developments up to the end of the twentieth century. Drawing on extensive archival research as well as personal interviews and secondary literature, the authors provide strong academic evidence of a profession that has endured many important changes and continues to advocate for a just society and a responsive social welfare state. --Publisher's description

Why David Sometimes Wins: Leadership, Organization, and Strategy in the California Farm Worker Movement, by Marshall Ganz, is reviewed.