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Trade unions have dealt with the thorny issue of layoffs since their formation, but relatively little has been written on the topic of union strategies for surviving large-scale redundancies. This paper examines these strategies in an industry that is all too familiar with massive layoffs: railroading. An analysis of union responses to job losses presupposes an understanding of the factors underlying managerial decisions about staff reduction. We argue that the nature of "downsizing" has changed considerably in the last 40 years. In industries such as railroading, managers were formerly preoccupied with labour-saving technology. As such, unions struggled for a significant voice and co-determinative role in the introduction of new machinery. In Canada, unions came close to obtaining such a role through the recommendations of the Freedman Report. Following their defeat in acquiring a major role in determining issues of technological change, railway unions focused on winning employment security provisions in their contracts. However, managers would view employment security as an anomaly when they turned to organizational change to increase productivity. More recently, older railway unions and newer union entrants to the industry have experienced tactical disagreements over how to confront the offensive against employment security in railroading.

The article reviews the book, "The End of Marriage? Individualism and Intimate Relations," by Jane Lewis.

The article reviews the book, "Mass Communication in Canada," 4th edition, by Rowland Lorimer and Mike Gasher.

The article reviews the book "With These Hands: The Hidden World of Migrant Farm Workers Today," by Daniel Rothenberg.

The article reviews the book, "Surviving Poverty in Medieval Paris: Gender, Ideology, and the Daily Lives of the Poor," by Sharon Farmer.

The article reviews the book "Biomedicine and Alternative Healing Systems in America: Issues of Class, Race, Ethnicity, and Gender," by Hans A. Baer.

The article briefly reviews Bridget Anderson's "Doing the Dirty Work? The Global Realities of Domestic Labour;" Barbara Paleczny's "Clothed in Integrity: Weaving Just Cultural Relations and the Garment Industry;" Walter Johnson's "Soul by Soul: Life Inside the Antebellum Slave Market;" Anna Heilman's "Never Far Away: The Auschwitz Chronicles of Anna Heilman;" Lesley Gill's "Teetering on the Rim: Global Restructuring, Daily Life, and the Armed Retreat of the Bolivian State;" "Public Sector Pay Determination in the European Union" edited by Robert Elliott, Claudio Lucifora, and Dominique Meurs; Philip Resnick's "The Politics of Resentment: British Columbia Regionalism and Canadian Unity;" "Against the Grain: Foresters and Politics in Nova Scotia" by L. Anders Sandberg and Peter Clancy; and "The Nonprofit Sector in Canada: Roles and Relationships," edited by Keith G. Banting.

The article briefly reviews Howard Margolian's "Unauthorized Entry: The Truth About Nazi War Criminals in Canada, 1946-1956;" Raka Ray's "Fields of Protest: Women's Movements in India;" Naila Kabeer's "The Power to Choose: Bangladeshi Women and Labour Market Decisions in London and Dhaka;" Daniel James's "Doña María's Story : Life, History, Memory, and Political History;" "Women's Work in Britain and France" by Abigail Gregory and Jan Windebank; Elliott D. Sclar's "You Don 'I Always Get What You Pay For: The Economics of Privatization;" Mary H. Blewett's "Constant Turmoil: The Politics of Industrial Life in Nineteenth- Century New England;" Keith Wrightson's "Earthly Necessity: Economic Lives in Early Modern Britain;" Stephen Heathorn's "For Home, Country and Race: Constructing Gender, Class, and Englishness in the Elementary School, 1880-1914;" and Mêlante Nolan's "Bread Winning: New Zealand Women and the State."

This article reports the results of an empirical analysis of self-employment among recent college and university graduates using the National Graduates Survey databases. It finds that self-employment rates 2 years after graduation, calculated by year of graduation and level of education, ranged from 6.5% to 7.8% for men, and from 3.2% to 5.2% for women. Five years after graduation, the rates had increased, ranging from 9.9% to 11.1% of men, and from 5.3% to 6.7% for women. The evidence regarding employment rates, job satisfaction, the job-education skill match and earnings (the latter including the estimation of both cross-sectional and fixed effects models) suggests that self-employment is generally associated with enhanced labor market outcomes - that is, the results of "pull" factors. Policy implications are discussed.

The Self-Sufficiency Project (SSP) offered a generous but time-limited earnings supplement to a randomly assigned group of lone parents—who were also long-term social assistance recipients—if they found full-time work and left social assistance. Employment data was collected for this group over a three-year period following the offer, and for a randomly-assigned control group. This article analyzes the characteristics of the first job that SSP participants found after they left social assistance. The occupations and industries of the first job held are analyzed as is SSP's impact on hourly wages, weekly hours and job stability. The article finds that SSP increased employment in jobs that were no worse (and no better) than the jobs that participants might have taken in the absence of the program.

The article reviews and comments on the book, "Progressive Heritage: The Evolution of a Politically Radical Literary Tradition in Canada," by James Doyle.

The article reviews the book, "In the Company of Diamonds: De Beers, Kelinzee and the Control of a Town," by Peter Carstens.

The paper is framed by the author's reminiscence of his attendance at a public tour of the Springhill underground mine in Nova Scotia. The tour guide, in response to a question, suddenly spoke compellingly of the disaster that had taken place there. The paper then analyzes the place of oral and public working-class history in an era of deindustrialization. There is a tendency for oral history to be used simply to provide an emotional gloss, but the author argues that particular incidents can also become a turning point in terms of the bigger picture. The author emphasizes the usefulness of dialogue and mutual interrogation in the cultural re-situation and re-imagination of narratives of workers' experience, struggles, and perspectives on change.

Self-employed workers have an legal ambiguous status. Traditionally self-employment is equated with entrepreneurship and legally it is considered to be a form of independent contracting and thus outside the ambit of labour protection and collective bargaining laws. But the evidence suggests that most of the self-employed, especially those who do not employ other workers, are much more like employees than they are like entrepreneurs. Instead of attempting to draw a new line between employment and independent contracting for the purpose of determining the scope of labour protection, collective bargaining, and social insurance laws, all workers, including the self-employed, who depend on the sale of their capacity to work should be covered by these laws, unless there are compelling public policy reasons for a narrower definition.

Two books are reviewed: "Sweatshop Warriors: Immigrant Women Workers Take on the Global Economy," by Miriam Ching Yoon Louie, and "Disposable Domestics: Immigrant Women Workers in the Global Economy," by Grace Chang.

Reviews the book 'Harnessing Labour Confrontation: Shaping the Postwar Settlement in Canada, 1943-1950,' by Peter McInnis.

The article reviews the book, "The World Turned: Essays on Gay History, Politics and Culture," by John D'Emilio.

The importance of volunteer activity for employees, employers and governmental and non-governmental organizations that are increasingly relying on volunteers is discussed, followed by an econometric analysis relating volunteer activity to a variety of characteristics of work and family as well as to personal and demographic characteristics of the volunteers. The analysis is based on Cycle 9 of the Canadian General Social Survey (GSS) of 1994—an ideal data set since it links volunteer activity to a wide range of characteristics of work and family. The results are interpreted through the lens of a household production function framework, highlighting the importance of time cost and income, but also characteristics of work and family. (English)

The article reviews the book, "Scènes de la vie en rouge: L'époque de Jeanne Corbin 1906-1944," by Andrée Lévesque.