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The article reviews the book, "De Français à Paysans: Modernité et tradition dans le peuplement du Canada français," by Leslie P. Choquette.

The article reviews the book, "Rainbow Quest: The Folk Music Revival and American Society, 1940-1970," by Ronald D. Cohen.

Dans le contexte actuel de pénuries de compétences, la fonction ressources humaines — après avoir encouragé les départs anticipés — se voit confrontée au défi de maintenir en emploi les employés vieillissants. Après avoir passé en revue les principales pratiques de gestion associées à la rétention des employés de 50 ans et plus, les auteurs mesurent leur effet sur l’extension de la vie professionnelle de 402 cadres des services sociaux et de santé de Montréal. Les résultats, une fois validés à partir de ceux de deux autres sources de données (tirés de la même enquête), permettent d’élaborer une stratégie de maintien en emploi axée sur les quatre dimensions suivantes : 1) élaboration d’un projet de fin de carrière, 2) aménagement du temps de travail, 3) amélioration de la qualité de vie au travail, 4) stimulants financiers. // In many industries in Quebec and Canada, as well as in other Western countries, labour shortages have now replaced labour surpluses in a context where succession is growing scarce and a real culture of rapid departure has developed as a result of the recent waves of early retirement and the work overload that this has created for the “survivors.” After years of encouraging departures and of managing early retirement programs, the human resources (HR) function now faces the new challenge of attempting to retain aging employees in today’s context of multiple restructuring, infrastructure sharing, growing competition and—for the Public Service—tighter management of the financial resources that the state makes available to institutions. This raises the question of whether it is possible today to have end-of-career employees extend their working lives. In the 1980s and 1990s, numerous studies (Rosen and Jerdee 1985a; Nusberg 1986, 1989; Meier 1988; Dennis 1988; Hale 1990; Shea 1991) presented—based on the specific needs and expectations of this category of workers—management practices which were supposed to satisfy end-of-career employees and encourage them to stay in their jobs longer. However, the issue of the effectiveness of these practices has rarely been addressed. What is the value of this model of managing aging? Can it be useful for HR managers? According to the domain-specific literature, a retention strategy may be based on a number of practices aimed at extending the working life of older employees. These practices will be presented according to seven main categories: career planning, career development, career moves, job content design, time management, pay and benefits, and employment relationship. The effectiveness of these practices will then be assessed on the basis of a sample of managers who, in March 2001, answered a more general questionnaire on job dissatisfaction, mobilization and retention in the Montreal health and social services sector. Out of a total of 3525 managers, 1054 managers answered the questionnaire. Of this number, 402 managers were aged 50 years or over and formed the sample used in this study. Extension of working life (EWL), the dependent variable used in this study, was assessed through four indicators: expectations of early retirement, expectations of extending working life, planned retirement age and desired age (regardless of any financial consideration). Thirty-seven practices which are supposed to be linked with retirement departure were drawn from the literature and retained as independent variables. Other variables—socio-demographic, professional, psychological and organizational—act as control variables in certain analyses. The results show that the percentage of explanation of EWL through end-of-career management practices is only 13%. As amply repeated in the literature, end-of-career managers are particularly partial to individualized arrangements. These managers stay on because their employer has organized a stimulating end-of-career project for them that is either challenging or offers particularly attractive working conditions. Without these accommodations, there is no hope of retaining these managers, short of offering substantial financial incentives. From this analysis of management practices emerged a strategy for retaining older managers based on: (1) a stimulating end-of-career project; (2) individualized arrangements of work time (and place) or advantages which allow for this flexibility and (3) in addition to—or in the absence of—these elements, financial incentives can always be used to “purchase” the retention of older employees. To validate the retention strategy which emerged from the preceding results, two additional analyses were conducted. The first analysis used other independent variables, i.e. the opportunities offered by the workplace to satisfy a number of professional expectations. These variables could be considered as intervening variables between management practices and the decision to stay employed. The second analysis was based on the results of an open-ended question which asked the respondent, “Under what conditions would you agree to extend your career beyond the planned retirement age?” The results allow us to complete and specify the retention strategy described above. Thus, four tools are available to retain end-of-career managers in the Montreal health and social services sector: End-of-career individual project. Time management. Improvement of quality of working life. Financial incentives. Although the impact of these practices on the extension of working life is less significant than the impact of individual factors (seniority, health status, expected financial situation at retirement, importance of work in life, etc.), the impact of these practices is far from insignificant. Thus, this demonstrates that the HR function has a role to play in the development and implementation of a management strategy to retain managers aged 50 or over.

Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal, by Eric Schlosser, is reviewed.

The article reviews the book, "Agnes Heller: Socialism, Autonomy and the Postmodern," by Simon Tormey.

La confiance est un attribut relationnel essentiel à la coopération dans un contexte de construction de nouvelles formes d’organisation du travail et de partenariat. Une analyse qualitative des représentations de la confiance entre les gestionnaires et les représentants syndicaux nous révèle que la confiance peut présider à la conception d’un nouveau lien entre les agents malgré les divergences dans les représentations des conditions essentielles à ce type de relation. Par ailleurs, notre étude montre que la confiance est un concept multidimensionnel où s’entremêlent des aspects personnels, situationnels et événementiels et des stades de développement dont l’atteinte permet de solidifier la relation malgré certaines difficultés. La confiance révèle une relation empreinte d’ambiguïté selon les agents présents, la situation et les enjeux. Les agents hésitent à accorder entièrement la confiance à l’autre sur la base d’une identité commune. Notre étude sur la confiance conclut que les agents désirent transformer la relation tout en conservant leur identité propre, sans s’aliéner ses besoins, ses valeurs, ses intérêts.

The article is a first hand account of the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada (CEP) attempt to organise workers on Hibernia's offshore oil drilling platform. Documented are the problems of accessing workers on a worksite in the Atlantic and the challenges of inter-union rivalry to successful union organising campaigns. The paper provides a chronology of the campaign from its beginnings in 1997. Although the CEP won a contested certification in 2001, the struggle at Hibernia continues.

This paper examines historical and recent trends in average annual work hours. The shared long-term decline in annual hours appears to be giving way to a growing divergence among OECD nations, with notable differences between several European nations and the United States. Significant differences among nations exist in annual vacation entitlements and are emerging with regard to the workweek. Competing notions of work-time flexibility held by employers and employees are an important new element in recent work-time debates, as is the related trend toward individualised forms of work-time reduction. Some European countries with pioneering work-time regimes are reviewed. The paper concludes by raising the question of how Canada can resist the American long-hours model and catch up with leading-edge practices.

Using a comprehensive collective bargaining data set, we examine dispute resolution patterns of all bargaining units in the province of Ontario over a 10-year period. A central finding is that bargaining units covered by legislation requiring compulsory interest arbitration arrive at impasse 8.7 percent to 21.7 percent more often than bargaining units in the right to strike sectors. Even after controlling for legislative jurisdiction, union, bargaining unit size, occupation, agreement length, time trend, and part-time status, strong evidence was found that compulsory arbitration has both chilling and dependence effects on the bargaining process. The problem of failure to reach negotiated settlements is particularly acute in the health care sector, especially among hospitals. Our results also call into question the use of interest arbitration in a central bargaining context. The centralized structure appears to exacerbate the negative effects of interest arbitration

The article reviews the book, "Duquesne and the Rise of Steel Unionism," by James D. Rose.

Reports on the various presentations made by academics and union activists at the day-long conference, including by Madelaine Parent.

This essay examines the changing character of public sector work in the Canadian federal public service context. It is based on an empirical examination of various forms of contractual relations currently operative within the Canadian state and on a comparative approach of other western liberal state reform initiatives. We argue that contract governance is an ongoing process involving distinct interrelations between the public and private sectors. In this context, we identify various forms of contract governance and flexibility schemes that have been enfolded and refolded into the conventional structures of governance, and unfolded into a liminal space between the state and civil society through the establishment of nonstandard work and the creation of alternative service delivery programmes. (English)

Drawing from Nicholson and Johns (1985) typology of absence culture (N = 460 from 43 work groups), we found that greater similarity in union membership status between co-workers was associated with a lowering of a member's absence culture, as was a more harmonious union-management (UM) climate. In addition, greater similarity in union membership was related to a lowered absence culture when the UM climate was perceived to be positive. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings for understanding the social context in which the absence culture of union members is engendered are discussed.

Reviews the book "Helping Working Families: The Earned Income Tax Credit," by Saul D. Hoffman and Laurence S. Seidman.

Educating for Changing Unions, by Bev Burke, Jo Jo Geronimo, D'Arcy Martin , Barb Thomas and Carol Wall, is reviewed.

The article reviews the book, "A Promise and a Way of Life: White Antiracist Activism," by Becky Thompson.

The article reviews the book, "Talking About Identity: Encounters in Race, Ethnicity and Language," edited by Carl James and Adrienne Shadd.

The article reviews the book, "Fighting for the Union Label: The Women's Garment Industry and the ILGWU in Pennsylvania," by Kenneth Wolensky, Nicole Wolensky and Robert Wolensky.

The article reviews the book "Comrades and Partners: The Shared Lives of Grace Hutchins and Anna Rochester," by Janet Lee.

The article reviews the book, "Blood, Sweat, and Cheers: Sport and the Making of Modern Canada," by Colin D. Howell.