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The nature of work has undergone tremendous change in recent decades, and these changes have been well documented and widely debated. Similarly, the adequacy of regulation and institutions of work to operate in the face of these transformations has been questioned. Much attention has been devoted to the condition of this decline. Work and workplaces have been reorganized (in one memorable phrase, "fissured"),' increased intermediation in the traditional employment relationship has made it more difficult to identify the "real employer," and fewer "employees" exist, as precarious work and contracting-out of work has grown. These workers are more difficult to organize, and labour and employment relations regulatory schemes have failed to respond robustly or effectively to these changed conditions. Equal attention has been paid to the causes of the decline in union density: the "globalization of production" through technological and communications innovations, the offshoring of work (even work previously thought to be impervious to this trend), the expansion of the financial sector and the proliferation of its meth- ods and values into the productive or "real" economy (a process called financialization), the privatization of formerly public goods and services, and the reorganization of firms to (re)focus on "core competencies" and contract out peripheral functions. Even if all of these possible causes were overcome, workers' attitudes toward traditional organizations such as unions and even toward workers' identities as such have also changed profoundly, and organizing worker voice and collective bargaining has become more challenging.

L’article propose une grille de lecture des transformations de la relation d’emploi dans le cadre de la globalisation des marchés à partir de la notion de « zone grise d’emploi » (ZGE). Cette notion, forgée à l’origine par le juriste A. Supiot, pour désigner une convergence de situation entre l’« état de subordination » des salariés et des travailleurs indépendants est reprise et discutée dans le cadre élargi d’une « relation d’emploi avec tiers ». Ce cas de figure renvoie à un contexte d’internationalisation de la production où la relation employé-employeur ne se résume pas à une relation de face à face, mais dépend d’un ensemble de parties prenantes impliquées dans les conditions qui président à son organisation et sa gestion. L’article propose une définition de la ZGE qui ne se limite pas à souligner un défaut d’institutionnalisation dans la règle de droit, mais considère que tout « écart à la norme » est devenu la règle et non plus l’exception. La ZGE est définie comme « espace public » entendu comme un espace de délibération où les jeux d’intérêt et les relations de pouvoir se coordonnent ou se confrontent pour la constitution d’un ordre de régulation hybride, public et privé, formel et informel. L’intérêt de cette notion est de porter un autre regard sur les transformations de la relation d’emploi. En prenant la firme Uber comme exemple, l’article montre que l’on ne peut réduire la question de l’emploi des chauffeurs prestataires au paradigme juridique standard qui limiterait le débat entre choisir le statut de travailleur indépendant ou celui de salarié. La diversité, mais aussi la fragilité des jugements prononcés par les tribunaux, leurs caractères partiels et toujours provisoires, laissent deviner que la situation socio-professionnelle des chauffeurs, si elle relève de l’« indécidable » au plan du droit, ne peut être comprise sans prendre en considération l’action des États, des territoires et de la société civile dans le jeu de la régulation.

Meaningful work has been defined as work that is personally enriching and that makes a positive contribution. There is increasing interest in how organizations can harness the meaningfulness of work to enhance productivity and performance. We explain how organizations seek to manage the meaningfulness employees experience through strategies focused on job design, leadership, HRM and culture. Employees can respond positively to employers' strategies aimed at raising their level of experienced meaningfulness when they are felt to be authentic. However, when meaningfulness is lacking, or employees perceive that the employer is seeking to manipulate their meaningfulness for performative intent, then the response of employees can be to engage in “existential labor” strategies with the potential for harmful consequences for individuals and organizations. We develop a Model of Existential Labor, drawing out a set of propositions for future research endeavors, and outline the implications for HRM practitioners.

In order to compete in increasingly tight quasi-markets generated by government cutbacks and contracting-out, management in nonprofit agencies have argued that wages and benefits must be reduced or jobs and services will be cut. These arguments have motivated some of the female-majority workers to join and/or organize unions and undertake strike action. Focusing on two case studies exploring restructuring in the highly gendered nonprofit social services in two liberal welfare states (Scotland and Canada), this article explores shifts in industrial relations at the agency level, as well as workforce resistance and union activism. Through the analysis of gendered unpaid work and gendered forms of social and union solidarity, this article extends feminist political economy and mobilization theory. It also suggests convergences at several layers of practice and policy, including private and nonprofit industrial relations cultures, managerialism and the underfunding of contracted-out government services.

Unpaid work has long been used in nonprofit/voluntary social services to extend paid work. Drawing on three case studies of nonprofit social services in Canada, this article argues that due to austerity policies, the conditions for ‘pure’ gift relationships in unpaid social service work are increasingly rare. Instead, employers have found various ways to ‘fill the gaps’ in funding through the extraction of unpaid work in various forms. Precarious workers are highly vulnerable to expectations that they will ‘volunteer’ at their places of employment, while expectations that students will undertake unpaid internships is increasing the norm for degree completion and procurement of employment, and full-time workers often use unpaid work as a form of resistance. This article contributes to theory by advancing a spectrum of unpaid nonprofit social service work as compelled and coerced to varying degrees in the context of austerity policies and funding cutbacks., Unpaid work has long been used in nonprofit/voluntary social services to extend paid work. Drawing on three case studies of nonprofit social services in Canada, this article argues that due to austerity policies, the conditions for ‘pure’ gift relationships in unpaid social service work are increasingly rare. Instead, employers have found various ways to ‘fill the gaps’ in funding through the extraction of unpaid work in various forms. Precarious workers are highly vulnerable to expectations that they will ‘volunteer’ at their places of employment, while expectations that students will undertake unpaid internships is increasing the norm for degree completion and procurement of employment, and full-time workers often use unpaid work as a form of resistance. This article contributes to theory by advancing a spectrum of unpaid nonprofit social service work as compelled and coerced to varying degrees in the context of austerity policies and funding cutbacks.

This article reviews the book, "Deported: Immigrant Policing, Disposable Labor, and Global Capitalism," by Tanya Maria Golash-Boza.

À partir d’une recherche qualitative auprès de 48 ex-militants syndicaux ayant eu plus de 80% de leur temps de travail pour leur syndicat, de 10 directeurs des Ressources humaines et de trois organisations syndicales, une organisation patronale et un cabinet d’accompagnement, cet article questionne la reconversion des militants syndicaux en dehors de la sphère syndicale. En s’appuyant sur le contexte français et la littérature existante sur la reconversion des militants syndicaux, nos travaux soulignent les stratégies mises en place par les ex-militants afin d’assurer leur employabilité militante externe.Ces stratégies sont influencées par la perception qu’ils ont de leur employabilité. Plusieurs facteurs externes et individuels affectent cette perception. Les facteurs individuels sont le capital social perçu, la nature du départ (subi ou volontaire), le niveau de poste précèdent et le niveau atteint dans l’organisation syndicale. Ces facteurs individuels n’expliquent pas tout. D’autres facteurs externes, tels la stigmatisation dont peut faire l’objet le militant à cause de son engagement syndical, le lien contractuel et l’accompagnement du syndicat, expliquent la perception que le militant a de son employabilité. Celle-ci entraine soit une non mobilisation du capital social, soit une mobilisation offensive du capital social. Dans ce dernier cas, l’ex-permanent peut subir une phase d’observation de la part de l’entreprise d’accueil.En s’intéressant à la reconversion syndicale, cette recherche constitue un renversement de positionnement par rapport aux nombreux travaux analysant la carrière syndicale. Le capital social des militants n’est plus pensé au sein de l’organisation syndicale, mais en dehors de celle-ci, et il permet de proposer le concept d’employabilité militante externe, à savoir la capacité d’un ex-militant syndical d’obtenir un travail et de se maintenir en emploi en dehors du syndicat grâce à la mobilisation de son capital social.

In the twenty years since Quebec introduced its family policy in 1997, with the objective of supporting the parents of young children, the province has implemented a number of measures aimed at promoting work-life balance which are in many respects more generous than those elsewhere in Canada. However, while enhancing rights to maternity, parental and paternity leave upon the arrival of a child, Quebec has done little to address conflicts between work and family life after a parent's return to work, especially conflicts resulting from routine, daily obligations towards children, the elderly, or other family mem- bers. This paper examines the adequacy of existing legal mechanisms available to Quebec workers under human rights and employment standards legislation for reducing work-family conflict. In this regard, the author notes that 'family status" or 'family situation" has not been recognized as a prohibited ground of discrimination under Quebec's Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms, and the province's courts have consistently resisted expanding the scope of the pro- hibited ground of "civil status" to include parental obligations in the employ- ment context. Furthermore, while the Labour Standards Act provides for various short- and long-term leaves of absence for family responsibilities, the legislation imposes restrictive conditions on entitlement, e.g. the obligation in question must generally be "extraordinary" in nature, and the employee must prove that she took steps to find an alternative solution before seeking leave. Overall, Quebec law has preserved management's prerogative to determine the organization and scheduling of work, maintaining a conception of the "ideal" or "normative" worker as one who has no family responsibilities. Ultimately, the author argues, meaningful reform must take aim at the crux of the matter - employees' ability to control their working time.

In this article, I argue that graduate employees took on the political identity of precarious workers who face job insecurity and income insecurity, drawing attention to the casualization of work in the academic labor market in Canada, and the cost of undertaking graduate studies in Canadian universities. Their argument appealed to media, faculty, undergraduate students, and supportive media, which was key to building solidarity and public support for graduate employees’ struggle. Building on social movement unionism literature, I show how this identity moved the debate away from the bargaining table and into broader coalition building, suggesting a broader social movement unionism among academic workers.

Union renewal research calls for moving beyond broad terms, like community unionism, to specify how social relations of work shape renewal for different workers, sectors and contexts. Analysis of interviews with union officials and union members in publicly funded, in-home personal support reveal two community dimensions: both caring and racialized relations between workers and service recipients. Scholarship on care workers emphasizes empathy and coalition with service recipients as a key aspect of union renewal, yet says little about racialized tensions. Studies of domestic workers emphasize organizing in response to racialization, but provide little insight into caring social relations at work. This article develops arguments that both positive and negative worker–recipient relations shape union organizing and representation in the service sector by specifying the ways in which racialization contributes to this dynamic. It suggests that anti-racist organizing at work, alongside coalition building and collective bargaining, are important renewal strategies for this sector.

The article reviews the book, "Household Workers Unite: The Untold Story of African American Women Who Built a Movement," by Premilla Nadasen.

This article reviews the book, "American Prophets: Seven Religious Radicals and their Struggle for Social and Political Justice," by Albert J. Raboteau.

L’externalisation, qui donne lieu à l’intégration indirecte du travail dans l’organisation productive, pose des défis importants pour la représentation collective des travailleuses et des travailleurs. C’est que le droit du travail a été établi en fonction d’un tout autre modèle organisationnel. Afin de mieux comprendre ces défis, nous avons mené trois études de cas sur la représentation collective en contexte d’externalisation des services publics d’aide à domicile au Québec durant la période 2003-2013. Les travailleuses concernées — majoritairement des femmes — occupent des emplois précaires chez trois types de prestataires privés intégrés à des réseaux locaux de services: entreprises d’économie sociale en aide domestique (EESAD), usagers du programme Chèque emploi-service (CES) et agences de location de personnel. Nous avons examiné si des pratiques de représentation collective de ces travailleuses existent et quels acteurs sociaux les portent. Nous avons aussi vérifié si ces pratiques se confinent à l’intérieur des frontières de l’entité identifiée comme l’employeur au sens juridique ou si elles sont « réticulaires », étendant la solidarité à la sphère du pouvoir stratégique (Appay, 1997) exercé par les autorités publiques dans les réseaux. Nos résultats montrent l’absence d’une représentation collective réticulaire dans ces réseaux locaux de services où la dévalorisation sexuée du travail, contrée en partie dans le secteur public, revient en force. Le personnel de 15% des EESAD est syndiqué, mais les pratiques de représentation syndicale n’interpellent que l’employeur reconnu au sens juridique, les EESAD. Dans les agences de location de personnel intégrées à ces réseaux locaux, aucune forme de représentation collective n’existe, ni dans le programme CES. Cependant, une action collective interpellant les autorités publiques au sujet des conditions d’emploi dans le CES a eu un certain succès ponctuel. Portée par une coalition d’associations locales représentant des personnes vivant avec des limitations fonctionnelles, elle ouvre la voie à l’idée d’alliances salariées-usagers autour de la qualité des services et de l’emploi.

This article integrates the employment strain model with the social stress model in order to reveal the mechanisms that explain the relation between precarious employment and mental well-being. This model is applied to the case of temporary agency employment by analysing 41 in-depth interviews with temporary agency workers from Canada. The results show how temporary agency workers perceive employment-related uncertainties and efforts mainly as negative and to a lesser extent as positive experiences, respectively evoking strain or activation. Further, it is revealed how uncertainties and efforts mutually reinforce each other, which increases strain, and how support can serve as a buffer.

This article provides an overview of some key issues related to immigration in Quebec. Quebec stands out from the rest of Canada in terms of the origin of its immigrants, who come mainly from francophone countries. Quebec immigrants are relatively better educated than those elsewhere in Canada, but have higher unemployment rates. Our overview of the research examining the impact of immigration on the economy found that immigration has a relatively small impact. Given the above, we suggest that immigration in Quebec should be maintained at current levels–at least in the short term–but that selection and integration policies should be improved by, among other things, putting more emphasis on the needs of employers. In addition, candidates with Canadian or Quebec experience should be favoured. Finally, the impact of these policies will be limited without more openness to immigrants on the part of employers.

This article reviews the book, "Consumers in the Bush: Shopping in Rural Upper Canada," by Douglas McCalla.

This article reviews the book, "Silk Stockings and Socialism: Philadelphia's Radical Hosiery Workers from the Jazz Age to the New Deal," by Sharon McConnell-Sidorick.

This article provides a statistical picture of the economic well-being of Canadian children. We discuss changes in families, nationally and by province. We outline how Canadian policy in support of children has changed and how it differs across regions. Changes or differences in median incomes, in income distributions and in child poverty both before and after taxes and transfers, at different points of time, in different kinds of families, and in different provinces constitute the core of the article. Finally, the economic well-being of Canadian children in 2010 is compared with that of children in eight other affluent countries.

This article reviews the book, "The Making of Working-Class Religion," by Matthew Pehl.

The article reviews the book, "On the Formation of Marxism: Karl Kautsky's Theory of Capitalism, the Marxism of the Second International and Karl Marx's Critique of Political Economy," by Jukka Grunow.