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The article reviews the book, "Where are the Workers? Labor's Stories at Museums and Historic Sites," edited by Robert Forrant and Mary Anne Trasciatti.

Objective indicators, such as minority hiring rates or number of complaints, often fail to fully represent actual discrimination in hiring processes, particularly against racial and ethnic minorities (McGonagle et al., 2016). Despite legal efforts in Quebec to increase employment of minorities, their ongoing underrepresentation points to the need to examine discrimination in terms of perceived experiences. In line with Anderson (2011), we investigated perceived discrimination in hiring (PDH), its predictors and its effect on the intention to file a discrimination complaint, rather than solely considering actual complaints. Using a quasi-experimental design, we simulated a fictitious hiring process with 361 students from French-speaking Canadian universities. First, we confirmed the three dimensions of the recently developed PDH scale: differential treatment; breach of psychological contract; and non-competency-based assessment (Haeck-Pelletier, 2022). Second, using structural equation modelling (SEM), we found mediation effects: PDH scores were higher across all dimensions when a candidate belonged to a minority group, received a negative hiring decision or did not receive feedback on test results. However, only differential treatment predicted a candidate’s intention to file a complaint. In addition to this first empirical test of Anderson’s model, the results suggest that organizations should address perceptions of unfair treatment due to minority group membership by identifying and modifying the practices that contribute to them. The eventual outcome would be a more representative workforce.

The article reviews the book, "Popular Radicalism and the Unemployed in Chicago during the Great Depression," by Chris Wright.

Dans la foulée de l’expérience de télétravail obligatoire vécue pendant la pandémie de COVID-19 et pour tirer profit à la fois des avantages du télétravail et du travail en présence, de nombreuses organisations ont récemment embrassé le travail hybride. La fonction publique québécoise s’est engagée dans cette voie, en déployant une politique-cadre en matière de télétravail qui régule le nombre de jours de télétravail hebdomadaires. La récence du déploiement à large échelle de cette modalité d’organisation du travail appelle à mieux comprendre ses effets sur la réponse attitudinale du personnel. Prenant appui sur le modèle d’acceptation de la technologie et sur la théorie du signal, cet article vise à examiner la réponse perceptuelle et attitudinale du personnel au travail hybride. À partir de données quantitatives et qualitatives collectées en octobre 2022 auprès du personnel professionnel de la fonction publique et parapublique (n = 3 904), les résultats montrent l’effet positif de l’agréabilité perçue et de l’utilité perçue d’une journée de travail en présence sur la satisfaction à l’égard du travail hybride. La satisfaction à l’endroit du travail hybride influence positivement l’adéquation personne/organisation. L’adéquation personne/organisation exerce un effet positif sur l’engagement organisationnel ainsi que sur la satisfaction au travail. Elle joue un rôle médiateur dans la relation entre la satisfaction envers l’expérience de travail hybride et l’engagement organisationnel, ainsi qu’entre la satisfaction envers l’expérience de travail hybride et la satisfaction au travail. Les résultats qualitatifs témoignent de l’absence de valeur ajoutée des jours de travail en présence, d’une insatisfaction à l’égard du manque de flexibilité et d’une perception positive à l’égard des avantages du télétravail. Ces résultats ajoutent aux connaissances empiriques quant à l’appréciation de l’adéquation personne/organisation dans un contexte de travail hybride. Ils contribuent aux connaissances managériales en soulignant l’importance de considérer les attentes et les valeurs du personnel dans le déploiement des pratiques et politiques organisationnelles.

The COVID-19 pandemic led to renewed discussion of decent work for people at the margins of the labour market. This article explores public policy on platform workers across three liberal market economies, namely the United Kingdom, Canada and Ireland, taking the pandemic as a focal point. Liberal market economies are generally difficult environments for unions, and we examine the nature of union political pressure on the state to enhance protections for platform workers and the extent to which policy has changed in each state. We find uneven levels of such union pressure, with the most limited attention afforded by Irish unions. In the United Kingdom, the unions did exert some influence through strategic litigation, creating a policy problem for the government. More progressive policies are evident in Canada, where the government recognises that platform workers’ precarious position has undesirable consequences for the state.

The article reviews the book, "Regards croisés sur la grève d'Amoco à Hawkesbury, une histoire ouvrière de l'Ontario français," by Andréane Gagnon.

There have never been more favourable conditions for drawing Indigenous workers into the unionized building trades. The construction industry needs to replenish and diversify its overwhelmingly white, male, and aging workforce to meet skilled labour demands in the next few decades, when major civil infrastructure, mining, and green energy developments are expected to occur in northern Indigenous territories. These projects will be mandated by impact benefit agreements to employ a significant number of Indigenous workers who will first need to be trained. At the same time, Indigenous peoples are the fastest-growing population in Canada and have shown a propensity for pursuing trades education. In recent years, Ontario's largest building trade unions have taken significant steps to recruit, train, and employ northern Indigenous workers, including in Nunavut. In collaboration with various stakeholders, the unions' efforts are starting to show positive results. But are their methods and goals informed by decolonization, reconciliation, and Indigenization? This article reflects on this question while examining the case of the International Union of Operating Engineers Local 793, which has been a leader among building trades unions when it comes to establishing relationships with Indigenous partners, training Indigenous workers, and contributing to their economic self-determination.

Governments in Canada are increasingly using multiple tools to advance their political agenda at the expense of free collective bargaining in the public sector. Legislative intervention has long been a strategy to curtail bargaining rights (Evans et al., 2023). Recently, governments have turned to non-legislative means to influence bargaining outcomes. This article is about the use of a coordination office, a decidedly non-legislative tactic, and how, over two rounds of negotiations, it transformed public-sector bargaining in Alberta. Bargaining has been further transformed by enactment of a legal requirement to keep the government’s mandates secret, the outcome being increased frustration among union representatives and potential damage to long-term relationships. Together, these measures have provided the government with a powerful means of influence, which, if successful, could spread to other jurisdictions.

Tribute to the life and work of the union activist and social historian, Raymond Léger, who was also a member of Labour/Le Travail's editorial board.

The article reviews the book, "The Things of Life: Materiality in Late Soviet Russia," by Alexey Golubev.

Based on an analysis of judgments on the motion for issuance of an injunction order against strike pickets rendered by the Quebec Superior Court between 2002 and 2023, this article shows that it has been extremely rare for judges to note serious acts of violence, such as beatings, injuries and dangerous acts of vandalism. On the other hand, a threatening look, the appearance or risk of any nuisance can always be qualified by the Court as intimidation, a threat, violence, a wrongful act, irreparable harm, and can justify limiting the right to picket in its simplest form of expression. We then defend the hypothesis that these orders granted in an almost mechanical manner are totally disproportionate, that they sanction workers in an indiscriminate and preventive manner, to the point of undermining the very essence of the right to picket, and this, in violation of the rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly of workers recognized by the Supreme Court.

Cette recherche examine l’impact d’une privation relative sur la croyance en un monde juste et sur le désengagement vis-à-vis du travail. Deux études ont été menées, dans chacune desquelles deux groupes de Français d’origine maghrébine ont été confrontés à une situation dans laquelle ils devaient se mettre à la place d’un Français d’origine maghrébine indiquant avoir déjà été victime de discrimination vs déclarant n’en avoir jamais subi. Dans la première étude, ce Français essuyait un refus de promotion au profit d’un Français de souche (privation intergroupale) alors que dans la seconde c’était au profit d’un autre Français d’origine maghrébine (privation intragroupale). Les participants répondaient alors à un questionnaire de croyance en un monde juste et de désengagement vis-à-vis du travail. Il est constaté que dans la situation intergroupale, les participant(e)s de la condition « Négation de discrimination » et ceux de la condition « Reconnaissance de discrimination » ne se différencient sur aucune des deux variables dépendantes. En revanche, dans la situation intragroupale, les participants placés dans la condition « Négation de discrimination » croient davantage en un monde juste et dévaluent plus le travail que ceux de la condition « Reconnaissance de discrimination ». De plus, la croyance en un monde juste (VM) semble médiatiser la relation entre le type d’attribution (VI) et la dévaluation du travail (VD). Ces résultats sont confrontés à ceux de la littérature et discutés sur le plan de leurs implications.

Summary: In this study, we sought to identify how employee turnover affected company value in a sample of 254 European listed companies before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. We specifically tested the hypothesis that the most profitable and socially responsible companies withstood the pandemic better. We then complemented our analysis by identifying potential sectoral differences. We analyzed the association between employee turnover and company value by using a quantile regression model to determine this association at each point of the conditional distribution of company value. All of our financial and non-financial data for the 2019-2020 period were extracted from the Bloomberg database. We found a negative association between employee turnover and company value before and during the pandemic. The additional costs of employee turnover may have therefore reduced stock market values. The negative association weakened considerably during the pandemic for those companies that had the lowest company value, possibly because of the government support and guarantees they received during the lockdowns. Our sectoral analysis showed a stronger effect on traditional industries with intensive human interactions than on modern industries with predominantly virtual interactions. Estimation results from more profitable companies showed a positive association before the pandemic, perhaps because they had an ‘optimal’ level of employee turnover that maximized their productivity and performance and, thus, their stock market value. This association completely reversed during the pandemic, perhaps because their higher profitability was not sufficient to dampen the negative effect of the increase in employee turnover. For the most profitable and socially responsible companies, the same association was much stronger both before and during the pandemic. For almost all of the companies, the estimated coefficients of employee turnover were positive before the pandemic but became negative for those companies that had the lowest stock market values during the pandemic. This study enriches the existing literature by being the first one to show how employee turnover affected the company value of European listed firms before and during the pandemic. It also provides new evidence that this association varied with the level of sectoral sensitivity to the pandemic and was much stronger for the most profitable and socially responsible companies.

The article reviews and comments on the books, "Harry Bridges: Labor Radical, Labor Legend" by Robert W. Cherny, "Labor under Siege: Big Bob McEllrath and the ILWU's Fight for Organized Labor in an Anti-Union Era," by Harvey Schwartz with Ronald Magden, "Under the Iron Heel: The Wobblies and the Capitalist War on Radical Workers," by Ahmed White.

The article reviews the book, "Building That Bright Future: Soviet Karelia in the Life Writing of Finnish North Americans," by Samira Saramo.

Thousands of children and youth across the country took to the streets for two weeks in spring 1947 to protest a three-cent increase in the price of chocolate bars. The protest initially generated enthusiastic press coverage and had widespread popular support, but when the National Federation of Labor Youth (nfly), the Communist Party's youth organization, announced its support, anti-communists in the press and the community red-baited the protesters. The campaign quickly lost momentum, which anti-communists attributed to the presence of Communists but was more likely due to their own red-baiting attacks in the press. Some of these protests were spontaneous reactions to a 40 per cent increase in the price of candy bars, while others were led or inspired by nfly. Either way, the countrywide mobilization of thousands of children and youth marks a turning point in the history of Canada's left. Erupting in tandem with a nationwide strike of industrial workers and protests of activist consumers demanding greater economic security and a more responsive state, the children's chocolate bar protest provides a window on this critical moment in the class struggle. The attacks on this popular protest at the moment that the long run of community-based militancy was about to be demonized, delegitimated, and silenced by red-baiting marks a significant milestone in Canada's Cold War. In addition to adding the youngsters' challenge to capital and the state to the history of the popular left, the event contributes to the growing literature on children and youth engaged in political protest, while their creative protest strategies offer a youthful dimension to the study of performance activism.

The article reviews the book, "Le Québec en mouvements : Continuité et renouvellement des pratiques militantes," by Pascale Dufour, Laurence Bherer, and Geneviève Pagé.

Indigenous doulas in Canada carry added responsibilities as they juggle with cultural and societal expectations to appropriately support their communities and extended relations. They not only face socioeconomic challenges as a result of doula care being excluded from the universal healthcare system, but also deal with the affective costs of caregiving. Through an Indigenous-centred intersectional lens, the idea of Indigenous doula work as exploitative labour is examined under four key areas: (1) the historical role of doulas in Indigenous communities; (2) colonial policies and processes that devalued Indigenous women; (3) colonial policies and processes that devalued birth workers, and; (4) challenges that Indigenous doulas face today. This study aims to provide context to the challenges faced by Indigenous doulas working within the dominant, Western medical system and confines of capitalism. The study concludes that the policies and processes that derived from these systems have led to the hardships imposed on Indigenous doulas, which reveal a need for policy solutions that recognize the value of Indigenous doulas in the healthcare system.

The article reviews the book, "Solidarity Beyond Bars: Unionizing Prison Labour," by Jordan House and Asaf Rashid.

The article reviews the book, "El Golpe: US Labor, the CIA, and the Coup at Ford in Mexico," by Rob McKenzie and Patrick Dunne.