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In most communities the relationship between trade unions and social activist organizations is usually underdeveloped and uneven. Likewise trade unions usually have no organic connections to unorganized workers and contribute little to the task of representing these workers in their struggles against employers and government agencies. The Workers Organizing and Resource Centre (WORC), a collective administered by trade unionists and social activists, is an attempt to bridge this solitude. Since it was established in 1998, WORC has been the home to numerous working class advocacy organizations and a hub of progressive activity in Winnipeg. Its mandate is to facilitate the development of community organizations, provide advocacy work for non union workers, and to assist in organizing the unorganized. This paper describes the function that WORC plays in the Winnipeg progressive community and discusses the relationship to its sole source of funding, the national office of the Canadian Union of Postal Workers.

The article reviews the book, "Initiation à la négociation collective by Jean Sexton.

“The west wants in” was the rallying cry of the Reform Party launched in 1987. What the West wanted, how its aspirations could be fulfilled within Confederation, and how fulfilling them might change Canada itself came to dominate the party’s agenda over the next decade or so. The West’s relationship to the rest of the country has also been a major theme in Canadian labour history, of ten with respect to notions of “western radicalism” or “western exceptionalism.” Reviewing Labour / Le Travail’s coverage of Canadian labour over the past quarter-century, this article reviews the extent to which western workers have been represented, the varying ways in which their identity has been characterized, and the degree to which traditional perceptions of a “radical” West have been either reinforced or revised as a result.

Des jeunes salariés québécois reprochent à leurs syndicats de ne pas tenir suffisamment compte de leurs intérêts dans la négociation de leurs conditions de travail. Ils ont ainsi fondé leurs propres associations en réaction à la façon dont le syndicat exerce son monopole de représentation. Ce nouveau phénomène traduit une insatisfaction certaine face à la façon dont s’exerce la démocratie syndicale dans certains milieux de travail. L’émergence de ces associations parallèles devrait inciter les leaders syndicaux à faire montre de plus d’ouverture, à engager le dialogue et à entreprendre une réflexion devenue nécessaire sur leur conception de la démocratie — et la notion d’égalité qui y est sous-jacente — à l’ère des droits fondamentaux de la personne.

This article attempts to explain the similarities and parallels between Labour/ Le Travail and its Australian equivalent, Labour History; as well as analysing Labour/Le Travail's distinctive interests and concerns, which reflect the peculiarities of the Canadian. It suggests, in particular, that the timing of Labour/Le Travail's appearance was propitious and that it was well positioned for various reasons to take advantage of the Thompsonian moment in labour historiography. Further, by responding to the rise of the new social movements, it was able to enrich further the study of labour history through attention to forms of oppression other than class. With class nonetheless remaining its central focus, a degree of political pessimism is understandably evident from the mid-1980s onwards, with the downturn in labour movement activity and allegations about the death of class. By the same token, signs of working-class remobilization in the late 1990s have encouraged a renewed sense of political purpose in the journal. It is argued that this situation also offers opportunities for new forms of dialogue between academics and activists challenging corporate globalization, enabling the journal and those associated with it to continue to reach out to audiences beyond the academy, to place their knowledge of labour's past at the service of movements contesting the current circumstances of the working class.

The article reviews the book, "Where was the working class? Revolution in Eastern Germany," by Linda Fuller.

This interdisciplinary dissertation aims to develop social and political theory capable of understanding social class as a structured process and relationship mediated by gender, race and other social relations and taking place in time and specific socio-material contexts, in order to analyse working classes as historical formations. It also aims to use this perspective and the existing body of historical scholarship to conduct a theoretically-rigorous study of the remaking of the Canadian working class in the 1940s. Arguing that recent theoretical work on class formation is inadequate, the dissertation critically appropriates ideas drawn from classical and contemporary scholarship to outline a theory of working classes as historical formations. An account of how dominant classes exercise power in capitalist societies is a necessary complement to this theory; the overview developed theorizes the existence of capitalist rule in differentiated forms and as inherently, but not primarily, ideological. From this perspective, the dissertation analyses the remaking of the Canadian working class in the paid workplace, community and household spheres in the 1940s. It argues that between 1941 and 1947 a broad but uneven process of class recomposition took place, focussing on such issues as the character of struggles in this period, their participants, their organizations and ideologies in order to illuminate the dynamics of change in working-class formations. In the course of struggle, both the working-class formation and capitalist rule were altered in important ways. The new formation that stabilized in the late 1940s featured improved living standards and greater unity against capital at the most elementary level. It was also shaped in important respects by a particular configuration of racist, sexist and heterosexist social relations. Unions changed from within and without, becoming generally committed to a responsible and bureaucratic practice. The CCF became the undisputed party of the English-Canadian workers' movement, weakening and marginalizing political radicalism. Although it is misleading to interpret this as working-class incorporation, working-class capacities to change society had been constrained and undermined in new ways, in part as a result of the very reforms workers wrested from employers and state power.

The article reviews the book, "Victor Serge: The Course is Set on Hope," by Susan Weissman.

The article reviews the books, "My Name’s Not George: The Story of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters in Canada," by Stanley G. Grizzle, "Brotherhoods of Color: Black Railroad Workers and the Struggle for Equality," by Eric Arnesen, and "Pullman Porters and the Rise of Protest Politics in Black America, 1925-1945," by Beth Tompkins Bates.

Trade unions in nearly all developed countries are facing major difficulties in maintaining membership levels and political influence. The US labor movement has been increasingly attracted to an organizing model of trade unionism and, in turn, this response has caught the imagination of some sections of other Anglo-Saxon movements, most notably in Australia, New Zealand and Britain. There is not single definitive account of what constitutes the organizing model but its advocates envisage the transformation of unions into dynamic organizations, where members would become active participants rather than passive consumers. Despite similarities in the problems that national union movements face, however, the histories and current experiences of trade unions in the various countries show marked differences. A comparative study of an Australian and a British union, based on extensive fieldwork in Britain and Australia, attempts to assess the importance of national contexts in the adoption of the organizing model.

For a clear understanding of the legal protections and remedies available to employers and workers in Canada, this convenient survey and analysis is ideal. Although it may be said that there are eleven distinct systems of labour law in Canada - encompassing ten provinces and the Federal government - the authors ensure depth of treatment by focusing on common policy themes and typical legal solutions, with significant departures noted in whatever province or area of law they may arise. However, the relevant law of the three most populous and influential provinces - Quebec, Ontario, and British Columbia - is covered in particular detail, as is Federal labour legislation and case law. Among the important areas of Canadian law and practice emphasised are the following: the tension between trade union power and business flexibility; collective "labour law" and individual "employment law"; the effect of the North American Free Trade Agreement; the central place of the legal concept of the employment contract; labour standards legislation; the influence of the 1982 Charter of Rights and Freedoms; court intervention in labour law, both under common law principles and Quebec's civil code; the role of labour relations boards; and judicial review of administrative decisions and arbitration awards. As an accurate and usable guide for lawyers not expert in Canadian law, Labour Law in Canada is without peer. --Publisher's description

The article reviews the book, "Hamlet and the Baker's Son: My Life in Theatre and Politics," by Augusto Boal.

The article reviews the book, "The rise of agrarian democracy: The United Farmers and Farm Women of Alberta, 1909-1921," by Bradford James Rennie.

John Godard's article, "New Dawn or Bad Moon Rising? Large Scale Government Administered Workplace Surveys and the Future of Canadian IR Research" (2001), is discussed. Godard has challenged researchers to consider the advantages and disadvantages of using data sets in industrial relations research. This comment agrees with Godard that the Workplace and Employment Survey (WES), as with other large scale government administered surveys, has a number of significant advantages, including: excellent response rates, comprehensiveness, the ability to link employees with their employers and to follow them over (limited) periods of time, and a tendency to use more standardized measures. These represent substantial advantages relative to other sources of micro-level data.

La présente étude, réalisée auprès de 252 entreprises québécoises, a permis de mettre en évidence que les politiques de rémunération sont davantage influencées par les stratégies internes de l’organisation que par leurs stratégies externes. Plus spécifiquement, les entreprises qui préconisent les équipes autonomes de travail, la qualité totale et la gestion participative optent davantage pour des politiques de rémunération orientées vers la performance individuelle et collective, tendent à accorder un pourcentage de bonis plus élevé et à favoriser une plus grande transparence dans leurs mécanismes de gestion. Les résultats montrent également que la présence syndicale joue un rôle déterminant dans le choix des politiques de rémunération.

This article reviews the contribution that Labour/Le Travail has made to the study of gender history in Canada over the past 25 years. It identifies the several ways in which industrialization led to gendering of class, and in particular analyzes the contribution of the patriarchy/capitalism debate, the family strategies approach, and the new literature on masculinity. It suggests the need for more broadly contextualized studies that incorporate both gender conflict and interdependence, and argues for a hermeneutic separation of gender and class identities from conceptualizations of class politics and collective protest.

As a contribution to the history of the Cold War, and particularly of anti-Communist activities at the local level, discusses the controversial policies adopted by the Toronto District School Board during 1948-51 and the anti-Communist activities of Harold Menzies, one of the board's trustees. In spite of the presence on the board of elected trustees who were Communists and the opposition of the director of education, a majority of the trustees were successful in adopting policies that violated the civil liberties of Canadians and were contemptuous of the will of the voters. Anti-Communist activities touched on teacher loyalty, selection of textbooks, and access to school facilities. Menzies and his allies saw communism as a threat to the school system and worked hard to create and maintain an anti-Communist consensus.

Discusses the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty's efforts to resist the most extreme elements of the Conservative Party's agenda, and critiques the labour movement, in particular the union leadership, for the failure of its Days of Action, which was also intended to mobilize against the government.