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The article reviews and comments on several books including "Violent London: 200 Years of Riots, Rebels an Revolts," by Clive Bloom, "Down and Out in 18th-Century London," by Tim Hitchcock, and "The London Mob: Violence and Disorder in 18th-Century England," by Robert Shoemaker.

[D]escribes the labour and employment law governing employees of Parliament, employees of government agencies, members of the RCMP, and most direct employees of the government (excluding members of the Canadian armed forces, judges, and employees of Crown corporations). Specifically, the book deals with the Public Service Labour Relations Act and the Public Service Employment Act. It also provides the leading cases and, where appropriate, a representative sample of decisions to explain or provide examples of particular points. The legal regime of the federal public service has undergone significant change in the past three years, and no other book addresses these significant changes. Part I of this book provides an overview of federal public service labour and employment law. Part II considers the normal labour law topics as they apply to direct employees of the government and employees of government agencies. Essentially, Part II of this book is about Part I of the Public Service Labour Relations Act. Part III concerns the terms and conditions of employment for both unionized and non-unionized employees — essentially, Part II of the Public Service Labour Relations Act. Part IV involves the legal regulation of the employment relationship in the federal public service — namely, the process for appointment to and within the federal public service. Part V of considers Crown servants — specifically RCMP members and parliamentary employees — who are not considered federal public servants for the purposes of the Public Service Labour Relations Act. Part VI considers the legal regulation of superannuation (pensions) for Crown servants and the role that courts play in the regulation of federal public service labour and employment law. --Publisher's description

The article reviews the book, "Differences that Matter, Social Policy and the Working Poor in the United States and Canada," by Dan Zuberi.

In academic and activist debates about union renewal, the replacement of business unionism with social unionism is seen as central to the labour movement's short- and long-term survival. Social unionism, generally understood to involve both engagement with social justice struggles beyond the workplace and methods of union activity beyond the collective bargaining process, is claimed to increase the labour movement's organizing capacity, bargaining power, and social and political weight. However, despite its increased importance, social unionism's various meanings, strategies, and implications remain relatively unexamined, and very different approaches are often lumped together. Using concepts from social movement theory, this paper proposes an analytical framework for systematically comparing different concrete manifestations of social unionism. In particular, social unionist initiatives vary according to 1) the ethos or collective action frame used to rationalize union activity; 2) the repertoire or strategic means used to act on that ethos; and 3) the internal organizational practices and power relations which shape who is involved in defining and carrying out union goals and initiatives. I argue that whether social unionist projects are able to reach immediate instrumental goals as well as generate renewed working class / movement capacity is shaped by both the mix of frame, repertoire and organizational practice as well as the relationship between these three. The paper therefore asserts that the category "social unionism" must be more nuanced, and calls for a more explicitly comparative and multi-methodological approach to reveal such complexity.

Addresses the growing trend towards income inequality by focusing on wages and salaries. The authors find that the benefits of economic growth are not reflected in Canadian wages over the past generation.

The article reviews the book,"'If the Workers Took a Notion': The Right to Strike and American Political Development," by Josiah Bartlett Lambert.

Policing in Vancouver was transformed by the labour unrest of the interwar period, culminating in a campaign carried out by a new civic regime that assumed power in response to a general strike threat. Complicating the process was that police workers were considered unreliable for policing labour disputes, especially since they unionized under the threat of a general strike in 1918. The challenge of “constituting authority” was therefore to render the police a reliable instrument against working class unrest. This study traces the development of policing through the postwar spate of waterfront strikes to the 1930s anticommunist campaign that carried the struggle into the political arena. Even as police power was being consolidated in the municipal police institution, rank and file police were undermined by tactics long used against other workers, namely labour spies and police specials. Like other workers, police resisted, modifying the process of change as a result.

The article reviews the book, "Fighting From Home: The Second World War in Verdun, Quebec," by Serge Durflinger.

The article reviews the book, "Leviathans : Multinational Corporations and the New Global History," edited by Alfred D. Chandler, Jr. and Bruce Mazlish.

The article reviews the book, "States of Nature: Conserving Canada's Wildlife in the 20th Century," by Tina Loo.

The article reviews the book, "Partisanship, Globalization, and Canadian Labour Market Policy: Four Provinces in Comparative Perspective," by Rodney Haddow and Thomas Klassen.

The Political Future of Social Security in Aging Societies, by Vincenzo Galasso, is reviewed.

This article surveys positions on constitutional reform of the Canadian Labour Congress (CLC) from a historical perspective. In addition to analyzing how Canada’s largest labour organization has approached issues of national unity, federalism, and constitutional reform, the article underscores how Canadian constitutional struggles were reflected within the labour movement by focusing on how constitutional politics affected the relationship between the CLC and its Québec affiliate, the (Québec Federation of Labour) FTQ. Specifically, the article traces the gradual eclipse of the CLC’s preference for centralization and the emergence of sovereignty-association as a political position which the CLC has both externalized politically and internalized organizationally.

The article considers the Canadian Labour Congress (CLC) and the Québec Federation of Labour (FTQ) during the tenure of Prime Minister Brian Mulroney. Discusses CLC and FTQ approaches to the Meech Lake Accord, as well as organized labour's response to the Charlottetown Accord. Explores how the longstanding party-union relationship deranged the trade union movement's weak constitutional perspective.

This article examines the relationship of the Canadian Labour Congress with the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms from the initial stages of the Charter's development, in the 1980-81 Special Committee on the Canadian Constitution, to its present status as powerful legal instrument and national symbol.

The article reviews the book, "Schools of Democracy: A Political History of the American Labor Movement," by Clayton Sinyai.

Geographers debate the value of telecommunications-mediated jobs (or 'eWork') for the economies of smaller, deindustrialised and rural areas. Against the backdrop of globalisation, various regions across Canada are courting knowledge-sector business development. Sudbury, a medium-sized northern Ontario city, has invested heavily in telecommunications infrastructure and touted its assets and resources to potential employers in order to help its ailing economy. Since the late 1990s, Sudbury has attracted some ten new call centres, with a combined labour force numbering about 4,000. In this article, we use Sudbury as a case study to consider the overall effects of eWork on a local labour force and a regional economy. From the combined perspectives of employers, unions, municipal planners, local economic development officials, and academic researchers, we assess the net impact of these new economy jobs.

The article reviews the book, "Written in the Flesh: A History of Desire," by Edward Shorter.

This interdisciplinary volume offers a powerful critique of how social structures and relations as well as ideologies shape workplaces, labour markets, and households in contemporary Canada. Contributors dissect recent transformations in work and expose the uncertainty, insecurity, and instability that increasingly characterize both paid and unpaid work. Using a progressive approach to political economy, contributors propose alternative policies and practices that might secure more decent livelihoods for workers and their families. -- Publisher's description

The article reviews the book, "Insurgency Online: Web Activism and Global Conflict," by Michael Y. Dartnell.