Your search

What are the trends shaping the future of work? How can unions respond in ways that will invigorate the labor movement for the 21st century? A paper addresses these questions by first presenting a critique of the future-of-work literature, followed by a detailed analysis of the best available Canadian evidence of the major forces already exerting pressures for change on workplaces. The shape of tomorrow's workplace is visible today. Unions will continue to play a vital role in Canadian society by adapting their organizing and collective bargaining strategies to the often contradictory economic, labor market, organizational, human resource management, and demographic trends evident today.

Until the Communist Party of Canada (CPC) turned to the tactic of Class Against Class in 1928-29, it confined its trade-union work almost wholly to "boring from within" the international craft unions of the American Federation of Labor/Trades and Labour Congress of Canada. Although "the party" played a dominant part in the very limited industrial conflict of the 1920s, its attempt to transform the international unions into organs of class struggle was wholly unsuccessful, in part because its "line" presumed a far higher degree of rank and file combativeness than actually existed, and in part because Canadian "labourists" actively resisted its best efforts. Where the CPC believed that the international unions needed to be "renovated," the internationals themselves disagreed. Socialist Plumbers' official John W. Bruce posed the question "Does the International Labour Movement need Salvaging?" which he then answered - to general labourist approval - by reaffirming the progressive character of craft unionism and its tried and tested, non-revolutionary methods. The party's failure to break through this complacency - and labourists' growing resentment of its attempts to do so - predisposed it to accept the Comintern's "New Line" in 1928.

Ce texte s'appuie sur le fichier longitudinal de l'Enquête sur l'activité 1988-90 de Statistique Canada. Il examine les effets des conditions de la mobilité entre l'emploi à temps complet et l'emploi à temps partiel sur la rémunération future des femmes canadiennes. Les résultats d'est imat ion confi rment les conclusions des études américaines quant à l'effet négatif des interruptions d'emploi et des épisodes d'emploi à temps partiel sur le salaire dans le dernier emploi à temps complet. Mais, plus spécifiquement, ils montrent que les femmes qui subissent une déqualification au moment du passage à temps partiel enregistrent une baisse de salaire dans l'emploi à temps complet le plus récent, de l'ordre de 14 %, comparativement aux salariées qui n'ont pas connu de déqualification. En outre, le «travail à temps réduit réversible», c'est-à-dire les transitions entre temps complet et temps part iel, dans les deux directions, sans changement de profession ou d'employeur, agit positivement sur la rémunération future, contrairement aux situations ou ces transitions impliquent au moins un changement d'emploi.

Commentates on the satirical piece, "To the Dartmouth Station" (1976), and the author's article, "Rough Work and Rugged Men" (1989), both of which were published in the journal, in order to raise questions regarding the historical study of working-class masculinity. Argues for greater use of the analytical lens of sexuality to interrogate the concept of masculinity, including that masculinity is in crisis, and to explore workingmen's gender identities and sexual practices. Considers issues of sexuality and indications of homosexual subcultures in historically male occupations such as seafaring, lumbering and mining. Concludes that the investigation of how men's sexual and gender relations existed in relationship to other forms of power highlights the potential of gay history to both complicate and expand historical understandings of working-class men's gender identities.

The article reviews the book, "Paying for the Piper: Capital and Labour in Britain's Offshore Oil Industry," byCharles Woolfson, John Foster, and Matthias Beck.

In March 1919, over 230 union delegates assembled at the Western Labor Conference in Calgary to chart a radical new direction for wage workers through the creation of a revolutionary industrial union centre, the One Big Union (OBU). This essay argues that the practices of the OBU's radical manhood, their particular sense of what it meant to be a union man, shaped the organization's structure and politics as well as the emergent culture which fostered such widespread working-class radicalism. Drawing upon already existing practices espoused by Canadian labourists and American Wobblies as well as fashioning new ones, OBU men distinguished radical manhood from both the class politics and the masculinities of male bosses and scabs. While the organization of working women was not seen as an important issue at the WLC, the upsurge in women's militancy during the labour revolt prompted OBU supporters to encourage these women to join their male comrades. At times, advocates of the One Big Union posed the questions of women's oppression and emancipation as crucial elements of the union's purpose; their infrequent ideological commitment, however, too often failed to translate into organizational gains for working-class women and the development of feminist practices within the union. In their challenge to the bourgeois order, OBU men created a program that, in the prevailing context of gender relations, meant that the One Big Union would bring about the transformation, but not the eradication, of men's power.

The article reviews the book, "Woody, Cisco, and Me: Seamen Three in the Merchant Marine," by Jim Longhi.

The article reviews the book, "Striking Performances: Performing Strikes," by Kirk W. Fuoss.

The article reviews the book, "Cynicism and Postmodernity," by Timothy Bewes.

The article reviews the book, "Doctrines of Development," by M.P. Cowen and R.W. Shenton.

The article reviews the books, "Social Exclusion and Anti-Poverty Policy : A Debate," edited by Charles Gore and José B. Figueiredo, and "Lessons for Welfare Reform: An Analysis of the AFDC Caseload and Past Welfare-to-Work Programs" by Dave M. O'Neill and June Ellenoff O'Neill.

La mondialisation n'est pas un phénomène qui détermine la capacité de régulat ion des syndi cats à l 'échelon des établissements. Son impact ne peut être saisi qu'à travers les dynamiques sociales propres aux milieux de travail touchés par le changement. Cet article identifie les conditions et les ressources associées à la régulation paritaire des changements et évalue en quoi les exigences de cette régulation dans les milieux de travail fortement intégrés à l'économie mondiale diffèrent de celles qui caractérisent les milieux de travail moins orientés vers les marchés internationaux. Nous concluons que le syndicat plus exposé à l'économie internationale doit faire preuve d'une plus forte capacité d'action pour assurer sa présence dans le processus de régulation.

The article reviews the book, "Dying for Gold: The True Story of the Giant Mine Murders," by Lee Selleck and Francis Thompson.

The article reviews the book, "The Work of Reconstruction: From Slave to Wage Laborer in South Carolina, 1860-1870," by Julie Saville.

The period between 1902 and 1914 witnessed a flourishing of interest in military matters in Ontario. Military activity in the province centred primarily on the Canadian Militia, a part-time citizen army in which thousands of young men participated. Contemporary advocates of military service saw the Militia as a "school of manliness" which would instill a variety of civic virtues in its members. This paper examines the question of working-class participation in the Militia, looking in particular at how the concept of "masculinity" interacted with issues of class in an industrial-capitalist society. It identifies a number of attractions which Militia service held for working-class recruits; it also points to important contradictions between gendered social ideals and class-based reality. In particular, the difficult relationship between the Militia and organized labour, and the incompatability of the "rough culture" of the working classes with middle-class ideals of "manliness," are discussed in depth. On a theoretical level, it suggests that while "masculinity" provides a vital basis for understanding the history of the Militia in Ontario, it cannot be seen in isolation from other factors, most notably class relations.

Using a unique data set, this paper analyzes how the relationship between managerial compensation and firm performance changes as one moves down the organizational hierarchy. It is found that predictions of efficiency wage, agency, and tournament models of compensation differ for different hierarchical levels in organizations. The results add support to the notion that a variety of models may be necessary to explain organizational compensation strategies.

The article briefly reviews "Socialist Realist Painting," by Matthew Cullerne Bown, "The Cold War and the University: Toward an Intellectual History of the Postwar Years," edited by André Schiffrin, "On History," by Eric Hobsbawm, "Writing on the Line: 20th Century Working Class Women Writers," by Sarah Richardson, Mcrylyn Cherry, Sammy Palfrey, and Gail Chester, "Historical Dictionary of Organized Labor," by James C. Docherty, "Protest, Power, and Change: An Encyclopedia of Nonviolent Action from ACT-UP to Women's Suffrage," edited by Roger S. Powers and William B. Vogele, "Organizing Dissent: Contemporary Social Movements in Theory and Practice," edited by William K. Carroll, "Communism in America: A History in Documents," edited by Albert Fried, "Artisans into Workers: Labor in Nineteenth-Century America," by Bruce Laurie, "Hollywood as Historian: American Film in Cultural Context," revised edition, edited by Peter C. Rollins, "The History of Canadian Business, 1867-1914," by R.T. Naylor, and "The Communist Manifesto," [150th anniversary edition, published by Monthly Review Press] by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels.

The article reviews the book, "Young Sidney Hook: Marxist and Pragmatist," by Christopher Phelps.

The article reviews the book, "Workers in a Lean World: Unions in the International Economy," by Kim Moody.

In July 1997, the CAW-backed workers at nine Vancouver Starbucks outlets became the first "barristas" in North America to secure a collective agreement with the trendy, Seattle-based international coffee giant. On the first anniversary of that historical union drive, Labour/Le Travail spoke with 25-year-old-Laurie Banong, Starbucks employee and union activist, about organizing young service sector workers, working with the CAW, and what trade unionism means to her. --Editors' introduction