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The historiography of the British Columbia Cooperative Federation differs from that of other provincial CCF groups for its lack of attention to the participation of religious reformers in shaping the party's early history. Yet the first CCF House Leader in the province, Reverend Robert Connell, was a fervent believer in the social gospel and in the goals of ecumenism. His attempts to bring "Christian principles" into politics resulted in a battle between reformers and radicals in the party, ultimately resulting in his departure from political life. The division of the BC CCF in 1936 as a result of what has become known as the "Connell Affair" created a loss of momentum for the party which lost its status as Official Opposition in the 1937 provincial election. This event presents a unique opportunity to study the interaction of a social gospel inspired Christian reformer with firmly irreligious supporters of Marxism.

Traditionally, reference to women in the labour force has focused on women in the paid labour force. Yet in Saskatchewan's agricultural-based economy, as in many other Canadian communities, economic development relied greatly on women's unpaid labour. --Introduction

This article studies trade unions' response to transnational change in a large multinational corporation within the motor industry in Europe. We show how the use of the European Works Councils (EWCs) as a forum for European negotiation did not counter the management's effort to whipsaw trade unions, such as to play off workers against each other in local negotiations. This seems to suggest that the effort to network and coordinate between employee representatives, and to negotiate with management through 'active' EWCs is ineffective at controlling inter-union competition in cases of transnational restructuring. Hence, research outcomes illustrate that an analysis of the impact of European-level agreements on plant level is requested in order to assess the effectiveness of 'active' EWCs in forging cross-national links.

In the late nineteenth century, thousands of Indigenous women journeyed hundreds of miles annually along the Pacific Northwest coast and converged around Puget Sound. They came to pick hops in the fields of farmers who occupied lands in western Washington. These migrants did not look like modern factory workers, yet they were laborers in a late-nineteenth-century incarnation of industrial agriculture. They came en masse to harvest a cash crop destined for sale on the global market, a crop internationally sought as a preservative and fl avoring for beer, a crop that could provide no sustenance to them or their families. Field workers were paid in cash wages, not in kind. This was no shop floor, but a labor hierarchy (both racialized and gendered) structured the conditions of their work all the same. --Introduction

The article reviews the book, "Le travailleur forestier québécois : transformations technologiques, socioéconomiques et organisationnelles," by Camille Legendre,.

Un syndicat de professeurs d’université n’est pas un syndicat comme les autres. L’individualisme inhérent au travail et à la culture professorale a toujours contribué à rendre plusieurs d’entre eux méfiants et plutôt réservés face à la solidarité syndicale. Chez les professeurs, le « nous » syndical s’est graduellement construit, par étapes, parfois dans la tourmente et la division. C’est ce cheminement des universitaires, cet «apprivoisement» du syndicalisme, qui est l’objet de ce volume. La conscience syndicale chez les professeurs commence véritablement à prendre racine avec la création du Syndicat des professeurs en 1966. Elle aboutit à la formation du SGPUM en 1972 et à son accréditation trois ans plus tard. Dans les années 1980 et 1990 l’utilité du syndicalisme ne fait plus de doute chez les professeurs, frappés par de faibles augmentations salariales, quand ce n’est pas des gels et des récupérations. Dans les années 2000, leur solidarité se renforce avec l’objectif de rattrapage des conditions de travail qui va culminer avec la première grève des professeurs en hiver 2005. Jacques Rouillard propose ici un historique de quarante ans de vie syndicale et de plus de cinquante ans de vie associative. Soucieux également d’insérer l’évolution du syndicat dans la trame générale de l’histoire du syndicalisme québécois, il accorde une large place dans cet historique aux négociations des syndicats des secteurs public et parapublic. --Résumé de l'éditeur

Working-class history is the story of the changing conditions and actions of all working people. Most adult Canadians today earn their living in the form of wages and salaries and thus share the conditions of dependent employment associated with the definition of "working class." -- Introduction

Les nouvelles relations industrielles en Europe centrale sont en partie le résultat du rejet du système communiste et des structures qui lui étaient associées. Mais la trajectoire empruntée par ces pays est également la conséquence de l’influence exercée par les firmes multinationales. Pour continuer à attirer des flux significatifs d’investissements étrangers, les pays d’Europe centrale ont défini des législations sur la protection de l’emploi moins contraignantes pour les employeurs qu’en Europe de l’Ouest et ont favorisé l’émergence de relations du travail et d’un gouvernement d’entreprise marqués par la liberté contractuelle. Les firmes multinationales, acteurs centraux dans ces pays, privilégient des relations industrielles décentralisées et « désintermédiées ». Les firmes multinationales qui se sont implantées en Europe centrale contribuent à engager ces pays sur une trajectoire qui fait la part belle à la liberté de négociation entre acteurs individuels.

The article reviews the book, "What's Class Got to Do with It? American Society in the Twenty-first Century," edited by Michael Zweig.

Nous posons dans le cas d’une monographie française (les syndicats Sud) la question de la régénérescence démocratique du syndicalisme bureaucratique. Malgré des référents politiques communs, notamment le souci de rénovation « démocratique » via la recherche de proximité avec la base, le réveil de l’action revendicative met aux prises des logiques d’action et des porteparole opposés au nom du réveil de sensibilités politiques divergentes, mais tous héritiers d’une même culture politique soixante-huitarde. Dimensions collectives et individuelles se mêlent donc à des problèmes de structure du syndicalisme, partagé entre deux conceptions contradictoires du contrôle (salarial ou social) ou de la démocratie (directe et indirecte). Le procès d’institutionnalisation contredit la réactivation des référentiels politiques du syndicalisme français, tandis que le procès d’individuation sociale accentue le rôle des individus dans un contexte de rareté de l’action collective.

In 1971, the word "Texpack" became a flashpoint of political attention, debate, and anger for labour activists across Canada. Many mobilized to support strikers at Texpack's small textile firm in Brantford, Ontario, though some trade unionists from the Canadian Labour Congress (CLC) turned their backs on the independent Canadian union, the Canadian Textile and Chemical Workers Union (CTCU), leading the strike. The significance of Texpack lay not simply in this stark manifestation of schisms within the house of labour, but rather in the strike's central role as a touchstone for political debates concerning economic and Left nationalism, and what kind of unions best served Canadian workers. This article explores the strike as a microcosm of broader political struggles of the period, particularly questions of nationalism and internationalism of unions. --From introduction

The article reviews the book, "The Other Women's Movement: Workplace Justice and Social Rights in Modern America," by Dorothy Sue Cobble.

The article reviews the book, "East Asian Welfare Regimes in Transition: From Confucianism to Globalization," edited by Alan Walker and Chack-kie Wong.

The article reviews the conference papers, "Y-a-t-il une politique européenne d’emploi, de sécurité professionnelle et de dialogue social ?," from the Conférence EUROCAP, Nantes, février 2006.

This dissertation examines Canada's constitutional question through the lens of the labour movements in both English Canada and Quebec. The existence of two distinct labour movements in Canada has meant that political struggles that have typified national politics are also in evidence in labour politics. The sovereignty-association partnership agreement between the Canadian Labour Congress and the Quebec Federation of Labour provides a good example of the pervasiveness of this dynamic and discourse. The dissertation examines this relationship specifically, and the constitutional politics of labour organizations in English Canada and Quebec, more generally, with a view to explaining how Canada's constitutional questions have been reflected in the politics of organized labour.

Case study of workers in a large Toronto-based hotel and their campaign first to attain just working conditions, and then to retain them in the face of the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) crisis of 2003 that disrupted the Toronto hospitality industry.

An extensive review of recent academic and union literature, highlighting the varying experience and approaches to union renewal in differing institutional and environmental context and its general lessons for Canada. [The authors] discuss the meaning and concepts of union renewal, its rational and major thesis, key renewal strategies, comparative experience, obstacles to change and facilitating factors and the challenges of union renewal in the Canadian setting. --Editors' introduction