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Drawing on a case study evidence from the automotive, steel, and glass making industries, this article examines the role played by the national union in shaping local unions' abilities to develop and sustain the capabilities critical to managing on-going workplace restructuring. Evidence suggesting the importance of 5 national union characteristics is presented. These characteristics are the breadth of the national union's representational coverage; the extent of its education and training focus on new workplace issues; the resources it devotes to research on the implications of new workplace practices; the presence of multiple communications channels; and its structuring of local union representation.

In this study of the relations between workers and the state, Judy Fudge and Eric Tucker examine the legal regulation of workers' collective action from 1900 to 1948. They analyze the strikes, violent confrontations, lockouts, union organizing drives, legislative initiatives, and major judicial decisions that transformed the labour relations regime of liberal voluntarism, which prevailed in the later part of the nineteenth century, into industrial voluntarism, whose centrepiece was Mackenzie King's Industrial Disputes Investigation Act of 1907. This period was marked by coercion and compromise, as workers organized and fought to extend their rights against the profit-oriented owners of capital, while the state struggled to define a labour regime that contained industrial conflict. The authors then trace the conflicts that eventually produced the industrial pluralism that Canadians have known in more recent years." "The book is simultaneously & history of law, aspects of the state, trade unions and labouring people, and their interaction within the broad and shifting terrain of political economy. The authors are attentive to regional differences and sectoral divergences, and they attempt to address the fragmentation of class experience. -- Publisher's description

Using gender as its analytic lens, this article examines segmentation in the Canadian labour market by focusing on the standard employment relationship. It illustrates how standard employment was crafted upon a specific gender division of paid and unpaid labour, the male breadwinner norm, and was only available to a narrow segment of workers. To this end, it traces how from the lOSO's the standard employment relationship was supplemented by a growth in jobs associated with, and filled primarily by, women workers and it shows how women's increasing labour market participation in the late 1960s and early 1970s shaped demands for equality in employment policies. Since the 1980s, a deterioration in the standard employment relationship has undermined both demands for and the basis of gender equality strategies and the article concludes by raising the question of the normative basis for regulating employment in order to move towards strategies for reregulation.

The article reviews the book, "Droit de l’arbitrage de grief," 5e édition, by Rodrigue Blouin and Fernand Morin

The article reviews the book, "Imagining Internationalism in American and British Labor, 1939-49," by Victor Silverman.

The article reviews the book, "Becoming Lean : Inside Stories of U.S. Manufacturers," edited by Jeffrey K. Liker.

The article reviews the book, "Learning from Saturn," by Saul A. Rubinstein and Thomas A. Kochan.

The article reviews the book, "Testing the New Deal: The General Textile Strike of 1934 in the American South," by Janet Irons.

This article discusses the potential advantages of large scale, government administered workplace surveys and the limitations of these surveys in the past. It then reviews and 1995 AWIRS, the 1998 WERS, and the 1999 WES in accordance with how well they appear to have succeeded in overcoming these limitations, and, more generally, with their implications for the conduct of industrial relations research. It is argued that the 1995 AWIRS does not appreciably overcome the limitations of previous surveys.

Three reports are reviewed: 1. Reports of the Advisory Committee on Labour Management Relations in the Federal Public Service, Ottawa, Canada, 2. First Report: Identifying the Issues, and 3. Second Report: Working Together in the Public Interest.

Montreal-born Moishe Wolofsky was a nineteen year-old unemployed university drop-out in 1930 when he and his friend Dick Steele took a job aboard an ocean vessel, beginning a journey that would change his life forever. Out of money, they stumbled into Russia and took jobs in a tractor factory. There, they became dedicated communists. Dragged back to Canada by his father, the well-known Jewish publisher, Herschel Wolofsky, he soon began a career as an organizer for the Communist Party of Canada. By then Moishe Wolofsky had become Bill Walsh. Still a very young man, he led the drive to organize the rubber workers in Kitchener and subsequently the auto workers in Windsor. Jailed and interned along with several hundred other Communists, upon his release Walsh fought overseas in Holland and Belgium. After the war he took a staff position with the United Electrical Workers in Hamilton, a job he retained for over two decades. After years of conflict with UE President C.S. Jackson, Walsh was forced to quit his job and subsequently the Communist Party. In the late 60s, he began a new career in labour arbitration. This is the story of how a young idealist became a Red and helped build industrial unionism in Canada. But it is also a story of romance and adventure. Walsh actively participated in many of the 20th century's historic events. Everything he did was touched with an intensity. He was a brilliant strategist and an extraordinary teacher. Because he never held high office either in politics, in uniform, or in any of the unions he was associated with, his contributions have gone unheralded. This book provides an inside, bottom-up look at some of the most important episodes in our trade union history as well as an insight into the functioning of a venerable communist-led union. --Publisher's description

The article reviews the book, "Free Trade: Risks and Rewards," edited by L. Ian MacDonald.

The article reviews the book, "Freedom and Security: An Introduction to the Basic Income Debate," by Tony Fitzpatrick.

The article reviews the book, "Stations of the Cross: Adorno and Christian Right Radio," by Paul Apostolidis.

The article reviews the book, "Health and Work: Critical Perspectives," edited by Norma Daykin and Lesley Doyal.

The articles traces the genealogy of the idea of work from the perspectives of philosophy, anthropology and sociology. Work is a productive action that also provides the means of existence. Precarious work, however, reveals the limits of this conception. Contrary to the "end of work" thesis, the author argues that work is integral to society, but in a form that does not take the people's labour rights into account, thus undermining their citizenship. This form of integration, which affects young workers especially, can be called "flexploitation." --From author's conclusion

Over the last 2 decades, Swedish capital has undergone a rapid internationalization. This has presented a significant challenge to the distinctive nature of the Swedish economy in general and its employment relations system in particular. A key question arising is: to what extent, and in what ways, are Swedish multinationals influenced by the distinctiveness of the country of origin in the way they manager their international workforces? This paper shows how the firm has adopted practices experienced in its foreign operations and deployed these throughout the corporation. The findings are explained with reference to managerial perceptions of the strengths and weaknesses of different "national business systems."

The article reviews the book, "Ghislain Dufour témoigne des 30 ans du CPQ," by Ghislain Dufour.

The article reviews the book, "Skills Mania: Snakeoil in our Schools?," by Bob Davis.

The article reviews the book, "Italy's Many Diasporas," by Donna R. Gabaccia.