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Inadequate work performance and incompetence have often been considered by Canadian labor arbitrators within the context of promotion, demotion and transfer cases. However, these issues have also frequently arisen, in the last decade, as the primary issues in discipline and discharge cases as well. Inappropriate employee behavior falls into 2 categories: culpable behavior (intential actions) and nonculpable behavior (no-fault action). A culpable failure to perform one's duties is referred to as nonperformance. In cases of culpable behavior, a disciplinary approach is appropriate and required. An analysis of a number of arbitration awards is conducted. It is believed that the distinction between culpable work performance and nonculpable incompetence must be maintained and clearly understood by the management, unions and arbitrators. The distinction is necessary to the achievement of consistency and fairness in dealing with problems of nonculpable incompetence and inadequate work performance in the workplace.

Even though there has been an significant increase in the number of women entering the Canadian labor force, there has been little impact on their labor market status. The serious labor market plight of women has focused attention on such issues as pay and employment equity, family responsibility-related leaves, better child care facilities, equal treatment and opportunities, and a nondiscriminatory working environment free from sexual harassment. These issues have become a major part of the Canadian labor movement's active legislative and bargaining agenda in recent years. A number of selected unions are evaluated to demonstrate the effectiveness of unions' efforts toward incorporating these issues into their collective agreements. Findings indicate that union efforts to achieve a better deal for women have had mixed success.

The article reviews the book, "A Word To Say: The Story of the Maritime Fishermen's Union," by Sue Calhoun.

Cette recherche concerne un sujet peu étudié dans la littérature en gestion des ressources humaines. Il s'agit des rôles de base d'un «service» de ressources humaines. Théoriquement, un certain nombre de rôles fondamentaux lui sont attribués par divers auteurs, aussi bien aux États-Unis, au Canada, en France qu'en Grande-Bretagne. Cependant, il n'existe pratiquement pas d'études empiriques pour appuyer ces rôles tels que conçus. La présente recherche a permis, dans un premier temps, de développer un modèle servant à circonscrire le domaine concernant les rôles des services de ressources humaines. Un questionnaire portant sur six rôles considérés fondamentaux d'après ce modèle a par la suite été élaboré et administré à un échantillon de 264 organisations américaines de divers secteurs industriels.

The article reviews the book, "Women, Minorities and Unions in the Public Sector," by Norma M. Riccucci.

Discusses Rudyard Kipling's poems, "The Cry of Toil," "The Song of the Dead," and "Tommy," which were lampooned by the Industrial Workers of the World. Concludes that, although Kipling was the bard of the British empire, his sympathy for the common soldier influenced the parodies. Both the Kipling and IWW texts are included in the article.

Takes note of forthcoming conferences and the continuation of the Marx-Engels Gesamtausgabe with the signing of an agreement between the Amsterdam-based International Marx-Engels Foundation and the Conference of German Academies of the Sciences.

Reports on the Randall B. Smith Collection on the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) at the New York Public Library. Smith (1916-1989) was a civil war veteran who, in addition to collecting a variety of resources, tape-recorded interviews with other veterans. Takes note of forthcoming conferences.

The article reviews the book, "Class Formation and Urban-Industrial Society: Bradford, 1750-1850," by Theodore Koditschek.

The article reviews the book, "On the Move: French-Canadian and Italian Migrants in the North Atlantic Economy, 1860-1914," by Bruno Ramirez.

The article reviews the book, "Canada," by Ernest Ingles.

Compilation of recent English/French publications on Canadian labour history that emphasize the period 1800-1975. Materials pertaining to the post-1975 period may also be included, although more selectively. See the database, Canadian Labour History, 1976-2009, published at Memorial University of Newfoundland.

In recent years, both profit sharing and employee ownership have experienced a dramatic resurgence of interest in most western countries. As companies have attempted to find ways of dealing with difficult economic circumstances and increased global competition, they have become receptive to these concepts. However, both types of plans find opponents within the labor unions. A recent study describes the incidence and general nature of employee profit sharing and share ownership in Canada, based on telephone interviews with chief executive officers of 626 Canadian firms conducted during 1989 and 1990. The results indicate that there has been a dramatic growth in both of these during the past decade, despite the absence of strong legislative support, and that this growth will likely continue for some time.

The article reviews the book, "Understanding Employee Ownership," by Corey Rosen and Karen M. Young.

The article reviews the book, "The Age of Light, Soap and Water: Moral Reform in English Canada, 1885-1925," by Mariana Valverde.

The article reviews the book, "Crafting Selves: Power, Gender, and Discourses of Identity in a Japanese Workplace," by Dorinne K. Kondo.

The article reviews the book, "An Economic History of the English Poor Law, 1750-1850," by George R. Boyer.

Conference paper that provides background and assesses the current state of politics and the labour movement in Eastern Europe in the wake of the collapse of the Communism. Concludes that Canadian labour should be in the vanguard of world support for the development of unions that advance the social, economic and democratic project in those countries.

The article reviews the book, "Politics and War: European Conflict from Philip II to Hitler," by David Kaiser.

During the early 1920s the Communist Party of Canada (CPC) established a significant presence in industrial Cape Breton, based on support from the militant minority of the district's unusually combative coal mining union, UMWA District 26, and its charismatic Secretary-Treasurer James Bryson McLachlan. The latter's early recruitment was centrally important in forging what would become enduring political links with rank-and-file militants; it was largely thanks to McLachlan that, through all the ebb and flow of social context and human agency, the party survived the vicissitudes of deteriorating structural conditions and its own tactical blunders (most notably during the ‘third period’), to emerge in the mid-130s with genuinely optimistic prospects. The Scot did not always lead his forces well: like many revolutionary contemporaries his bolshevik temperament was ill-suited to defensive struggle. He nevertheless perceived, and to a limited extent acted upon, the need to construct a defensive communist counter-culture within the struggle for workers' power in the community and the workplace. The embodiment of bolshevik intransigence, McLachlan offered a fixed rallying-point for ‘class fighters,’ especially those who shared his internationalist perspective. Having drawn a new layer of younger militants towards him in 1934-35—and having seen off the CCF in the process—McLachlan could claim to have placed the CPC in its strongest position for a decade.