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The article reviews the book, "Telecommunications: Restructuring Work and Employment Relations Worldwide," edited by Harry C. Katz.

The article reviews the book, "The Cultural Front: The Laboring of American Culture in the Twentieth Century," by Michael Denning.

The article reviews the book, "Ale, Beer and Brewsters in England: Women's Work in a Changing World, 1300-1600," by Judith M. Bennett.

What kinds of associations did Canadian 'civil servants' form in the postwar period? Why and how did they learn to become 'uncivil', transforming themselves into militant unionists during the 1980s and 1990s? These questions are addressed theoretically and empirically through a case study of the Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC). In 1966, PSAC leaders adopted a consultative, harmonious approach to staff relations, organizing the newly formed union to reflect the federal civil service's structure and practice. Class and gender divisions were submerged, hidden beneath the historical and ideological construction of the civil service as a distinctive, politically neutral category. Cracking apart of the unity of federal 'civil servants' began to occur in the 1960s. Class and gender divisions started to come to the fore with the expansion of the Canadian federal state, the increase of women in administrative support roles, and the enactment of collective bargaining rights. During the 1970s and 1980s, working class formation and capacity developed within the Canadian labour movement in concert with feminism, even though the legal structuring of labour relations continued to limit this class and gender formation. In this respect the Public Service Staff Relations Act and the Public Service Employment Act continued to reproduce the practices of the social category of civil servants. Nevertheless, within the PSAC, collective bargaining, the right to strike and the pay equity provisions of the Canadian Human Rights Act produced openings for learning and strategizing around subordinate class and gender issues and demands. Predominately female clerical workers, successfully challenged the structure and practices of the traditional 'civil service' associations. They learned to strategize and to incorporate a working class, feminist discourse into the union's practices. In the process the demand for pay equity was redefined and transformed into a demand of wage equity for all members, thus becoming a source of solidarity during the PSAC's 1991 general strike. PSAC activists learned to use openings in state structures to transform union agency, despite the existence of a legal regime that continues to constrain the development of working class and feminist capacities.

The article reviews the book, "[Chicago Radio Station] WCFL: Chicago's Voice of Labor, 1926-78," by Nathan Godfried.

The article reviews the book, "The Philosophy of Railways: The Transcontinental Railway Idea in British North America," by A.A. den Otter.

The article reviews the book, "Bedside Matters: The Transformation of Canadian Nursing, 1900-1990," by Kathryn McPherson.

In the years following World War II, the Newfoundland fishing economy was transformed from a predominantly inshore, household-based, saltfish-producing enterprise into an industrialized economy dominated by vertically-integrated frozen fish companies. The state played a critical role in fostering this transformation, and one aspect of its involvement was the creation of a "modern" fisheries workforce. Although women's labour had historically been an integral part of the inshore fishery, state planners assumed that women would withdraw from direct involvement in economic activities. Indeed, the male bread-winner model, the dominant gender ideology of western culture (but not of Newfoundland outport culture at the time), was embedded in state economic policies for the Newfoundland fishery in the post-World War II period. Training men to become more efficient, technologically-trained harvesters and offshore trawler workers became central concerns. Although the attempts to recruit young men as trawler crews were not entirely successful, this and the other examples of the government's mediating role helps illustrate the complexity of economy, state and gender ideology, all involved in the construction of a new fisheries workforce.

The article reviews the book, "Farewell to the Factory: Auto Workers in the Late Twentieth Century," by Ruth Milkman.

The article reviews the book, "Love in the Time of Victoria: Sexuality and Desire Among Working-Class Men and Women in Nineteenth-Century London," by Francoise Barrel-Ducrocq.

This paper examines the relationship between new forms of work organization and worker empowerment from the perspective of workers. The data is drawn from a survey of 5,635 Canadian automobile workers. Workers were asked questions about their work-load, health and safety conditions, empowerment, and relations with management. It examines what it is like to work in plants organized according to the principles of lean production and compares empowerment in lean plants and traditionally organized plants.

There was an electric feeling in the air as hundreds of people gathered to honour the strikers and pay tribute to the three miners killed in [Estevan] on Black Tuesday. A Highland Pipe band played while the crowd visited, ate hot dogs and were entertained by a Miners' Choir formed especially for the occasion. The crowd was receptive to all speakers, but saved its loudest applause for [Pete Gemby].

The MWUC was an affiliate of the revolutionary Workers Unity League (WUL) which promoted the class struggle. On August 25, 1931 James Sloan, president of the MWUC, arrived in [Estevan] and organized a meeting. Practically every miner in the field showed up. After a rousing speech on the miners' plight and the objectives of the MWUC [Mine Workers' Union of Canada], more than 600 miners signed up. Government officials and the coal owners saw the danger in these demands and attempted to reduce the threat by bringing more RCMP into the area. When negotiations commenced on October 19, L. Maurice, MWUC vice - president, who had travelled from Calgary to act as an advisor to the miners, was expelled from the meeting. Although the coal owners refused to recognize the MWUC, they did agree to recognize the pit committees and granted a number of other demands for better working conditions and wages. The Saskatchewan Federation of Labour is commemorating the 1931 strike and riot in order to honour these miners and educate the public about our labour history. The public event will take place at the miners' coal car by the Court House in downtown Estevan on May 10, 1997.

This article is based on Final Report: The Effects of Plant Closing or Threat of Plant Closing on the Right of Workers to Organize. The report was commissioned by the tri-national Labor Secretariat of the Commission for Labor Cooperation (the NAFTA labor commission) "on the effects of the sudden closing of the plant on the principle of freedom of association and the right of workers to organize in the three countries."

English/French abstracts of articles published in the issue.

English/French abstracts of articles published in the issue.

List of recent publications by the Committee.