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Benchmarking is being used extensively in management's drive to achieve ‘world class’ levels of performance. The majority of benchmarking studies have little if anything to say about working conditions or the tradeoffs between productivity improvements and the conditions of working life. This article is based on a study which focuses on working conditions as described by workers, raising questions about the tradeoffs betwcen work reorganization and the quality of working life under Lean Production. The results, based on a survey of 1670 workers at 16 different companies, suggest that work life under Lean Production has not improved. Compared with workers in traditional Fordist style plants, those at Lean companies reported their work load was heavier and faster. They rcported work loads were increasing and becoming faster. They reported it was difficult to change things they did not like about their job and that it was becoming more difficult to get time off. While our survey results suggest that working in traditional Fordist plants is far from paradise, they also suggest that working in Lean plants is worse. At a minimum, our results should be viewed as a wake-up call to those who have painted a positive picture of work under Lean Production.

English/French abstracts of articles published in the issue.

List of recent publications by the Committee.

The article reviews the book, "Gender and Racial Inequality at Work: The Sources and Consequences of Job Segregation," by Donald Tomaskovic-Devey.

Based on in-depth oral interviews with local residents, and rich archival sources, We Lived A Life and Then Some relates the common person’s struggle to overcome harsh working conditions and government neglect. The unique culture of the hardrock mining town of Cobalt is exposed through the eyes of retired miners, young welfare mothers, and grade-school children. Angus and Griffin reveal why, in spite of great adversity, Cobalt remains a distinctive and cohesive working-class community. --Publisher's description

This article chronicles the prosecution of two Chinese men under a 1912 Saskatchewan statute forbidding “Chinese” men from employing “white” women. The “Act to Prevent the Employment of female labour in Certain Capacities” was motivated largely by anti-immigration and racist attitudes, and white workers' concerns about the competitive pricing of Chinese goods and services. Its effect was to bar Chinese business owners from hiring the cheapest labour available in the province.

Historien reconnu à l'échelle internationale, Stanley Bréhaut Ryerson a été un précurseur par sa réinterpretation de l'histoire des peuples de Canada. Ses ouvrages se tiennent une place tout à fait singulièredans l'historiographie canadienne. Intelluelle d'envergure, il a su allier l'excellence scientifique à la responsibilité sociale ; tout au longue une carrière de plus de soixante années, il a conservé ce profil de militant et d'historien engagé. Sa recherche, toujours inspirée des problèmes de société, a été animée par des valeurs de justice, de solidarité et de liberté. Cet ouvrage auquel participent quatorze collaborateurs qui veut faire connaître le plus important historien Marxiste du Canada. Il vise égalment rétracer la trajectoire militante et le cheminement intellectuel progressiste qui a laissé derrière lui une œuvre fort imposante. --Description de l'éditeur

A question of concern to researchers in many advanced industrialized economies is whether new human resource management practices fit comfortably with the existing collective bargaining relationship in unionized establishments. Analysis of the current research, based on the 1990 national Workplace Industrial Relations Survey, indicates that an index of human resource management practices is negatively related to management reports of the quality of the existing employee-management relationship in unionized establishments, in contrast to the position in nonunion establishments. This finding is consistent with some existing case study research which indicates that human resource management practices are marginalizing the union-collective bargaining role in unionized organizations. Yet a case study of the paper industry indicates that such marginalization does not occur if the existing relationship is more of a joint problem solving one.

Discusses the papers on the labour history of Australia and Canada presented in the volume. Argues that more attention should have been paid to the factors that enabled union incorporation in Australia half a century in advance of Canada as well as to the labour aspects of both countries' export economies. Compares the Argentinean experience (the author is a Latin America specialist) with that of Canada and Australia. Concludes that, in the era of the neoliberal new world order, comparative studies like these are valuable since the labour movement is vital to the health of democracy.

Cet article examine le fonctionnement de quelque dix-sept comités paritaires de formation professionnelle mis en place aux niveaux local et sectoriel au Québec. La question posée est de savoir si de tels comités paritaires participent d'une évolution des relations du travail davantage axées sur la coopération dans un domaine, celui de la formation de la main-d’œuvre, normalement exclu du champ de la négociation collective ? Si la réponse est positive en ce qui concerne les comités sectoriels, au niveau des comités locaux les résultats de l'étude dégagent plutôt trois figures de relations du travail dont la plus importante demeure celle de relations mixtes faites à la fois de coopération et de conflit.

Describes the 10,000 pages of primary resources on the Mackenzie~Papineau Battalion dating from the Spanish Civil War (1936-38) and the 22,000 pages of materials on the Communist Party of Canada , the Comintern, and other internationals from the 1920s and 30s on microfilm at the Public Archives of Canada. The documents, which are mostly in English, were acquired in 1994-95 from the Russian Centre for the Preservation and Study of Records of Contemporary History, which preserves the archives of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. The organization follows the original structure and description of the fonds; subdivisions of records are identified, each with a separate file list. Included in the trove are eight substantial files, about 1,200 peges in all, on union activity and labour in Canada and Soviet-Canadian relations during the years 1943-1979. Concludes by noting that, had the Public Archives the funds, there are far more resources on the Canadian left and Soviet-Canadian relations that could be acquired from Moscow.

The article reviews the book "Taylored Lives: Narrative Productions in the Age of Taylor, Veblen and Ford," Martha Banta.

The aim of this paper is to identify and explain the main differences in the structures and strategies of the national union movements in Australia and Canada during the 20th century. Parallel historical narratives reveal that the differences between the two union movements ebbed and waned. They were most similar to each other in the 19th century and after the 1960s, while there was more convincing evidence of divergence in the intermediate period. Following Ross Martin, the explanation offered for these trends emphasises the relationships between unions, political parties and the state. The earlier growth of mass unionism and the political strategies adopted in Australia after their defeats in the 1890s produced more sympathetic state policies (specifically compulsory arbitration from around the turn of the century), which allowed Australian unions to prosper in ways which Canadian unions did not begin to enjoy until the 1940s. At the same time, differences in the types of state policies in the two countries subsequently affected both the structure of unions, Canadian unions being more fragmented at national level than their Australian counterparts, and the strategies they employed, Canadian unions relying more on decentralized collective bargaining compared to the more centralized arbitration approach of Australian unions.