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The article reviews the book, "Industrial Restructuring with Job Security: The Case of European Steel," by Susan N. Houseman.

Introduces five sets of documents that shed light on the early years of the Communist Party of Canada and the RCMP security apparatus that surveilled and infiltrated it. The materials include in-camera CPC bulletins and reports, transcripts of secret speeches by Pan-American Bureau agent Charles Scott to party members in Regina and Edmonton, RCMP correspondence with the UK's Special Branch, and RCMP security bulletins. The materials were released by the Public Record Office in London, England, and through a freedom-of-information request with the Canadian Security Intelligence Service. Concludes that the documents are indicative of the close relationship between Canadian and British security agencies and their joint preoccupation with the threat of international communism.

The article reviews the book ,"Family Violence and the Women's Movement: The Conceptual Politics of Struggle," by Gillian A. Walker.

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.

This dissertation is an examination of bureaucracy, class, and ideology in the labour movement. It seeks to understand what is meant by the term labour bureaucracy and to determine the degree to which bureaucracy shaped ideology in the Vancouver Trades and Labour Council from 1889 to 1909. -- The first section is an analysis of the theoretical literature and historiography of the labour bureaucracy. As well as providing an overview of the topic, the thesis tries to formulate a different definition of the labour bureaucracy, one that focuses on the power of the bureaucrats, rather than their ideology. The second section is a study of the officials and leaders that made up the VTLC from its beginning in 1889 to the founding of the B.C. Federation of Labour twenty years later. In this section, the ideology of the council is examined to evaluate the impact of bureaucracy on the labour movement. The policies and structure of the council are studied in detail to show how the separation of the leaders from the led developed over time and to demonstrate why bureaucratic solutions - the hiring of experts, reliance on government intervention, the routinization of procedures, and the creation of labour institutions - were taken and to outline the effect they had. The conflict between labourists and socialists is examined closely to suggest first that bureaucracy is not limited to labour leaders of any single ideology, and second, that the needs of the labour movement and the demands of bureaucracy itself tended to soften ideological battles. Even with the ascension of socialists to the council in 1907-1909, continuity remained the hallmark of the labour council, in part because socialists had no particular commitment to rank-and-file control of the labour movement. Finally, the lives and class positions of the labour leaders are illustrated to try to shed some light on the ways in which bureaucracy, class, and ideology become intertwined.

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.