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The article reviews the book, "Touched with Fire: Morris B. Abram and the Battle against Racial and Religious Discrimination," by David E. Lowe .

Le modèle social historique que connaissent la plupart des pays industrialisés s’est bâti sur des fondations solides qui, à l’instar du théâtre classique, repose sur ces trois unités : unité de lieu de travail (l’atelier, la fabrique, l’usine, le bureau), unité de temps de travail (les horaires de travail hebdomadaires, les périodes de repos) et unité d’action (l’organisation collective du travail). Or, après avoir connu, vers la fin du 20e siècle, des « fissurations » dans l’unité de lieu avec le développement de la sous-traitance, des chaînes de valeur mondiales et la coordination d’entreprises subordonnées, l’économie de plateforme et les nouvelles formes d’externalisation du travail qu’elle permet contribuent, aujourd’hui, à éroder l’ensemble de ces fondements, à tout le moins dans certains segments de l’économie, ce qui a pour effet de «liquéfier» le travail et de fragiliser ce modèle social historique. Le travail dans l’économie de plateforme échappe aux régulations de lieux, de temps et de l’organisation collective. Autrement dit, pour les travailleurs de plateforme, il n’y a pas de locaux d’entreprise, pas de collègues, pas d’horaires, pas de représentants du personnel, pas non plus de règlements en matière de santé et de sécurité, pas de prévention des accidents du travail, pas de congés payés, pas de négociation collective, pas d’assurance-maladie… Cette nouvelle forme de fragilisation et de précarisation des travailleurs donne lieu, depuis quelques années, à l’expérimentation de pratiques innovantes, parmi lesquelles la création de collectifs autonomes, l’organisation d’actions collectives, la construction de cahiers de revendications, mais aussi le répertoire d’action plus traditionnel du mouvement syndical : sensibilisation, organisation, négociation. Certes, ces stratégies sont confrontées à des obstacles inédits tels que la difficulté à identifier le responsable de la relation de travail, l’absence de lieu de dialogue social, la confusion concernant le statut du travailleur, la difficulté à organiser ces îlots de travailleurs éparpillés en l’absence de lieux d’échange entre eux. Malgré leurs limitations, ces expérimentations sociales peuvent être vues comme l’embryon d’un modèle social adapté à l’économie de plateforme et, plus largement, à la généralisation du numérique dans l’économie.

Well-resourced libraries are core to advancing the goals of the academy and the work of faculty and students. Often overlooked due to their small numbers, what challenges do librarian and archivists face in the workplace and how can we ensure they are supported? --Editor's note

The article reviews the book, "Equal Justice: Fair Legal Systems in an Unfair World," by Frederick Wilmot-Smith.

Increasing processing times for immigration applications and increasing numbers of people admitted on temporary visas mean that more newcomers spend longer periods of time living in Canada with restricted rights and uncertain if they will be able to remain. This has contributed to an increase in precarious immigration status, which refers to a sense of insecurity caused by ones formal immigration status. The purpose of the dissertation is to examine how people are affected by living for prolonged periods of time with uncertainty about future residence and how these effects vary across space and time. The study, based on qualitative research with migrants in Toronto and people who work on migration issues, investigates how immigration status is performed in everyday life and how immigration status intersects with other social relations to produce distinctive affective textures of life in Toronto. The research shows that formal immigration status affects people differently depending on their migration motivations, capacities, and community support networks. Lack of reliable information about the time required to become eligible for permanent residence and application processing times make it more difficult for people to make decisions about how to orient themselves towards the future, the present, and the passage of time in ways that meet their needs. It identifies two salient temporal orientationssuspending or embracing engagement with everyday lifeeach of which comes with benefits and risks. Finally, the research suggests that contemporary practices of immigration control can lead to an internalization of discourses that construct people with precarious immigration status as unworthy of membership in Canadian society. Participants sought to undermine these discourses through narrative redefinition of themselves as people who have something to contribute but are stopped from doing so. I find that this resistance is necessary to peoples ability to persist, yet it has a limited effect on the harm done. The research findings contribute to scholarly understandings of formal immigration status and the slow violence of living with precarious immigration status.

The article reviews the book, "Revenge of the She-Punks: A Feminist Music History from Poly Styrene to Pussy Riot," by Vivien Goldman.

The article reviews the book, "Au-delà de l’entreprise libérée : Enquête sur l’autonomie et ses contraintes," by Thierry Weil and Sophie Dubey.

Covers perspectives on the evolution of labour law in Canada and the US since the 1980s. Argues that labour law in the future will trend toward sectoral bargaining or some other form of broad-based bargaining, although there will be foreschocks in the nearer term. The paper was presented as the H.D. Woods Lecture at the Annual Conference of the Canadian Industrial Relations Association, Vancouver, May 2019.

Ce texte a initialement été présenté à titre de Conférence H. D. Woods dans le cadre de la Conférence annuelle de l’Association canadienne des relations industrielles (ACRI/CIRA), en mai 2019, à Vancouver.

[This second edition] presents a comprehensive overview of all aspects of Canadian employment and labour law. Ideal for a non-legal audience, this resource considers the social context in which these laws are made and draws from various disciplines, including economics, management studies, and history. Through short, focused chapters, students will be introduced to the three regimes of work law: common law, regulation, and collective bargaining. Notable legal cases and explanations of key concepts are featured throughout, alongside practical problem-solving exercises and discussion questions that invite readers to apply the law to real-life workplace scenarios. --Publisher's description

Canadian Labour Relations: Law, Policy, and Practice, 2nd Edition offers non-legal students an in-depth exploration of work-related law, policy, and current issues. Topics include the unionization process, collective bargaining, regulation of unions, industrial conflict, collective agreement administration, and notable court decisions. Practical problem-solving exercises and questions are featured throughout in order to help readers apply the law to real-life scenarios. This edition includes updated legislation, mock arbitration and negotiation scenarios, and an entirely new section that explores key policy issues and debates. --Publisher's description. "The text is a companion volume to The Law of Work: Common Law and the Regulation of Work. It provides an in-depth exploration of the unionization process, collective bargaining, the regulation of unions, industrial conflict, collective agreement administration, and more." Contents: Part I. The law of work : themes, frameworks, and perspectives. Canadian law of work in a nutshell -- A framework for analyzing the law of work -- Key perspectives that shape the law of work -- What is employment? -- Part II. The collective bargaining regime. Introduction to the collective bargaining regime and the Canadian labour movement -- A brief history of labour and the law -- Why do workers join unions and what effects do unions have on business? -- The unionization process -- Unfair labour practices and the right to organize -- Collective bargaining and making a collective agreement -- The law of industrial conflict -- The collective agreement -- Grievances, the labour arbitration, and "just cause" in the unionized workplace -- The regulation of unions : legal status, the duty of fair representation, and decertification -- Public sector labour relations -- Part III. The Charter of Rights and Freedoms and work -- Globalization and the law of work : international labour law and trade law -- Part IV. Issues and debates in industrial relations and collective bargaining. Issue: card-check or mandatory vote: which model better measures employees' desire to unionize? -- Issue: is the Wagner model of collective bargaining good for Canadian workers? -- Issue: should minority unionism be recognized and promoted in Canadian labour policy? -- Issue: should Canada adopt right to work laws? -- Issue: should the use of replacement workers be prohibited? -- Issue: should public sector workers have the right to strike? -- Issue: Has the Charter advanced labour rights?

This study analyzes the new sophistication of the organized labour movement and labour’s relationship to politics in a period of rapid change for the Lakehead. ““The CCF is not a Class Party”” argues that, between 1944 and 1963, the organized labour movement and the Cooperative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) at the Lakehead underwent parallel structural developments against the backdrop of conservative social forces in the postwar period that, by the end of the 1950s, necessitated a merger of the two formally distinct entities. The amalgamation of labour and politics, resulting in the formation of the New Democratic Party (NDP), is best examined through the political career of Douglas Fisher, who first represented the CCF and, later, the NDP in Port Arthur. The debate surrounding the ‘New Party’ idea in the late 1950s at the Lakehead is reflective of the uneasy relationship between labour and politics that had formed throughout the postwar period.

Les restructurations d’entreprises sont des réalités socio-économiques importantes depuis au moins trois décennies. À la suite de la crise de 2008-2009, ces tendances, loin de se résorber, se sont accélérées et ont poussé les représentants des salariés à investir de nouveaux champs d’action stratégiques pour contester, avaliser ou influencer les restructurations. Ces mobilisations syndicales ne sont pas sans faire apparaître de contradictions dans les fonctions représentatives des salariés. Cet article propose d’analyser ces stratégies et leurs résultats à travers une comparaison internationale de quatre syndicats locaux dans deux contextes nationaux différents (France et Canada). Sa thèse principale est que ces stratégies se doivent d’être analysées au-delà des contextes institutionnels propres et selon la notion de pouvoir syndical « de », c’est-à-dire des capacités associées aux acteurs sociaux. Trois registres d’action sont identifiés, à savoir « d’opposition », « de coopération » et « d’inventivité ». L’apport de cet article est, à la fois, de souligner l’importance du pouvoir syndical, mais de l’interroger dans la durée, les stratégies d’urgence à la suite d’annonces de restructurations prenant des directions diverses. Bien que cette analyse diachronique relativise la centralité du pouvoir syndical, celui-ci demeure capital à l’heure où les régimes institutionnels subissent d’importantes transformations.

This article explores the long-run relationship between financialization and union density in Canada’s non-financial sector. Drawing on critical political economy literatures, we argue that the shareholder business model, the growing use of financial assets and leading global industries have led to a restructuring of labour markets and unionized workforces. Evidence from panel data analysis suggests that the negative relationship between financialization and union density holds when controlling for economic context and sectoral characteristics. We conclude that the sectoral impacts of financialization on union density – especially in highly financialized sectors such as manufacturing, extractive resources, transport and warehousing – are critical to understanding union decline and recent changes to employment relations.

The article reviews the book, "Red Round Globe Hot Burning: A Tale at the Crossroads of Commons and Closure, of Love and Terror, of Race and Class, and of Kate and Ned Depard," by Peter Linebaugh.

For three decades, the wages, benefits, and language British Columbia’s faculty associations are able to negotiate have been restricted by the government. How do workers mobilize and challenge the PSEC regime and its iron grip on the province’s public-sector bargaining? --Editor's note

The article reviews the book, "Whistleblowing. Toward a New Theory," by Kate Kenny.

With #metoo dominating headlines and an unprecedented number of women running for office, the fight for women’s equality has perhaps never been higher on the political agenda. Around the world, women are fighting against unfair working conditions, restrictive abortion laws, and the frayed social safety net. The same holds true within the business world—but there’s a twist: even as some women argue that pushing for more female CEOs would help the struggle for equality, other activists argue that CEOs themselves are part of the problem, regardless of gender. In Feminist Thinking about Work, Susan Ferguson explores the history of feminist discourse, examining the ways in which feminists have conceptualized women’s work and placed labor, and its reproduction, at the heart of their program for emancipation. Engaging with feminist critiques of work, Ferguson argues that women’s emancipation depends upon a reorganization and radical reimagining of all labor, and advocates for an inclusive politics that reconceptualizes women’s work and work in general. --Publisher's description. Contents: The Labour Lens -- Work, Character and Independence -- Domestic Labour as Work -- Emancipation Through Women’s Waged Labour? -- A Political Economy of ’Women’s Work’: Producing Patriarchal Capitalism -- Capitalism’s Complex Social Reproductive Labour: Forces of Dehumanization and Resistance -- Productivist Feminism and Anti-Work Politics.

The article reviews the book, "Live at the Cellar: Vancouver’s Iconic Jazz Club and the Canadian Co-operative Jazz Scene in the 1950s and '60s," by Marian Jago .