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The article reviews the book, "Santé et sécurité. Un bilan du régime québécois de santé et sécurité du travail, 1885-1985," by Alain Pontaut.

Le concept des coûts indirects des accidents du travail a de tout temps intéressé les intervenants en santé et sécurité au travail. Les auteurs tracent son évolution depuis la première étude d'Heinrich en 1931 jusqu'à ce jour. Ils constatent une très grande hétérogénéité dans les résultats obtenus par les études répertoriées. Ces écarts peuvent s'expliquer par des dissemblances au niveau des définitions, des méthodologies de recherche utilisées et des populations visées.

Although many US/Canadian differences in union recognition law have been adequately analyzed, some have been overlooked — particularly differences in the frequency with which labor boards on both sides of the border dismiss unfair labor practice (ULP) cases, and the speed and fairness with which they expedite their ULP litigation. This paper analyzes these differences in detail, referring for Canada to the Ontario Labour Relations Board. It shows why they are important, how they stem from national differences in governmental structure, how they interact with other aspects of union recognition policy, and how they affect outcomes in certification cases and ultimately union growth.

Reviewed: La Crise d'Octobre 1970 et le Mouvement Syndical Québécois. Cardin, Jean-François.

...This study describes and analyzes the extent to which work, as a philosophical concept and as an economic reality, influenced the lives of working-class children in late nineteenth-century urban Ontario. Chapter I examines the impact of industrialization and urbanization on the working-class family and describes how the concepts of work and social control intersected to feed the development of welfare programmes based on middle-class objectives. Chapter II examines the conditions and experiences of children in the paid labour force, focussing particularly on the family economy, labour legislation, and the response of reformers and trade unionists. In addition, chapter II discusses the link between a child's economic responsibilities and his or her opportunities for personal development and social mobility. Chapter III applies the themes of chapter II to youngsters who worked in the home and on the street. Chapter IV describes the work experiences of children who spent part of their early lives in orphanages or foster homes and analyzes the reform impulse behind this style of welfare. Chapter V applies the themes of chapter IV to youngsters committed to reformatories, refuges, and industrial schools. Chapter VI examines the treatment, work experiences, and social development of needy British children who filled the roles of agricultural labourers and domestic servants in Canadian homes and discusses the motivations behind this programme. Chapter VII examines the connection between youngsters' work responsibilities and school attendance and analyzes the education system's approach to the issue of children and work. Throughout the text, the thesis argues that child labour composed a critical element of a complex social culture, deeply rooted in a capitalist economy, that defined work in both a material and philosophical sense. At the material level, working children made essential contributions to families that could not survive in the city on parental wages alone. Simultaneously children provided cheap labour for self-serving employers in industrial, commercial, and domestic settings. At the philosophical level, most members of nineteenth-century society believed that hard, honest work held the key to life-long success and happiness. This view prevailed among middle-class reformers who additionally believed that child labour under proper supervision would preserve social order and avoid future welfare costs by creating a class of efficient and compliant workers. The failure of this culture of work to balance its social and economic motivations, however, led to suffering and exploitation for youngsters more often than it created personal opportunity and social harmony. As the poorest, most powerless, and least secure members of industrial society, children of the working class most visibly bore the scars inflicted by a social system designed to serve middle- and upper-class interests.

The article reviews the book, "American Labor and Postwar Italy, 1943-1953: A Study in Cold War Politics," by Ronald L. Filipelli.

The early 1930s witnessed the deterioration of truck relationships between fishermen and merchants in Battle Harbour, a Newfoundland fishing community located on the coast of Labrador. By taking advantage of changes in the fishery, more prosperous fishermen began to deal with other firms, undercutting Baine, Johnston's domination of Battle Harbour. As Baine, Johnston withdrew winter credit, poorer fishermen threatened the firm with direct, violent action which neither the merchant nor the state were able to deal with except by granting relief. Such actions by Battle Harbour fishermen indicate that they were able to step outside the supposed limits of the culture of their kin-based villages, and confront directly the exploitation of merchant capital in the cod fishery.

The article reviews the book "Seafaring Labour: The Merchant Marine of Atlantic Canada, 1820-1914," by Eric W. Sager.

The article reviews the book, "Silver Islet: Striking It Rich in Lake Superior," by Elinor Barr.

Reviewed: Le Conflit de l'Autorité: Onze Mois de Grèves à Marine Industrie. Lamoureux, François.

This is a story about accidents of litigation. When people contend for control over principles, personality, identity, possessions, freedoms, power - it is not exceptional that they should seek resolution through «third party intervention»: a friend, a priest - even the legal system. It is inevitable that the process of intervention generates «spin-offs» which the contestants did not seek or want, but which nevertheless take on a life of their own. Such is the case with Paccar¹• The litigants wanted to know from the Labour Rela­tions Board of British Columbia whether the employer could make unilateral changes to terms and conditions of employment after the collec­tive agreement expired but before the employer recovered the right to lock out....

The article reviews the book, "Essays in the History of Canadian Medicine," by Wendy Mitchinson and Janice Dickin McGinnis.

The article reviews the book, " Industrial Relations In Japan, The Peripheral Workforce ," by Norma J. Chalmers.

A study investigated union and firm preferences for bargaining outcomes in the Canadian private sector. In a survey, firm and union respondents were asked to rate the absolute importance of obtaining 12 categories of bargaining outcomes, such as union security, overtime and premium pay, technological change, and fringe benefits, if they were to negotiate an entirely new collective bargaining agreement with their current union or firm. A conceptual model of the process of bargaining outcome determination was presented. The results showed that firms ranked wages and pay guarantees, employee security, worker-management relationship, and hours and days of work categories the highest. The highest ranked categories by unions were employee security, union security, and wages and pay guarantees. The exploratory regression results for the determinants of individual outcome rankings revealed that different variables determined the rankings of the parties. Union characteristics, such as gender composition of memberships and affiliation, had differential effects on the rankings of the outcomes.

This article studies the initial organization and development of the St John's Longshoremen's Protective Union in the years 1890 to 1914. Undoubtedly the city's most important union the LSPU organized all waterfront workers in the city, including the numerous boys who worked on the docks, and later extended the organization to include the city's sanitation workers. Through militancy and frequent strikes the LSPU established a permanent presence in St John's. The success of the LSPU is contrasted with the experience of longshoremen in Atlantic Canadian ports to raise questions about earlier interpretations of class solidarity within merchant capital.

The article reviews the book, "Histoire de la Clinique des citoyens de Saint-Jacques (1968-1988). Des comités de citoyens au CLSC du plateau Mont-Royal," by Robert Boivin.

Au Canada, l'apparente stabilité du mouvement syndical dissimule une tendance de fond au déclin du syndicalisme dans le secteur privé. En complément des hypothèses traditionnellement avancées pour expliquer le déclin dans les taux de syndicalisation, les auteurs ont eu l'idée de vérifier l'incidence du développement de la petite entreprise sur l'évolution des effectifs syndicaux dans quatre grands sous-secteurs du secteur privé de l'économie canadienne. Pour ce faire, ils ont eu recours à un modèle économétrique de détermination des effectifs syndicaux tenant compte de l'influence de l'emploi, du chômage, de la densité syndicale déjà atteinte et de la politique de contrôle des prix et des revenus. Dans un modèle dont le degré d'explication s'est avéré passablement élevé, l'influence du développement de la petite entreprise s'est montrée significative et telle qu'attendue, uniquement dans le sens où ce développement caractérise principalement une part importante et croissante des nouveaux emplois créés.

The article reviews the book, "The Modern Grievance Procedure in the United States," by David Lewin and Richard B. Peterson.