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The courier industry in Canada is rapidly expanding. This is due to a number of factors including greater international trade in goods; more use of just-in-time inventory strategies; and the rapid development of internet commerce. Significant technological and organizational developments within the industry have led to greater segmentation of markets. As a result, large national and international parcel delivery firms dominate the international and intercity markets, while there has been a proliferation of smaller firms in the same-city, same-day markets. The research findings from a case study conducted in Winnipeg reveal that couriers in certain parts of the industry are relatively well paid, with benefits and employment conditions negotiated by their union, while others are independent contractors with low incomes, no benefits and insecure tenure. The article compares the experience of these two types of couriers and examines what is being done to improve the terms and conditions of work for same-day couriers. It is concluded that nature of the same day courier industry means that union organizing will be very difficult and there is no guarantee of success. Unionization, however, is a necessary prerequisite for the improvement of conditions and wages in this growing industry.

Focuses on considering community unionism as a strategy for labor organizing with emphasis on autonomous community-based labor group organizational model. Background on the concept of community unionism; Information on the two examples of community unionism, the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty and the National Mobilization Against Sweatshops; Limitation of community unionism in making the type of economic gains for their members that a trade union can through collective bargaining.

The article reviews the book, "La gestion environnementale et la norme ISO 14 001," by Corinne Gendron.

The article reviews the book, "Le malaise des soignants : le travail sous pression à l’hôpital," by Yvan Sainsaulieu.

The article reviews the book,"Les cadres : grandeur et incertitudes," by Olivier Cousin.

The study aimed to determine whether the incidence and duration of certified sick leave (CSL) among nurses had increased during major restructuring of the health care system in the province of Quebec, and to determine whether nurses exposed to adverse psychosocial factors at work showed an increased incidence of CSL. It involved nurses working in 13 health facilities. Sickness absence data were retrieved from administrative files (n = 1454). Incidence of CSL for all diagnoses and for mental health problems was examined. Telephone interviews were conducted to measure psychosocial factors at work with validated instruments. There was an increase in CSL among nurses during the restructuring, particularly for mental health problems. Modifiable adverse psychosocial work factors were identified and provide basis for interventions. Since human resources are the mainstay and primary resource of the health network, it is essential that people be able to perform their work under optimal conditions.

Si la gestion des compétences est encore un sujet d’actualité à la fois pour les gestionnaires de ressources humaines et pour bon nombre de responsables d’entreprise, c’est que l’objet même de cette gestion ne cesse de prendre de l’importante au sein des nouveaux systèmes productifs et face aux nouvelles contraintes de l’environnement. Pourtant, ces nouvelles approches, dont on parle beaucoup, sont peu et mal connues, et ne sont que très rarement mises en perspective au plan international. Il peut donc être intéressant, partant d’un enjeu « théoriquement » similaire — la compétence — de voir de quelle façon ces logiques et ces modes de gestion ont été conceptualisés, instrumentés et implantés de chaque côté de l’Atlantique. L’analyse conduit à observer que si les deux systèmes se sont constitués de façon contingente, et que certains facteurs lourds leur sont encore associés aujourd’hui, d’autres forces poussent vers une certaine standardisation, pour ne pas dire universalisation des approches dans ce domaine désormais central de la gestion des ressources humaines.

The article reviews the book, "Masters, Servants, and Magistrates in Britain and the Empire, 1562-1955," edited by Douglas Hay and Paul Craven.

The article reviews the book, "Emmeline Pankhurst: A Biography," by June Purvis.

The article reviews the book, "Florence Nightingale and the Health of the Raj," by Jharna Gourlay.

The book Handbook of Work Stress, by Julian Barling, E. Kevin Kelloway, and Michael R. Frone, is reviewed.

A major demand of public sector unions in recent years has been for greater control over their members’ pension plans. Recently, several provincial governments, most notably British Columbia, have agreed to joint trusteeship, a development which gives union trustees a voice in investment policy. This article focuses on the implications for union trustees of investments in Public Private Partnerships (P-3s) and related privatization initiatives. Examples of such investments include: transportation infrastructure projects, hospitals and health services, schools, municipal water and sewer systems, electrical utilities, and other projects that, historically, have been within the public sector. It argues that trustees should be wary of such investments. Public sector unions have criticized privatization initiatives as a threat to public sector jobs and services. P-3 investments are problematic because they may threaten the jobs of their union’s members, undermine the credibility of their union’s public policy objections to privatization and, in the end, may prove far more risky than P-3 promoters contend.

The article reviews the book, "Multitude: War and Democracy in the Age of Empire," by Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri.

A renewal of the study of public sector unionism in Canada is long overdue. This article explains why public sector unions deserve more attention from researchers than they have received of late and proposes that studies of public sector unions would benefit from adopting a new theoretical framework that conceptualizes contemporary unions as not only labour relations institutions but also as particular kinds of working-class movement organizations within a historically-specific class formation. It also identifies two obstacles to the production of accounts of contemporary public sector unions from this perspective.

The article reviews the book, "What's Class Got to Do with It? American Society in the Twenty-First Century," edited by Michael Zweig.

Le présent article interroge l'action syndicale en France dans un contexte caractérisé par une remise en cause de la loi relative à la réduction de la durée du travail. En prenant appui sur le cas d'un établissement qui s'engage dans un processus d'allongement de la durée du travail, l'auteur retrace le cheminement parcouru par les acteurs en présence qui débute par la renégociation de la règle sur les 35 heures pour aboutir à l'invention d'une nouvelle régulation entre salariés et direction. Loin d'abroger les lois Aubry, ce mouvement d'allongement de la durée du travail questionne la capacité des acteurs à mener des négociations collectives. // This paper questions the way French trade unions have dealt with the effects of the legislation purporting to limit maximum working time to 35 hours per week. The research is based on a case study of a manufacturing firm. The author examines the ways in which local actors evolved from the negotiation over the implementation of the 35 hour work week to the development of new relationships between the employees and their employer. In this specific case study, the negotiation actually ended up lengthening working time. This result does not deny the importance of working time legislation but it does call into question the capacity of local unions to achieve in collective bargaining the objectives set out legislatively.

The article reviews the book, "Workplace Equality: International Perspectives on Legislation, Policy, and Practice," edited by Carol Agocs.

We examine the connections between neo-liberal forms of state restructuring and intervention in disabled people’s lives, looking in particular at how these have affected disabled women’s experi- ences of an income support program, the Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP), in Ontario, Canada. We first outline why and how state programs have been re-designed and imple- mented in increasingly harsh ways as a result of such neo-liberal forms of state restructuring. Even groups formerly considered among the ‘deserving poor’ have found their access to social assistance diminished. We then argue that this is an outcome of state programs, policies and practices which are re-asserting and more deeply entrenching ‘ableness’ as a necessary condition of citizenship, inclusion and access to justice. Finally, we illustrate how disabled women’s lives and well-being have been altered as a result of changes in the provision of these forms of state assistance using in- depth semi-structured interviews conducted with 10 women in Ontario.

The article reviews the book, "Farm to Factory: A Reinterprétation of the Soviet Industrial Revolution," by Robert C. Allen.

The article reviews the book, "Industrial Relations in China," by Bill Taylor, Chang Kai and Li Qi.