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The article reviews the book, "Labour Left Out: Canada's Failure to Protect and Promote Collective Bargaining as a Human Right," by Roy J. Adams.

Taken together, the fiction and non-fiction writing of these two nineteenth-century Canadian intellectuals [Agnes Maule Machar (1837-1927) and Albert Richardson Carman (1865-1939)] suggests both the vitality of the public debate about labour reform, and the broad social interest and significance attributed to the labour question as one of the issues that would define the moral character of the period. Both Machar and Carman approach the labour question as Christian intellectuals, and their sense of the middleclass’s social responsibility is clearly articulated in both their novels and their essays. These writers suggest that what is needed is not an increase in charity but a rejuvenation of each citizen’s sense of moral responsibility. The idea of “brotherhood,” emphasized in the writing of both Carman and Machar, connects the church’s rhetoric of spiritual brotherhood to the labour reform movement’s emphasis on the practical brotherhood that unites workers and which is manifested in their drive toward combination and unionization. Machar and Carman’s own efforts as brainworkers who speak out about the urgent necessity for reform are echoed in their fictional heroes’ quest to create a more egalitarian society. --Author's conclusion

The article reviews the book, "Arc of Justice: A Saga of Race, Civil Rights, and Murder in the Jazz Age," by Kevin Boyle.

The article reviews the book, "Doing IT: Women Working in Information Technology," by Krista Scott-Dixon.

The article reviews the book, "United Apart: Gender and the Rise of Craft Unionism," by Ileen A. DeVault.

This article seeks to connect two seemingly distinct phenomena. Labour disputes in the nonprofit sector and the pressure nonprofits have undergone to become more economically and operationally efficient. The article describes the antics of some nonprofits in Ontario, and equates them with similar tactics that are employed by mega corporations that are notorious for their mistreatment of employees. The article endeavors to find a correlation between the mistreatment of employees by nonprofits and the ever-growing pressure, nonprofits have had to endure in recent years, to become more efficient. The author argues that the ethics of efficiency and corporate-like models of operation bring along other characteristics of for-profit businesses that may explain actions taken by nonprofits that are otherwise in direct contrast with everything they stand for.

The article reviews the book, "Cuba: A Revolution in Motion," by Isaac Saney .

The article reviews the book, "Corporate Integrity, Rethinking Organizational Ethics and Leadership," by Marvin T. Brown.

This paper examines the impact of enterprise bargaining on employment relations practices in the Australia automotive assembly sector in the context of the globalization of the industry. While there has been convergence towards lean production principles among the four auto assemblers, arising from global trends, there has also been divergence resulting from enterprise bargaining, among other variables. Strong similarities are apparent between the companies in areas such as work organization, skill formation and enterprise governance, whereas there are differences in remuneration and staffing practices. However, it remains to be seen whether decentralized bargaining will continue to yield greater differentiation in employment relations among the automotive manufacturers in an increasingly globalized industry.

Cet article examine le rôle de la médiation comme outil d’action sur la confiance entre les représentants de salariés et d’employeurs. La notion de confiance est appréhendée à travers les typologies de McAllister (1995) et de Lewicki et Bunker (1995b). Il apparaît que la médiation joue un rôle fort sur la dimension cognitive de la confiance, mais un rôle moindre sur sa dimension affective. Parallèlement, les dimensions basées sur le calcul et sur la connaissance sont fortement influencées, mais la médiation a un impact plus faible sur la dimension identitaire de la confiance. Une approche en termes de « contrat psychologique » peut alors aider à rétablir la confiance identitaire ou affective, bien qu’il puisse subsister une part de méfiance irréductible, liée aux blocages idéologiques. Cette réflexion est illustrée par une étude qualitative du « dispositif d’appui au dialogue social » mis en place par l’Agence nationale pour l’amélioration des conditions de travail (ANACT) en France.

The article reviews the book, "From Culture to Democracy: Culture and Politics in the Italian Elections of 1948," by Robert A. Ventresca.

The article pays homage to labour activist Danielle Cuisinier Dionne (1921-2006).

The industrial relations system at Magna International is an example of an integrated, coherent, non-union human resource management strategy. It includes significant mechanisms of worker voice and conflict resolution as substitutes for union representation. Potential labor-management conflicts associated with Taylorized labor processes are often translated into group problem-solving. Redistributive conflicts are re-framed as mutual gains through profit-sharing. Corporate communications promote an ethos of competitiveness. Individualized pay and promotion schemes, segmented internal labor markets, and the exposure of individual plants to competitive pressures, promote cultures of labor cooperation in the pursuit of productivity gains. The success of this union avoidance model is situated in a context of the erosion of unionized labor relations, the disciplinary effects of precarious labor markets, and the vulnerability of workplaces to transnational competitive forces. Continued success is predicated on Magna's ability to survive sectoral and macroeconomic restructuring forces which are, in large measure, beyond management's control.

The article reviews and comments on several books including "Every Man a Speculator: A History of Wall Street in American Life," by Steve Fraser, "Something for Nothing: Lick in America," by T. J. Jackson Lears and "Born Losers: A History of Failure in America," by Scott A. Sandage.

The article reviews the book, "Worker Centers: Organizing Communities at the Edge of the Dream," by Janice Fine.

The article reviews the book, "Men of Blood: Violence, Manliness and Criminal Justice in Victorian England," by Martin J. Wiener.

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.]

Much research on precarious employment compares permanent workers with one or two other broadly-defined employment categories. We developed a more refined method of examining precariousness by defining current employment arrangements in terms of job characteristics. These employment arrangement categories were then compared in terms of socio-demographics and self-reported job insecurity. This investigation was based on a cross-sectional population-based survey of a random sample of 1,101 working Australians. Eight mutually exclusive employment categories were identified: Permanent Full-time (46.4%), Permanent Part-time (18.3%), Casual Full-time (2.7%), Casual Part-time (9.3%), Fixed Term Contract (2.1%), Labour Hire (3.6%), Own Account Self-employed (7.4%), and Other Self-employed (9.5%). These showed significant and coherent differences in job characteristics, socio-demographics and perceived job insecurity. These empirically-supported categories may provide a conceptual guide for government agencies, policy makers and researchers in areas including occupational health and safety, taxation, labour market regulations, the working poor, child poverty, benefit programs, industrial relations, and skills development.

In two parts, the Notebook opens with "Steel-ing Cape Breton's Labour History," by Dan McDonald, who critiques "The Steel Plant in the Home," an exhibit at the Cape Breton Centre for Heritage and Science. McDonald also argues that Cape Breton's rich labour history has been trumped by the notorious Sydney tar ponds and a giant fiddle built as as tourist attraction. The second part, entitled "Report from the Archives: Records of the Joint Action Group to Clean Up the Sydney Tar Ponds," by Wendy Robicheau, discusses the 90 linear metres of unprocessed records received by the Beaton Institute from the Joint Action Group, a community-based organization dedicated to cleaning up the tar ponds.