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In April 2004, the Hospital Employees' Union (HEU) waged an illegal strike that mobilized sections of British Columbia's working class to the brink of a general sympathetic strike. Influenced by BC's class-polarized political culture and HEU's distinct history, the 2004 strike represents a key moment of working-class resistance to neoliberal privatization. HEU was targeted by the BC Liberal government because it represented a bastion of militant, independent unionism in a jurisdiction that appeared overripe (from the neoliberal standpoint) for a curtailment of worker rights and a retrenchment of public-sector employment. HEU also represented a direct barrier, in the language of its collective agreements and collective power of its membership, to the privatization of health services and dismantling of Medicare. The militant agency of HEU members, combined with anger generated by a constellation of social-service cutbacks, inspired rank-and-file workers and several unions to defy collective agreements and embrace sympathetic strike action. This revealed differentiation in the strategy and tactics of BC's labor leadership, and enduring sources of solidarity in labor's ranks.

The article reviews the book, "The Embedded Corporation: Corporate Governance and Employment Relations in Japan and the United States," by Sanford M. Jacoby.

The article reviews the book, "Sex Traffic: Prostitution, Crime and Exploitation," by Paola Monzini.

This article analyzes the complex employment position of temporary workers within organizations and on the labour market. Temporary employment is usually considered secondary to permanent employment. In recent years, the European Union and the Dutch government have attempted to change this situation by formulating several directives and labour laws. In this paper, we use institutional theory to discuss the institutional foundations and influences that shape the employment and labour-market conditions of temporary workers. The analysis shows that the core issues regarding temporary employment conditions include conflicting (legitimate) interests, socially constructed norms that favour permanent workers, and an uneven distribution of power. Our analysis further shows that institutional forces generate a structural justification for the disadvantaged position of temporary workers.

The article reviews the book, "Self-Employed Workers Organize: Law, Policy and Unions," by Cynthia J. Cranford, Judy Fudge, Eric Tucker and Leah F. Vosko.

The article reviews the book,"Reclaiming the Land: The Resurgence of Rural Movements in Africa, Asia and Latin America," edited by Sam Moyo and Paris Yeros.

The article reviews the book, "Social Policy and Practice in Canada: A History," by Alvin Finkel.

The article reviews the book, "'Nous protégeons l'infortune,' les origines populaires de l'économie sociale au Québec" by Martin Petitclerc.

The article reviews the book, "Obstructed Labour: Race and Gender in the Re-emergence of Midwifery," by Sheryl Nestel.

The article reviews the book, "Imagining Difference: Legend, Curse and Spectacle in a Canadian Mining Town.," by Leslie A. Robertson.

In its ruling in B.C. Health Services, the Supreme Court of Canada relied on Canada's obligations under international law, and specifically ILO law, to hold that s. 2(d) of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms on freedom of association not only protects the right of unions to engage in collective bargaining, but also imposes on employers a duty to bargain. The author is critical of the Court's reasoning in advancing the latter proposition, particularly because Canada has not ratified the ILO convention on collective bargaining and therefore is not bound by its provisions. Moreover, he points out, the central tenet of that convention is that ratifying states are required to encourage voluntary - not compulsory - negotiations between employers and workers. The author goes on to note that Canada, in virtue of its membership in the ILO, is covered by that body's 1998 Declaration, which identifies freedom of association as a "core labour right," and also can be the subject of a complaint before the Committee on Freedom of Association (CFA). However, he explains, neither the Declaration nor the CFA procedure results in conventions being binding on non-ratifying states. Furthermore, the Declaration's purpose is merely to "promote" key principles, such as freedom of association; while the CFA is not a judicial body, and its decisions are considered neither binding nor authoritative. In the result, the Supreme Court, partly as a consequence of its misreading of Canada's international law obligations, has constitutionalized a particular model of labour relations - one that is peculiar to North America, even though that model is only one of many ways in which the international law norm of freedom of association can be instantiated and made enforceable. Ultimately, the author concludes, the problem with B.C. Health Services, as with earlier decisions, lies in the Court's refusal to apply the Charter guarantee of equality under s. 15, thus forcing s. 2(d) to do a job for which it is not suited.

The article reviews the book, "Death in the Haymarket: A Story of Chicago, the First Labor Movement & the Bombing That Divided Gilded Age America," by James Green.

The article reviews the book, "Drawing the Line: The Untold Story of the Animation Unions from Bosko to Bart Simpson," by Tom Sito.

Dans le contexte d’une catastrophe industrielle qui a entraîné la fermeture d’une usine chimique, les auteurs analysent le rôle que jouent la mémoire sociale et l’expérience antérieure au sein de l’organisation dans la construction de perspectives temporelles ouvertes sur des projets de reconversion, de mobilité ou de retraite anticipée. Les résultats obtenus par une analyse lexicale informatisée (ALCESTE) des entretiens semi directifs menés auprès de 15 salariés de l’usine permettent d’identifier quatre principales catégories de discours : 1) transition vers la préretraite, 2) Plan Social et possibilités de reconversion, 3) professionnalisation du métier, 4) spécificités du secteur d’activités. Pour chacune d’elles sont examinées les relations entre les modalités d’inscription des sujets dans la mémoire sociale et la définition de leurs perspectives temporelles futures. Cette étude permet d’appréhender les processus de construction de nouveaux rapports à l’organisation de travail à l’oeuvre dans une situation de transition spécifique, marquée par son caractère traumatique et son incertitude.

The emergence of internationalized production in the context of weakening state regulation of labour rights and of increasing employer dominance in industrial relations systems raises significant questions about the nature and future of worker representation. A crucial issue is the transferability of company-specific models of worker voice across national boundaries. This issue is the focus of this case study of Magna International, a leading member of a small group of transnational automotive parts manufacturing firms that are central to the contemporary restructuring of the international automotive industry. The paper compares the transformation of worker representation at Magna in Canada and Mexico. In crossing international borders, the Magna industrial relations model has taken on national and local features of the host country. However, the underlying industrial relations structure is one which has elicited a successful reconfiguration and containment of much, although by no means all, of the adversarialism inherent in labour-management relations. This reconfiguration has aligned worker representation to an essentially unitarist project oriented to management's productivity goals. More than merely suppressing independent unions, Magna has constructed a coherent, management--dominated model of worker representation in both Canada and Mexico. The paper concludes with an assessment of the implications of this model for independent unionism.

The article reviews the book, "Not This Time: Canadians, Public Policy and the Marijuana Question 1961-1975," by Marcel Martel.

The article presents information on the Just Society Movement (JSM) of Canada which consists of mothers with the aim of empowering the poor. A non-hierarchical structure that encourages different people to take leadership positions within the organization was advocated by the group. Advocacy and disruptive protest were believed to be the key to JSM success.

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.]

The article reviews the book ,"The Right to the City: Social Justice and the Fight for Public Space," by Don Mitchell.

The article reviews the book, "Bora Laskin: Bringing Law to Life," by Philip Girard.