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La Cour suprême des États-Unis a récemment décidé, dans l’affaire Janus, que le précompte syndical imposé par la législation de l’Illinois aux employés de l’État viole les libertés d’expression et d’association que leur garantit la constitution américaine. Cette décision met en évidence le statut profondément différent dont bénéficie la Formule Rand au Canada, où elle est considérée comme un élément essentiel du régime de négociation collective de type Wagner qui prévaut à l’échelle national. Non seulement est-elle partout permise, mais la législation l’a rendue obligatoire, d’une façon ou d’une autre, dans une majorité de juridictions canadiennes, notamment au Québec. De plus, la Cour suprême du Canada a reconnu, il y a de cela près de 30 ans, que le précompte syndical obligatoire n’entravait ni la liberté d’association ni la liberté d’expression protégées par la Charte canadienne des droits et libertés.

The United States Supreme Court has recently ruled in the Janus Case that the agency shop (mandatory dues check-off) imposed by Illinois law on state employees violates the freedom of expression and association guaranteed by the US Constitution. This decision underscores the profoundly different status enjoyed by the Rand Formula in Canada, where it is considered an essential element of the nation-wide Wagner-type collective bargaining system. Not only is it permitted everywhere, legislation has made it mandatory, in one way or another, in a majority of Canadian jurisdictions, including Quebec. Furthermore, almost 30 years ago, the Supreme Court of Canada recognized that mandatory dues check-off did not interfere with the freedom of association or expression protected by the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

"Regulating Strikes in Essential Services" offers a comparative perspective on one of the most sensitive areas of industrial relations: strike in essential services. Designing a fair, effective and acceptable regime that will reconcile public interest and the public's need for an uninterrupted flow of essential services on the one hand, while maintaining the freedom of collective bargaining on the other, is an ever more difficult public policy challenge. This book, the first detailed analysis of existing legal and practical approaches across a spectrum of key national jurisdictions, provides a structured and insightful overview of the law and practice of regulating strikes in essential services. As such it could be of great value for public policy debate and the enhancement of national law in the field. --Publisher's description

For nearly fifty years, Professor Harry Glasbeek has been at the forefront of legal scholars and public intellectuals challenging assumptions and understandings about the injustices embedded in the economic, social, political and legal orders of Western capitalist democracies. His writings and teachings have influenced generations of law students, academics and activists. [This book] brings together eleven incisive contributions from pre-eminent scholars across several disciplines activated by the same desire for democracy and justice that Glasbeek advances, showing how capitalism shapes the law and how the law protects capitalism. This collection foregrounds a class analysis of the laws responses to corporate killing, workplace violence, surveillance, worker resistance and income inequality, among other issues. --Publisher's description

This article assesses whether a deterrence gap exists in the enforcement of the Ontario Employment Standards Act (ESA), which sets minimum conditions of employment in areas such as minimum wage, overtime pay and leaves. Drawing on a unique administrative data set, the article measures the use of deterrence in Ontario’s ESA enforcement regime against the role of deterrence within two influential models of enforcement: responsive regulation and strategic enforcement. The article finds that the use of deterrence is below its prescribed role in either model of enforcement. We conclude that there is a deterrence gap in Ontario.

The Canadian Labour Bibliography was an initiative of the Committee on Canadian Labour History in the 1970s. The initial efforts to create an annual reading list of publications dealing with Canadian labour topics led to the creation of The Labour Companion: a bibliography of Canadian labour history based on materials printed from 1950 to 1975. ...The enthusiasm that greeted The Labour Companion prompted Greg Kealey, then teaching at Dalhousie University, to obtain a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council grant for a much larger product – a comprehensive reading list of books, pamphlets, articles and theses pertinent to the Canadian labour experience (the labour movement, trade unions, living conditions, key legislation, etc.). The intent was to build on the 1980 bibliography and to catalogue the published record on the Canadian working class from earliest times to 1985. Items of more recent vintage have crept in, but no effort was made to deal comprehensively with the entire published record from the late 1980’s forward. To locate that material, researchers should consult Michael Lonardo’s Canadian Labour History Bibliography, an electronic compilation covering 1976 to 2009, found at Memorial University Library https://www.library.mun.ca/qeii/labour/ --Introduction

In an original and striking study of migration management in operation, Disrupting Deportability highlights obstacles confronting temporary migrant workers in Canada seeking to exercise their labor rights. Leah F. Vosko explores the effects of deportability on Mexican nationals participating in Canada's Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program (SAWP). Vosko follows the decade-long legal and political struggle of a group of Mexican SAWP migrants in British Columbia to establish and maintain meaningful collective representation. Her case study reveals how modalities of deportability—such as termination without cause, blacklisting, and attrition—destabilize legally authorized temporary migrant agricultural workers. Through this detailed exposé, Disrupting Deportability concludes that despite the formal commitments to human, social, and civil rights to which migration management ostensibly aspires, the design and administration of this "model" temporary migrant work program produces conditions of deportability, making the threat possibility of removal ever-present. --Publisher's description

The year 2017 marked the ten-year anniversary of the Health Services case, a precedent-setting decision by the Supreme Court of Canada that ruled collective bargaining is protected by the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. This article explores the impact and legacy of BC Health Services, and finds that while workers’ constitutional rights have been expanded under the Charter over the past decade, governments nevertheless continue to violate these rights. It concludes that the legacy of the case is not an enhanced level of protection for these rights to be enjoyed fully, but rather that the default option has been and will continue to be a financial penalty for the state in instances in which they violate workers’ rights.

Few occurrences in modern times have produced the social upheaval, fear, and hatred that were seen during the Red Scare of 1919. Few events have brought forth such a frenzy of mob action and intolerance, or can match the excitement and drama. One of life's coincidences led me to study one of the manifestations of the Red Scare: the trials that grew out of the Winnipeg General Strike of 1919. Their prominent place in Manitoba's legal history has made them deserving of the title "The Great Canadian Sedition Trials." --From author's prologue

When the "Kirkland Lake gals of 1941" begin to share their story with a present-day audience, a siren sounds and they soon find themselves pulled right back into the fateful winter of 1941-42. There, they gather again at the mine-head, waiting for word on the men trapped underground, as their fear and rage builds. When the husband of one of the women is badly injured, their desire to help her quickly leads them into a much larger campaign to help all the families they can. Before long, they've become the heart and soul of a large-scale union-organizing drive that is fuelled by their sheer will - and sometimes giddy enthusiasm - but that is also put to the test by their own inexperience, a bitter strike, and the brutal force of the powers-that-be. --Publisher's description

The article reviews the book, "Research Handbook of Employment Relations in Sport," edited by Michael Barry, James Skinner and Terry Engelberg.

The inside story of how two important Canadian unions decided to create a new kind of union with new ways of fighting for worker's rights In the fall of 2011 the leaders of two of the biggest Canadian unions, Canadian Auto Workers union (CAW) President Ken Lewenza and Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada (CEP) President Dave Coles, found common ground. The labour movement was in crisis. They faced hostile governments, union busting corporations, and declining membership. Something drastic needed to be done. Fred Wilson was an insider in the process by which the leaders of these two large organizations found a way to create a new kind of union, one that was more democratic, more inclusive, and more powerful. Two years later, a new union with a new name was founded. From its inception, Unifor has been a source of optimism and inspiration that a fairer, more secure future can be won for working people, and that unions can adapt to changing times and remain a relevant voice for workplace and social justice. This book describes how this came about. --Publisher's description

The article reviews the book, "Just Watch Us: RCMP Surveillance of the Women's Liberation Movement in Cold War Canada," by Christabelle Sethna and Steve Hewitt.

An index-based approach to indicate the outcome of Occupational Health and Safety management has been commonly used in the implementation of the International Safety Management Code and the operation of Occupational Health and Safety management systems in the international shipping industry. Although the index-based approach is asserted to be a convenient way to measure and quantify the outcome of Occupational Health and Safety management, it is not justified in the wider literature and further empirical research is suggested by various authors. The aim of this study is to explore the role of an index-based approach in managing Occupational Health and Safety in the shipping industry. This article investigates the effectiveness of indicators in Occupational Health and Safety management in two Chinese chemical shipping companies. A qualitative approach is applied to examine the views of seafarers on safety reporting practice. The study reveals that, although the need for reporting is understood by most of the crew members, the reporting practice is significantly affected by different factors such as the crew’s concerns for their own interests, Chinese cultural factors and management’s dominant power over the crew’s performance evaluation. The findings suggest that there is a significant gap between what is required by the rules and what really occurs in terms of safety reporting practice. The study highlights the emerging problems of using Occupational Health and Safety indicators as benchmark for measuring the outcome of Occupational Health and Safety management in Chinese shipping. The conclusion is drawn in a Chinese context, and although the findings may not be similar to other industries or the shipping industry in other countries, they provide valuable indications for re-thinking and re-shaping maritime regulatory strategies.

The article reviews the book, "Informal Workers and Collective Action: A Global Perspective," edited by Adrienne E. Eaton, Susan J. Schurman and Martha A. Chen.

The article reviews the book, "Precarious Lives: Job Insecurity and Well-Being in Rich Democracies," by Arne L. Kalleberg.

The article reviews the book, "We Still Demand! Redefining Resistance in Sex and Gender Struggles," edited by Patrizia Gentile, Gary Kinsman, and L. Pauline Rankin.

The article reviews the book, "England's Great Transformation: Law, Labour, and the Industrial Revolution," by Marc Steinberg.

The article reviews the book, "Be Wise! Be Healthy! Morality and Citizenship in Canadian Public Health Campaigns," by Catherine Carstairs, Bethany Philpott, and Sara Wilmshurst.

The article reviews the book, "The Great Cowboy Strike: Bullets, Ballots, and Class Conflicts in the American West," by Mark Lause.