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Industrial Relations in the New Europe: Enlargement, Integration and Reform, edited by Peter Leisink, Bram Steijn and Ulke Veersma, is reviewed.

Cette recherche vise à aider à la compréhension de l’implication organisationnelle des salariés contingents grâce au cadre de la justice organisationnelle. Elle repose sur une étude empirique par questionnaire réalisée auprès de 183 salariés permanents et 71 contingents, embauchés pour une durée déterminée. Nos résultats démontrent le pouvoir explicatif des perceptions de justice sur l’implication. Ils soulignent la sensibilité des salariés contingents à la façon dont ils sont traités dans l’organisation et montrent que les entreprises n’ont pas intérêt à considérer les salariés contingents comme une main-d’oeuvre périphérique, peu encline à s’engager dans l’organisation. Sur la base des analyses effectuées, l’article propose une réflexion sur les effets du statut d’emploi et en tire des implications managériales., The traditional work relationship performed on a full-time basis with a single employer is tending to lose its hegemony. Polivka and Nardone (1989) defined these new work arrangements as contingent in opposition to permanent work positions. According to these researchers, contingent work includes “any job in which an individual does not have an explicit or implicit contract for long-term employment and one in which the minimum hours can vary in a non-systematic way” (1989: 11). Traditionally, contingent work includes part-time work, temporary work, “in-house” temporary arrangements and independent work. Today, these forms of employment represent a significant and growing proportion of the workforce in western countries. This research is dedicated to “in-house” temporary workers in the French context. Indeed, little research has dealt with this subject (Connely and Gallagher, 2004). The behaviours of this type of workers are quite unknown. Moreover, Conway and Briner (2002) point out that research which focuses on contingent work does not often use an explicit theoretical framework which may be helpful in understanding the organizational behaviours of contingent workers. In line with their recommendations, this study aims to identify the role of organizational justice on contingent workers’ organizational commitment and to show if established relationships are similar according to employment status (i.e., contingent or permanent). On the one hand, organizational justice perceptions have significant effects on several attitudes and behaviours (Colquitt, 2001) but this effect has rarely been tested on contingent workers. On the other hand, the employment status is likely to have an influence upon the relationships between organizational justice and organizational attitudes and behaviours. Moreover, according to the fairness heuristic theory (Lind, 2001) which describes the shaping of justice judgments and their use, it seems that a fixed-term relationship with the organization may lead contingent workers to focus primarily on the interactional aspects of their organizational treatment. This research is based on an empirical study carried out with a sample of 181 permanent employees and 71 contingent employees in French private clinics. The moderator effect of work status was tested with hierarchical regression analysis. The results partially support the predictions. However, they show the significant effects of justice perceptions on commitment, in the case of permanent workers, as had been already demonstrated in previous research, but also in the case of contingent workers, which has been less shown, especially for “in-house” temporary workers and in the French context. Nevertheless, the results show a moderator effect for work status on the relationship between informational justice and commitment. Several observations are drawn from these results. First of all, the results demonstrate that contingent workers are sensitive to the treatment they experience within their organization and that it influences their commitment as well as is the case for permanent workers. Therefore, organizational commitment of the permanent and contingent workers is significantly and positively influenced by their distributive, procedural and interactional justice perceptions. Secondly, the effects of informational justice are different according to job status. Indeed, the effect of informational justice is weaker in the case of contingent workers than in the case of permanent workers. These results present theoretical and practical interest. Firstly, they support and extend the predictive power of organizational justice upon commitment, mainly established in the context of traditional work. Thus, the organizational justice framework seems to be useful for the analysis of a non standard employment relationship. Moreover, this kind of employment arrangement may not be seen as an economic one as long as contingent workers seem to value the social aspects of their relationships with their organization. Secondly, our results show that according to the type of employment relation, the effects of justice perceptions may be different, even if this difference is marginal. For this reason, organizations could have an interest in implementing differentiated management of their workforce according to work status. We believe that the nature of the detected moderator effect does not decrease the importance of informational justice perceptions. It rather underlines the inappropriateness of the information given to contingent workers. Trombetta and Rogers (1998) have put the emphasis on this information and its appropriateness upon the organizational commitment of nurses and nursing auxiliaries. Thus, it seems of great importance to make sure that the explanations and information delivered to contingent workers are accurate and relevant. We also believe that our results reinforce the role of the direct supervisor. Because the direct supervisor is in charge of the integration of contingent workers within the service or the team, these supervisors have a key role. It could be necessary to make them aware of this. Therefore, the organizations which use contingent work arrangements should implement a specific human resource management approach in order to reap the benefits of quantitative work flexibility., Esta investigación pretende ayudar a la comprensión de la implicación organizacional de los asalariados eventuales gracias al enfoque de la justicia organizacional. Se basa en un estudio empírico por cuestionario realizado con 183 asalariados permanentes y 71 eventuales, contratados por un tiempo determinado. Nuestros resultados demuestran el poder explicativo de las percepciones de justicia sobre la implicación. Sobresale la sensibilidad de los asalariados eventuales respecto a la manera como son tratados en la organización y se muestra que las empresas no tienen interés en considerar los asalariados eventuales como mano de obra periférica, no muy favorable a comprometerse con la organización. Sobre la base de los análisis efectuados, el artículo propone una reflexión sobre los efectos del estatuto de empleo y deduce las implicaciones para la gestión.

The article reviews the book, "The World Bank: A Critical Primer," by Eric Toussaint.

The article reviews the book, "Wobblies on the Waterfront: Interracial Unionism in Progressive-Era Philadelphia," by Peter Cole.

The article reviews the book, "Black and Blue: African Americans, the Labor Movement, and the Decline of the Democratic Party," by Paul Frymer.

The article reviews the book, "Gay Men and the Left in Post-War Britain: How the Personal Got Political," by Lucy Robinson.

[In this bibliographic essay which focuses on historical studies of Chinese labour,] ... I summarize Western interpretations of pre-1949 Chinese labour and identify broad differences separating Western interpretations of Chinese labour movement trends from those conceived by Chinese scholars. Next, I present a discussion of major debates in labour historiography to shed some light on the different perspectives adopted by Chinese labour scholars relative to other social historians. Finally, I examine a number of factors that contribute to Chinese labour historians’ reticence to embrace and adapt newer models, and conclude by noting that beneath the apparent consistency of message characterizing pre-1949 Chinese labour studies in general, political and social changes are having a subtle impact on the ways in which Chinese labour historians depict the working-class. --Author's introduction

The article reviews the book, "The Cinema of Globalization: A Guide to Films About the New Economic Order," by Tom Zaniello.

The article focuses on the Indigenous Foundation of the Resource Economy of British Columbia's north coast. It discusses the emergence of capitalist resource extraction, and the canneries and village-based labour in the region. It also highlights the combined forestry, fisheries work, and harvesting of traditional food resources by Ts'msyen people until the middle of the 20th century.

This paper focuses on the impact of information and communication technologies (ICT) on the gender pay gap along the wage distribution. Our empirical analysis relies on two complementary French surveys conducted in 1998 and 2005 on a large sample of employees. We estimate quantile regressions and use a difference-in-difference strategy to assess the effect of new technologies. Both in 1998 and 2005, we find that the gender gap estimated for the group of ICT-users is not really different from the gap for non-users. Among ICT-users, wage differentials between men and women are mostly explained by a divergence in the rewards to identical characteristics.

The article reviews the book, "Psychological Socialism: The Labour Party and Qualities of Mind and Character 1931 to the Present," by Jeremy Nuttall.

This paper reports on a project that examines trends in North American labour movements, and specifically in the workforce, in the converging communications, culture, and information technology sectors. Drawing on documentary evidence and interviews, the paper concentrates on two important developments: efforts to unify workers across the knowledge and communication industries, and the rise of worker movements that operate in conjunction with, but outside, the formal trade union structure. The paper begins by situating these developments within debates about labour in a 'post-industrial', 'information', or 'network' society. It describes the challenges facing workers in the knowledge sector, especially rapid technological change, massive corporate consolidation, the rise of the neo-liberal state and divisions between cultural and technical workers in the knowledge sector. The paper proceeds to describe how North American workers are responding within the traditional trade union system, primarily through forms of consolidation or trade union convergence (such as the Communication Workers of America), and also through worker movements operating outside the traditional trade union system in the information technology and cultural sectors (for example WashTech and the National Writers Union). The paper concludes by addressing the significance of these developments. Do they portend a rebirth of North American labour activism or do they represent its last gasps?

Examines the Supreme Court's B.C. Health Services decision (2007) as a crucial change in the discourse of labour rights in Canada.

The article reviews the book, "Wal-Mart: The Face of 21st Century Capitalism," edited by Nelson Lichtenstein.

The article reviews the book, "Red Chicago: American Communism at Its Grassroots, 1928-1935," by Randi Storch.

By the mid-19th century, the Mi'kmaq of Cape Breton Island, much like the Mi'kmaq on the Nova Scotia mainland, were nearly destitute. The outcome of over two centuries of political, economic, and cultural interaction with Europeans, this condition was exacerbated by the massive influx of Scottish settlers to the island after the end of the Napoleonic Wars -- nearly 30,000 between 1815 and 1838. With their lands occupied and access to customary hunting and fishing grounds severely limited, the island's Mi'kmaw population -- estimated to be about 500 in 1847 -- adopted numerous economic initiatives to stay alive: they pursued agriculture and wage labour, mobilized older skills toward different occupational niches, and maintained, at least to some extent, customary rounds of seasonal resource procurement. This essay examines this evolving pattern of occupational pluralism, and highlights how customary norms, codes, and behaviours provided part of the logic through which the island's Mi'kmaw people made decisions about what to do, economically, to survive. Mid-19th century Cape Breton was a contested place as the forces of immigration and settlement exerted new pressures on Mi'kmaw life. This paper is about that changing context and how the island's indigenous people sought to understand it, negotiate its pressures and possibilities, and blunt its negative effects.

The article reviews several books including "Slave Ship Sailors and Their Captive Cargoes, 1730-1807," by Emma Christopher, "Liberty on the Waterfront: American Maritime Culture in the Age of Revolution," by Paul A. Glije, and "Villains of All Nations: Atlantic Pirates in the Golden Age," by Marcus Rediker.

The article reviews the book, "From Peasants to Labourers: Ukrainian and Belarusan Immigration From the Russian Empire to Canada," by Vadim Kukushkin.

This article proposes a study of the violation of contract process through a case study. The study is based on a discourse of the union, SUD Michelin, which is contrasted both with those of another union, the CFE-CGC Michelin and of the senior management of the corporation. The results highlight the possibility of applying Morrison and Robinson's (1997) Psychological Contract Violation model at the social contract level. The emotional reactions appearing in the literature, which are associated with contract violations, can be seen in the union discourse of the SUD. The other union does not perceive any breach of contract. These differences may be attributed to the very nature of social contracts-relational in the first case, and more balanced in the second.