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Nonstandard Work in Developed Economies: Causes and Consequences, edited by Susan Houseman and Machiko Osawa, is reviewed.

In 1987-1988, a national debate erupted in Canada on the desirability of entering into a free trade agreement with the USA and its potential effect on Canadian culture, society, and national sovereignty-as well as its economy. A national coalition of labour unions and civil society groups emerged to oppose such an agreement with the USA, and later its expansion to Mexico as the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). The coalition was hailed by members as a groundbreaking alliance between labour unions and civil society, as well as a new grassroots challenge to the neo-liberal economic policies of the government at the time. The experience led to a longer-term pattern of collaboration between unions and NGOs in Canada, but the coalition also experienced difficulties in reconciling the different approaches and goals of participants, which were resolved with varying degrees of success. This paper discusses the coalition in relation to gendered attitudes and practices; issues of representation and accountability; different approaches to organisation, hierarchy, leadership, and decision making; resource conflicts; class-based versus new views of challenge and social movements; and views within the Canadian labour movement on coalition work with civil society groups.

Originally prepared to provide background information and analysis for a Canadian Labour Congress conference on rebuilding unions in the Fall of 2003, this article maps trends in union density i.e., the proportion of workers covered by a collective agreement. It provides a short overview of the period since the mid 1980s, and a much more detailed analysis of the period from 1997 to 2002 for which detailed data from Statistics Canada's Labour Force Survey are available. Union density has trended down in the private sector to below 20% more because of a density decline among male blue collar workers than because of deindustrialization per se. Union density has remained high in public and social services, including outside the direct public sector, and this mainly explains why union density has held up much better among women than men. Union density is low, but relatively stable, in private consumer and business services. Density has fallen proportionately less in the higher union density provinces, particularly Quebec, and has fallen to well below average levels among private sector workers in the fastest growing provinces of Ontario and Alberta.

The article reviews the book, "No Turning Back: The History of Feminism and the Future of Women," by Estelle B. Freedman.

This study focuses on the effectiveness of the federal Employment Equity Act (EEA). We assess the EEA with regard to visible minority employees using quantitative data from employer reports published under the provisions of the EEA and the Canadian Census. Data in this study cover the period 1987 to 1999. We find that large companies, and larger employment groups within companies, have higher levels of employment equity attainment. There are also considerable variations in employment equity attainment across industrial sectors, across provinces and across occupations. Overall, there has been general improvement in employment equity attainment over time. However, visible minorities continue to be disadvantaged in management, sales and service and technical positions. Several policy implications are drawn from these findings.

In this dissertation I propose the existence of a distinct and previously unacknowledged sub-genre in the Canadian social-reform writing of the 1890s, namely the industrial novel. I concentrate on several late-Victorian Canadian examples: Agnes Maule Machar's Roland Graeme: Knight: A Novel of Our Time (1892), Robert Barr's The Mutable Many (1896), and Albert Richardson Carman's The Preparation of Ryerson Embury: A Purpose (1900). These novels each reflect the expansion of industrial production in the Victorian period and the concomitant social effects of urban industrialism upon the labouring poor. I undertake an examination of these works that analyses the relationship between the novels' middle-class protagonists and the workers whose rights they are defending, seeing in the narrative patterns, imagery, and intertextual references both the articulation of an alternative kind of social justice and a tension emerging between political dissent and political conservatism. These novels of labour unrest caution against violent revolution and instead preach a doctrine of reconciliation and compromise, rooted in a reorientation of conventional notions of justice, a rejuvenation of social institutions, and the imperative of individual moral responsibility. First I focus on Machar's representation of Christian socialism, and how the language of "brotherhood" acts as an antidote and alternative to the morally degenerative effects of industrialism. Machar parallels the labour reform movement to the Christian belief in an afterlife: both are predicated upon faith and deferral, the commission of good works in the present for the benefit of some future blessing. Next, I examine Barr's novel about two strikes in a London factory, looking in particular at issues of leadership and representation. I propose that his novel works to reveal the complexities inherent in any project in which one man must speak for a crowd of others, as the end of the novel amply deconstrates the failure of communication. Finally, in my examination of Carman's novel, I analyse his refashioning of conventional notions of justice. I argue that Carman's narrative suggests the sterility of intellectual debate in the absence of any commitment to social action. I conclude by connecting the late-Victorian Canadian industrial novel to early twentieth-century literary responses to labour advocacy, urbanism, and industrialism.

The article reviews the book, "Safe Haven: The Story of a Shelter for Homeless Women," by Rae Bridgman.

[This article analyzes the letters of Swedish immigrant Martin Johannson to his family in Sweden during the period 1928-34.] The letters provide glimpses into the contradictory and confusing experiences that shaped the working class during times of extreme distress, and inform on how immigrant workers in Canada perceived labour conditions and came to terms with new social circumstances. Important indications of how the depression hit the logging industry in the interior of BC more than a year before the crash of the Wall Street market in October 1929 are also conveyed. Martin felt frissons of panic as his savings dried up and he found himself competing for temporary, low-income jobs in isolated locations. Painfully aware that his failure to pay the loan instalments meant an extra burden for his grandfather, the Depression scarred Martin's faith in capitalism. His letters provide a unique insight into the complicated and ambiguous birth of a radical political consciousness. --Author's introduction

The article reviews the book, "Being Heard: The Experiences of Young Women in Prostitution," edited by Kelly Gorkoff and Jane Runner.

The article reviews and comments on Steve Hewitt's "Spying 101: The RCMP's Secret Activities at Canadian Universities, 1917-1997;" 'Whose National Security? Canadian State Surveillance and the Creation of Enemies," edited by Gary Kinsman, Dieter K. Buse, and Mercedes Steedman; and "Pepper in Our Eyes: The APEC Affair," edited by W. Wesley Pue. The latter two books deal with the controversial RCMP actions (including the use of pepper spray) against demonstrators at the Asia-Pacfic Economic Cooperation conference in Vancouver in November 1997 that sparked a public inquiry.

The article reviews the book, "Ralph Miliband and the Politics of the New Left," by Priscilla Metscher.

The article reviews the book, "Transcending Neoliberalism; Community-Based Development in Latin America," edited by Henry Veltmeyer and Anthony O'Malley.

The book, "International Trade and Labor Markets: Theory, Evidence and Policy," by Carl Davidson and Steven J. Matusz, is reviewed.

Unions exert a positive influence in child care workplaces and in the sector generally. Unionization is an important strategy for dealing with recruitment and retention, two of the biggest challenges facing the sector in Canada today. Overall, unionized child care workplaces contribute to higher quality programs and attract more experienced and more trained early childhood educators. Unions support a model of professionalism and workplace relationships that is inclusive, democratic and collective. They support professional development, affordable education and regulation of the service and the occupation. They are longstanding advocates for women’s equality, and a publicly funded child care system.

There are limitations to conventional occupational health and safety research approaches and practices and numerous barriers to overcome in order to achieve progress. Occupational health and safety is impacted by the broader social-political environment. Corporatism affects the directions, ideas and practice of regulators, educators, the labour movement, scientists, medical professionals, and society as a whole, thus inhibiting workers' power to influence change. The thesis therefore explores both the wider influences and barriers to occupational health and safety advances, focusing particularly on the Canadian situation, through the general research questions: What has influenced occupational health and safety policies and practices, especially in Canada? What are some of the limitations of conventional occupational health and safety research and practices? To what extent can participatory action research and mapping address identified limitations? These questions are explored from the perspective of the population potentially at risk. New theories and approaches to occupational health and safety research are then applied in this thesis in order to explore a more specific multi-part research question: Can mapping within worker-based participatory action research be used to explore occupational health and safety conditions? In particular, can mapping contribute to occupational health and safety improvements at a local level and beyond; establish workers' previous exposures for compensation purposes; support efforts to bring about justice through compensation for workers affected by unsafe working conditions; and raise worker and public awareness of health and safety? These questions are explored through two different case studies, which examine, in depth, occupational health and safety action and possible remedies. Casino gaming workers in Windsor, Ontario, Canada undertook a collaborative study to investigate and improve current health and safety conditions. Former Holmes foundry and asbestos insulation workers in Sarnia, Ontario, Canada undertook a collaborative study to provide evidence of exposures and ensuing health problems to support claims for compensation. The outcomes of the case studies shed light on the bigger Canadian health and safety picture and demonstrate that mapping as a data collection method used within a participatory action research approach can accomplish a broad range of objectives. Mapping can raise workers' awareness, facilitate communication, build solidarity and cohesiveness, foster community support, mobilise workers to take action to reduce hazards or win compensation, in turn influencing employers, the compensation board and government agencies. The case studies accomplished the shared objective of raising worker and public awareness. The casino workers also gained occupational health and safety improvements and the Holmes workers were successful in gaining compensation.

The article reviews the book, "Setting the Agenda: Jean Royce and the Shaping of Queen's University," by Roberta Hamilton.

The article reviews the book, "AIDS Activist: Michael Lynch and the Politics of Community," by Ann Silversides.

The article reviews the book, "Sojourning Sisters: The Lives and Letters of Jessie and Annie McQueen," by Jean Barman.

The article reviews the book, "Strikebreaking and Intimidation: Mercenaries and Masculinity in Twentieth-Century America," by Stephen H. Norwood.

The article reviews the book, "Hidden Academics: Contract Faculty in Canadian Universities," by Indhu Rajagopal.