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This article reviews the book, "Austerity: The History of a Dangerous Idea," by Mark Blyth.

Drawing on feminist labour law and political economy literature, I argue that it is crucial to interrogate the personal and territorial scope of labour. After discussing the “commodification” of care, global care chains, and body work, I claim that the territorial scope of labour law must be expanded beyond that nation state to include transnational processes. I use the idea of social reproduction both to illustrate and to examine some of the recurring regulatory dilemmas that plague labour markets. I argue that unpaid care and domestic work performed in the household, typically by women, troubles the personal scope of labour law. I use the example of this specific type of personal service relation to illustrate my claim that the jurisdiction of labour law is historical and contingent, rather than conceptual and universal. I conclude by identifying some of the implications of redrawing the territorial and personal scope of labour law in light of feminist understandings of social reproduction.

Unfree labor has not disappeared from advanced capitalist economies. In this sense the debates among and between Marxist and orthodox economic historians about the incompatibility of capitalism and unfree labor are moot: the International Labour Organisation has identified forced, coerced, and unfree labor as a contemporary issue of global concern. Previously hidden forms of unfree labor have emerged in parallel with several other well-documented trends affecting labor conditions, rights, and modes of regulation. These evolving types of unfree labor include the increasing normalization of contingent work (and, by extension, the undermining of the standard contract of employment), and an increase in labor intermediation. The normative, political, and numerical rise of temporary employment agencies in many countries in the last three decades is indicative of these trends. It is in the context of this rapidly changing landscape that this book consolidates and expands on research designed to understand new institutions for work in the global era. This edited collection provides a theoretical and empirical exploration of the links between unfree labor, intermediation, and modes of regulation, with particular focus on the evolving institutional forms and political-economic contexts that have been implicated in, and shaped by, the ascendency of temp agencies. What is distinctive about this collection is this bi-focal lens: it makes a substantial theoretical contribution by linking disparate literatures on, and debates about, the co-evolution of contingent work and unfree labor, new forms of labor intermediation, and different regulatory approaches; but it further lays the foundation for this theory in a series of empirically rich and geographically diverse case studies. This integrative approach is grounded in a cross-national comparative framework, using this approach as the basis for assessing how, and to what extent, temporary agency work can be considered unfree wage labor. --Publisher's description. Contents: Temporary Work, Agencies and Unfree Labour: Insecurity in the New World of Work / Kendra Strauss and Judy Fudge -- Selling Flexibility: Temporary Staffing in a Volatile Economy / Nik Theodore and Jamie Peck -- Power Politics and Precariousness: The Regulation of Temporary Agency Work in the European Union / Michael Wynn -- Placing Filipino Caregivers in Canadian Homes: Regulating Transnational Employment Agencies in British Columbia / Judy Fudge and Daniel Parrott  -- The Creation of Distinctive National Temporary Staffing Markets / Neil M. Coe and Kevin Ward  -- The Persistence of Unfree Labour: The Rise of Temporary Employment Agencies in South Africa and Namibia / Paul Benjamin -- Temporary Work in China: Precarity in an Emerging Labour Market / Feng Xu  -- Unfree Labour and the Regulation of Temporary Agency Work in the UK / Kendra Strauss -- Leased Labour and the Erosion of Workers’ Protection: The Boundaries of the Regulation of Temporary Employment Agencies in Québec / Stéphanie Bernstein and Guylaine Vallée.

Although workplace unions have many options when it comes to affiliating with a central labour body, some unions decide to remain independent or to disaffiliate after an experience of affiliation. To our knowledge, the literature has not widely examined the reasons behind the decision of some unions to remain independent. Based on a comparative case study of two university faculty unions in Quebec, this article aims to partly fill this gap in analysis. The results show that the particularities of the work of professors and the types of expertise needed to perform their duties influence their choice for union independence.

Cet article, qui prend appui sur une étude de cas menée dans un collège secondaire privé du Québec, s’intéresse à la représentation non syndicale en se penchant sur le processus de négociation d’une entente en marge du régime général. La présente contribution a pour objet de comprendre les motifs pour lesquels un groupe de travailleurs, de concert avec l’employeur, emprunte cette avenue ayant pour dessein la signature d’une entente de travail. Ce cas de représentation non syndicale, étudié à partir d’une diversité de sources de données, met en évidence que le mode de représentation initié par l’employeur s’inscrit dans la thèse de l’évitement syndical.Ainsi, la reconnaissance d’un regroupement d’enseignants et la négociation volontaire de la part de l’employeur sont directement liées au désir d’éviter la syndicalisation. Du côté des enseignants, le choix de demeurer dans un regroupement non reconnu repose essentiellement sur la qualité des relations avec la direction et sur le désir d’avoir un mode de représentation exempt de conflits. Les enseignants sont, dans une large proportion, satisfaits des termes de l’entente de travail, d’autant plus qu’ils bénéficient de plusieurs avantages négociés par le personnel enseignant syndiqué du Québec. Il ressort des résultats que le regroupement n’est pas sous le joug de l’idéologie managériale, mais son pouvoir d’influencer les décisions est plutôt lacunaire. Cette entente, qui ne repose que sur le contexte particulier, la confiance mutuelle et la crainte de syndicalisation, comporte des limites importantes en termes d’application.

This dissertation argues that work significantly shaped the experience of disability during this period. Barriers to mainstream employment opportunities gave rise to multiple disability movements that challenged the social and economic framework which marginalized generations of people with disabilities. Using a critical analysis of disability in archival records, personal collections, government publications and a series of interviews, I demonstrate how demands for greater access among disabled people to paid employment stimulated the development of a new discourse of disability in Canada. Including disability as a variable in historical research reveals how family advocates helped people living in institutions move out into the community and rehabilitation professionals played an increasingly critical role in the lives of working-age adults with disabilities, civil rights activists crafted a new consumer-led vision of social and economic integration. Separated by different philosophies and bases of support, disability activists and allies found a common purpose in their pursuit of economic integration. The focus on employment issues among increasingly influential disability activists during this period prompted responses from three key players in the Canadian labour market. Employers embraced the rhetoric and values of disability rights but operated according to a different set of business principles and social attitudes that inhibited the realization of equity and a ‘level playing field.’ Governments facilitated the development of a progressive discourse of disability and work, but ultimately recoiled from disability activism to suit emergent political priorities. Labour organizations similarly engaged disability activists, but did so cautiously, with union support largely contingent upon the satisfaction of traditional union business first and foremost. As disability activists and their allies railed against systematic discrimination, people with disabilities lived and worked in the community, confronting barriers and creating their own circles of awareness in the workplace. Just as multiple sites of disability activism found resolution in the sphere of labour, the redefinition of disability during this period reflected a shared project involving collective and individual action.

The article reviews the book, "Restoring the Spirit: The Beginnings of Occupational Therapy in Canada, 1890-1930," by Judith Friedland.

This article reviews the book, "Transpacific Antiracism: Afro-Asian Solidarity in 20th-Century Black America, Japan, and Okinawa," by Yuichiro Onishi.

Canada's federal State Immunity Act, 1985 grants to foreign states a pre- sumptive immunity from actions in the Canadian courts, subject to important exceptions. One such exception is set out in section 5 of that Act, which applies when the proceedings relate to "commercial activity." This paper argues that Canadian courts and tribunals in labour and employment cases have been incon- sistent in their interpretation of the scope of the exception for commercial activity, and thus in the extent to which they have been prepared to uphold foreign states' claims to immunity. Advocating for what is termed the "liberal" approach, as enunciated in the leading case of Re Canada Labour Code, the author discusses the case law to demonstrate the varying degrees to which this approach has been followed. His preference for the liberal approach, which focuses on the roles and responsibilities of the employee, is informed by a comparative analysis of American, European, and Australian legislation and jurisprudence. Ultimately, it is argued that state immunity in employment cases should generally be restricted to two situations: individual employee claims where the employee is a high-rank- ing diplomat, civil servant or military official with the foreign state; and col- lective employee claims brought against a foreign state employer in a highly sensitive location such as a military base, embassy or consulate.

Review of: Les collectivités locales au coeur de l’intégration des immigrants : questions identitaires et stratégies régionales edited by Michèle Vatz Laaroussi, Estelle Bernier and Lucille Guilbert.

The weather on Sept. 7, 1907 was hot and tempers were short. British Columbians had always been sensitive to Asian immigration and had become increasingly fearful over the summer. More Japanese immigrants were coming to B.C. and rumours smouldered of massive labour contracts for the projected Grand Trunk Pacific Railway.Like the citizens of Seattle and San Francisco, the residents of Vancouver had established a bipartisan Asiatic Exclusion League aimed at Japanese, Chinese, and South Asian immigrants in order to protect “White Canada.” The league had widespread support among trade union organizations and churches, and so a parade during the Labour Day weekend was scheduled. The result was a violent riot that drew the world’s attention to Vancouver, to Canadian immigration policy, and to Britain’s 1902 alliance with the Japanese. Historian Julie Gilmour traces the impact of these events on the life and work of future prime minister W.L. Mackenzie King, and on Canada’s relationships with Britain, the United States, China, Japan, and India. King’s involvement with the commissions set up to evaluate the damages incurred during the riots led to his interest in opium suppression and immigration control, and clarified his own sense of Canada’s role in the empire. Trouble on Main Street portrays a nation, and a time, at once relatively recent and shockingly unrecognizable. Over a century later, the links between local pressures, policy, and international events provide insight into current debates on terror, immigration, and Canadian security. -- Publisher's description

This paper examines the relationship between precarious employment, legal status, and racialization. We conceptualize legal status to include the intersections of immigration and citizenship. Using the PEPSO survey data we operationalize three categories of legal status: Canadian born, foreign-born citizens, and foreign-born non-citizens. First we examine whether the character of precarious work varies depending on legal status, and find that it does: Citizenship by birth or naturalization reduces employment precarity across most dimensions and indicators. Next, we ask how legal status intersects with racialization to shape precarious employment. We find that employment precarity is disproportionately high for racialized non-citizens. Becoming a citizen mitigates employment precarity. Time in Canada also reduces precarity, but not for non-citizens. Foreign birth and citizenship acquisition intersect with racialization unevenly: Canadian born racialized groups exhibit higher employment precarity than racialized foreign-born citizens. Our analysis underscores the importance of including legal status in intersectional analyses of social inequality.

This paper examines how employees experience flexible workplace practices (FWPs), such as flex-time, in the context of small firms. Data are taken from a Canadian study on small information technology (IT) firms that employed between four and 21 individuals. A multiple case study of 17 firms is conducted using web-surveys, semi-structured interviews, case study reports, field notes, and HR policy documents. Results show variable experiences based on whether firms were flexible for employees and whether the workplace culture supported the use of FWPs. The findings suggest that similar and different processes occur in the small firms compared to the large companies often studied in the literature.

This thesis looks at the politics of labor market policy in the postwar period in the advanced industrialized democracies. Specifically, the dissertation seeks to explain stark cross-national differences in unemployment benefit systems and employment protection legislation. The theory advanced in this thesis emphasizes significant differences in union organization across the rich democracies. This view, “Varieties of Unionism”, shows how the varying political capacities and policy preferences of labor movements explain most of the cross-national policy differences. In particular, the research points to union movements’ ideological traditions and varying rates of union density, union centralization, and involvement in unemployment benefit administration as crucial explanatory forces. Each feature of union movements captures an important part of why they might choose to advocate on behalf of the unemployed and to their differential ability to have those policy preferences realized, as well as indicating the kinds of preferences they will have for employment protection legislation. In the case of policies directed at the unemployed (or so-called labor market ‘Outsiders’), these insights lead to the construction of an index of “Outsider-oriented Unionism”, which correlates very closely to cross-national variations in unemployment benefit generosity as well as to active labor market policy spending. The thesis also introduces a new fourfold typology of unionism that helps to explain the different combinations of employment protection legislation and ‘Outsider policy’ generosity that exist among the rich democracies, or labor market policy ‘regimes’. The thesis makes this argument with multiple regression analysis of fifteen rich democracies and with detailed historical case studies of Britain, The Netherlands, and Sweden. In making this case, the thesis strongly challenges the explanations of labor market policy put forward by the Varieties of Capitalism literature and Insider-Outsider theory. In addition, the thesis reformulates the traditional Power Resource view by introducing a more rigorous theory of labor movements’ policy preferences and thereby qualifies recent statements that have emphasized partisanship almost alone. Most broadly, the theory challenges the “individualist turn” in recent comparative political economy scholarship and suggests that the field needs to return its gaze far more toward organized interests.

The article reviews the book, "Le Surprésentéisme. Travailler malgré la maladie," by Denis Monneuse.

The State of Working America, by Lawrence Mishel, Josh Bivens, Elise Gould and Heidi Shierholz, is reviewed.

Plutocrats: the Rise and Fall of the New Global Super-Rich and the Fall of Everyone Else, by Chrystia Freeland, is reviewed.

This article reviews the book, "Dominion of Capital: The Politics of Big Business and the Crisis of the Canadian Bourgeoisie, 1914-1947," by Don Nerbas.

I undertake a Rawlsian political economy exercise—namely, one in which economic institutions are judged by how well they match principles in theories of distributive justice. I contend that such an exercise is integrally related to empirical economics because most theories of justice emphasize respect, which, in turn, depends on how wages and employment are actually assigned in an economy. I explore these ideas in relation to the minimum wage. This leads to a different emphasis on what minimum wage–related outcomes need study, and to a claim that minimum wage setting is related to standards of fairness.

The article reviews the book, "Along a River. The First French-Canadian Women," by Jan Noel.