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The successful implementation of information technology in a teachers federation in a Canadian province is examined. At least 3 key factors seem to account for successful implementation: 1. the presence of an influential and energetic technology advocate, 2. the involvement of users in the implementation, and 3. a general ethos in the organization that encourages excellence in the services provided by staff but within a collegial framework. It is clear that the federation was successful in harmonizing the interests of employees and members. The appointment of an executive assistant was crucial in focusing attention on the technology issue. Building on the mission given to him by the elected officials, the executive assistant played a key role in gaining organizational commitment to new technology. Also important to success was the attention the federation paid to getting input from professional and non-professional staff about decisions concerning information technology.

Discusses industrial studies (the equivalent of labour studies) provision for trade unionists in Great Britain with implications for Canada. Provides a historical overview of workers' education since WWI that saw increasing consolidation under the Trade Union Congress, which strongly emphasized work place skills training rather than a broad understanding of labour history and the social and political economy. The Labour government's 1975 Employment Protection Act provided financial support to this instrumentalization that in turn led to further compromise by the TUC under the succeeding Conservative government. Concludes that the professionalization of the TUC curriculum has resulted in a narrowing of its scope, and that it should not be emulated in Canada, where there has been support for broader studies of the labour movement both through universities and labour-supported institutions.

The article reviews the book, "The Permanent Revolution? Conservative Law and the Trade Unions," by John McIlroy.

Homer Stevens spent half a century in the BC fishing industry, both as a working fisherman and as a leader of the United Fishermen and Allied Workers' Union. His story, an oral autobiography, was recorded and compiled by Rolf Knight. Stevens grew up in Port Guichon, a polyglot fishing community on the Fraser River delta. He was one of an extended family of working people who argued constantly about the issues of the day. In 1936, when he was thirteen years old, Homer started fishing on his own in a leaky gillnetter called the Tar Box. Six years later, his uncle John said, "One of these days I'm going to have to take you down to a meeting of the United Fishermen's Union in Vancouver. It's run by a bunch of Reds but they're pretty good people." By 1946, Homer was a full-time organizer for the United Fishermen and Allied Workers' Union, going around "float to float, man to man" to sign up new members. Included here are Steven's ominous description of the Cold War years, and an evocative log of travelling the central BC coast during the 1950s, with its bustling fishermen's ports and canneries. There are accounts of the 1967 strike in Prince Rupert, Homer's year in jail for contempt of court and his drive to organize Nova Scotia fishermen, and there is a moving personal description of relearning how to fish in a modern and very different salmon industry. "All and all," he says, "if someone were to ask me, 'Would you do it again?' I'd say, 'Yeah, I'd do it again. I'd try to do it better if I could, but I'd be willing to tackle it.'" --Publisher's description

Accounts of the 1959 International Woodworkers of America strike in Newfoundland have portrayed the Newfoundland Lumbermen's Association, the local union which held jurisdiction over many of the island's loggers, as a "company union" and its president, Joseph Thompson, as a co-opted unionist. This essay examines the NLA'S origins during the 1930s and shows that Thompson built an autonomous union to improve logger's lives. The paper also brings to the fore the loggers' own experience of the Great Depression to show they did not passively accept economic hardship and exploitation and took an active role in the making of their union. At times, the loggers' militancy dictated the NLA's bargaining positions and prompted some social change in the woods. The paper concludes that while Thompson and the NLA did not view class and class conflict in explicitly political terms, it does not diminish their importance in the loggers' working lives during the 1930s.

Unions have the ability to affect exit behavior through a distinctive collective voice which provides a mechanism for expressing preferences and resolving grievances. It has been demonstrated that workers with a voice institution for the resolution of problems should resort to the exit option less frequently and maintain longer attachments with their companies. A study was conducted based on the 1986-1987 Labour Market Activity Survey (LMAS) longitudinal data from Statistics Canada. Evidence is presented of the effect of unionism on job tenure and job separation rates derived from regressions which control for the effects of wages, pension rights, firm size and other factors. The results show that unionism is associated with significantly lower probabilities of job separation and significantly longer spells of tenure.

This thesis is a history of the Ottawa Allied Trades and Labour Association in the years 1897 to 1922. The Association is a predecessor of the city's contemporary labour council, Ottawa and District Labour Council. In the years 1897 to 1922, the council derived its authority from its craft union membership, which was affiliated to the Dominion Trades and Labour Congress and the American Federation of Labor. Recent studies have altered traditional interpretations of the events in Canadian labour history, particularly following World War I. It has been generally accepted that the radicalism of the working-class was confined primarily to the western regions. A reinterpretation postulates that the events of 1919 were nation-wide. This thesis attempts to demonstrate that the Ottawa Allied Trades and Labour Association played a part in the working-class revolt of 1919, and that this radicalism was based upon prior experiences of collective bargaining and mobilization.

This thesis explores and categorizes the economic contribution of farm women in the Fraser Delta during the period 1900-1939. The sources were mainly oral history interviews, as well as personal diaries, local newspapers, and government documents. In the particular social and economic context in which they ran their households and raised their families, the twenty-four women whose lives were explored shared many common characteristics, but an effort was made to convey a sense of these women as individuals as well as members of a larger group....

Traditionally, management had the right to hire, fire and schedule hours of work, unless constrained by collective agreements or contracts. When exercising these rights, management has a duty to act in a fair manner. There is concern, however, that some management practices might have a disparate effect on the health and performance of disabled employees. Human rights legislation in Canada prohibits both overt discrimination and unintended systemic discrimination arising from employment practices which may seem neutral in application but which have a disparate effect on a protected group of employees. Four specific points of law illustrate the balancing act involved in adjudicating adverse effect discrimination allegations of disabled employees: 1. actuarial risk versus individual assessment, 2. shifting onus of proof from employer to employee, 3. importation of human rights principles into arbitration, and 4. discipline and discharge of employees. Special attention is placed on diabetic shiftworkers as an example of adverse effect discrimination.

The distinguishing features of the Canadian industrial relations system for research purposes are its fragmentation, its extensive legal regulation, and its pattern of strikes. Research needs should be based on this description of Canadian industrial relations, including the environment of the system, the major actors within the system, the processes of industrial relations, and the results of negotiation. Specific gaps in industrial relations research occur with regard to: 1. the treatment of regionalism or regional variables, 2. managerial policies and their determinants, 3. the theoretical bases of strikes, including noneconomic variables, interindustry variations, strike length, and mid-contract strikes, and 4. day-to-day relations among employees, management, and the union in the workplace. Greater attention to Canadian issues and closer integration with cognate disciplines will focus research efforts more effectively.

The article reviews the book, "Blackboard Unions: The AFT and the NEA, 1900-1980," by Marjorie Murphy.

The article reviews the book, "Managing Workforce 2000: Gaining The Diversity Advantage," by David Jamieson and Julie O'Mara.

The article reviews the book, "Rank-and-File Rebellion: Teamsters for a Democratic Union," by Dan La Botz.

The article reviews the book, "Law and the Shaping of the America Labor Movement," by William E. Forbath

Historical sociologist Jane Ursel conducts a feminist analysis of reproductive labour in Canada focussing on the shift from the family to the state. --WorldCat record

The article reviews the books "The Constitution of Poverty: Toward a Genealogy of Liberal Governance," by Mitchell Dean, "Un nouvel ordre des choses: la pauvreté, le crime, l'État au Québec, de la fin du XVIIIe siècle à 1840," by Jean-Marie Fecteau, "Poverty and Compassion: The Moral Imagination of the Late Victorians," by Gertrude Himmelfarb.

The process of research or scientific enquiry is often serendipitous and, like art, inherently creative. The intricacies and complexities of the human mind determine its course. Exigencies such as war and social upheaval often drive its priorities. It is difficult, therefore, if not impossible, to chart out research directions the way corporations plot market strategies. Nevertheless, it is useful (even necessary, some would argue) to make some assessments of the directions in Industrial Relations (IR) research, past and present, and to speculate on its potential. It is with these ideas in mind that the Canadian Industrial Relations Association (CIRA) invited a panel of researchers and practitioners to address the issue of future directions at the meetings in Victoria in June 1990. This paper and those that follow grew out of the discussions at the panel.

The article reviews the book, "Choosing Sides: Unions and the Team Concept," by Mike Parker and Jane Slaughter.

Cette recherche a pour objet de clarifier un nouveau domaine de la gestion des ressources humaines, soit la gestion des carrières. Jusqu'à présent, les travaux ont abordé ce domaine en décrivant les pratiques de gestion de carrière une à une au lieu de décrire des systèmes de carrière (c'est-à-dire des configurations de pratiques). En développant une taxonomie des systèmes de carrière, la présente recherche comble cette lacune. À partir d'un échantillon de 254 observations, quatre types de système de carrière ont été empiriquement identifiés. Selon les résultats de cette recherche, ces quatre types ont une certaine validité, puisqu'ils sont associés significativement à 13 variables n'ayant pas servi à identifier les types (par exemple la taille, la philosophie de relations avec les employés, la stratégie de dotation, l'orientation du système, l'intégration avec les autres pratiques de gestion des ressources humaines). Finalement, ces quatre types ont été nommés et discuté.