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Drawing on nurses strikes in many countries [including Canada], this article situates nurse militancy within the context of health care restructuring and neo-liberalism, the gendered construction of nursing work, the feminization of union density and of strikes, and gendered militancy. It explores the emergence of a militant discourse among nurses focussed on the public interest, what I call the politicisation of caring, which has supported a new approach to the ethics of striking. --Author's introduction

We investigate differences in labour market transition rates between high and low minimum wage regimes using Canadian data spanning 1979–2008. We find that higher minimum wages result in lower hiring rates but also lower job separation rates. Importantly, the reduced separation rates are due mainly to reductions in layoffs, occur in the first six months of a job and are present for unskilled workers of all ages. Thus, jobs in higher minimum wage regimes are more stable but harder to get. For older workers, these effects are almost exactly offsetting, resulting in little impact on the employment rate.

The article reviews and comments on "Creating Consumers: Home Economists in Twentieth-Century America" by Carolyn M. Goldstein, "Mom: The Transformation of Motherhood in Modern America" by Rebecca Jo Plant, and "Making Marriage Work: A History of Marriage and Divorce in the Twentieth-Century United States" by Kristin Celello.

The article reviews the book, "Warrior Nation: Rebranding Canada in an Age of Anxiety," by Ian McKay and Jamie Swift.

Canadian data on strike frequency, duration, and volume imply that the strike is withering away. Some research also suggests that strike duration is countercyclical. However, the early twenty‐first century was anomalous from the viewpoint of these expectations. After 2001, mean strike duration increased and was not countercyclical. This paper explains the anomaly by arguing that employers are seeking to scale back the wage gains of previous decades in the face of mounting public debt and the whip of an increasingly unfettered market. These conditions apparently motivate some workers to endure protracted work stoppages, irrespective of the phase of the business cycle, in an effort to protect their rights.

We offer an explanation for the phenomenon of declining democratic engagement by assuming that what happens at work is the primary driver of what occurs outside of the workplace. If workers are exposed to the formalities of collective bargaining and union representation, they also perhaps increase their attachment to, and willingness to participate in, structures of democratic governance outside of the workplace as well. In order for this argument to hold, one first needs to test whether individual union members are more prone to vote and participate in civil society than non-members: other research refers to this as the union voting premium. We find that the voice effect of unionism on democratic participation is significant and is larger for groups that are significantly under-represented when it comes to voting, namely those with fewer years of education, immigrants, and younger workers. We also discuss the legal implications of these findings.

The article reviews the book, "Wife to Widow: Lives, Laws, and Politics in Nineteenth-Century Montreal," by Bettina Bradbury.

The article reviews the book, "Intern Nation: How to Earn Nothing and Learn Little in the Brave New Economy," by Ross Perlin.

The article reviews the book, "Vineyards and Vaqueros: Indian Labor and the Economic Expansion of Southern California, 1771-1877," by George Harwood Phillips.

Disintegrating Democracy at Work: Labor Unions and the Future of Good Jobs in the Service Economy, by Virginia Doellgast, is reviewed.

Globalization and Precarious Forms of Production and Employment: Challenges for Workers and Unions, edited by Carole Thornley, Steve Jefferys and Beatrice Appay, is reviewed.

Cette étude examine les relations entre les caractéristiques des régimes collectifs de rémunération variable à court terme (soit des régimes qui octroient une prime aux employés en fonction du rendement), la justice organisationnelle et l’engagement organisationnel. Son intérêt pratique repose sur l’idée que les régimes de rémunération variable sont instaurés pour fidéliser les employés. À partir d’une revue de la littérature, quatre caractéristiques des régimes collectifs de rémunération variable sont identifiées : 1) le lien d’instrumentalité perçu (perception d’un lien entre le rendement et la rémunération); 2) la prime versée (le montant versé à l’employé dans le cadre du régime); 3) l’intensité de la communication organisationnelle (les sources d’information mises à la disposition des employés); et 4) les communications du supérieur immédiat relativement au régime de rémunération. Notre hypothèse centrale est que ces caractéristiques sont liées à l’engagement affectif et de continuité des employés par l’entremise de quatre dimensions de justice organisationnelle, soit la justice distributive, la justice procédurale, la justice informationnelle et la justice interpersonnelle.À partir d’un échantillon de 313 répondants appartenant à trois ordres professionnels, des analyses d’équations structurelles révèlent que la justice procédurale médiatise la relation entre 1) l’intensité de la communication organisationnelle et la communication du supérieur et 2) l’engagement de continuité. De même, la justice informationnelle médiatise la relation entre 1) l’intensité de la communication organisationnelle et la communication du supérieur et 2) l’engagement affectif. Enfin, la justice interpersonnelle médiatise la relation entre la communication du supérieur et l’engagement de continuité. Cette étude montre que la communication par l’organisation et le supérieur immédiat quant aux règles régissant le fonctionnement des régimes collectifs de rémunération variable constituent la pierre angulaire de la perception de justice (procédurale, informationnelle et interpersonnelle) par les employés, ce qui indirectement stimule leur engagement affectif et de continuité.

This research seeks to augment contemporary theories of employee dis-identification in organizations (DiO) and its importance in the workplace. An anonymous questionnaire survey was conducted, 304 employees were recruited across eight organizations in Taiwan (with anti-CMV strategies adopted). Distinct from previous studies, this research stated that organizational identification and dis-identification were neither heterogeneous nor independent constructs. Statistical evidence supported this statement and explained that organizational identification and dis-identification were inter-related constructs. Specifically, two DiO antecedents were revealed, including: person-organization fit and abusive supervision. Unlike previous studies, DiO was not correlated with poor employee performance; rather, it was correlated with workplace deviance, intention to quit the job, and voice-extra-role-behaviours. Theoretical and managerial implications are discussed.

The article reviews the book, "Romancing the Revolution: The Myth of Soviet Democracy and the British Left," by Ian Bullock.

Approaching the issue through their review of several recent court and tribunal decisions, the authors argue that the legislative policy choice in Ontario and other jurisdictions to permit age-based distinctions in the provision of benefits to employees over age 65, notwithstanding the abolition of mandatory retirement, was not only reasonable but necessary. That choice, in their view, represents a fair, and amply justified, balance between the right of individual employees to continue working past 65, and the right of employees as a collec- tivity to freely negotiate benefit provisions and group insurance plans that are in the interests of the group as a whole.

The provincial broader public sector (BPS) in Ontario com- prises the full range of government services and Crown corporations, as well as health care and education. The BPS is vital to the Ontario economy as well as to the citizens who use its services; it accounts for about half of the province's gross domestic product. Each of its com- ponent parts depends on direct government funding or government transfers, or is at least regulated by the government. The 2008 global financial crisis and its impact on the management of Ontario's public services has brought industrial relations practices and outcomes in the BPS into sharp focus. In 2011, the Ontario government established the Commission on the Reform of Ontario's Public Services, chaired by Don Drummond (the Drummond Commission),' with a view to enhancing the efficiency of BPS services.

La crise des finances publiques et l’accroissement de la demande en soins de santé amènent de plus en plus d’hôpitaux à implanter des pratiques de gestion à haute implication (PGHI). Or, les études sur le lien entre ces pratiques et la performance organisationnelle se font plutôt rares dans le secteur hospitalier. De plus, les recherches se sont surtout limitées à montrer l’existence d’un lien direct entre les PGHI et la performance organisationnelle, donnant ainsi peu d’information sur le processus qui mène à cette performance. Cette étude vise à combler ces lacunes en examinant le rôle médiateur joué par l’habilitation psychologique (HP) dans la relation entre les PGHI et les comportements de citoyenneté organisationnelle (CCO) du personnel soignant, un déterminant important de la qualité des soins de santé. De plus, puisqu’une relation de collaboration avec les médecins, basée sur la confiance, serait au coeur du sentiment de pouvoir du personnel soignant, l’effet modérateur de la confiance envers les médecins sur la relation entre les PGHI et l’HP est aussi examiné. Ainsi, l’étude valide un modèle spécifiant des relations différenciées entre les PGHI (autonomie, développement des compétences, partage d’information, reconnaissance) et les cognitions de l’HP (compétences, autodétermination, sens, impact), celles-ci étant modérées par la confiance envers les médecins. Enfin, l’étude cherche à vérifier si les cognitions de l’HP qui inciteraient aux CCO interagissent entre elles selon une séquence prédéterminée. Basée sur un sondage réalisé auprès de 176 employés délivrant des soins de santé et leurs supérieurs immédiats, l’étude suggère que la relation entre certaines PGHI (autonomie et développement des compétences) et les CCO est tributaire du sens du travail et de la confiance envers les médecins. Aussi, les cognitions de l’HP seraient liées entre elles selon une séquence particulière conférant à l’autodétermination un rôle central dans cette séquence.

This article explores the dynamics of labour organizing among migrant and immigrant workers in Canada, focusing on two case studies: first, recent efforts to organize migrant farmworkers in the Seasonal Agricultural Workers’ Program; and, second, the work of the Immigrant Workers’ Centre in Montreal. The Seasonal Agricultural Workers’ Program, which employs workers from Mexico and Caribbean countries, is often viewed by policymakers and employers as an example of ‘best practices’ in migration policy. Yet workers in the program experience seasonal employment characterized by long hours and low wages, and are exempt from many basic labour standards. The Immigrant Workers’ Centre formed in 2000 to provide a safe place for migrant and racialized immigrant workers to come together around problems in their workplaces. Through these case studies, we examine labour organization efforts including advocacy and grassroots organizing through the Immigrant Workers’ Centre and legal challenges attempting to secure recognition of freedom of association rights for farmworkers. The article explores the ‘limits and possibilities’ of these strategies, and concludes by assessing the implications for labour organizing among the growing numbers of migrant and immigrant workers employed in a wide range of low-wage, low-security occupations due to the recent expansion of Canada’s Temporary Foreign Worker Program.

The article reviews the book, "Jobs and Justice: Fighting Discrimination in Wartime Canada, 1939-1945," by Carmela Patrias.