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This paper applies a statistical analysis to quantify the impact of the ongoing shift in Canadian workplaces from defined benefit pension plans to defined contribution pension plans. The basis for the analysis is Statistics Canada's LifePaths model, which aims to simulate the life experiences of "synthetic individuals" to whom are assigned characteristics which are rep- resentative of the Canadian population, as identified by census, survey and administrative data. The authors conclude that the shift from DB plans to DC plans has a significant negative impact on pre-tax registered pension plan (RPP) income. The losses are considerably smaller when the focus of analysis moves to total income and net after-tax income. However, because much of what reduces the larger gross effect of lost RPP income is lower personal income taxes, the trend from DB to DC involves a fiscal impact, by generating upward pressure on public expenditures. The authors emphasize that the results of this study reflect the attributes of DC plans as they have existed until now, and not as they might exist in a reconceptualized form.

The article reviews the book, "Citizens of Asian America: Democracy and Race during the Cold War," by Cindy I-Fen Cheng.

This study uses a Delphi analysis to identify significant barriers to the development of sustained and meaningful pressure on the Alberta government to increase the enforcement of its laws regulating the employment of teenagers. In addition to general employment laws (e.g., wage payment, occupational health and safety) that appear to go broadly unenforced, Alberta also appears not to enforce laws specifying the hours during which teens may work, the occupations in which they may work and the job tasks they may perform. The result is wage theft, workplace injury and illegal forms of employment among teens. The seven Delphi panelists—a mixture of academics, trade unionists and staff members in not-for-profit agencies with an interest in employment matters—identify a tight business-government relationship as an important limit on the political opportunities available to insurgents seeking change. Insurgents must also grapple with a framing that minimizes concerns around teen employment, i.e. by framing illegal or injurious work as an educational rite of passage and complaints as whining. Together, these barriers significantly limit the opportunities to pressure the state to enhance enforcement. Panelists also noted that there is no mobilizing structure in place that teenage workers and their allies can access. Alberta’s labour movement has had limited success organizing the service sector (where most teens are employed). Some panelists suggested leveraging the widespread sexual harassment of female teen workers as a way to access existing networks and resources in feminist and labour organizations. Other panelists argued that focusing on sexual harassment would emphasize individual employers’ misbehaviour and obscure the class-based nature of inadequate enforcement. Most panelists suggested that highlighting the socially inappropriate nature of the death or serious injury of teen workers would be the best way to destabilize the existing barriers to better enforcement of employment laws. The opportunity to do so is (fortunately) rare and may be difficult to leverage. Indeed, research on high profile occupational fatalities in Canada (e.g., the Westray Mine disaster) suggests that such fatalities do not have a significant effect on state enforcement efforts. In the meantime, advocates such as organized labour and community groups may also work to alter conventional views of teen employment by supporting educational or artistic endeavours that problematize teen employment. This could include identifying the risks and consequences of the non-enforcement of laws regulating the employment of teens (such as injury and wage theft) as well as highlighting the reasons why teen workers warrant the enforcement of their workplace rights by the state.

Prior to May 2015, the oil-rich jurisdiction of Alberta had, for over four decades, been a one-party state. During that time, the rule of the Progressive Conservatives essentially went unchallenged, with critiques of government policy falling on deaf ears and Alberta ranking behind other provinces in voter turnout. Given the province’s economic reliance on oil revenues, a symbiotic relationship also developed between government and the oil industry. Cross-national studies have detected a correlation between oil-dependent economies and authoritarian rule, a pattern particularly evident in Africa and the Middle East. Alberta Oil and the Decline of Democracy in Canada sets out to test the “oil inhibits democracy” hypothesis in the context of an industrialized nation in the Global North. In probing the impact of Alberta’s powerful oil lobby on the health of democracy in the province, contributors to the volume engage with an ongoing discussion of the erosion of political liberalism in the West. In addition to examining energy policy and issues of government accountability in Alberta, they explore the ramifications of oil dependence in areas such as Aboriginal rights, environmental policy, labour law, women’s equity, urban social policy, and the arts. If, as they argue, reliance on oil has weakened democratic structures in Alberta, then what of Canada as whole, where the short-term priorities of the oil industry continue to shape federal policy? In Alberta, the New Democratic Party is in a position to reverse the democratic deficit that is presently fuelling political and economic inequality. The findings in this book suggest that, to revitalize democracy, provincial and federal leaders alike must find the courage to curb the influence of the oil industry on governance.--Publisher's description.

In this case study, we examine why the use of Temporary Foreign Workers increased in Alberta, how the former Conservatives government of Alberta encouraged and justified the use of migrant workers, and how a petroleum-based economy affects labour markets and the democratic health of a region. This study also explores how Alberta’s use of migrant workers is consistent with labour-market dynamics in an oil-exporting economy. --Authors' introduction

The article reviews the book, "The Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters: C.L. Dellums and the Fight for Fair Treatment and Civil Rights," by Robert L. Allen.

In January 2003, the Caledon Institute of Social Policy published the first comprehensive analysis of minimum wages in Canada, Minimum Wages in Canada: A Statistical Portrait with Policy Implications. The report plotted trends in adult minimum wages in Canada’s ten provinces and three territories1 from 1965 through 2001, and investigated the size and key characteristics of the minimum wage workforce nationally and in each province. Caledon updated its 2003 study with a 2011 version, Restoring Min- imum Wages in Canada. That paper tracked trends in minimum wage rates from 1965 through 2010. The current study, Minimum Wage Rates in Canada: 1965-2015, up- dates the data to 2015. It will be annually updated from now on.

Un paysage sombre, un sol noirci par les poussières industrielles et un horizon saturé par la fumée crachée par les usines. Au centre de ce tableau, quatre salariés entendent planter un arbre et insérer une infime touche de vert au coeur de cette obscurité. Telle est l’image que découvrent les lecteurs du journal Le Travail (publication de la Confédération des syndicats nationaux, CSN), en octobre 1965. Cette illustration visait à représenter la pluralité des professions organisées dans le mouvement syndical. Elle acquiert une signification nouvelle, lorsque nous l’observons dans le contexte d’intensification de la crise écologique. Elle apparaît comme une métaphore de l’action menée par les syndicalistes, dans un Québec soumis aux retombées environnementales de l’industrialisation. --Introduction

Constituée à la fin des années 1990, l’Union syndicale Solidaires a pris une part importante dans les mobilisations sociales. Au travers de ses syndicats SUD, elle apparaît comme l’une des composantes radicales du mouvement syndical en France, tout comme l’un des acteurs majeurs dans la contestation des effets de la crise économique et des politiques de rigueur. Cet article montre que, tout en jouant un rôle important dans la contestation sociale, l’Union syndicale Solidaires (USS) est également engagée dans un processus de reconnaissance de sa représentativité et de sa place dans le système de relations professionnelles. Pour faire vivre le syndicalisme combatif qu’elle entend défendre, l’organisation est, en effet, obligée de gagner en audience et en visibilité. Tout en contestant les règles du système de relations professionnelles, tel qu’elles bénéficiaient aux acteurs dominants au sein de ce dernier, Solidaires réclamait un changement de celles-ci. La réforme des règles de représentativité, lancée en 2008, a été de ce point de vue plutôt positive pour l’Union. Cependant, elle a engendré des dynamiques ambivalentes en son sein : elle a facilité les conditions d’implantation de ses syndicats dans le secteur privé, tout en l’obligeant à rationaliser ses structures, mais aussi ses pratiques, dans un souci d’efficacité. Une tension existe ainsi entre, d’un côté, une stratégie de développement syndical pensée d’une certaine façon « à froid », non plus dans les phases de mobilisation sociale, mais davantage en lien avec les opportunités créées par le nouveau régime de représentativité et, de l’autre, l’importance de certains référents identitaires très présents dans l’organisation (reconnaissance de l’autonomie des structures de base, refus de toute centralisation, critique des permanents syndicaux).

Bien qu’étant de plus en plus étudié dans le champ des comportements organisationnels positifs, de nombreuses zones d’ombre entourent encore le bien-être au travail. Notre ambition est de montrer l’intérêt de l’appréhender de manière différenciée plutôt qu’au travers d’un score global, afin de décrire les relations qu’il entretient avec des attitudes positives et négatives. Cette approche centrée sur les personnes est rendue possible par la multi dimensionnalité du concept. Cette particularité autorise le regroupement des participants à l’enquête en profils, c’est-à-dire en fonction de la composition des scores exprimés sur chacune des dimensions constitutives du bien-être. L’analyse en profils latents — Latent Profiles Analysis — d’un échantillon de 865 personnes fait apparaître cinq regroupements distincts. Le premier est celui des personnes qui rapportent les plus faibles scores alors que le second est celui des scores voisins de la moyenne de l’échantillon sur les quatre dimensions constitutives du bien-être. Ils sont respectivement nommés profils de bien-être « déficitaire » et de bien-être « de référence ». Le troisième est un segment de population caractérisé par une relation très positive au manager et à l’environnement physique de travail. Ces deux dimensions symbolisent l’organisation, c’est pourquoi nous le nommons profil de bien-être « organisationnel ». Le quatrième est qualifié de bien-être « complet », car aucune dimension constitutive du bien-être ne manque à l’appel. Enfin, le cinquième est un bien-être « social », puisqu’il est d’abord défini par la qualité des relations aux collègues. Sur ces bases empiriques, une régression logistique multinomiale révèle que les relations les plus positives entretenues avec des variables exogènes recherchées, telles que l’implication organisationnelle affective et la satisfaction au travail, concernent d’abord le profil de bien-être au travail « complet », puis, dans l’ordre, les profils trois, cinq, deux et un. L’association à l’intention de quitter est inverse. Ces résultats invitent les managers à différencier leurs pratiques incitatives en fonction du profil auquel les salariés appartiennent. Ils montrent également que les différentes dimensions du bien-être au travail ne sont pas gouvernées par un jeu de compensations entre elles. // Title in English: Well-being at Work: Contributions of a Person-centred Study. (English). Despite growing interest in organizational behaviour and, especially, in well-being at work, this concept still lacks clarity. Our aim is to show that it is more informative to study it in a differentiated manner than through a global score, in order to describe its links with positive and negative attitudes. The multidimensionality of well-being at work makes this person-centred approach possible. Thus, people can be clustered in profiles based on the composition of the specific score they gave on each dimension of well-being at work. A latent profiles analysis conducted on a large sample of 865 people reveals five distinct profiles. The first profile includes people who reported the lowest scores of the sample, whereas the second is close to the average of the four dimensions. We named them “lack” well-being and “benchmark” well-being profiles, respectively. Very positive relations with the supervisor and material environment characterize the third profile. These dimensions symbolized the organization. We therefore called it “organizational” well-being profile. We called the fourth one “full” well-being due to the highest positive relations recorded on all dimensions. The last profile is “social” well-being because of the high quality relations with coworkers. Based on these first empirical results, a multinomial logistic regression shows that the most positive links with expected exogenous attitudes, such as affective organizational commitment and satisfaction at work, involve the “full” profile, then, in order of magnitude, the “organizational,” “social,” “benchmark” and “lack” profiles. The association with intention to quit is the reverse. These results call for managers to differentiate their encouraging practices based on the well-being at work profile to which employees belong. They also show that the dimensions of the concept are not concurrent.

The campaign to free imprisoned anarchists Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti ignited mobilization the world over in the 1920s. In Canada, the solidarity movement was split into three groupings: anarchists, syndicalists, and communists. The anarchists were largely represented by a small group surrounding Emma Goldman in Toronto. Syndicalists were organized by the One Big Union and Industrial Workers of the World, largely in Winnipeg and the Lakehead respectively. The Communist Party of Canada, and its adjunct, the Canadian Labour Defence League, were active across Canada. All three groupings, depsite their ideological differences, mounted campaigns that culminated in information pickets, mass demonstrations, calls to action, and even a strike. Although ultimately unsuccessful, the examination of the Canadian Sacco and Vanzetti solidarity movement gives critical insight into the radical left in the 1920s.

The article reviews the book, "New Labor in New York: Precarious Workers and the Future of the Labor Movement," edited by Ruth Milkman and Ed Ott.

Cet article s’intéresse aux négociations locales ayant eu lieu dans le réseau québécois de la santé et des services sociaux entre 2005 et 2008 suite à la mise en oeuvre de la Loi concernant les unités de négociation dans le secteur des affaires sociales et modifiant la Loi sur le régime de négociation des conventions collectives dans le secteur public et parapublic (L.R.Q., c. U-0.1), mieux connue sous le nom « Loi 30 ». Cette dernière a profondément modifié les règles du jeu quant aux rapports entre les gestionnaires et les syndicats locaux du secteur de la santé québécois, cela en imposant de nouvelles unités d’accréditations syndicales et en décentralisant une partie de la négociation des conventions collectives. Dans le cadre d’une recherche menée entre 2008 et 2011, nous avons cherché à comprendre les impacts de cette décentralisation sur le travail des gestionnaires locaux. Plus spécifiquement, nous avons voulu vérifier si, du point de vue des gestionnaires locaux, l’augmentation des marges de manoeuvre managériales qui devaient découler de cette décentralisation s’est reflétée dans les premières négociations locales. Les propos des gestionnaires rencontrés sont plutôt mitigés. En effet, il appert que l’encadrement restrictif des négociations, combiné au contexte organisationnel dans lequel celles-ci se sont réalisées, a limité, malgré les marges de manoeuvre théoriquement permises par la décentralisation, la capacité des gestionnaires locaux d’adapter l’organisation du travail aux réalités des établissements. // Decentralized Bargaining in the Quebec Health and Social Services Sector: What Do Local Managers Say? (English). This article focuses on local bargaining that took place in the Quebec health and social services network between 2005 and 2008 following implementation of the Act respecting bargaining units in the social affairs sector and amending the Act respecting the process of negotiation of the collective agreements in the public and parapublic sectors (QLR, c. U-0.1), better known as Bill 30. This legislation drastically changed the rules regarding relations between local managers and unions in the Quebec healthcare sector by imposing new union accreditation units and decentralizing part of the collective bargaining process. As part of a study conducted between 2008 and 2011, I endeavored to understand the impact of this decentralization on the work of local managers. More specifically, I sought to determine, from the point of view of local managers, whether the increased managerial flexibility that was supposed to have resulted from this decentralization was reflected in the initial local negotiations. The managers interviewed had mixed feelings. It appears that, in practice, the restrictive bargaining framework, combined with the organizational context in which bargaining took place, limited the ability of local managers to adapt work organization to their institutional realities.

The article reviews the book, "How the Other Half Ate: A History of Working Class Meals at the Turn of the Century," by Katherine Leonard Turner.

The article reviews the book, "Milk Spills and One-Log Loads: Memories of a Pioneer Truck Driver," by Frank White.

The article reviews the book, "Families Apart: Migrant Mothers and the Conflicts of Labor and Love," by Geraldine Pratt.

This article reviews the book, "Time, Work and Leisure: Life Changes in England since 1700," by Hugh Cunningham.

The article reviews and comments on the books, "Labour Markets and Identity on the Post-Industrial Assembly Line," by Anthony Lloyd, "Answer the Call: Virtual Migration in Indian Call Centres," by Aimee Carrillo Rowe, Sheena Malhotra, and Kimberlee Perèz, and "Call Centers and the Global Division of Labor: A Political Economy of Post-Industrial Employment and Union Organizing," by Andrew J.R. Stevens.

[This article] aims to contribute to knowledge of proletarian literature in post–Confederation Canada in three related ways: by briefly outlining the early history of the Clarion; by describing the Clarion’s use of articles, extracts, leaflets, pamphlets, poems, short stories, novels, and cartoons to define and popularize the platform of the Socialist Party of Canada; and by investigating how such communicative practices shaped and were shaped by the maintenance of identity and group formation, especially as the SPC attempted to increase the Clarion’s circulation and further socialist representation across Canada.

This article reviews the book, "Joining Empire: The Political Economy of the New Canadian Foreign Policy," by Jerome Klassen.