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It's the second oldest profession in the world. Until recently, a society without them was considered inconceivable. Yet they are one of the most invisible and silent groups of people in Canadian history: the servants. The maid, the butler, the footman, the coachman, the groom, the nurse, the laundress: most of them were either illiterate or too busy to have left a record of their lives. The literati hardly mentioned them. They were part of the furniture. In fact, artists lavished more attention on the furniture. --Introduction

Analyzes the conflicted terrain of the Canadian labour movement as a result of neoliberal restructuring of the economy and the frayed relationship with the social democratic NDP. Compares union densities in Canada and the US. Concludes that transformative union renewal must include the political rebuilding of a worker-based socialist movement.

English/French abstracts of the articles in the current issue.

English/French abstracts of articles in the Spring 2015 issue.

The article reviews the book, "Taking Back the Streets: Women, Youth, and Direct Democracy," by Temma Kaplan.

The central focus of this article is the effort by Canadian unions to organize Wal-Mart. Organizing the world's largest corporation is considered to be critical because the company's business "template" calls for wages and benefits considerably inferior to those of unionized workers. To date, although a few bargaining units have been certified, Wal-Mart has managed to thwart all attempts to negotiate collective agreements. However, because the United Food and Commercial Workers have certified units in a few provinces with first contract arbitration, the achievement, eventually, of a collective agreement appears to be likely.

Building cleaners are increasingly portrayed in pop culture. This article seeks to provide reasons for their increased visibility, and then examines precisely how they are constructed. The analysis reveals three overriding themes of representation: (1) cleaners as a discourse for Americanism; (2) cleaners as stand ins for the rehabilitation of ‘whiteness’; and (3) cleaners as endure the neoliberal workplace.

The article reviews the book, "The Montreal Massacre: A Story of Membership Categorization Analysis," by Peter Eglin and Stephen Hester.

The article reviews the book, "Industrial Sunset: The Making of North America's Rust Belt, 1969-1984." by Steven C. High.

Describes the strikes in the textile mills of Montreal, Valleyfield and Lachute that were led by Madeleine Parent and Kent Rowley in the post-World War II period, and the anti-communist purge of US-based unions that resulted in their dismissal from the United Textile Workers of America in 1952.

The article reviews the book, "Training the Excluded for Work: Access and Equity for Women, Immigrants, First Nations, Youth, and People with Low Income," edited by Marjorie Griffin Cohen.

The article reviews and comments on "The Clash of Fundamentalisms: Crusades, Jihads and Modernity" by Tariq Ali, "The Clash of Barbarisms: September 11 and the Making of the New World Disorder" by Gilbert Achcar , "Welcome to the Desert of the Real" by Slavoj Zizek's, "The New Rulers of the World" by John Pilger, and "The New Mandarins of American Power" by Alex Callinicos.

The article reviews the book, "Caetana Says No: Women's Stories from a Brazilian Slave Society," by Sandra Lauderdale Graham.

Le domaine de la gestion stratégique des ressources humaines manque d’encadrement théorique en ce qui concerne le caractère unique de l’architecture de ressources humaines (RH). L’article propose une réflexion théorique sur cette notion et ses deux dimensions principales : l’alignement vertical et la cohérence horizontale. L’exposé explique comment et pourquoi les organisations de même type possèdent sensiblement la même architecture RH. L’importance du rôle des contingences internes et des conditions de réalisation des objectifs RH est abordée. L’auteur explore le caractère unique de la GRH au niveau de la cohérence des pratiques et la complexité des liens avec l’alignement vertical. Un modèle combinant les deux dimensions de l’architecture RH propose des pistes de réflexion quant à leur effet interactif sur la performance organisationnelle. Des hypothèses et stratégies de recherche pour mesurer la présence et l’impact de la cohérence horizontale sur la performance organisationnelle sont suggérées.

This paper provides the first analysis of aggregate raiding activity in Ontario by isolating raid applications from available certification data. Raiding in Ontario generally decreased over the 1975 to 2003 period save for the huge increases in 2000 and 2001 involving the CAW and SEIU. Bargaining units are significantly larger in raids, and legislative changes had little effect on aggregate raiding levels. Over most of the period raiding activity has been quite modest. Thus analyses of union organizing and its effect on union density are unlikely to be affected by leaving raids in the organizing data. An important exception occurs in 2000 and 2001, where the certification data seriously overstate new organizing. Corrected measures show that new (non-raid) union organizing continues to decline in Ontario. The decline in new organizing has been greater than the decline in raiding, resulting in an increased proportion of organizing due to raids in recent years.

Academia increasingly faces pressures of corporatization and flexibilization. Of particular concern is the segmentation of academic labour into stable tenured or tenure-track professors and “flexible” sessional and adjunct faculty. In this paper, I review evidence of the segmentation of the Canadian academic labour market, examine the conditions that permit segmentation to exist, discuss why academic geographers in both segments comply with a segmented labour market and, finally, propose potential strategies to address the issue of segmentation.

This paper examines the variability of workers' earnings in Canada over the period 1982-1997. Using a large panel of tax file data, we decompose total variation in earnings across workers and time into a long-run inequality component between workers and an average earnings instability component over time for workers. We find an increase in earnings variability between 1982-89 and 1990-97 that is largely confined to men and largely driven by widening long-run earnings inequality. Second, the pattern of unemployment rate and GDP growth rate effects on these variance components is not consistent with conventional explanations and is suggestive of an alternative paradigm of how economic growth over this period widens long-run earnings inequality. Third, when unemployment rate and GDP growth rate effects are considered jointly, macroeconomic improvement is found to reduce the overall variability of earnings as the reduction in earnings instability outweighs the widening of long-run earnings inequality.

Illustrated history of the 2000-2001 strike of the Mine Mill/Canadian Auto Workers Local 598 strike against Falconbridge in Sudbury, Ont. Published in collaboration with Laurentian University's Labour and Trade Union Studies' Program.

Using responses from a telephone survey of 589 low wage, low skill workers in US hospitals, the authors investigate the workplace features that influence workers' perceptions of dignity at work. Both work organization variables and union representation are investigated as potential factors affecting workers' perceptions of fair treatment by their employer, intrinsically satisfying work, and economic security. Work organization and union representation have little effect on dignity at work with the exception of their association with higher wages and therefore a greater degree of economic security. Results indicate that higher pay, adequate levels of staffing and resources, and access to training are the variables that are most closely associated with dignity on the job.

The article reviews the book, "Le travail non qualifié : permanences et paradoxes," edited by Dominique Méda and Francis Vennat.