The paradox of American unionism : why Americans like unions more than Canadians do, but join much less /

Lipset and Meltz, professors and authors of numerous industrial relations publications, conclude that lower union density in the US relative to Canada is based on America's individualistic, laissez-faire tradition and Canada's social democratic tradition. Their conclusions stem from a large telephone survey investigating comparative public attitudes in Canada and the US. High relative approval of unions in the US is associated with a low perceived power of unions. American unions are not as powerful partly because labor legislation and its enforcement have not been as supportive of unionization. The authors also note complexities within the American union experience, e.g., extraordinary times such as economic depression have contributed to temporarily higher union membership. The book contains numerous tables from the authors' survey and various demographic research studies, and an appendix contains a copy of the survey questions. Richard Block, Karen Roberts, and R. Oliver Clarke's Labor Standards in the United States and Canada (CH, Nov'03) enhances the comparison of individualistic and social democratic traditions through a comparison of labor standards such as overtime. ^BSumming Up: Recommended. Economics and labor studies collections, upper-division undergraduate through professional. G. E. Kaupins Boise State University

The subtitle of this book by Lipset (Hoover Inst., Stanford Univ.; Woodrow Wilson International Ctr.) and the late Meltz (Woodsworth Coll. and Univ. of Toronto) is an awkwardly worded but intriguing question. A recent New York Times article, "Modest Raises for One Union Are Rejected by Three Others" (April 21, 2004), suggests that the unwillingness of municipalities like New York City to pay "competitive" wages to its teachers, police, and firefighters makes it hard for unions to recruit new members. Although this may be among the factors dissuading workers in the United States from joining unions, the authors suggest that at the heart of the matter "is the U.S. emphasis on individual freedom, combined with the peculiarities of Congressional government which makes changes to labor law very difficult." They support this contention in well-written, well-documented chapters that use excellent statistical evidence to consider the political philosophies that have informed unions in the United States and Canada from their beginnings to the present. Recommended for academic, special, and large public libraries.-Ellen D. Gilbert, Princeton, NJ (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.