Strikes in Essential Services by Bernard Adell, Michel Grant and Allen Ponak, Kingston, Ont.: IRC Press, Industrial Relations Centre, Queen’s University, 2001, 272 pp., ISBN 0-88886-543-0.

It is clear, from the variety of approaches used in different Canadian jurisdictions, that a consensus remains elusive, in policy and in practice, on the most appropriate means to ensure the protection of essential services in the event of a labour dispute. This book, by three respected scholars and practitioners, is a significant contribution to this most contentious issue in Canadian industrial relations. The authors undertook an intensive study to assess and compare the three systems currently in effect in Canada for the resolution of essential service disputes: first, the “no-strike” model, with compulsory arbitration as the ultimate dispute resolution procedure; second, the “unfettered strike” model, in which there are no separate statutory provisions with regard to essential services; and, finally, the “designation” (or “controlled strike”) model, which requires the designation of the essential services to be maintained in the event of a strike or lockout, such designations to be made by agreement between the parties or, in the absence of such agreement, by a specialized essential services commission or a labour relations board. The analysis is based on the experience of three carefully selected occupational groups—registered nurses, municipal blue-collar employees and urban transit workers—in five jurisdictions: Quebec, Ontario, Saskatchewan, Alberta and British Columbia. As the authors point out, these jurisdictions include the four most populous provinces in Canada, represent important regional differences and have a good representation of the three types of dispute resolution procedure to which the target groups are subject. The target groups, in turn, provide different types of services, with significantly different levels of perceived essentiality. They also have a record of relatively frequent and sometimes lengthy strikes and lockouts. This allowed the authors to examine and compare the dynamics of providing essential services in the event of lengthy interruptions of work under different regulatory approaches, to consider how this might be affected by the extent to which a service is perceived to be essential and to compare, on the basis of a number of industrial relations criteria, the suitability of the different approaches to dispute resolution for different occupational groups. They began the study with two hypotheses: first, that “a system for protecting essential services in the event of a strike or lockout works better if the ultimate decisions are put in the hands of an adjudicative tribunal, which applies pre-existing standards of essentiality rather than being left entirely to the interplay of economic or political forces;” and, second, that “the lower the degree of essentiality of the services involved in a particular dispute, the more likely it is that the unfettered strike model will work best.” The empirical research on which the hypotheses would be tested (and eventually confirmed) consisted of an impressive number (157) of in-depth interviews with experienced participants in dispute resolution in the sectors selected for study, supplemented by informal discussions with other knowledgeable people. A formal interview guide provided comparable data, among other things, on how the process of identifying and providing essential services works in practice in the different jurisdictions, how well it is thought to be working and what reforms might be indicated. There are six chapters in the book. Chapter One adds a new dimension to the debate on essential services, with an original framework for evaluating the different models of dispute resolution. Chapter Two reviews the law across the country on strikes and lockouts in essential services. The next three chapters present a comprehensive review and analysis of the experience of the target groups under the various approaches to dispute resolution in each of the selected jurisdictions. Chapter 6, with which the book concludes, analyses the …