This book makes use of a four country research programme, covering France, Germany, Great Britain and Japan. Investigations and interviews at store, company and individual levels paint a picture of working times in the sector and in each of the countries. The volume provides some explanations for national differences as well as the similarities; supply and demand issues, as well as societal and social backgrounds. Large format food retailing is a major force in each country, employing millions in many different situations and conditions. This book suggests opportunities for retailers and employees to better manage their situations.

This study of contemporary capitalism focuses on the tomato. Social, economic, historical and biological aspects of tomato production and consumption are explored in order to reveal major social and economic changes during the 20th century.

Annotation Pay equity has been on the political agenda of the women's movement in Canada for at least twenty-five years. In that time, political action by women and the labour movement has culminated in pay equity laws in six of ten Canadian provinces. Despite this, a gender-wage gap continues to exist. Why hasn't pay equity law resulted in better pay for women? Why does the gender-wage gap continue to exist? Is pay equity law an effective tool for eliminating workplace practices that contribute to gender-wage inequality? Cashing In On Pay Equity? explores these questions through an in-depth study of pay equity implementation in Ontario's supermarket chains during the 1990s, a period of workforce reorganization for the retail food sector. Despite union representation and pay equity legislation that had the potential to deliver gender-wage fairness, gender-wage inequities remained following the pay equity exercise. Intense industry competition, economic restructuring and business unionism worked to prevent a more favourable pay equity outcome. Nonetheless, Cashing In On Pay Equity? argues that pay equity legislation has the flexibility to win economic justice for women.

Finds that both the foreign-owned and nationally owned enterprises applied the principles of participatory management, and observes that there were more similarities than differences as regards conditions of work. Includes an overview of the retail sector in Canada.