From Plant to Politics: The Canadian UAW, 1936-1984

This thesis studies the historically varied political strategies pursued by the Canadian branch of the International Union, United Automobile, Aerospace and Agricultural Implement Workers in the union's attempts to shift the balance of power in its favour between 1936 and 1984. In so doing, the thesis examines and explains the Canadian UAW's changing relations to governments, corporations and political parties. Particular emphasis is placed on explaining the conditions under which this union pursued militant forms of political action. The analytical framework used in this work is constructed around an understanding of unions as strategic actors which make choices under limits arising from the historical, political-economic and internal conditions in which the union operates. In turn, a union's strategic capacity--defined as its ability to pursue a particular course of action successfully--is understood as being determined by both external conditions, such as the state of the economy, and by the internal resources and dynamics of the union. The most important external constraint on the Canadian UAW's strategic pursuits was the construction/destruction of the Fordist mode of regulation, which was organized around a wage/productivity trade-off and encouraged the institutionalization of labour-management relations, union control of membership militancy and the practice of 'responsible' unionism. At the same, it is argued that the Canadian UAW shaped the nature of this compromise and the timing of its own acceptance of this arrangement. More specifically, the Canadian UAW's distinctive organizational structure and collective identity are argued to have delayed the union's acceptance of the practices of 'responsible' unionism and influenced the particular regulatory mechanisms put into place in the Canadian auto industry. Overall, this study finds that, in contrast to current interpretations of union postwar political behaviour, Canadian Autoworkers continued to pursue militant, mobilization-based forms of political action until the early 1960's. It was only at this time that Canadian Autoworkers appeared to accept constraints on their militancy in exchange for improved wages and benefits and greater access to political decision-making. This period of detente between the UAW, governments and corporations was short-lived, however, owing both to emergent strains within the union between the rank and file and the leadership and the crisis of Fordism. Consequently, the UAW, in an attempt to protect its organizational integrity and position of strength in the workplace and society, returned to militant forms of political action, the effects of which were a shift in the balance of power in favour of the union and Canadian Autoworkers' split from their International union.

ISBN: 9780315511347 OCLC: 23693105