Life & Death of a Union: The Canadian Seamen's Union, 1936-1949

[The author] introduces some of Canada's most extraordinary trade unionists. We encounter nine Ottawa mandarins who pave the way for the destruction of Canada's merchant navy, ship building industry, and 50,000 jobs. We meet certain employers whose greed was boundless and who were prone to violence and lawlessness. And we view the antics of politicians who turn out to be considerably less than honourable. Mr. Stanton tells the shameful story of the union's death from, as he says, "employer intransigence, government corruption, judicial bias, and American thuggery." It took a commission of inquiry, a government-imposed Administratioin, and almost a generation to clear up the mess left by U.S. gangsters. They had been brought into the shipping industry by ruthless employers unrestrained by the Mackenzie King government. For, as Mr. Stanton demonstrates, Mackenzie King was "an employer's man, first, last and always." --Publisher's description

OCLC: 5058107