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Established in 1913, the New Brunswick Federation of Labour is the second oldest provincial federation of labour in Canada. Its history began in early campaigns for workers’ compensation and union recognition and continues today in the latest battles to defend social standards, secure employment, and union rights. Active initially in the port city of Saint John and the railway centre of Moncton, the federation soon expanded to include workers in the mines and mills of the north, taking up the causes of public employees and women workers and confronting the realities of life and work in a bilingual society. A pioneering study, written in clear and forceful prose, this is the untold story of provincial labour solidarities that succeeded in overcoming divisions and defeats to raise the status of working men and women within New Brunswick society. Drawing on archives, newspapers, and workers’ own descriptions of their experiences, Frank makes an original contribution to our understanding of the political, economic, and social development of the province. In so doing, he helps meet the need for an informed public awareness of the history of workers and unions in all parts of Canada.

La Fédération des travailleurs et travailleuses du Nouveau-Brunswick, fondée en 1913, est la deuxième plus ancienne fédération provinciale du travail au Canada. Son histoire remonte aux premières campagnes en faveur de l’indemnisation des accidents du travail et de la reconnaissance syndicale, et elle se poursuit dans les plus récentes luttes visant à défendre les normes sociales et à protéger les emplois et les droits syndicaux. La Fédération a vu le jour dans la ville portuaire de Saint John et le centre ferroviaire de Moncton, puis elle s’est étendue aux travailleurs des mines et des usines du nord de la province, soutenant la cause des employés du secteur public et des travailleuses, reflétant les réalités de la vie et du travail dans une société bilingue. Puisant dans les archives, les journaux et les expériences des travailleurs et des travailleuses, voici l’histoire inédite de solidarités syndicales provinciales qui ont surmonté les divisions et les revers afin de rehausser le statut des travailleurs et des travailleuses dans la société néo-brunswickoise. Par cette étude pionnière rédigée dans un style clair et puissant, Frank apporte une contribution originale à la compréhension de l’évolution politique, économique et sociale de la province, et il aide à combler le besoin d’éclairer la connaissance que le public a de l’histoire des travailleurs et des syndicats de toutes les régions du Canada. --Publisher's description

This collection of essays provides a generous introduction to the vibrant field of labour and working-class history in Canada's eastern provinces. Organized in four sections covering pre-industrial labour, the industrial revolution, labour's wars of the early twentieth century, and the rise of industrial legality, the book should prove useful in university classrooms and for all readers interested in the history of the region's ordinary people. Concluding chapters address topics of current interest such as public sector unionism, the role of women in the fishery, and the horrors of the Westray mine disaster. The editors provide an introduction, section heads, and suggestions for further reading. The volume is edited by David Frank, Department of History, University of New Brunswick, the former editor of Acadiensis, and Gregory S. Kealey, Department of History, Memorial University of Newfoundland, Dean of Graduate Studies. Authors include T. W. Acheson, Rusty Bittermann, Sean Cadigan, Jessie Chisholm, Patricia M. Connelly, Peter DeLottinville, E. R. Forbes, Eugene Forsey, Harry Glasbeek, Linda Little, Martha MacDonald, Robert McIntosh, Ian McKay, D. A. Muise, Nolan Reilly, Eric W. Sager, Anthony Thomson, and Eric Tucker. --Publisher's description

In October 1976 one million Canadian workers walked off the job to protest the wage controls imposed by Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau. In a memorable personal account of this historic general strike, Saint John labour activist George Vair recalls how workers in one New Brunswick city mobilized to defend themselves and their unions and defeat the unpopular program. --Publisher's description

An original adventure in public history — a tour of 50 sites where families, workers, unions and communities have recognized the place of workers in 20th-century New Brunswick history. Ten short chapters, with explanatory notes, illustrations and a map. // Une aventure originale en histoire publique — une tournée de 50 lieux où des familles, des travailleuses et des travailleurs, des syndicats et des communautés ont reconnu la place des travailleuses et des travailleurs dans l’histoire du Nouveau-Brunswick du 20e siècle. Dix courts chapitres, des notes explicatives, des illustrations et une carte. --Publisher's description

Historien reconnu à l'échelle internationale, Stanley Bréhaut Ryerson a été un précurseur par sa réinterpretation de l'histoire des peuples de Canada. Ses ouvrages se tiennent une place tout à fait singulièredans l'historiographie canadienne. Intelluelle d'envergure, il a su allier l'excellence scientifique à la responsibilité sociale ; tout au longue une carrière de plus de soixante années, il a conservé ce profil de militant et d'historien engagé. Sa recherche, toujours inspirée des problèmes de société, a été animée par des valeurs de justice, de solidarité et de liberté. Cet ouvrage auquel participent quatorze collaborateurs qui veut faire connaître le plus important historien Marxiste du Canada. Il vise égalment rétracer la trajectoire militante et le cheminement intellectuel progressiste qui a laissé derrière lui une œuvre fort imposante. --Description de l'éditeur

Every day millions of Canadians go out to work. They labour in factories, offices, restaurants, and retail stores, on ships, and deep in mines. And every day millions of other Canadians, mostly women, begin work in their homes, performing the many tasks that ensure the well-being of their families and ultimately, the reproduction of the paid labour force. Yet, for all its undoubted importance, there has been remarkably little systematic research into the past and present dynamics of the world of work in Canada. The essays in this volume enhance our understanding of Canadians on the job. Focusing on specific industries and kinds of work, from logging and longshoring to restaurant work and the needle trades, the contributors consider such issues as job skill, mass production, and the transformation of resource industries. They raise questions about how particular jobs are structured and changed over time, the role of workers' resistance and trade unions in shaping the lives of workers, and the impact of technology. Together these essays clarify a fundamental characteristic shared by all labour processes: they are shaped and conditioned by the social, economic, and political struggles of labour and capital both inside and outside the workplace. They argue that technological change, as well as all the transformations in the workplace, must become a social process that we all control. --Publisher's description. Contents: On the job in Canada / Craig Heron and Robert Storey (pages 3-46) -- Dimensions of paternalism: Discipline and culture in Canadian railway operations in the 1850s / Paul Craven and Tom Traves (pages 47-74) -- Work control, the labour process, and nineteen-century Canadian printers / Gregory S. Kealey (pages 75-101) -- Contested terrain: workers' control in the Cape Breton coal mines in the 1920s / David Frank (pages 102-123) -- Keeping house in God's country: Canadian women at work in the home  / Veronica Strong-Boag (pages 124-151) -- Skill and gender in the Canadian clothing industry, 1890-1940 / Mercedes Steedman (pages 152-176) -- Mechanization, feminization, and managerial control in the early twentieth-century Canadian office / Graham S. Lowe (pages 177-209) -- Work and struggle in the Canadian steel industry, 1900-1950 / Craig Heron and Robert Storey (pages 210-244) -- Logging pulpwood in Northern Ontario / Ian Radforth (pages 245-280) -- On the waterfront: longshoring in Canada / John Bellamy Foster (pages 281-308) -- Life in a fast-food factory / Ester Reiter (pages 309-326) -- Autoworkers on the firing line / Don Wells (pages 327-352).