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From factory workers in Welland to retail workers in St. Catharines, from hospitality workers in Niagara Falls to migrant farm workers in Niagara-On-The-Lake, Union Power showcases the role of working people in the Niagara region. Charting the development of the region's labour movement from the early nineteenth century to the present, Patrias and Savage illustrate how workers from this highly diversified economy struggled to improve their lives both inside and outside the workplace. Including extensive quotations from interviews, archival sources, and local newspapers, the story unfolds, in part, through the voices of the people themselves: the workers who fought for unions, the community members who supported them, and the employers who opposed them. Early industrial development and the appalling working conditions of the often vulnerable common labourer prompted a movement toward worker protection. Patrias and Savage argue that union power – power not built on profit, status, or prestige – relies on the twin concepts of struggle and solidarity: the solidarity of the shared interests of the working class and the struggle to achieve common goals. Union Power traces the evidence of these twin concepts through the history of the Niagara region's labour movement. --Publisher's description

This multi-disciplinary edited collection critically examines the causes and effects of anti-unionism in Canada. Primarily through a series of case studies, the book’s contributors document and expose the tactics and strategies of employers and anti-labour governments while also interrogating some of the labour movement’s own practices as a source of anti-union sentiment among workers. -- Publisher's description. Contents: Labour Under Attack: An Introduction to Anti-Unionism in Canada / Stephanie Ross & Larry Savage -- A Crisis of Representation: Anti-Unionism, Media and Popular Culture / Dennis Soron -- The Complexities of Worker Anti-Unionism / Stephanie Ross -- Inequality and Divisions on the Shop Floor: The Case of John Deere Welland Works / June Corman, Ann Duffy & Norene Pupo-Barkans -- Organizing Against the Odds: Anti-Unionism in Niagara’s Casino Gaming Sector / Larry Savage & Nick Ruhloff-Queiruga -- Anti-Unionism in Professional Sport: The Case of Major Junior Hockey / Simon Black -- The Cultural Politics of Labour in Retail / Kendra Coulter -- “I Work at VICE Canada and I Need a Union”: Organizing Digital Media / Nicole Cohen & Greig De Peuter.

This fourth edition...offers a comprehensive introductory overview of Canada’s labour movement. The book explores why workers form unions; assesses their organization and democratic potential; examines issues related to collective bargaining, grievances and strike activity; charts the historical development of labour unions; and describes the gains unions have achieved for their members and all working people. This new and expanded edition also analyzes the challenges facing today’s labour movement as a result of COVID-19 and the strategies being developed to overcome them. --Publisher's description

In the decades following the Second World War, autoworkers were at the forefront of the labour movement. Their union urged members to rally in the streets and use the ballot box to effect change for all working-class people. But by the turn of this century, the Canadian Auto Workers union had begun to pursue a more defensive political direction. "Shifting Gears" traces the evolution of CAW strategy from transformational activism to transactional politics. Class-based collective action and social democratic electoral mobilization gave way to transactional partnerships as relationships between the union, employers, and governments were refashioned. This new approach was maintained when the CAW merged with the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union in 2013 to create Unifor, Canada’s largest private-sector union. Stephanie Ross and Larry Savage explain how and why the union shifted its political tactics, offering a critical perspective on the current state of working-class politics. -- Publisher's description

For decades, public sector unions in Canada have been plagued by austerity, privatization, taxpayer backlash and restrictions on union rights. In recent years, the intensity of state-led attacks against public sector workers has reached a fevered pitch, raising the question of the role of public sector unions in protecting their members and the broader public interest. Public Sector Unions in the Age of Austerity examines the unique characteristics of public sector unionism in a Canadian context. Contributors to this multi-disciplinary collection explore both the strategic possibilities and challenges facing public sector unions that are intent on resisting austerity, enhancing their power and connecting their interests as workers with those of citizens who desire a more just and equitable public sphere. --Publisher's description

Though the Canadian labour movement’s postwar political, economic and social achievements may have seemed like irrevocable contributions to human progress, they have proven to be anything but. Since the mid-1970s, labour’s political influence and capacity to defend, let alone extend, these gains has been seriously undermined by the strategies of both capitalist interests and the neoliberal state. Electoral de-alignment and the decline of class-based voting, bursts of unsustained extra-parliamentary militancy and a general lack of influence on state actors and policy outcomes all signal that the labour movement is in crisis. Despite much experimentation in an attempt to regain political clout, labour continues to experience deep frustration and stagnation. As such, the labour movement’s future political capacities are in question, and the need for critical appraisal is urgent. Understanding how and why workers were able to exert collective power in the postwar era, how they lost it and how they might re-establish it is the central concern of Rethinking the Politics of Labour in Canada. With essays from established and emerging scholars from a wide range of disciplines, this collection assesses the past, present and uncertain future of labour politics in Canada. Bringing together the traditional electoral-based aspects of labour politics with analyses of the newer and rediscovered forms of working-class organization and social movement-influenced strategies, which have become increasingly important in the Canadian labour movement, this book seeks to take stock of these new forms of labour politics, understand their emergence and assess their impact on the future of labour in Canada. --Publisher's description. Contents:  Rethinking the Politics of Labour in Canada: An Introduction / Stephanie Ross & Larry Savage -- Part 1: Contextualizing Labour and Working-Class Politics. Canadian Labour and the Crisis of Solidarity / Donald Swartz & Rosemary Warskett -- Business Unionism and Social Unionism in Theory and Practice / Stephanie Ross. Part 2: The Challenge of Electoral Politics. The New Democratic Party in the Era of Neoliberalism / Bryan Evans -- Québec Labour: Days of Glory or the Same Old Story? / Peter Graefe -- Organized Labour and the Politics of Strategic Voting / Larry Savage -- Labour and the Politics of Voting System Reform in Canada / Dennis Pilon -- Part 3: The Prospects of Extra-Parliamentary Activism. Unions, Gender Equity and Neoconservative Politics / Amanda Coles & Charlotte Yates -- Social Unionism, Partnership and Conflict: Union Engagement with Aboriginal Peoples in Canada / Suzanne Mills & Tyler McCreary -- Canadian Labour and the Environment: Addressing the Value-Action Gap / Dennis Soron -- Community Unionism and the Canadian Labour Movement / Simon Black -- Anti-Poverty Work: Unions, Poor Workers and Collective Action in Canada  / Kendra Coulter -- Organizing Migrant and Immigrant Workers in Canada / Aziz Choudry & Mark Thomas -- Labour, Courts and the Erosion of Workers’ Rights in Canada / Charles Smith. Includes bibliographical references (pp. 198-222).

Since the turn of the twenty-first century, Canadian unions have scored a number of important Supreme Court victories, securing constitutional rights to picket, bargain collectively, and strike. Unions in Court documents the evolution of the Canadian labour movement’s engagement with the Charter, demonstrating how and why labour’s long-standing distrust of the legal system has given way to a controversial, Charter-based legal strategy. This book’s in-depth examination of constitutional labour rights will have critical implications for labour movements as well as activists in other fields. --Publisher's description.

Confrontation, Struggle and Transformation is the story of working women and men in the St. Catharines area from the mid-1800s to the present. The study explores the labour movement's fight to survive and thrive in the Niagara region. Thanks to extensive quotations from interviews, archival sources and local newspapers, the story unfolds, in part, through the voices of the people themselves: workers who fought for unions, community members who supported them and employers who opposed them. --Publisher's description

Substantially revised and updated for a new generation of labour studies students, this third edition of Building a Better World offers a comprehensive introductory overview of Canada's labour movement. The book includes an analysis of why workers form unions; assesses their organization and democratic potential; examines issues related to collective bargaining, grievances and strike activity; charts the historical development of labour unions; and describes the gains unions have achieved for their members and all working people. -- Publisher's description. Contents: What is a union? (pages 1-5) -- Understanding unions (pages 6-18) -- Early union struggles in Canada (pages 19-45) -- From Keynesianism to neoliberalism: Union breakthroughs and challenges (pages 46-70) -- Unions in the workplace (pages 71-91) -- Unions and political action (pages 92-111) -- How do unions work? (pages 112-137) -- What difference do unions make? (pages 128-143) -- Who belongs to unions? Who doesn't and why? (pages 144-163) -- The future of unions: Decline or renewal? (pages 164-189) -- References (pages 190-204) - Index (pages 206-216).

In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, the need to re-establish the labour movement’s political capacity to exert collective power in ways that foster greater opportunity and equality for working-class people has taken on a greater sense of urgency. Understanding the strategic political possibilities and challenges facing the Canadian labour movement at this important moment in history is the central concern of this second edition of Rethinking the Politics of Labour in Canada. With new and revised essays by established and emerging scholars from a wide range of disciplines, this edited collection assesses the past, present and uncertain future of Canadian labour politics in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. Bringing together the traditional electoral-based aspects of labour politics with analyses of newer and rediscovered forms of working-class organization and social movement-influenced strategies, which have become increasingly important in the Canadian labour movement, this book seeks to take stock of these new forms of labour politics, understand their emergence and assess their potential impact on the future of labour in Canada. --Publisher's description. Contents: Part 1: Contextualizing Labour and Working-Class Politics. Canadian Labour and COVID-19 / Stephanie Ross and Larry Savage -- Business Unionism and Social Unionism in Theory and Practice / Stephanie Ross. Part 2: The Challenge of Electoral Politics. Struggling to Survive: The New Democratic Party and Labour in the Neoliberal Era / Alan Ernst and Bryan Evans -- Labour and Politics in Quebec / Peter Graefe -- Anybody but Conservative: Canadian Unions and Strategic Voting / Larry Savage. Part 3: The Prospects of Extra-Parliamentary Activism. Interrogating the Union Politics of Equity, Inclusion and Diversity / Winnie Ng and Carol Wall -- Which Side Are You On? Indigenous Peoples and Canada’s Labour Movement / Suzanne Mills and Tyler McCreary -- The Politics of Migrant Worker Organizing in Canada / Karl Gardner, Dani Magsumbol and Ethel Tungohan -- Community Unionism and Alt-Labour in Canada / Simon Black -- Canadian Labour and the Environment: Addressing the Value-Action Gap / Dennis Soron -- Class Struggle Goes to Court: Workers’ Rights and the Charter of Rights and Freedoms / Charles Smith and Alison Braley-Rattai.