Your search
Results 3 resources
-
This paper examines the origins of Canada's labour policy during the first years of this century. It explains why the Canadian government rejected arbitration as the chief means of settling labour disputes, adopting conciliation instead. This choice lies at the foundation of Canadian labour law: governments since that time have sought to dampen industrial conflict by pushing the parties to compromise; they have generally balked at imposing specific terms of employment. The argument proceeds in three stages. It first reviews the formation of Canadian labour policy during the years 1900 to 1907. It then identifies the specific reasons for the government's rejection of arbitration. Finally, it suggests structural characteristics of the Canadian political economy which favoured the choice of conciliation over arbitration.
-
During World War II, the government of Canada sought to prevent strikes primarily through the use of "compulsory conciliation:" in specified industries, strikes and lockouts were prohibited until a government-sponsored board had investigated the dispute and delivered its report. This paper examines the operation of that regime during the war years. It highlights the tension between two alternative views of the boards' function (adjudication and mediation), indicates how the government manipulated the conciliation process in order to prevent or delay strikes, discusses briefly the reasons invoked by boards in their judgements, and demonstrates the frustration arising from the government's reluctance to prescribe clear norms of industrial conduct. In the turbulent wartime economy, compulsory conciliation failed to achieve the level of industrial peace demanded of it. Eventually, mandatory wage controls and a labour code modeled on the American Wagner Act were adopted, restricting the scope of the conciliation regime.
-
These essays introduce readers to the changing and complex character of class struggle in Canada. Individual essays focus on specific features of Canadian class struggle: regional differences, the role of gender, the character of trade union leadership to the specific nature of conflict in particular industries; and the general features of national periods of upheaval such as the year 1919 and the World War II period. [Of the eight essays, two are original to the volume, while the others are abridged or revised versions of articles that previously appeared in publications such as Labour/Le Travail and New Left Review.] --Publisher's description. Contents: Introduction (pages 9-14). Part 1. Varieties of capitalism, varieties of struggle: The nineteenth century experience (15-16). Class struggle and merchant capital: Craftsmen and labourers on the Halifax wonterfront, 1850-1902 / Ian McKay (17-36)-- The bonds of unity: The Knights of Labor in Ontario, 1880-1900 / Gregory S. Kealey and Bryan D. Palmer (37-65). Part 2. Monopoly capitalism and the unevenness of class struggle (66-67). Hamilton steelworkers and the rise of mass production / Craig Heron (68-89) -- 1919: The Canadian labour revolt / Gregory S. Kealey (90-114) -- The transformation of women's work in the Quebec cotton industry, 1920-1950 / Gail Cuthbert Brandt (115-34)). Part 3. Advanced capitalism and accommodating the class struggle (135-37). The malaise of compulsory conciliation: Strike prevention during World War II / Jeremy Webber (138-59) -- Feminism at work / Heather Jon Maroney (160-75) -- The rise and fall of British Columbia's Solidarity / Bryan D. Palmer (176-200). Bibliographical notes: pages 201-39.
Explore
Resource type
- Book (1)
- Journal Article (2)
Publication year
-
Between 1900 and 1999
(3)
- Between 1980 and 1989 (2)
-
Between 1990 and 1999
(1)
- 1991 (1)