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The autobiography of Fred W. Thompson - socialist, Wobbly, organizer, soapboxer, editor, class-war prisoner, educator, historian, and publisher. This book is an important contribution to the understanding of working-class radicalism in twentieth-century North America. --Website description
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Sisters & Solidarity provides a clear and well-researched overview of the position of women in relation to the labour movement across Canada. After surveying the development of the labour movement at the turn of the century, the author traces the increasing influence of women members in the Canadian labour movement. Sisters & Solidarity considers not only what unions have negotiated with employers, but the position of women inside the union movement itself. Based on interviews with unions and labour centrals across the country, Julie White examines the representation of women in union executives, committees, conventions and staff. She describes the development of women's committees and examines the responses of unions to demands for change concerning family responsibilities, harassment, and union education. Using new data the author analyzes who are the unorganized, where they work, and why it is difficult to organize them. Three case studies examine the attempts to unionize homeworkers and cleaners and new labour relations legislation in Ontario. Sisters & Solidarity also considers the position of racial minorities, disabled persons and gays and lesbians in the Canadian union movement and the steps unions and labour centrals have taken to meet the needs of these workers. --Publisher's description
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In the wake of the continuing recession and destabilized global economy, theorizing about the industrial peace that reigned after World War II through the 1970s has undergone considerable revision. In this path-breaking discussion of Canadian labor relations, Charlotte Yates shows how the state-centered European theories of political economy did not fit the Canadian and United States experiences and treated them as anomalies. Through a case study of the Autoworkers Union in Canada (a branch of the UAW until 1984), Yates subjects this theorizing to critical scrutiny. Using extensive archives of union political activities, Yates describes how unions were demobilized in their relationships with the state, employers, and political parties as Fordist regulatory structures and practices forced unions to accept the constraints of responsible union behavior. She argues that the Canadian Autoworkers' collective identity and internal organizational structure counteracted these demobilizing tendencies. This historical legacy laid the groundwork for the Autoworker Union's return to militancy in the 1980s and 1990s and has shaped its responses to the pressures of economic globalization and heightened competition. From Plant to Politics demonstrates how continued union militancy in resisting concessions from employers and other attacks on unions has placed the union in a position of strength from which it now hopes to negotiate the Canadian path to a restructured economy. This study of the internal dynamics of a major union contributes to an understanding of unions as complex organizations engaged in strategic activities that have a definite impact on the national political economy. --Publisher's description