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This thesis examines the race and ethnic relations between migrant seasonal agricultural workers in the Okanagan Valley of British Columbia, Canada, from the turn of the century to the present. This analysis includes Chinese, Doukhobor, Japanese, Indian, and French agricultural workers. The research problem is one of determining the nature of race and ethnic relations between these groups and the predominantly English host community, where it was hypothesized that racism, ethnic prejudice, and ethnic discrimination would be prevalent. Historical research was conducted using existing local literature and archival data from local museums and newspaper companies. Survey research was conducted on contemporary migrant seasonal agricultural workers and consisted of a questionnaire. The thesis begins with a description of the Okanagan Valley and a literature review of agricultural labour in Western Europe, the United States, and Canada. Segmented labour markets and, race and ethnic relations provide the theoretical framework for the study. The secondary labour market explains the concentration of racial and ethnic minorities in agriculture. A theoretical model of French-English ethnic relations explains the ethnic discrimination of French migrant seasonal agricultural workers. The historical research findings show that racism was experienced by Chinese and Japanese workers, and ethnic discrimination was experienced by Doukhobor workers. The survey research included a general documentation of demographic and social data for current migrant workers, and these data indicate they are similar to workers elsewhere. The housing and working conditions of these workers are poor. Workers are exposed to dangerous chemical pesticides. The main survey research findings centre on the ethnic discrimination experienced by French migrant workers. This discrimination occurred primarily in their leisure activities, and to a lesser extent, in the area of employment. There was no evidence of a split-labour market on the basis of wages alone. The thesis ends with a discussion on the possible legislative and social policy implications of the findings in the areas of health and safety, and racial/ethnic prejudice and discrimination. There is a discussion of discrimination and the law, educational programs, and the necessary changes in community processes and structures.

This case study examines a labour relations issue which initially involves teacher employees of the Sagkeeng Education Authority of the Fort Alexander Band on one hand and the Sagkeeng Education Authority and the Fort Alexander Chief and Council on the other. The events of the issue transpire between 1981 and 1986.Teacher employees, concerned with working conditions and job security, organized as a local of the Manitoba Teachers' Society which was certified under the Canada Labour Code. The Chief and Council of the Fort Alexander Band rejected the formation of the local and the applicability of the Canada Labour Code to labour relations on the reserve. Teachers were fired for union activities. Hearings were held by the Canada Labour Relations Board. Orders were issued by the Labour Board and a collective agreement was imposed by the Labour Board. The Chief and Council refused to follow the Labour Board's orders, and contempt of court hearings were held by the Federal Court. Fort Alexander officials, including the Chief and Council, were initially fined and subsequently jailed. The Minister of Indian Affairs, David Crombie, promised to initiate Department studies to examine the possibilities and implications of changing the labour relations regime to reflect Indian self-government. The dispute was eventually settled out of court but the issue of Indian government jurisdiction over labour relations remains unresolved.Conceived and sanctioned by the Manitoba Teachers' Society, the Canada Labour Relations Board and the Federal Court as a labour dispute, the researcher argues that the issue is more readily understood within the context of Indian self-determination and self-government. Concepts concerning philosophical, socio-economic, cultural, legal, political and historical aspects of the relationship between Indian peoples and the Canadian state are brought to bear on the issue. Concepts of group rights versus those of individual rights are examined.It is argued that the current labour relations legal regime is inconsistent with Indian self-determination and self-government. The researcher suggests jurisdiction over labour relations should be determined by First Nations' governments as consistent with the goals of self-determination and self-government. Conceptions of Indian labour relations jurisdiction are suggested.

This thesis is an examination of the Industrial Workers of the World and its relations with capital, organized labour, and the socialist movement in British Columbia before the First World War.

The purpose of this study is to examine CCF-CCL relations in the Saskatchewan public service during the early years of the government of Tommy Douglas. While much has been written about the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) and the Canadian Congress of Labour (CCL), both as separate organizations and as political 'allies', little has been said about their relations in Saskatchewan. Yet, the CCF formed the government in Saskatchewan for five consecutive terms between 1944 and 1964, and it was in this agrarian province that the true test of the CCF-CCL relationship occurred. Saskatchewan was the one location where unions that supported the CCF were faced with a social democratic government which was also their employer. The difficulty the two sides encountered while trying to reconcile industrial relations with their political relations forms the subject of this study.

The story of the Newfoundland Industrial Workers' Association (NIWA) is one which has largely been passed over in the writing of the island's labour history. Yet this organization figures prominently in the events which helped shape the labour-capital relationship during the World War I years. As the Canadian and international record will testify, these years were critically important to the development of modern working-class organizations, while maintaining a direct link to the previous struggles of an earlier era. Centred in St. John's, but exerting an Island-wide influence, the NIWA arose out of a pressing need for working people to confront the economic and political realities of their class in a manner intended to redress the subservient and exploitive circumstances to which they were subjected. This thesis examines the NIWA in terms of its structure, membership, and mandate and attempts to place this movement into the larger context of the international labour revolt of 1917 to 1920. In doing so, it argues that class formation, development, and conflict is central to history.

Between 1880 and 1914, when Winnipeg experienced its first era of urban and industrial growth, the building industry shaped the contours of the city's economic, social, and political environments. Architects designed, contractors supervised, and workers built the infrastructure that was necessary for commercial and industrial expansion. Residential neighbourhoods, warehouses, office buildings, and factories provided the housing and workplaces for thousands of immigrants who settled in the city in the late nineteenth century. The various trades of the building industry were essential to the conversion of Winnipeg from a pioneer town in the 1870s to the west's major transportation and distribution center in 1914. Skilled building trades workers were vital to this dynamic transformation. In particular, the carpenters, bricklayers, painters, and plumbers who came to Winnipeg in the 1880s were the first of thousands employed in the mass production of buildings for modern commercial and residential use. Together with typographers and railway employees, who also possessed a great deal of craft skill, these were among the most important workers involved in the emergence of Winnipeg's early labour movement. Industrial capitalism transformed the building industry after 1880, and the lives of thousands of skilled workers. The entrepreneurs who came into the city from eastern Canada, the United States, and Britain brought the logic of general contracting to the local industry. Soon it was the dominant form of business, characterized by ferocious competition and mass production. To survive and prosper in such an environment employers adopted new methods of production and corporate organization which had a severe impact on the workplace and the skilled worker. As industrial capitalism matured in the 1890s and took hold with greater intensity in the 1900s, the workplace became more important as the object of change. Despite extensive business re-organization and the use of machines, the entire transformation from 1880 to 1914 was possible because of employers' manipulation of the labour market, the cheapest and most accessible of all resources...

The Port Alberni and Prince George districts of British Columbia experienced the beginnings of an extensive forest industry at about the same time, the second decade of the twentieth century, and both regions were destined to become substantial lumber centres. Yet in their early period of development, before the major changes of the 1940s, the two communities had distinct growth patterns: by 1939 the Port Alberni district had emerged as a prosperous lumber-producing centre housing an active, coordinaed working class while the Prince George district remained an economic backwater with a weak forest industry base, an ill-formed class, and quiscent labour movement. Simple economic or geographic explanations do not begin to address the complexity of the histories of the two regions. Only by closely examining the lumber companies, the sawmill workers, the loggers, and the broader community can the local historical contexts be understood. Further, exogenous factors such as western Canadian working-class initiatives, the role of the provincial state, and the shifting international lumber trade must also be taken into account. Business decisions, union drives, strike action, and political structures were all intertwined in shaping the velopment of these fringe areas of the province. By comparing the two forest districts this thesis not only highlights the various elements that interacted in creating the forest economics and forest-based communities, it also sheds light on the development of British Columbia's most important industry and the history of the western Canadian working class.

Most recent studies of the relationship between technological change and mining labour in the western metal-mining regions of North America have concentrated on the impact of the mechanization of the industry that took place during the second half of the nineteenth century. The distinct impression is left that the increased use of machinery — especially the machine drill — was the chief factor in reducing the skill levels associated with mining as a craft tradition. Preoccupation with machinery has led to the assumption that by the beginning of the twentieth century the transformation to modern forms of mining was essentially complete and the traditional miner an anachronism. Mining as practiced prior to 1900 differed qualitatively and quantitatively from the subsequent period of "modern mining;" but the introduction of machinery per se was less important to the reorganization of the patterns of work in the mines than the redesigning of the engineering systems in which workers and machines were employed — a process which gained its full momentum in the decades after 1900. This transformation involved the gradual abandonment of low-volume, high-value, selective mining methods in favour of higher volume, non-selective methods which emphasised the quantity rather than the quality of the ore mined. The change redefined the nature of work in and around the mines, putting an end to a tradition of mining practice that was at least as old as the methods described in Agricola's De Re Metalica, something the initial mechanization of mining had never been intended to accomplish. Under selective mining practices, machinery was used to assist the skilled miner in his traditional task. Under non-selective or mass mining techniques, a new generation of engineers trained in the applied sciences redefined the miner's work as solutions were sought to the problems of an increasingly complex geology in a climate of rapid economic expansion, chronic over-production, generally declining metal prices, and ever increasing production costs. The efforts and successes of these engineers were amply demonstrated in the fields of mining, metallurgical, and human engineering. The impact of the change is evident in varying degrees throughout the metal-mining community; but by focusing on copper mining — the technological leader from 1900 to 1930 — the full impact of the industrial sciences on mine labour is evident.

British Columbia's economy is heavily reliant on electrical processes, yet little is known of the electrical workers.... A major purpose of this thesis is to analyze the electrical workers through a sixty-year history of an important and often controversial union: Local 213 of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW). ...Three themes characterize the history of Local 213: the first is the union's struggle for better wages and better working conditions against recalcitrant employers. The second is the relationship between Local 213 and different varieties fo socialism in British Columbia. Electrical workers generally supported cautious social democratic practices, but there have been important exceptions. The third theme is the intervention of outside forces, in particular the international office of IBEW, whenever the electrical workers appeared to support either radical leaders or radical proposals.... From author's abstract. Contents: The structure of the electrical industry in British Columbia to 1961 -- Boomers, grunts and narrowbacks: the radical tradition, 1901-1919 -- The defeat of radicalism, 1919-1922 -- The Morrison years, 1922-1939 -- Radicalism renewed, 1939-1953 -- Unholy alliance, 1953-1955 -- Towards militancy at Lenkurt. Bibliography (pages 280-89).

Contents: Introduction -- The Congés de traite as a method to control the fur trade, 1681-1715 -- The institutionalization of the Congés, 1715-1768 -- The trade licences: a new instrument to control the fur trade, 1760-1790 -- The notorial contracts and private contracts, 1680-1821 -- A conservative estimate of the labour force -- Conclusion. Appendix: The diet of the Engagé.

This study is an analysis of the changes in the social formations of the Inuit and Innut populations of northern Labrador as a consequence of interaction with Western capital, from approximately 1500 to the present. It is concluded that the significant changes which have taken place can only be explained'if they . are placed within a unified theoretical framework that combines both macro and micro levels of analysis. This requirement stems from the impact of the global nature of capital, and from the specific characteristics of the indigenous social formations in northern Labrador. To facilitate the analysis, the history of the penetration of capital into northern Labrador has been divided ioto political-economic periods: mercantile: 1500-1926, and welfare state: 1926-present. The former is further subdivided into two phases: the competitive phase: 1500-1763, during which no one European power held sway; and the monopoly phase, 1763-1926, during which either Britain or one of its colonies was jurally the sole European authority. Finally, the welfare period, 1916-present, which includes a transitional period, 1926-1942, is characterized by the increasing importance of wage labour and state agencies. Each of these periods is examined in terms of the internal and external relations between and amongst the European and native social formations which led to mutual modifications.

The thesis addresses the problem of Arthur W. Puttee's 1918 breach with the Winnipeg Trades and Labor Council after twenty years of work within the labour move¡ent as a journalist and politician. The breach is accounted for through an exploration of the ideology that underlay his political decisions. Structured biographically, the thesis uses various primary sources, most notably Puttee's weekly newspaper, the Voice, and his speeches as a labour member of parliament, to trace a continuity in his beliefs from the beginning of his career in the 1890s to its end in 1918. The concept of "labourism", recently elaborated by Craig Heron to describe the ideology of Canadian craftsworkers who worked for independent political action by labour, is used to characterize Puttee's beliefs. The study reveals a central contradiction in Puttee's labourism. He challenged many aspects of the emerging system of monopoly capitalism and demanded for labour the right as producers of wealth to full democratic representation in government. He was opposed to monopoly, the crude exploitation of workers, and government by "special interests" rather than the "people". But Puttee had no systematic critique of capitalist social relations and believed that labour constituted only onè segment of a businessmen, and "fair" employers. He viewed the state as ideally the instrument for the will of the "people" and the defender of the "public'' interest. This contradiction in Puttee's beliefs became most apparent in the radicalized la­bour atmosphere of 1918, when, as a labour member of Winni­peg City Council, he opposed a general strike of unionized city workers in the name of the broader public interest he sought to represent broader community of producers that included farmers, small

The Noble and Holy Order of the Knights of Labor was the most significant labor organization in nineteenth century North America. Part trade union, part social reform movement, the Knights organized hundreds of thousands of workers across the continent, and initiated countless major strikes, particularly during the 1880's. The Knights were the first major union to attempt to make unions accessible to a broad range of workers. At a time when most unions were the preserve of highly skilled, white, male workers, the Knights organized blacks, some immigrants and women. This thesis examines the relationship between women and the Knights of Labor in Ontario in the 1880's. The Knights organized women workers, and they also supported an impressive 'feminist' platform of social reform. They endorsed every major feminist demand in the nineteenth century, from suffrage to temperance to equal pay. In Canada, they campaigned successfully for the first sexual harassment legislation. This platform is particularly significant when set next to prevailing restrictive notions of femininity and 'true womanhood'. Yet the Knights were also a male dominated organization. While the 'space' they opened for working class women was important, it was not without its own set of limitations and restrictions. Within the context of contemporary debates about the intersections of class and gender, this thesis examines the contradictions and tension in the Order's feminist ideology.

This thesis examines textile workers, unions and their strikes at Cornwall, Sherbrooke and St. Gregoire de Montmorency from 1936 to 1939. Via a community study approach, several themes important to textile unionism in particular and industrial unionism in general will be covered. All three places were mill towns. How did this affect political, financial and moral support? How did the corporate structure of the firms involved influence the outcome of the strikes? Were there differences between workers in terms of militancy and their reactions to unionism? What was the role of women at the rank-and-file and leadership levels in the union? --Excerpt.

This thesis is a case study of the Solidarity Coalition, a social protest movement which united labour and community groups In opposition to right-wing restraint legislation. It considers why this unprecedented extra parliamentary force failed to persuade the government to withdraw the offending legislation and attempts to explain the dominance of the labour agenda in the modest successes it did achieve. Interviews with participants in the Coalition and other significant political actors provide the information used in the analysis of this protest phenomena. The thesis incorporates a detailed study of the evolution of the Coalition and its organizational structure and Internal processes within the context of the larger political system and with reference to theoretical literature concerning protest movements. I argue that the emergence of the Coalition as a diverse and broad based movement in reaction to a right wing attack on the social contract is predictable, however, the outcomes of the protest action are less so. Analysis of the Coalition suggests that organizational contradictions within its structure, external and unforseen circumstances, and the strength of government intransigence were influential factors shaping both the development of the protest movement and the outcomes of its actions. The commitment to common cause, fuelled by moral outrage and espoused by labour and community groups, was not sufficient to withstand the divisive tendencies inherent in the structure of the Coalition, or the Inertia that must be overcome by large groups to achieve collective goods. Labour proved to be the more powerful actor within the Coalition due to its financial and organizational resources and its significant noticeabilIty factor as a member of the CoalItion. I argue that consistent with the theory of the logic of collective action that the labour agenda eventually dominated within the Coalition, influencing the parameters of the settlement achieved, and in part, accounting for the failure of the Coalition to meet Its collective goal of withdrawal of the restraint legislation.

Unemployment in Vancouver, Canada, during the Great Depression posed a significant threat' to the continuation of political and social norm. The emergence of a large body of workers without jobs, many of whom could vote at the civic level, demanded the attention and intervention of private and government agencies. The response of the City of Varcouver and two major Christian denominations to the unemployment crisis is the subject of this thesis, The documentary evidence utilized came mainly from collections at the Vancouver School of Theology, the Catholic Charities and the City of Vancouver Archives. The inadequacy and abuse of contemporary statistical resources perpetuated a view of the unemployed that emphasizod their potential for social disruption. Despite the fact that most of Vancouver's jobless citizens were permanent residents, community leaders and rglief planners took their cues from the single unemployed transients, a group that was pore likely to derail revolutionary ideas with an extension of its limited relief programmes, However, both church and state were constrained by the shortage of money. Consequently, in the absence of a strong social work ideology, relief was more a reflection of political and fiscal considerations than of the shifting needs of the unemployed. Relief was, simply put, the least expensive means of reintegrating the dispossessed into the established social milieu.

This study of canal and railway labourers on Canada's public works provides a detailed analysis of an important segment of the developing industrial working class during the years of transition to industrial capitalism. By examining changes in the industry, the composition of the workforce, and the labourers' behaviour and perceptions of that behaviour, it traces both the process of class formation and the growth of class tensions. Beginning with an analysis of the public contract system, it defines the nature of the relationship between contractors and governments and traces the impact of the technological revolution and the growth of a body of indigenous contractors within the industry. Despite important advances within the industry, work on construction sites changed little, continuing to depend primarily on the energies of unskilled labourers who enjoyed little material reward for their back-breaking and dangerous labour. The forty-year period, however, witnessed a significant change in the composition of the workforce. Migrants from within Canada displaced Irish immigrants as the major source of unskilled labour, and the workforce on construction sites became increasingly ethnically heterogeneous. This change in the composition of the workforce effected a modification of the stereotype of the unruly, drunken, and violent public works labourer.;Labourer's perceptions of themselves also changed during these years. In the early years of construction strong factional, ethnic, and sectarian bonds generated violent conflict amongst the diverse groups brought together in the workplace. At the same time such bonds were a powerful source of unity during the frequent strikes waged by the Irish labourers who dominated the workforce. Over the period the basis of identification shifted from ethnicity to class. The easing of tensions between ethnic groups and the unity of the various ethnic groups during frequent strikes demonstrated an increasing ability to unite in pursuit of common class interests. Although the labourers remained outside formal union structures, they sustained an aggressive struggle with employers and acquired the experience of militance and solidarity on which the working class movement of future decades could build.

In 1919, Canada, by virtue of its central role in the conduct of World War I, took its place as a member of the international community in the League of Nations and in the first representative body for world labour, the International Labour Organization. This thesis examines Canada's relations with the I.L.O. in the interwar period (1919-1940). It is hypothesized that Canada's role in the I.L.O. in this period reflected not the concerns and ideals of the organization per se, but rather the political and constitutional goals of the Dominion government. Consequently, social reform in Canada, as implied in the principles of the constitution of the I.L.O., was usually of secondary importance to the governments of Canada during this period, and especially to Canadian industry, which were often united in thwarting the efforts of Canadian labour and the I.L.O. to influence social reform in Canada. Indeed, both Canadian governments and industry, came to recognize in the constitutional issue a useful vehicle to slow down the pace of social reform during this period....

The Communist Party of Canada's (CPC) attempts to operate the United Front tactics laid down by Lenin and the Comintern in 1920-22 foundered on the CPC's failure to come to terms with the profound character of labour's post-war defeat or with its own marginality. The task of creating a mass party capable of leading, in the not-too-distant future, a revolutionary struggle for power encouraged the CPC to ignore the laborious and modest process of building support around small workplace issues and to prefer working through a spurious united front organization, the Trade Union Educational League, which was little more than a mouthpiece for a succession of abstract propaganda campaigns. When none of these propelled the party to mass status, but rather drove a wedge between it and the Trades and Labour Congress, the ground was prepared for acceptance of the diametrically opposite tactics of the "Third Period", which with much justice have been criticised for their political stupidity. The tardiness with which the CPC applied them underlined the fact that, however much the leaders of the labour movement might have "betrayed" the rank and file, it was hard to see them as "social fascists" who had to be combatted with even more vigour than that usually reserved for the bosses. From the beginning, when they terminated an interesting alliance between the CPC and national unionism, to the end, when they retarded the CPC's recognition of the possibilities opened up by the emergence of the CIO, these tactics had negative consequences. Yet they also helped bring limited political gains for the CPC, which entered the latter half of the 1930s stronger than it had ever been, and organizational advances for the Canadian working class, in the shape of at least the first few bricks in the foundations of mass industrial unionism. In addition, the complementary unemployed movement mobilized tens of thousands of workers and their families against the asperities of the depression. By 1936, the CPC had undeniably "carved out" for itself, a decent niche in the labour movement.

This thesis examines the role of women in Canadian socialist parties from the 1920's to the post-World War II period, by focusing on women involved in the Communist Party of Canada (CPC) and the Cooperative Commonwealth Federation (CCF), the primary manifestations of organized socialism during these years. Concentrating on two regions, Ontario and the West, the thesis explores three major themes: the distinct role women played within each Party, the Party's view of the woman question, and the construction of women's committees within each Party. The thesis explains why women were drawn to the socialist movement, assesses the successes and failures of each Party's program for women's equality, and suggests how and when feminist and socialist ideas intersected within the Canadian Left. The written history of the Canadian Left has largely neglected socialists' views of the woman question and women's role in the CPC and CCF. Although 'women were concentrated in less powerful positions, they did play an important, and distinctive, role in the making of Canadian socialism. Moreover, attention to women's social and economic inequality was a concern of Canadian socialists. Between 1920 and 1950, however, women's emancipation was never a priority for socialists. This thesis explains some of the reasons, both internal and external to the movement, for the secondary status of the woman question. Because the CCF and CPC emerged from different ideological traditions, their views of the woman question varied, and this thesis contrasts the two Parties' definition of women's issues and their commitment to women's emancipation. At the same time, there were some similarities between the two Parties, such as their attempts to link women's maternal and domestic roles with their political consciousness. The thesis also suggests ways on which socialists' ideas resembled the earlier ideology of womanhood and reform termed 'maternal feminism' and how their ideas, shaped by a different class perspective and social context, differed from the earlier feminists.