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On 18 November 1941, the gold miners of Kirkland lake struck for union recognition. The Kirkland Lake strike was a bitter struggle between the mine operators and their employees and became a national confrontation between the federal government and the labour movement over the issue of collective bargaining. Locally, the dispute was affected by the company-town environment and by the mine operators' paternalistic view of labour relations. Through the difficult winter womenths, the community -- polarized by the events -- tried to deal with both the 'political' and social impact of the conflict. The author's father, Larry Sefton, emerged as one of the local leaders of the strike, which itself was a training ground for many future trade unionists. The strike was waged in the special circumstances of the war economy, and was a microcosm of wartime developments, which produced unprecedented union growth, serious industrial unrest, hostile management response, and generally antagonistic labour/government relations. Professor MacDowell shows that, even though the strike was lost, its eventual effect on labour policy gave the dispute its particular significance. To win the strike, government intervention and the introduction of collective bargaining were necessary, yet the only intervention was by the Ontario Provincial Police, who were ordered to assist the mining companies to operate with strike-breakers. The federal government refused to intervene, in spire of virtually unanimous support for the strike by the Canadian labour movement. MacDowell confludes that the strike succeeded in unifying organized labour behind the demand for collective-bargaining legislation. It highlighted the inadequacy of the government's wartime labour poilcy, and ultimately forced the government to authorize collective bargaining, first for Crown companies and then for all industrial workers. Thus, the Kirkland Lake strike was not only an important wartime dispute affecting policy development, but it also established a special legacy for trade unionists as part of the history of their movement. --Publisher's description

By the time of Confederation Ontario's economic lead over Quebec had been well established. John McCallum shows that the origins of this lead had little to do with the conservatism of the habitants and the church in Quebec, little to do with any anti-industrial bias of the Montreal merchants, and nothing to do with Confederation. Rather the origins lay in the wealth provided by Ontario's superior agricultural land.During much of the first part of the nineteenth century Ontario farmers were more specialized in wheat-growing than the twentieth-century farmers of Saskatchewan, and when the market conditions changed in the 1860s the province was able to use the capital derived from wheat to shift to other lines of production. The Quebec farmers, lacking both the virgin land of Ontario and the growing markets of the northeastern United States, were unable to find profitable substitutes for wheat. As a result, the cash income of the average Ontario farmer was at least triple that of his Quebec counterparts in the years before Confederation, and this enormous difference had profound effects on economic development in other sectors of the economy.In Ontario the growth of towns, transportation facilities, and industry was inextricably linked to the province's strong agricultural base. In Quebec little development occurred outside Montreal and Quebec City. Montreal industrialists did have several advantages; yet Quebec industry could not possibly absorb the province's surplus farm population. Ontario's wheat boom provided the capital which permitted Ontario industry to evolve in the classic fashion; indeed, Ontario wheat may be a rare instance of a staple whose surplus was retained in the producing area.John McCallum's analytical and historical account of economic patterns that persist today makes a solid and original contribution to Canadian economic history. --Publisher's description. Contents: Preface -- Introduction -- The rise and fall of the Ontario wheat staple -- The agricultural crisis in Quebec -- Agricultural transformation in Quebec and Ontario, 1850-70 -- Urban and commercial development until 1850 -- Transportation -- Industrial development, 1850-70 -- A modified staple approach -- Merchants and habitants -- Statistical appendix -- Subject index -- Index of authors cited.

Working Class Experience is a sweeping and sympathetic study of the development of the Canadian working class since 1800. Beginning with a substantial and provocative introduction that discusses the historiography of the Canadian working class, the book goes on to establish a general framework for analysis of what ultimately is a social history of Canada. Dividing the years into seven periods in the evolution of class struggle, it beings each chapter with an assessment of that period's prevailing economic and social context, followed by an examination of the many factors affecting the working class during that period. Written in a colourful and sometimes irreverent style, Working Class Experience focuses on the processes by which working people moved, and were moved, off the land and into the factories and other workplaces during the Industrial and post-Industrial Revolutions in Canada. Drawing on much recent work on contemporary capitalism, Working Class Experience offers a significant explanation of the malaise in current labour and management relations and speculates on its significance for progressive change in Canadian Life. --Description at Goodreads

Why are women still second class citizens at work? Recent years have seen demands by the women's movement for equality in the workplace, and "affirmative action" programs have been set up to achieve this goal. Yet little has really changed. Women still earn less than men, are underrepresented in unions, have less protection in pension plans, and are usually stuck in jobs with little chance of advancement. To understand women's inequality at work, Paul and Erin Phillips trace women's involvement in the paid labour market, and in labour unions, throughout Canadian history. They document the disadvantages that women face today and examine the explanations for the existence of these problems. --Publisher's description

With essays by Donald Macgillivary and Allan Sekula and editing by Benjamin Buchloh and Robert Wilkie, this volume published a major selection from the photographic archives of Leslie Shedden, a local photographer active from the 1940s to the 1960s in Glace Bay, Nova Scotia. Besides his daily and common functions as a community photographer (portraits, advertising, work and school events, architecture), Leslie Shedden continuously worked on documentation of the working conditions in the coal and iron mines of Cape Breton. The photographic documentation was commissioned by the local coal mining corporation, which gave him access to the underground mines as well as to all other work areas. All major aspects of the mining activities, the conditions of manual labour, and the gradual transformation to mechanized mining are recorded in systematic and detailed photographs. An equally detailed systematic body of photographs recording the family and community life of the miners complements the body of photographic images documenting the labour conditions in one of the oldest North American coal mining districts.

Historical drama of the coal miners' strike and riot in Estevan, Saskatchewan, in 1931.

We are apt to think of labour unions as a feature of a relatively advanced industrial society. It comes as a surprise to many to learn how long ago in Canadian history they actually appeared. Unions already existed in the predominantly rural British North America of the early nineteenth century. There were towns and cities with construction workers, foundry workers, tailors, shoemakers, and printers; there were employers and employees - and their interests were not the same. From this beginning Dr Forsey traces the evolutions of trade unions in the early years and presents an important archival foundation for the study of Canadian labour. He presents profiles of all unions of the period - craft, industrial, local, regional, national, and international - as well as of the Knights of Labor and the local and national central organizations. He provides a complete account of unions and organizations in every province including their formation and function, time and place of operation, what they did or attempted to do (including their political activity), and their particular philosophies. This volume will be of interest and value to those concerned with labour and union history, and those with a general interest in the history of Canada. --Publisher's description

Today the giant Stelco steel mills in Hamilton are shut down, but in Canada’s turbulent labour history it was a place of protracted conflict between the stubborn, anti-union management of the company and the equally stubborn and militant Local 1005 of the Steelworkers Union. The story is a fascinating one – a microcosm of the larger labour/management struggles in Canada. Among the events the book explores includes: the battle from 1919 to 1944 to establish a union in the face of hostile management; the struggle for supremacy at 1005 between Communist and CCF factions; the 1946 strike for union recognition which became the post war showdown in Canada between unions and management; and the chaotic 1966 wildcat strike that tore the union apart. The book tells the story of Local 1005 and at the same time explores the nature of political life in a local union, and the social and economic forces that shaped the politics of the local. This is a book that describes how working people struggled to improve their lives, and in the process changed the history of the trade union movement and the nature of Canadian political life. --Publisher's description

As Canada's most industrialised province, Ontario served as the regional centre of the Noble and Holy Order of the Knights of Labor, an organisation which embodied a late nineteenth-century working-class vision of an alternative to the developing industrial-capitalist society. The Order opposed the exploitation of labor, and cultivated working-class unity by providing an institutional and cultural rallying point for North American workers. By 1886 thousands of industrial workers had enrolled within the ranks of Ontario's local and district assemblies. This book examines the rise and fall of the Order, providing case studies of its experience in Toronto and Hamilton and chronicling its impact across the province. --Publisher's description. Contents: Introduction. Part 1. Overview: The working class and industrial capitalist development in Ontario to 1890 -- 'Warp, woof, and web': the structure of the Knights of Labor in Ontario. Part 2. The Local Setting: Toronto and the organization of all workers -- Hamilton and the home club. Part 3. The Wider Experience: Taking the Bad with the Good -- 'Unscrupulous rascals and the most infamous damn liars and tricksters at large': the underside of the Knights of Labor -- The order in politics: the challenge of 1883-1887 -- 'Politicians in the order': the conflicts of decline, 1887-1894 -- 'Spread the light': forging a culture -- The people's strike: class conflict and the Knights of Labor. Part 4. Conclusion: Accomplishment and failure -- Appendix -- Notes -- Selected bibliography -- Index.

Originally published as a monograph in the International encyclopedia of labour law and industrial relations; Includes bibliographical references (page 52) and index

This book, published in 1979, was the first book about sexual harassment to be published in Canada, and the second in North America. Quotation from the inside flap: If you thought women have finally become more accepted as real people with readier access to the conclaves of corporate power, read this book - you'll think again. Using statistical studies, interviews with executives and personnel managers, case studies, historical records, and court cases, Constance Backhouse and Leah Cohen show how pervasive sexual harassment is in the workplace. The authors provide us with a balanced and incisive understanding of what goes on. They also recommend ways to combat sexual harassment. Since this subject has till now been unexplored, avoided, and rife with myths and misinformation, this book is all the more important to our society. -- Author's website

Here is a hard-hitting look at Canada's wealthiest and most powerful mining company - the International Nickel Company of Canada. "Hardrock Mining" is the first in-depth study of both Inco Limited and the Canadian mining industry as a whole, an incisive look at both the effects of the technological revolution on a corporation and an industry which affects the lives of millions of Canadians. Respected sociologist Wallace Clement has interviewed hundreds of working men and women, and utilized unprecedented access to all facets of Inco's operations to build a fascinating and colourful portrait of a corporate giant. Clement documents the effect of the unions on the workers' welfare, the strikes and layoffs that are a fixture in the mining industry, and the effects of technological changes on health, safety, and the demand for specific skills. --Publisher's description

The introduction to the memorable collection of photographs of Hamilton workers, All That Our Hands Have Done...announced: "Labour history is a new field. It demands new methods, new sources, new questions and new, mutual relations between researchers and their subjects." --From David Sobel, "Remembering Wayne Roberts, 1944-2021," Labour/Le travail, 87 (Spring 2021) 15.

The aim of this book is to present an up-to-date description of the extent of economic inequality in Canada and to outline existing theories as to its causes. and policies for its change. --Author's preface

First published in 1981, H. Clare Pentland's Labour and Capital in Canada, 1650-1860 is a seminal work that analyzes the shaping of the Canadian working class and the evolution of capitalism in Canada. Pentland's work focuses on the relationship between the availability and nature of labour and the development of industry. From that idea flows an absorbing account that explores patterns of labour, patterns of immigration and the growth of industry. Pentland writes of the massive influx of immigrants to Canada in the 1800s--taciturn highland Scots who eked out a meagre living on subsistence farms; shrewd lowlanders who formed the basis of an emerging business class; skilled English artisans who brought their trades and their politics to the new land; Americans who took to farming; and Irish who came in droves, fleeing the poverty and savagery of an Ireland under the heel of Britain. Labour and Capital in Canada is a classic study of the peoples who built Canada in the first two centuries of European occupation. --Publisher's description

Poetry.

Biography.

La Confédération des syndicats nationaux, qui s'est appelée jusqu'en 1960 la Confédération des travailleurs catholiques du Canada (CTCC), et sans conteste l'une des institutions les plus importantes du Québec. Depuis sa fondation en 1921, elle a joué un rôle de tout premier plan, s'affirment à la fois comme un des mouvements organisés des travailleurs et travailleuses et un des principaux agent de transformation sociale. Au cours de son histoire, la CSN s'est toujours distinguée par sa volonté de réformer et profondeur la régime économique et d'instaurer une société plus juste, respecteuse de la dignité des travailleurs. Publié à l'occasion du 60e anniversaire de la CSN, ce livre ne se veut cependant pas une histoire officielle. Il a été écrit par une spécialiste de l'histoire des travailleurs et il s'adresse à ceux et celles qui s'intéressemt à cet aspect fondamental, pourtant encore largement méconnu de l'histoire du Québec. Sommaire de l'éditeur

The selection of topics for this Encyclopedia has not always been easy, especially as some topics coincide with the present, and obscure with their familiarity the context of the past. Yet we have learned from our research for this work that unless the present be recorded in print now it has less chance of being known in the future. In addition to the thousands of topics compiled by the Editor in Chief, Mr. Smallwood, the topics presented here have been selected from those suggested by many people and from nearly one hundred and fifty source books of Newfoundland society and history. Sometimes the work of choosing the best and most accurate sources has been as difficult as choosing the topics; history is an account of what has been recorded to have happened. This being so, we have attempted to corroborate and otherwise verify such records, and, where this is impossible, to present and identify conflicting statements... Robert D.W. Pitt --Website description