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...This volume presents a series of scholarly articles which range from an essay by Gregory Kealey on Toronto's Industrial Revolution in the last half of the nineteenth century to a fascinating study by Wendy Mitchener of the Women's Christian Temperance Union, "A Study of Nineteenth-Century Feminism." Also included are examinations of the working class, violence and protest, social structure and government encouragement of industrial development from 1849 to 1896. --Publisher's description

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

The Eaton Drive is the story of one of the most intensive and sustained organizing campaigns in Canadian labour history. With 30,000 employees, post-war Eaton's was the country's third largest employer, surpassed only by railways and the federal government. Because its stores and mail order operations extended across Canada, Eaton's influenced retail wages nationwide. Eaton's Toronto operations, dispersed over a dozen work location and embracing 16,000 employees at peak season, presented a formidable challenge to Local 1000 of the Retail Wholesale and Department Store Union and the Canadian Congress of Labour. When it applied for certification in October 1950, the Ontario Labour Relations Board was faced with the largest and most complex bargaining unit ever to come before it. The labour movement considered the success of the Eaton Drive central to removing the threat of a large, lower-paid, constantly shifting work force to their wage standards and supported it with unprecedented generosity. Eileen Tallman Sufrin, who was one of the organizers, describes the campaign from the union viewpoint in the hope that the insight it provides will assist retail workers in organizing in the future. --Publisher's description

This case study traces the development of the union which began as the Toronto Typographical Society. Through a close examination of this Canadian local's relations with its eventual parent organization in the US, Zerker reveals the 'domination' and brings into question the advantages of an international connection. A meeting of twenty-four journeymen printers at the York Hotel in Toronto in 1832 marked the birth of Canada’s earliest and still continuing labour organization. This case study of the printers of Toronto traces the development of the union which began as the Toronto Typographical Society. Through a close examination of this Canadian local’s relations with its eventual parent organization in the US, Zerker reveals the ‘domination’ and brings into question the advantages of an international connection. In 1866, under pressure from the American federation of printing unions, the Toronto body became an affiliate of the International Typographical Union, thus forming the crucial relationship which, as Zerker shows, came to govern every element of local decision and policy. Though the TTU achieved a pioneer victory in independently leading its members in their struggle for a shorter working day, from 1885 on the ITU directives and programs came to rule the Toronto union, causing enormous losses in membership and industry control. Zerker cites as examples the ITU program in the 1920s which resulted in a bitter strike which broke the Toronto union’s control of the labour force in the commercial sector; and, more recently, its misdirection of the printers’ strike of the Toronto newspapers in the 1960s which resulted in the expulsion of members from the workplaces that had been the preserve of the organization for nearly a century. Zerker blames the failure to respond effectively to the technology of the computer age on poor TTU management in pre-strike negotiations but, above all, on ITU intransigence, ignorance, and arrogance. In more recent years, after the end of this history, TTU membership has increased substantially and the local has been revitalized under its new leadership; the International, too, shows signs of being on the way to much-awaited reforms. This history is in many senses a microcosm of the Canadian labour movement and forms an important strand in general cultural history of Toronto. --Publisher's description

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

Here is the populist anthology that touches the heart of North American life, a collection that achieves in poetry what Stud Terkel's Working did in prose. Its wide appeal is obvious. Included are 200 selections by 90 Canadian and American writers, from foundry workers and short-order cooks to the likes of Joyce Carol Oates, Patrick Lane, Pier Giorgio di Cicco and Wayman himself. --Publisher's description

Ce conflit impliquant surtout des travailleurs irlandais dura plusieurs mois; il fut marqué par des émeutes sanglantes qui firent au moins six morts. Le rappel des événements est suivi des témoignages recueillis par les commissaires chargés de l'enquête et du rapport officiel rédigé par ces derniers. Cette façon de procéder de l'auteur permet de porter un jugement éclairé sur la condition ouvrière au Québec au siècle dernier. --Résumé de l'éditeur

Practical guide for trade unionization and trade union recognition in Canada including legal aspects, trade union structures, legal aid possibilities, and selection of bargaining unit. Discusses woman workers' and immigrants' employment opportunities and trade unionism; reviews unfair labour practices and principles of collective bargaining. --Summary, WorldCat catalogue record