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The deplorable exploitation of immigrant workers from the 1890s to the Depression is documented in this vivid account of Canada's early immigration policies. Transported by boxcar and often herded at gun point, these "men in sheepskin coats" were lured from Central and Eastern Europe by promises of shared wealth in a veritable promised land. Their backbreakaing labour in industry and agriculture directly furthered Canada's economic development, transportation lines, and land settlement. But their status, as detailed here with public records, newspaper accounts, and private correspondence was little above that of slave labour. Professor Avery records the immigrants' poor working conditions, bad pay, violent treatment at the hands of challenged authorities, and wholesale deportation when work became scrace. Recounted as well as their hostile reception by British Canadian, the government neglect of immigrant assimilation programs, and the workers' ultimate recourse to radical ethnic and political organization to better their lot. --Publisher's description

In 1976, a group of women bankers decided to organize their workplace. The banks were enraged. When they decided to do it themselves, the big unions were upstaged. Over the next two years, nearly a thousand bank employees in western Canada participated in a unionizing drive that challenged not only the banks but organizated labour's approach to a workplace that they had long considered beyond their range of union activity. This is the story of the United Bank Workers of SORWUC (Service, Office and Retail Workers of Canada). With honesty and humour, the clerks and tellers of the UBW tell why they decided to take on the banks and what happened when they did. --Publisher's description

History has traditionally taken the working man for granted, ignoring the fact that without his labour there would be no history. As this book shows, the history of working people in Canada is colourful, exciting and filled with many dramatic characters and events well worth discovering. Alberta Labour traces the growth of union organizations in Alberta like the Knights of Labour in the 1880s, the legendary Wobblies, the abortive One Big Union and finally the Alberta Federation of Labour, founded in 1912, which today represents and fights for the labouring men and women of the province. This history, the first of its kind, has been compiled from interviews with union members, original letters and documents, and contemporary newspapers and magazines. The text is illustrated with over 90 full-page photographs, most of them never published before, depicting labour at work in Alberta from its origins to the present day. --Publisher's description

Illustrated history based on research, interviews and recollections made by members of the Carpenter Pensioners Association of British Columbia. Foreword by Arnold Smith.

Along with J.S. Woodsworth, William Irvine was one of the pioneers of socialism in Canada, a member of the radical Ginger Group, progenitor of the C.C.F. and N.D.P. In the wake of the First World War Irvine struggled relentlessly to organize Alberta farmers for political action. Elected to Parliament in 1921, he along with close friend Woodsworth were the sole labour representatives in the House: they worked incessantly against the monopoly power of large corporations and financial institutions. Together they laid the basis for a socialist challenge to the Eastern-dominated, two-party system in Canada. William Irvine: The Life of a Prairie Radical chronicles his immense contribution to the search for political alternatives in this country, a contribution that can still be felt in Canadian politics today. --Publisher's description

[This book] is a study of continuity and change in the lives of skilled workers in Hamilton, Ontario, during a period of economic trans­formation. Bryan D. Palmer shows how the disruptive influence of devel­ oping industrial capitalism was counterbalanced by the stabilizing effect of the associational life of the workingman, ranging from the fraternal order and the mechanics' institute to the baseball diamond and the "rough music" of the charivari. On the basis of this social and cultural solidarity, Hamilton's craftsmen fought for and achieved a measure of autonomy on the shop-floor through the practice of workers' control. Working-class thought proved equally adaptable, moving away from the producer ideol­ogy and its manufacturer-mechanic alliance toward a recognition of class polarization. Making ample use of contemporary evidence in newspapers, labour journals, and unpublished correspondence, the author discusses such major developments in the class conflict as the nine-hour movement of 1872, the dramatic emergence of the Knights of Labor, and the begin­nings of craft unionism after 1890. He finds that the concept of a labour aristocracy has litlle meaning in Hamilton, where skilled workers were the culling edge of the working-class movement, involved in issues which directly related to the experience of their less-skilled brethren. More remarkable than the final attainment of capitalist control of the work­ place, he concludes, are the long-continued resistance of the Hamilton workers and their success in retaining much of their power in the pre­-World War I years. --Publisher's description

Historian Carlos A. Schwantes studies the forces that shaped the history of the labor movement on either side of the forty-ninth parallel and the reason for the eventual demise of the socialist movement in Washington State and its continuing vigor in British Columbia. --Publisher's description

This anthology consists largely of eyewitness accounts of - and often by - the working men, women, and children of Canada. Beyond the institutional history of trade unions and labour partiees are massive changes in patterns of thought, economic life, standards of living, and conditions of work. In these primary sources, we may glimpse these changes, see their impact in human terms, and hear the voices of the unorganized, the unemployed, and the oppressed, as well as those of union officials and skilled workers with hopes of rapid upward mobility. Most significantly, these documents suggest not only new directions for the student of Canadian social history, but also major revisions of some traditional assumptions of the historian. These readings - most taken from rare, out-of-print, or previously unavailable documents -- tell of life and work in an industrializing, expanding Canada; of conditions in mines, factories, farms and lumber camps; of the cruel exploitation of women and immigrant workers; and of the great migration in these years from country to city. They represent almost all the provinces and range over conditions in Victorian times to those faced today by field labour and immigrant men and women in modern sweatshops. In their own words, describing their dailly confrtontation with life, we can listen to a Calgary charwoman, a Japanese fisherman, a Cape Breton miner, a Jewish ragpicker, an Italian railroad worker, a Quebec garment worker, a Ukrainian farm-boy, and scores of others. Here is the most vivid account yet of the problem faced by Canadian workers, both native and immigrant; of their distinctive attitudes and traditions; and, above all, of their courage and bitter struggle for equality and a better life. The book as a whole is an important contribution to the movement in recent years to deepen and broaden our labour history. -- Publisher's description. Partial contents note: Introduction (pages 1-2) -- Working conditions, 1900-1918 (pages 3- 75) -- Poverty, home life, and leisure (pages 76-150) -- Women's work (pages 151- 215) -- Working conditions and the rise of the CIO (pages 216-306) -- Bibliographical note (pages 307-310).

This is the story of the One Big Union--the people who built and those who tore it down. The tale is well known in its broad outlines to many people with an interest in Canadian history, but because it was a failure--and history is generally about winners--few have a clear idea of what the OBU was, why it was created and the reasons for its rapid demise. I have long believed the story should be told in full, because it carries with it an explanation of what happened to the spirit of radicalism and revolt that motivated many working people in the west prior to 1920. Sometimes the explanation of a failure is more revealing than the description of a success. --Author's preface, Contents: Preface -- Introduction (ix-xviii) -- The fight for survival (pages 1-28) -- The unique fermentation (pages 29-57) -- War and revolt (pagees 57-86) -- The red menace (pages 97-104) -- Midgley and Co. (pages 105-128) -- Labour's civil war (pages 129-170) -- Invading the United States (pages 171-188) -- Battle for the mining frontier (pages 189-214) -- Hard times (pages 215-246) -- The end of One Big Union (pages 247-264) -- Footnotes (pages 265-286) -- Bibliography (pages 287-293) -- Index (pages 294-300).

L'auteur cherche à présenter "l'autre" Montréal, celui des travailleurs et de leur famille, par opposition au Montréal industriel en pleine expansion à cette époque. Il s'attache particulièrement à ce secteur de Montréal situé au pied de la montagne, à la classe ouvrière qui y vit, ses revenus, son éducation, au travail des femmes et des enfants, à l'habitation, à la santé publique, aux conflits ouvriers. Deux appendices complètent cette étude fondamentale : un sur des budgets familiaux typiques, un autre sur la conclusion d'une enquête du gouvernement québécois d'alors sur le taux élevé de mortalité par tuberculose (1909). --Sommaire de l'éditeur

John Crispo reviews the latest trends in industrial democracy in Western Europe. The book is based upon his earlier work in this area and a recently completed 10-month tour of the countries involved, which he spent interviewing labour and management representatives and other interested individuals throughout Western Europe. The result is an up-to-date and comparative account of the dynamic field of industrial democracy, which is defined to embrace union and worker influence in decision-making in all levels of society. Although the book focuses on Western Europe, it has been written in a manner to highlight the relevance of what is taking place there for industrial relations in North America. --Publisher's description

Textbook on the system of labour relations in Canada - covers the nature of Canada's constitutional and legal system, the role of employers organizations, trade unions and employees associations, the labour movement (including Its history), collective bargaining and inflation, and comments on standards of labour legislation, labour disputes and dispute settlement, [and] future trends. Flow charts and references. --Google Books description

C'est au cours des années 1880 que le problème de l'industrialisation s'est posé dans toute son ampleur au Canada et au Québec. À l'approche des élections de 1887, le gouvernement conservateur de J.A. Macdonald crut trouver une solution en instituant une commission royale chargée d'enquêter sur «les relations entre le capital et le travail». Les commissionaires ne se doutaient pas qu'ils s'attaquaient à un au-dessus de leur force. Au terme de leur travaux, ils rédigèrent deux maigre rapports sans grande inspiration et n'offrant aucune vision d'ensemble cohérente. Pourtant la «Commission du travail» présente un intérêt tout à fait exceptionnel. Les procès-verbaux des témoinages recueillis par les commissionaires constitutent sans doute le plus important document oral qui nous soit parvenu sur la condition ouvrière au moment où le Québec entre dans la revolution industrielle. La société québécoise connait alors une véritable mutation qui se manifeste tant au niveau de la technique et de l'économie qu'à celui de la organisation sociale et de la culture. Fernand Harvey analyse ici les diverses composantes de cette mutation en s'appuyant sur une étude fouillée les travaux de la Commission du travail et les conditions générales de l'époche. --Description de l'éditeur

Pour rédiger cet ouvrage sur la pensée et l'action de Monseigneur Eugène Lapointe, l'auteur a puisé abondamment dans les archives de la Société historique du Saguenay. Il s'en tient exclusivement au domaine syndical. Rappelons que Mgr Lapointe est à l'origine de la Fédération ouvrière mutuelle du Nord, remplacée plus tard par la Fédération catholique des employés de pulperies et papeteries du Canada. --Résumé de l'éditeur

Contents: The working man in a frontier town, Hamilton, 1820-1850 ; The railway city, 1850-1870 / John Weaver -- Researching the Hamilton working class, 1870-1900 / Bryan Palmer -- The working class of Hamilton, 1900-1930 / Craig Heron -- The labour movement of Hamilton, 1930-1956 -- Selected bibliography of Hamilton labour, 1956-1977 / Charlotte A. Stewart.

Poetry chapbook.