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This study of CAIMAW's history attempts to explain why some Canadians in recent times have abandoned international unions to found and develop an independent Canadian union, to determine whether such an independent union is identifiably different from those unions traditionally operating in Canada, and to identify the factors that operate in favour and mitigate against the success of Canadians in their attempt to create and develop such a union. Personal interviews with the major figures related to this study comprise an essential source of information. Due to the cooperation extended by CAIMAW, a search of union files was conducted and constitutions, pamphlets, correspondence, newspaper articles, union publications and other relevant documents were examined. Published sources provided secondary information for the majority of this paper. A societal mood in the 1960's of labour militancy, uncertainty arising from adaptation to change, a desire for Canadian self-assertion, and a corresponding resentment of American influence in Canadian affairs combined to set the stage for the formation of breakaway independent Canadian unions in Winnipeg and Vancouver. Lack of control over their own affairs and the imposition on the membership of unpopular union decisions by international officers created unrest among these Winnipeg and Vancouver workers, and a demand for greater membership decision making authority. Refusal by the international unions involved to respond to this demand resulted in a coalition of union dissidents and nationalists in a common cause, the rejection of their international unions and the founding of their own, independent national unions. The merger of the Winnipeg and Vancouver breakaway unions gave rise to a constitutional battle seated in philosophical differences with overtones of regionalism. It was a struggle between business unionism and social unionism, and a corresponding struggle between centralized authority and local autonomy. The resolution of this struggle in the rejection of business unionism and centralized authority laid the foundations for the policies and practices of CAIMAW as it operates today. These policies and practices make CAIMAW a union that is identifiably different from traditional international unions in terms of greater decision-making power for the rank and file, different methods of bargaining, and a different organizational structure. These differences do not, however, appear to have hindered CAIMAW's ability to win benefits for its membership that are at least comparable to those won by international unions. An independent union such as CAIMAW faces difficulties in its formation and development due to the established place of international unions in Canadian labour institutions. But weaknesses within these institutions such as interunion and intraunion divisions have allowed CAIMAW to survive and, indeed, grow. CAIMAW can draw support from union dissidents, nationalists and socialists of the New Left, groups which traditional labour institutions in Canada have failed to accommodate. To the extent that a society creates institutions in accordance with its needs, there exists an important place for CAIMAW in Canada.
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This study sought to determine whether the St. Lawrence-Richelieu Teachers' Association (SRTA) was a union or a professional association. The question was tackled by subjecting the SRTA to various definitions of unionism and professionalism, and by examining the operational behaviour of the teacher organization in recent years. It was found that with respect to the definitions of the terms established in the thesis the SRTA cannot be called a union or a professional association per se. However, although the organization has exhibited traits of unionism and/or professionalism throughout its evolution, it is clear that the SRTA is today closer to a union than to a professional association.
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Farm labourers formed an important segment of the agricultural work force in Alberta betweeen 1880 and 1930. The work they performed was arduous, poorly paid and insecure, but was accepted by most as a necessary first step toward farm ownership. During the early years of settlement, the perception of farm labour as an apprenticeship was confirmed by the ready availability of agricultural land. But settlement expansion in the years before the First World War greatly reduced opportunities for farm ownership, leading to a redefinition of hired workers. By the 1920s, they were no longer farm apprentices but an agricultural proletariat. At the same time, rapid agricultural development and a number of social and economic changes led to a relative decline in their working and living conditions. There was almost no attempt by farm workers to resist these changes. Despite their importance within the agricultural work force, a number of formal and informal constraints made it difficult for them to challenge their deteriorating position. Hampered by isolation, economic pressures and government controls, farm workers were above all restrained by their own inability to recognize that the perception of their position as farm apprentices was no longer valid.
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This thesis is the study of class relations within a dependent capitalist environment. Upon defining the conceptual and geographical basis for this study, an explanatory framework is advanced which borrows from C.B. Macpherson and the work of numerous theorists of the dependency school. A detailed historical analysis of the external structures of domination, the corporation and the trade union, the internal dynamics of social change, and the dominated class of the petite bourgeoisie and the working class, is offered. In the process of our analysis, an alternate interpretation for the rise of Social Credit in Quebec during the 1960s is offered.
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This study traces the development of the collective bargaining process for teaching personnel tram 1964 to 1969 in the Protestant Education System of Quebec and describes the effects that this development had on the Quebec Association of Protestant School Boards (QAPSB) and the Provincial Association of Protestant Teachers of Quebec (PAPT). The study includes an analysis of certain sections of the Education Act and other legislation sanctioned by Quebec's Legislative Assembly dealing with the collective bargaining process as it relates to school boards and teachers. The following questions are addressed in this study: 1) to what extent did the Government of Quebec change its participation in the process of determining conditions of employment for teachers during the period from 1964 to 1969; 2) in what respects did the QAPSB and PAPT redefine their respective approaches to the establishment of conditions of employment for teachers; 3) what aspects did QAPSB and PAPT reorganize internally and to what degree did they establish formaI liason between themselves and their Roman Catholic counterparts at the Provincial level?
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This thesis examines the labour market experience of Chinese post-war immigrants in Montreal's ethnic and general labour markets. It provides empirical information on the Chinese ethnic labour market in Montreal and assesses the theoretical relevance of the distinction of an ethnic labour market from the general labour market for the understanding of the socio-economic attainment of immigrants in Canada. The findings reveal significant segmental differences in the composition of the labour force, employment characteristics, mobility patterns, and monetary returns to human capital investment. These indicate the distinctiveness of the ethnic labour market and provide support for Wiley's (1968) thesis of the ethnic mobility trap. Theoretical implications of these findings for studies of occupational achievements of immigrants in Canada are discussed.