Union Power Solidarity and Struggle in Niagara

From factory workers in Welland to retail workers in St. Catharines, from hospitality workers in Niagara Falls to migrant farm workers in Niagara-On-The-Lake, Union Power showcases the role of working people in the Niagara region. Charting the development of the region’s labour movement from the early nineteenth century to the present, Patrias and Savage illustrate how workers from this highly diversified economy struggled to improve their lives both inside and outside the workplace. Including extensive quotations from interviews, archival sources, and local newspapers, the story unfolds, in part, through the voices of the people themselves: the workers who fought for unions, the community members who supported them, and the employers who opposed them.

Early industrial development and the appalling working conditions of the often vulnerable common labourer prompted a movement toward worker protection. Patrias and Savage argue that union power – power not built on profit, status, or prestige – relies on the twin concepts of struggle and solidarity: the solidarity of the shared interests of the working class and the struggle to achieve common goals. Union Power traces the evidence of these twin concepts through the history of the Niagara region’s labour movement.

About the Author

Carmela Patrias is a professor in the Department of History at Brock University. Her publications include: Patriots and Proletarians: Politicizing Hungarian Immigrants in Canada, Discounted Labour: Women Workers in Canada, 1870–1939, co-authored with Ruth Frager, and Jobs and Justice: Fighting Discrimination in Wartime Canada, 1939–1945. Larry Savage is associate professor of labour studies and political science and director of the Jobs and Justice Research Unit at Brock University.

Reviews

[Union Power and Working People in Alberta] provide an excellent look into the history of labour in Canada and how it has changed over time. Most notably each is an important addition to the struggle to keep labour history in the public eye.

Canada’s History

A rich and compelling book that highlights the important role unions played in Canada’s Niagara region in both historical and contemporary periods. … The quality and quantity of original archival and oral history research is impressive.

 

Labour Studies Journal

Table of Contents

1. Acknowledgements
2. List of Abbreviations
3. Introduction
4. Canallers Fight for Work and Fair Wages
5. The Early Labour Movement
6. Class and Ethnicity in the Early Twentieth Century
7. Labour Revolt in Niagara
8. Welfare Capitalism in Niagara
9. Unemployment and Organization During the Great Depression
10. The Crowland Relief Strike
11. The Cotton Mill Strike, 1936–37
12. The Monarch Strike
13. The CIO at McKinnon Industries
14. Fighting for Democracy on the Home Front, 1939–45
15. Niagara Labour’s Cold War
16. Women and Workers of Colour in the 1950s and 1960s
17. Ideologies Clashing: The 1970 UAW Strike
18. Strike Wave: 1972–76
19. Canadian Pulp and Paper Workers Fight Back
20. Corporate Restructuring and Labour’s Decline
21. The Eaton’s Strike: Women Workers Walk the Line
22. “Don’t Lower the Standard”: The Newsroom on Strike
23. Occupation in Thorold
24. Labour Builds Brock: Unions and the University
25. Living in a Dying Town: Deindustrialization in Welland
26. “Kicking Ass for the Working Class”: Hotel Workers in Niagara
27. The House Advantage: Organizing Niagara’s Casinos
28. Migrant Farm Workers in Niagara
29. Organized Labour and the New Democratic Party in Niagara
30. Conclusion
31. Notes / Index

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License (CC BY-NC-ND 2.5 CA). It may be reproduced for non-commercial purposes, provided that the original author is credited.