Confrontation, Struggle and Transformation Organized Labour in the St. Catharines Area

Confrontation, Struggle and Transformation is the story of working women and men in the St. Catharines area from the mid-1800s to the present.

The study explores the labour movement’s fight to survive and thrive in the Niagara region. Thanks to extensive quotations from interviews, archival sources and local newspapers, the story unfolds, in part, through the voices of the people themselves: workers who fought for unions, community members who supported them and employers who opposed them.

Table of Contents

1. Acknowledgements
2. Canallers Fight for Work and Fair Wages
3. The Early Labour Movement
4. Class and Ethnicity in the Early Twentieth Century
5. The Unemployed, Textile Workers and Autoworkers in the 1930s
6. Fighting for Democracy on the Home Front, 1939-1945
7. Women and Workers of Colour in the 1950s and 1960s
8. Autoworkers Take on General Motors: 1970 Strike
9. Strike Wave: 1972-1976
10. From Abitibi to Gallaher—Canadian Pulp and Paper Workers Fight Back
11. The Eaton’s Strike: Women Workers Walk the Line
12. Don’t Lower the Standard
13. Labour Builds the Community: Brock University
14. The Politics of Labour: Unions and the NDP
15. St. Catharines Day of Action 1 May 1998
16. Labour and Local Politics
17. From Unemployment to Organizing
18. Conclusion

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.