Not talking union : an oral history of North American Mennonites and labour / Janis Thiessen.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Thiessen, Janis, 1971- author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Labor unions--United States--Religious aspects--Mennonites.

Labor unions.

Labor unions--Canada--Religious aspects--Mennonites.

Mennonites--United States--Attitudes.

Mennonites.

Mennonites--Canada--Attitudes.

Labor unions--United States--History.

Oral history.

United States.

History.

Labor unions--Canada--History.

Canada.

Oral history--United States.

Oral history--Canada.

Physical Description:

xiv, 232 pages ; 22 cm

Place of Publication:

Montreal ; Kingston ; London ; Chicago : McGill-Queen's University Press, 2016.

Summary:

"This book investigates the labour history of a people who have not been involved in the twentieth-century labour movement in large numbers: North American Mennonites. It explores their historically-constructed attitudes toward organized labour and unions, which it attempts to understand on its own terms. Although Mennonites are typically associated with rural life, they in fact became very involved as workers in specific locations in both traditional Mennonite enclaves in Ohio, Indiana, Ontario, and Manitoba, and those to which they migrated in the twentieth century, such as British Columbia and California. Mennonites in these locales found employment both as field workers for large agri-business operations (for example, the orchards and packing plants of the San Joaquin Valley in California) and as factory hands in manufacturing firms (such as the automotive factories in southern Ontario). The late twentieth century experiences of North American Mennonites in these settings caused them to confront and reassess their attitudes toward unions. A study of these Mennonites--united by transnational ties of ethnic and religious identity yet shaped, at times, in distinct ways by their differing geographic locations, immigration histories and ethnic origins, denominational ties, and class positions--provides insights into how and why the majority of North American Mennonites have rejected labour unions in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. The oral histories of the 113 Mennonites interviewed provide insight into why many working North Americans are not union supporters, and how people in general negotiate tensions between their commitments to faith and conscience and the demands of their employment. An important aim of the book is to bring labour historians and historians of religion into conversation."-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

1 "I tell you these things because it cast my view of God": Narratives of Religious Belief 17

2 "Not part of the landscape": Attitudes toward Unions 39

3 "What would you say, for the archives?" California Mennonites and Migrant Workers 70

4 "What is said publicly must be carefully framed": Mennonite Memory of California Conflict 91

5 "They work with troubled conscience": Conscientious Objections to Unions in Manitoba 109

6 "It's easy to write a paper; it's not so easy to live": The Faith-Based Workplace 135.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780773547537

0773547533

9780773547520

0773547525

OCLC:

932386935