Labour goes to war : the CIO and the people's war, and the construction of a new social order, 1939-45 / Wendy Cuthbertson.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Cuthbertson, Wendy.

Series:

Studies in Canadian military history, 1496-6251.

Studies in Canadian military history series

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Labor unions--Canada--History--20th century.

Labor unions.

Labor unions--Ontario--History--20th century.

Canada--Social conditions--1939-1945.

Canada.

Congress of Industrial Organizations (U.S.)--History.

Congress of Industrial Organizations (U.S.).

Physical Description:

1 online resource (241 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Vancouver, BC : University of British Columbia, c2012.

Summary:

During the Second World War, the Congress of Industrial Organizations in Canada grew from a handful of members to more than a quarter-million and from political insignificance to a position of influence in the emergence of the welfare state. What was it about the "good war" that brought about this phenomenal growth? Labour Goes to War analyzes the organizing strategies of the CIO during the war to show that both cultural and economic forces were at work. Labour shortages gave workers greater power in the workplace and increased their militancy. But workers' patriotism, their ties to those on active service, and allegiance to the "people's war" also contributed to the CIO's growth � and to what it claimed for workers. Drawing on a wealth of archival material, Wendy Cuthbertson illuminates this complex wartime context. She also shows how the complex, often contradictory, motives of workers during this period left the Canadian labour movement with an ambivalent progressive/conservative legacy.

Contents:

"A Trifle Depressing": The CIO on the Eve of War

Organizing the Unorganized in Wartime

Wartime Organizing: Getting to a Majority

"Becoming Unionized as Well as Organized": Union Sociability, the Transmission of Ideas, and the Creed of Equality

"The War for the Common Man": The CIO's Narrative of a Fulfilled Democracy

"Equal Partners in This World Crusade": Women, Equal Pay, and the CIO

Conclusion.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (p. [197]-215) and index.

Published in Association with the Canadian War Museum.

ISBN:

1-283-71661-5

0-7748-2344-5

OCLC:

784293242