Closing Sysco : Industrial Decline in Atlantic Canada’s Steel City / Lachlan MacKinnon.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

MacKinnon, Lachlan, Author.

Series:

Studies in Atlantic Canada history.

Studies in Atlantic Canada History

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Plant shutdowns--Nova Scotia--Sydney--History--20th century.

Plant shutdowns.

Steel industry and trade--Nova Scotia--Sydney--History--20th century.

Steel industry and trade.

Sydney (N.S.)--Social conditions--20th century.

Sydney (N.S.).

Sydney Steel Corporation.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (305 pages).

Place of Publication:

Toronto : University of Toronto Press, [2020]

Language Note:

In English.

Summary:

Closing Sysco presents a history of deindustrialization and working-class resistance in the Cape Breton steel industry between 1945 and 2001. The Sydney Steel Works is at the heart of this story, having existed in tandem with Cape Breton’s larger coal operations since the early twentieth century. The book explores the multifaceted nature of deindustrialization; the internal politics of the steelworkers’ union; the successful efforts to nationalize the mill in 1967; the years in transition under public ownership; and the confrontations over health, safety, and environmental degradation in the 1990s and 2000s. Closing Sysco moves beyond the moment of closure to trace the cultural, historical, and political ramifications of deindustrialization that continue to play out in post-industrial Cape Breton Island. A significant intervention into the international literature on deindustrialization, this study pushes scholarship beyond the bounds of political economy and cultural change to begin tackling issues of bodily health, environment, and historical memory in post-industrial places. The experiences of the men and women who were displaced by the decline and closure of Sydney Steel are central to this book. Featuring interviews with former steelworkers, office employees, managers, politicians, and community activists, these one-on-one conversations reveal both the human cost of industrial closure and the lingering after-effects of deindustrialization.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Illustrations

Tables

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Chapter One. Diversify or Die: Planned Obsolescence in the Dosco Years

Chapter Two. Radical Reds and Responsible Unionism: Building a “Working-Class Town”

Chapter Three. It Brought Us Joy, It Brought Us Tears: Black Friday and the Parade of Concern

Chapter Four. Decades in Transition: Modernization and Mechanization on the Shop Floor

Chapter Five. Labour Environmentalism: Fighting for Compensation at the Sydney Coke Ovens

Chapter Six. Bury It, Burn It, Truck It Away: Remediating a Toxic Legacy?

Chapter Seven. From Dependence to Enterprise: Economic Restructuring at the End of the Steel City

Chapter Eight. Making History from Sydney Steel, 2012–2016

Conclusion

Notes

Bibliography

Index

Notes:

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 23. Jul 2020)

ISBN:

1-4875-3296-2

1-4875-3295-4

OCLC:

1122744674