Our Union:
UAW/CAW Local 27 from 1950 to 1990

About the Book

The post-war period witnessed dramatic changes in the lives of working-class families. Wages rose, working hours were reduced, pension plans and state social security measures offered greater protection against unemployment, illness, and old age, the standard of living improved, and women and members of immigrant communities entered the labour market in growing numbers. Existing studies of the post-war period have focused above all on unions at the national and international levels, on the "post-war settlement," including the impact of Fordism, and on the chiefly economic issues surrounding collective bargaining, while relatively scant attention has been paid to the role of the union local in daily working-class experience.

In Our Union, Jason Russell argues that the union local, as an institution of working-class organization, was a key agent for the Canadian working class as it sought to create a new place for itself in the decades following World War II. Using UAW/CAW Local 27, a broad-based union in London, Ontario, as a case study, he offers a ground-level look at union membership, including some of the social and political agendas that informed union activities. As he writes in the introduction, "This book is as much an outgrowth of years of rank-and-file union activism as it is the result of academic curiosity." Drawing on interviews with former members of UAW/CAW Local 27 as well as on archival sources, Russell offers a narrative that will speak not only to labour historians but to the people about whom they write.

About the Author

Jason Russell is assistant professor of labour studies at Empire State College, State University of New York.

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Copyright: This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License. It may be reproduced for non-commercial purposes, provided that the original author is credited.

MARC

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DownloadFront Matter

DownloadTable of Contents

DownloadList of Tables

DownloadList of Illustrations

DownloadAcknowledgements

DownloadIntroduction: Local Unions in the Post–World War II Decades

Download1. Built to Last

Download2. The National Union

Download3. Employers and Bargaining Units

Download4. Collective Bargaining

Download5. Labour Relations

Download6. The Social and Community Agenda

Download7. Community Politics and Activism

Download8. “It Was All About Families”

DownloadConclusion: Looking Back

DownloadAppendix A: Local 27 Bargaining Units

DownloadAppendix B: Interviews

DownloadNotes

DownloadBibliography

DownloadIndex