Description
Book SynopsisThis book examines the explosive growth of the CIO in Canada during the Second World War, showing how cultural as well as economic forces were at work in the gritty work of union organizing.
Trade ReviewAlthough the CIO began the Second World War on precarious ground, by 1945 it had become a powerhouse. Labour Goes to War explains how this transformation took place, offering original insight into the making of the Canadian labour movement during the war years. Drawing on the reconstruction rhetoric of the peoples’ war for democracy, the CIO expanded its own commitment to equality rights for women and minorities and promoted a new language of social entitlement for working people.
-- Joan Sangster, author of Transforming Labour: Women and Work in Postwar Canada
Table of ContentsIntroduction
1 “A Trifle Depressing”: The CIO on the Eve of War
2 Organizing the Unorganized in Wartime
3 Wartime Organizing: Getting to a Majority
4 “Becoming Unionized as Well as Organized”: Union Sociability, the Transmission of Ideas, and the Creed of Equality
5 “The War for the Common Man”: The CIO’s Narrative of a Fulfilled Democracy
6 “Equal Partners in This World Crusade”: Women, Equal Pay, and the CIO
Conclusion
Notes
Bibliography
Index
