The "Cooperative Wage Study" And Industrial Relations: A Canadian Analysis in the Steel Industry

Abstract

This thesis describes the introduction into Canada, from the United States, of the Cooperative Wage Study (CWS) - a scheme of joint union-management job evaluation for the removal of wage rate inequities in the steel industry. it is especially concerned with the impact of the CWS programme upon the structure of industrial relations in this industry, and with the aims and objectives of both the union and management regarding it. A comparison of the origins of the plan in both the U.S.A. and Canada is made and a survey of the development of the programme carried out in two basic steel plants in Ontario. An evaluation of the results is attempted in the light of the original objectives, together with an assessment of the importance of CWS as an industrial relations technique.