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Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: http://hdl.handle.net/11375/31094
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dc.contributor.advisorFudge, Judy-
dc.contributor.authorGodden, Mason-
dc.date.accessioned2025-02-24T19:10:39Z-
dc.date.available2025-02-24T19:10:39Z-
dc.date.issued2024-
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/11375/31094-
dc.description.abstractThis dissertation provides the first historical overview of the Confederation of Canadian Unions (CCU) and its affiliates from 1969 to 1992. Formed at the end of the 1960s as a foil to the Canadian Labour Congress (CLC), the CCU sought to nationalize the Canadian labour movement by fomenting the formation of Canadian unions. As a left-nationalist labour body, the CCU charged the CLC with conservatism, complacency, and collaboration in its approach to organizing and collective bargaining. Chief among the CCU’s concerns was the domination of American international unions in the CLC. Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, the CCU organized workplaces in unorganized industries, bringing a host of immigrant women into the ranks of the Canadian labour movement, while establishing large bargaining units in industries primarily organized by American unions. At the same time, the CCU forwarded a left-nationalist politics inspired by the New Canadian Political Economy (NCPE) that criticized Canada’s economic, political, and cultural dependence on the United States, and used this politics to mobilize its members against continental free trade and towards a nationalized, socialized home economy. The CCU and its affiliates also formed important linkages with the New Left and the women’s movement during these decades and proved itself a militant actor in confrontations with the state and industrial law. Several CCU affiliates eventually merged with the Canadian Autoworkers (CAW) in the 1990s in the wake of extensive economic restructuring and corresponding changes in the Canadian labour movement. The dissertation contributes to the scholarship on industrial relations, industrial legality, and nationalism by providing a historical case study of a left-nationalist labour institution that simultaneously challenged and was shaped by federal and provincial law. It provides a critical institutionalist perspective on union federations that accounts for the law as a contested terrain, and nationalism as a historically contingent politics.en_US
dc.language.isoenen_US
dc.subjectlabouren_US
dc.subjecthistoryen_US
dc.subjectCanadaen_US
dc.subjectunionen_US
dc.subjectunionsen_US
dc.subjectindustrial relationsen_US
dc.subjectindustrial legalityen_US
dc.subjectnationalismen_US
dc.subjectleft-nationalismen_US
dc.subjectthe leften_US
dc.subjectunion federationsen_US
dc.subjectlabour institutionen_US
dc.subjectlabour institutionsen_US
dc.subjectinstitutional historyen_US
dc.subjectcritical institutionalismen_US
dc.subjectwomen's movementen_US
dc.subjectfeminismen_US
dc.subjectworken_US
dc.subjectemploymenten_US
dc.titleThe Confederation of Canadian Unions (CCU), 1969-1992en_US
dc.typeThesisen_US
dc.contributor.departmentLabour Studiesen_US
dc.description.degreetypeDissertationen_US
dc.description.degreeDoctor of Philosophy (PhD)en_US
dc.description.layabstractThis dissertation is a history of the Confederation of Canadian Unions (CCU) and its affiliates from 1969 to 1992. The CCU operated outside of the mainstream of the Canadian labour movement, and endeavoured to form Canadian unions, which at the time were outnumbered in the Canadian Labour Congress (CLC), Canada’s premier labour federation. During the 1970s and 1980s, the CCU organized workplaces with scores of immigrant women, mobilized their membership in service of left-nationalist objectives such as the rejection of continental free trade, and formed alliances with leftist and feminist organizations. Several CCU affiliates eventually merged with the Canadian Autoworkers (CAW) in the 1990s. The dissertation answers key questions raised by scholars of industrial relations, industrial legality, and nationalism, while providing unionists and their allies with historical lessons relevant to contemporary labour organizing.en_US
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