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During the Second World War, the Congress of IndustrialOrganizations in Canada grew from a handful of members to more than aquarter-million. What was it about the "good war" thatbrought about this phenomenal growth?
Labour Goes to Warargues that both economic and cultural forces were at work. Labourshortages gave workers greater economic power in the workplace. Butcultural factors - workers' patriotism, ties to those onactive service, and allegiance to the "people's war"- also fueled the CIO's growth. The complex, oftencontradictory, motives of workers during this period left the Canadianlabour movement with an ambivalent progressive/conservative legacy.
List of contents
Introduction
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
About the author
Wendy Cuthbertson has worked for the Canadian Auto Workers Union, the Ontario Pay Equity Commission, and the Ontario Confederation of University Faculty Associations.
Summary
This 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.
