Working People: An Illustrated History of the Canadian Labour Movement

by Desmond Morton

From the dock workers of Saint John in 1812 to teenage "crews" at McDonald's today, Canada's trade union movement has a long, exciting history. Working People tells the story of the men and women in the labour movement in Canada and their struggle for security, dignity, and influence in our society. Desmond Morton highlights the great events of labour history - the 1902 meeting that enabled international unions to dominate Canadian unionism for seventy years, the Winnipeg General Strike of 1919, and an obscure 1944 order-in-council that became the labour's charter of rights and freedoms. He describes the romantic idealism of the Knights of Labor in the 1880s and looks at "new model" unions that used their members' dues and savings to fight powerful employers. Working People explores the clash between idealists, who fought for socialism, industrial democracy, and equality for women and men, and the realists who wrestled with the human realities of self-interest, prejudice, and fear. Morton tells us about Canadians who deserve to be better known - Phillips Thompson, Helena Gutteridge, Lynn Williams, Huguette Plamondon, Mabel Marlowe, Madeleine Parent, and a hundred others whose struggle to reconcile idealism and reality shaped Canada more than they could ever know.

Genres: History, Canada, Nonfiction, Labor

432 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1980

Reviews

[Kris · Rating 1 out of 5]

Horribly disappointing. But I guess you should expect that now and again when you buy books online and don't read the back cover, which has this gem of liberal pure-and-simple unionism garbage: "Working People explores the clash between idealists, who fought for socialism, industrial democracy, and equality for women and men, and the realists who wrestled with the human realities of self-interest, prejudice, and fear." That short description sets the condescending tone of the whole book. The bulk of Morton's "exploration" consists of abundantly using derogatory adjectives for radical unionists, focusing on their defeats (and even blaming them for the failures of "respectable" unionists), and glossing over the defeats of conservative unionists while pretending that their victories are the best possible outcomes working people could reasonably expect. I don't think you could write a book with a more simplistic analysis of labor history if you tried.

[Matthew]

Working People is, if nothing else, an exhaustive history of strikes in Canada and the major union organizations. Morton covers seemingly every strike of note, every major victory and defeats, as well as every notable internecine conflict between Canadian unions. If you know nothing of labour history and just want a list of notable events, this is a good introduction.

Unfortunately, that's all it is. Morton simply does not examine the social, cultural, economic, intellectual, or really even economic factors in Canadian labour history, and seems wholly uninterested in answering some, I would argue, fundamental questions of labour history such as: why did people join specific unions? What factors determined their success or failure?, what caused the shift in attitudes towards labour and their unions? What made for successful strikes? What beliefs guided organized labour? All of these questions are broadly ignored.

What conclusions Morton does extract are pretty minimal. Unions are a positive force, internal conflict has severely limited the success of unions in Canada, and the general makeup of the economy and overall prosperity have been the deciding factors about if organized labour succeeds or fails. These are not unreasonable conclusions, but the evidence is poorly marshalled to support them, and they are hardly thought provoking.

I would not recommend this to anyone familiar with Canadian labour history already, even in a limited capacity. I would also not recommend this for anyone seeking to understand any of the why's behind organized labour.

[Timothy Favelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Desmond Morton makes Canadian history enjoyable. This was very informative and easy to read, it made me think and want to find solutions.