Union Power Working Canadians: Books from the CCLH Series editors: Alvin Finkel and Greg Kealey The Canadian Committee on Labour History is Canada’s organization of historians and other scholars interested in the study of the lives and struggles of working people throughout Canada’s past. Since 1976, the CCLH has published Labour/Le travail, Canada’s pre-eminent scholarly journal of labour studies. It also publishes books, now in conjunction with AU Press, that focus on the history of Canada’s working people and their organizations. The emphasis in this series is on materials that are accessible to labour audiences as well as university audiences rather than simply on scholarly studies in the labour area. This includes documentary collections, oral histories, autobiographies, biographies, and provincial and local labour movement histories with a popular bent. SERIES TItlES Champagne and Meatballs: Adventures of a Canadian Communist Bert Whyte, edited and with an introduction by Larry Hannant Working People in Alberta: A History Alvin Finkel with contributions by Jason Foster, Winston Gereluk, Jennifer Kelly and Dan Cui, James Muir, Joan Schiebelbein, Jim Selby, and Eric Strikwerda Union Power: Solidarity and Struggle in Niagara Carmela Patrias and Larry Savage Solidarity and Struggle in Niagara Carmela Patrias + Larry Savage Copyright © 2012 Carmela Patrias and Larry Savage Published by AU Press, Athabasca University 1200, 10011 – 109 Street, Edmonton, AB T5J 3S8 ISBN 978-1-926836-78-2 (print) 978-1-926836-79-9 (PDF) 978-1-926836-80-5 (epub) A volume in Working Canadians: Books from the CCLH ISSN 1925-1831 (print) 1925-184X (digital) Cover and interior design by Natalie Olsen, Kisscut Design. Cover images: (front) Crib work construction for the Toronto Power Generat- ing Station, September 3, 1903. D417580. Courtesy of Niagara Falls (Ontario) Public Library. (back) Hermann Sigurdsson / Shutterstock.com. Printed and bound in Canada by Marquis Book Printers. Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication Patrias, Carmela, 1950 – Union power : solidarity and struggle in Niagara / Carmela Patrias and Larry Savage. (Working Canadians, books from the CCLH, 1925-1831 ; v. 3) Co-published by: CCLH. Includes bibliographical references. Also issued in electronic format. ISBN 978-1-926836-78-2 1. Labor movement — Ontario — Niagara Peninsula — History. 2. Labor unions — Ontario — Niagara Peninsula — History. I. Savage, 1977 II III 3 Larry, – . Title. Series: Working Canadians (Edmonton, Alta.) ; HD6529.N52P38 2012 331.8809713’38 C2012-901702-7 We acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Canada Book Fund (CBF) for our publishing activities. Assistance provided by the Government of Alberta, Alberta Multimedia Development Fund. Canadian Committee on Labour History This publication is licensed under a Creative Commons License, Attribution– Noncommercial–No Derivative Works 2.5 Canada: see www.creativecom- mons.org. The text may be reproduced for non-commercial purposes, provided that credit is given to the original author. To obtain permission for uses beyond those outlined in the Creative Com- mons license, please contact AU Press, Athabasca University, at aupress@ athabascau.ca. Contents Acknowledgements vii List of Abbreviations xi Introduction 3 Canallers Fight for Work and Fair Wages 8 The Early Labour Movement 10 Class and Ethnicity in the Early Twentieth Century 16 Labour Revolt in Niagara 25 Welfare Capitalism in Niagara 34 Unemployment and Organization During the Great Depression 40 The Crowland Relief Strike 42 The Cotton Mill Strike, 1936–37 45 The Monarch Strike 51 The CIO at McKinnon Industries 54 Fighting for Democracy on the Home Front, 1939–45 56 Niagara Labour’s Cold War 67 Women and Workers of Colour in the 1950s and 1960s 74 Ideologies Clashing: The 1970 UAW Strike 81 Strike Wave: 1972–76 84 Canadian Pulp and Paper Workers Fight Back 89 Corporate Restructuring and Labour’s Decline 91 The Eaton’s Strike: Women Workers Walk the Line 95 “Don’t Lower the Standard”: The Newsroom on Strike 99 Occupation in Thorold 102 Labour Builds Brock: Unions and the University 105 Living in a Dying Town: Deindustrialization in Welland 117 “Kicking Ass for the Working Class”: Hotel Workers in Niagara 124 The House Advantage: Organizing Niagara’s Casinos 149 Migrant Farm Workers in Niagara 164 Organized Labour and the New Democratic Party in Niagara 172 Conclusion 184 Notes 187 Index 203 Acknowledgements This book owes a great deal to a number of people. First and fore- most, we are indebted to Ruth Frager, Wayne Thorpe, and Michelle Webber, for reading the manuscript and offering helpful sugges- tions for improvement, and to Hugo Chesshire, Roger Fast, and Bradley Walchuk, for their excellent research assistance. Pamela MacFarland Holway and Megan Hall, at Athabasca Uni- versity Press, were a pleasure to work with, and we are grateful as well to copy editor and indexer Jon Eben Field. We would also like to acknowledge David Sharron and Edie Wil- liams, in Special Collections at Brock University Library, Sandra Enskat, in Special Collections at the St. Catharines Public Library, Linda Kurki and Arden Phair, from the St. Catharines Museum, and Andrew Porteus, from the Niagara Falls Public Library, for their assistance in tracking down relevant materials. The financial support of Brock University, particularly the uni- versity’s Jobs and Justice Research Unit, was greatly appreciated. Finally, we thank labour activists in Niagara, past and present, who helped shape the content of this book with their stories of struggle and solidarity. Vii Abbreviations AFL American Federation of Labor AWA Agricultural Workers Alliance CAW Canadian Auto Workers CCF Co-operative Commonwealth Federation CCL Canadian Congress of Labour CEP Communications, Energy and Paperworkers CIO Congress of Industrial Organizations CLC Canadian Labour Congress CNH Canadian Niagara Hotels CPU Canadian Paperworkers Union CUPE Canadian Union of Public Employees GHSAC Golden Horseshoe Social Action Committee GM General Motors GROW Growing Respect for Offshore Workers HERE Hotel, Motel and Restaurant Employees Union IAM International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers IATSE International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees ILGWU International Ladies’ Garment Workers’ Union ILP Independent Labor Party IX IWA International Woodworkers of America LIUNA Laborers’ International Union of North America MP Member of Parliament MPP Member of Provincial Parliament NDP New Democratic Party OFL Ontario Federation of Labour OLRB Ontario Labour Relations Board OPSEU Ontario Public Service Employees Union OSSTF Ontario Secondary School Teachers Federation PCC Plymouth Cordage Company RWDSU Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union SAWP Seasonal Agricultural Workers Program TLC Trades and Labor Congress UAW United Automobile Workers of America UE United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers Union UFCW United Food and Commercial Workers Union UNITE Union of Needletrades, Industrial and Textile Employees USWA United Steelworkers of America UTWA United Textile Workers of America X Introduction “Who’s got the power? We’ve got the power! What kind of power? Union power!” This call-and-response chant could be heard loud and clear at a 16 June 2007 rally in support of hotel workers in the heart of the Niagara Falls tourism district. UNITE HERE Local 2347, the union representing room attendants, servers, cooks, and bellhops working for three area hotels owned by Canadian Niag- ara Hotels, was locked in an intense and prolonged dispute with hotel management over intimidation of union activists, the unfair imposition of split shifts, and the non-payment of salary increases and negotiated bonuses. Autoworkers, steelworkers, teachers, public service workers, postal workers, and university workers from across Niagara and throughout the province converged on the Sheraton on the Falls hotel in solidarity with the hotel workers to send a message to the hotel owners that the union was not going to back down without a fight. Union members and their allies peacefully marched through the streets waving flags and carrying banners demanding respect and dignity for hotel and hospitality workers. Different unions at the rally pledged their unwavering support for Local 2347 in its struggle against hotel management, emphasizing the need to stick together, stay strong, and keep up the fight. 3 Individually, workers have little bargaining power at work and little political power in their communities. When workers join together in unions, however, their collective voices have greater potential to shape and influence both the terms and conditions of their employment and the broader political, social, and economic spheres in which their employment relationships are embedded. Unlike corporate power, union power is not built on profit, status, or prestige. Instead, at its core, union power relies on the twin concepts of struggle and solidarity. Union and working-class soli- darity is premised on the idea that workers have shared class inter- ests and must struggle together, as a class, to achieve their goals. Where solidarity is strong, and the struggle is intense, union power is enhanced. Niagara’s rich labour history is full of examples of union power. In some cases, as in Local 2347’s fight to defend its existence, work- ers managed to combat corporate power effectively. In other cases, especially when employers have been able to exploit divisions internal to the