Sex RaIes and Poli tics: a case study

by

Susan E. Robertson

A Thesis subrnitted ta the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research in partial fulfillrnent of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts.

Department of Anthropology McGill University Montreal __ _ Mar.ch, 1973.

® Susan E. Robertson 1973 ABSTRACT

The thesis examines sorne general issues about the relationship between sex roles and politics. Lionel Tiger's book MEN IN GROUPS (1970) offers an explanation of male dominance in politics based on the supposedly universal biological differences between the sexes. On the basis of my study of a trade union where the sexes are equally represented l have ~hown firstly how one political situation must be seen in its own cultural and historical context before roles within it can be understood. Secondly, l have argued that sex roles in our own society are rnanipulable and changing.

The ways in which political relations are related to sex roles have been examined and the explanatory power of cultural factors reaffirmed.

La thèse discute de certains problèmes généraux con- cernant la relation entre l'action politique et les rôles sexuels. Lionel Tiger, dans MEN IN GROUPS (1970), explique la domination male du domaine politique par les différences biologiques, et supposément universelles, existant entre les sexes. Sur la base de mon étude d'une union ouvrière, je démontre, tout d'abord, qu'une situation politique doit être vue dans son propre contexte culturel et historique afin de comprendre l'importance qu'y jouent les rôles. Deuxièmement, je suggère que les rôles sexuels dans notre société sont manéables et changeants. La thèse examine les liens entre rôles sexuels et relations politiques ,et réaffirme le pouvoir explicatif des facteurs culturels. Contents

Preface i

Chapter 1. INTRODUcrION 1

Chapter 2. A HISTORY OF THE CONFLICT 16 1. Establishment of the Union 16 2. Initial Conflicts 20 3. The Development of Issues 24 4. Contract Negot~ations Begin 26 5. Developments within the Union 30 6. Management Tactics 34 7. Strik Action Begins 36 8. Full Strike 39 9. Settlement 47

Chapter 3. DEVELOPMENT OF THE UNION: SOCIAL STRUcrURE OF THE LIBRARY 55 1. Background 55 2. Non-management Professional Librarians 59 3. Workers 61 3.a. The Union: Ideology 64 b. The Union: Leadership 68 c. Organization of the Library 73 d. Union Supporters 85 e. Scabs 89 f. Summary 99 4. Conclusion 103

Chapter 4. CONCLUSIONS 112

References 127

Figures, Charts, Appendices Figure 1. AlI employees: Education, Family composition, Birthplaces 62 2. Supporters and Scabs by Department 76 3. Supporters; Average Age 90 4. Supporters; Education 90 5. Supporters; Family Composition 90 6. Supporters and Scabs;oComparison of Age 92 \....

7. Supporters and Scabs; Education 94 8. Supporters and Scabs; Birthplace; 95 9. Supporters and Scabs; Family Composition 97

Chart 1. Organization 75

Appendix A 123

Abbreviations

CNTU Confederation of National Trade Unions/Con­ fédération des Syndicats Nationaux.

NUSGWUE (CNTU) National Union of Sir George Williams University Employees (Confederation of National Trade Unions).

SGWAUT Sir George Williams Association of University Teachers .

..... -... i

PREFACE

One of the major problems that was faced in developing this study was one of methodology. The constraints of the

Master's programme meant there were only three months available for full time field research. In addition there was a conflict in professional opinions on the nature of the Master's thesis.

It was expected by sorne that one would undertake research which is theoretically significant within the discipline of anthropology as a whole; research for the degree is regarded by others, largely as a learning process in which a clearly defined, straightforward problcm, or aspect of a problem, which can be tested with a methodology which is already established and accepted, is selected.

Concern that l was about to undertake a general ethnography rather than a situational analysis of sex roles, was expressed. However, the main strength of anthropology is the recognition of the complexity of interaction between the factors which influence human behaviour and which we label cultural, sociological, psychological, cognitive or ecological, depending on our individual biases. To me, awareness of this cornplexity cornpensates for the lack in anthropology of experimental ii or statistical "proofs", at least when the participant observation method is employed. I found myself continuously incapable of ignoring this complexity and the weaknesses of the study are in large part due to the difficulty of classifying the morrass of information which floods in through the participant observation method. On the other hand any value it may have is a validation of the enthnographic approach, and the way in which it forces one to face the complexity of human affairs.

The other major problem is related to the difficulty of deducing general statements from observations of behaviour, once we have decided which of these observations are relevant.

We must ever be wary of those attractive theories which explain a part of behaviour in terms of one underlying cause. I became entranced with one such theory outlined in Lional Tiger's

MEN IN GROUPS, which explains the postulated and supposedly unchangeable dominance of men in the political realm, in ethological terms. This study re-affirms the significance of culture in hurnan affairs and attempts to highlight the weaknesses of the kinds of ethological theories which have been offered as holistic explanations of human political relatIons. iii

My methodological approach was delibe~ately left vague both in the development of my research proposaI and during fieldwork as l was still unsure of what l could say about Tiger's ideas, which apply to the whole of humankind, on the basis of a necessari~y limited piece of research.

It seemed desirable to leave open the possibility of pursuing d::. ':ferent kinds of leads which rnig:ht open up during the course of fieldwork. In fact it was only during the course of organizing and analyzing the data, and of writing that the way in which l could do this become clear.

The basic point of the study was to test Tiger's ideas on 'the basis of ernpirical findings. Much of the thesis will therefore appear irrelevant as it is concerned with information which is only indirectly or negatively correlated with sex roles.

This is partly due to the fact that l was writing for the people who were the actors in the drama as weIl as for my own super­ visers. More importantly it was also necessary to provide considerable detail on the situation to bring the study alive,

Ca worthwhile end in itself?) and to indicate just how small the influence of sex roles,was in this situation. Since the field situation was selected primarily because of the apparent iv

eq~ality of men and women in it, this last po~nt will be

the most significant of my conclusions.

I would like to express my gratitude to the various

people who helped me with this study. Firstly, .my thanks

are due to those who made it possible, to aIl the people in

the Library at Sir George. In the Union itself, the cooperation

and assistance I received from many people, especially Si

Dardick, Nancy Marrelli, Brenda Perry, Pat Heiter and Bob

Allen, made the task in addition enjoyable and personally

enriching.

For many helpful discussions, guidance and her clear

confidence in my conception of the study, I would like to

thank my adviser, Joan Miller. Thanks are also due to Peter

Gutkind and Richard Salisbury for their helpful comments.

In addition, I am most grateful to Rochelle Kolodny, cam Perry,

Iggy La Rusic and Enid Schildkrout for their support and interest

in the study, and their invaluable insights which lead the way

to the resolution of many problems.

( Chapter I. INTRODUCTIONI

This study was inspired by the thesis presented in

Lionel Tiger's book MEN IN GROUPS (1970). The book is not

taken very seriously by social scientists - it is easy to

criticize because of the selective use of evidence, the

reliance on assertions where there is no evidence, and because

of the amazingly simplistic ideas of what constitutes explanation •

.' However it is an important book, if only because it raises

questions that are important, and which because of their com-

plexity, many social scientists shy away from or maintain to be

unanswerable.

The fundamental question of the book is: why have men

dominated politics, or community decision-making in almost aIl

known societies?

Our first response to this is - do they? One of the

arguments used both in the feminist movement and by anthropologi~ts

who assert that they are capable of overcoming their ethnocentric

bias, is that this is not the case. When the processes of group

decision making in different kinds of societies are re-examined

with this question in mind, the balance is redressed to a certain

degree. We can see that women's interests can never be ( - 2 -

completely ignored. However, it would be surprising to find

many societies in which women not only influence decisions

but are agreed to have equal or superior power and authority,

or that sex is an irrelevant factor in this sphere. This is

rare enough in the domestic sphere and may be confined to

certain kinds of matrifocal families, although even here the

data is unclear and there is room for controversy.

The traditional analytical division between power and

authority, in spite of the difficulties of making empirical

distinctions, may have sorne usefulness in forming a general

statement about the political position of women in societies

known to date. For the purposes of this thesis, l define power

as exercizing influence in group decision-making processes.

Authority is defined as power with socially accepted sanctions

to back it up, and a generally accepted agreement as to where

power should lie. The re-writing and re-working of ethno­

graphies from"a woman's perspective have concentrated on

demonstrating how women influence group decisions, very often

from behind the scenes. However l have not come across any

society in which women commonly and generally have, and are

stated to have, an equal or superior right to do this by aIl ( - 3 -

the mernbers of the society, male and female. There is no

straightforward case in groups which include approximately

equal nurnbers of each sex, of any scale, from family to

nation, for saying that women have clear cut authority.2

Even in the matrifocal families of the New World,

and possibly with those powerful West African women traders

(here the data is poor), the relàtionships of women with

their husbands are often unstable and problematical. Their

domination in the family seems to place an unbearable stress

on their men's position by threatening their self image in

relation to masculinity.

The readiest answer to the whole thorny question lies

in the biological and cultural roles of women as mothers. ~he

literature review in my research proposaI (Robertson, 1972),

showed that our knowledge of the degree to which biology is

destiny in relation to sex differences is poor and that when

the findings of biology and the various social sciences are

synthesized, few concrete answers are available. However, any

explanation which ignores the child bearing role of women will

be deficient. Here it is sufficient to point out that my

( - 4 -

study was conducted within Western industrial society where

the social incentives to and rewards from motherhood are

continuously diminishing. This seems to be related to the

renewed efforts of women, both mothers and others, to gain

authority in a wide range of institutions. Considerable

support for this hypothesis emerged from the study. Most

of the people l spoke to were yo~ng and had no children, few

of either sex planned families or could even say whether

they would eventually like to have children, most thought it

would be nice if the circumstances were right, and many spoke

about the problems related to this decision.

Another obvious bio1ogical difference between men and

women, which Tiger strangely avoids, is the superior size and

physical strength of men. This has been and is used in many

different societies to back up men's authority, particularly

within the family. Of course women find many ways of

circumventing this force, and while it is not a culturally

appropriate strategy in middle class Western society, it may

weIl be a powerful universa1 factor in the development of

cognitive structure and perceptions of sex differences. (See

especial1y Bardwick, 1971: 102, and Kohlberg, 1966).

{ - 5 -

The strength of the ethological approach is that

it turns our attention back to the biological underpinnings

of culture, which anthropologists, reacting against social

Darwinism and overwhelmed by cross-cultural diversity, have

until recently tended to ignore, and sometimes to respond

with remarkable hostility to the possibility of entertaining

these questions.

Methodology3

The major methodological problem that l faced was

how to select an approach which would speak to the way in

which Tiger dealt with th~ question. He draws on the

ethological literature to show how the males of primate

species establish dominance and postulates genetic patterning

underlying these patterns but never entertains the question

of superior size and strength. He is especially interested

in baboons since in this species, he claims, the ranking males

bond together in order to control the troop. He ignores the

by now weIl documented influence of ecological conditions on

these patterns within the species, and the fact that baboons

are not as closely related to man as the ape species which do

not have these patterns.

( - 6 -

His second major theme is the long hunting history of mankind. Since for nine tenths of human history he claims we were dependent on the ability of men to cooperate in the hunt, the male bond had a selective advantage and became written into our genetic code, or at least the male part of it. (Women contribute a larger proportion of the diet in many contemporary hunting societies b~t cooperation between them is according to Tiger, (1970: 125-128) less vital.) There is a lot of speculation about the organization of early human groups, much of which is not supported by the evidence, either by analogy with our knowledge of contemporary hunting groups or by the ideas now being generated by ecologically oriented archaeologists. Contemporary genetic theory and evidence provide no support for hypotheses about the control of complex behaviour patterns by genes. (Julius Metrakos, personal communicatioa).

Tiger does not ignore the role of learning in determining primate behaviour but claims that it is linked up with genetic codes in a way we do not as yet understand.

Geneticists are still unable to provide much concrete information about this but do support the idea that tnere is an interplay between genetic constitution and learned'b~naviour, at least - 7 -

at the individual level. This does not mean that individual

behaviour is not influenced by such factors as ecological

conditions, learned habits, group customs and physiological

changes during the life of an individual.

What his approach does ignore is the mass of evidence

from sociology and cultural anthropology. The numerous and

varied constraints on human behaviour imposed by group needs,

and the ways in which cultural values, even if they cannot

entirely deny biological needs can modify enorrnously the ways

in which they are fulfilled, are not dealt with at aIl. The

findings in cognitive anthropology and developmental psychology

especially in those areas which deal with the relationship

between the so-called conscious and unconscious minds indicate

that biological and cultural sex differences have a large impact

both on individual psychological and cognitive development, and

the way we think about sex roles and society, but research in

this area is just commencing and our understanding is in a

primitive state.

The main difficulty with Tiger's thesis is that like

many ideologies, it is not refutable. It offers a universal

explanation, based on biological determinism, of the entire ( fabric of social relations. Tiger has frequently been accused

of chauvinism, and while he maintains that he regrets male - 8 -

in domination/politics, is still saying that it must be so.

Another ideological characteristic, which explains the

popularity of this kind of book, is that it supports,

explains and justifies popular stereotypes l especially men's

ones, about the basic nature of the relation between the

sexes. As l have demonstrated it does reflect, to sorne

degree, an empirical reality (th~ superior authority of

men in aIl groups which contain both sexes), but the

explanation offered is one which mirrors the author's own

position in industrial society.

Therefore, l selected an approach which would take

into account the kinds of factors which Tiger ignored and which

shows how cultural beliefs and situational factors are vital

in an explanation of the social definition of roles which are

based on biological difference. The most significant oversight

in Tiger's work is that he does not account for the ability of

people to think about and change their roles, to make conscious

choices, and to employ strategies. The biases uncovered in the

anthropological literature in general have grown partly out of

the failure to understand people as employing strategies to

improve their position within the constraints of the situation

/ - 9 -

and seeing them instead as being helplessly in the grip of

biological, cultural, etc. forces. The theoretical approach

which seemed most appropriate for methodological and

practical reasons, was one which assumes that the rnost

significant explanation of social forros lies in the

conscious and rational choices made by individuals. Barth's

MODELS OF SOCIAL ORGANIZATION, (1966) offers one of the best

frameworks of this kind and was therefore selected as a model.

Thi'~ model assumes these choices generate social forrns when

there are significant frequencies of people making sirnilar

decisions. The easiest way to study this is by looking at

interactions. The individual choices are molded in the

interaction process and agreement between individuals about

which of their many possible statuses is the most significant

one for the interaction, take~ place. Barth uses Goffman's

(1959) work to show how the relevant status positions are

over-communicated, and the discrepant ones are undercornmunicated'

in interactions so that stereotyped forms of behaviour, or

roles, are generated. This was the source of my first empirical

problem and one which was not overcome. Hm! does one observe

interactions closely and often enough to understand which

statuses are significant, particuIarIy \'!hen one wants to know " - 10 -

when people are responding to the status of femaleness or

maleness. These statuses can never be undercornrnunicated

enough to make them quite irrelevant, and people are rarely

either conscious of or honest enough to be able to answer

direct questions about them, especially when they know each

other weIl. Goffman's (1959) work on the presentation of

self to me seems more applicable. in situations where people

have only a single-stranded relationship, do not know each

other weIl, and where their relationship to each other is

still being defined. In the Library preconceptiornabout

sex roles appeared to enter into role definition only with

a few men who were new employees and who were not incorporated

into the network of work relationships.

Barth then says this job is simplified if we look at

the transactional nature of many interactions, and assume they

are systematically governed by reciprocity. Each individual

plays a game of strategy and keeps a ledger in his head of the

value gained or lost in each transaction or successive more in the

game.

Many possible courses of action are ruled out because they are patently unsatisfactory, i.e. an actor must expect that value lost be greater than value gained. In such a model the incentives ( and constraints on choice are effe~tive through the way they determine what can be gained and lost. (Barth, 1966: 4) - Il -

My second problem was to establish what the valued goods

and services were and how they operated as constraints

and incentives in the situation. Hov] do you know what a

person's IIrealll values are, even at one point in time, and

how do you judge when their actions and transactions are

consistent with their values. People may choose to act

in ways which are inconsistent with their values for a

variety of situational reasons. Many items of behaviour are

spontaneous and not thought out carefully. This is probably

less true of transactions, but certainly sorne people think

more carefully than others about the outcome of their

behaviour. Understanding these distinctions may be less of

a problem when there is an opportunity to observe 'a familiar

situation over time but l had to rely on interviews about

choices which had largely been made in the pasto When someone

tells you she joined the Union because everyone else was doing

it, it may be pushing it a bit hard to stress the transactional

nature of this, to say, IIIn order to gain or keep the respect

ll of her fellows, this person exchanged her Union dues • She

may also have wanted the respect of management. It may have

been a spur of the moment decision which was later regretted

but too difficult to get out of. After-the-fact rationalizations ( - 12 -

are later dreamt up for the interviewer. This was a problem in standard interviews which often had time limitations and probably influence:1 my conclusions about those leaders that l got to know weIl. They seemed to be more clearly guided by firmly held values; if this is not the case they at least were more articulate and consistent in their explanations of their value orientations.

How the Methodology Relates to Tiger's Thesis

It is unnecessary, if not impossible, to attempt to

IIdisprove ll Tiger's thesis with this model. It is possible, however, to show how a simple ethological approach to the explanation of behaviour is inadequate by using sorne of his examples and comparing the obvious differences in personal style with the added insights of an examination of political process.

l am assuming that the closest thing to an ethological study tha t can be done on people, is the ''''ork in proxemics and non verbal communication. l did not have the· necessary resources to do anything of this kind but l did pay attention to the various styles of self presentation, and ,,.,ill comment on differences between the sexes here. l will also make sorne more general observations on Tiger's thesis in light of my findings, particularly in the following ar~s: - 13 -

1. Evidence for male bonding 2. Leadership and authority roles 3. Influencing group decisions

The transactional model will be used wherever applicable to

explain the meaning of these observations within the larger

pOlitical process, and to show how sex roles were often

irrelevant in this process.

criteria for Selection of the Field Situation

The Sir George Union was selected for several reasons.

Firstly, it was a political arena in which there was only a

slight preponderance of women so the relative participation

and distribution of power and authority between the sexes

could be compared. Secondly, the Union was and is a successful

organization in terms of wresting power from the management at

Sir George, and in resisting pressure from the various

institutions with which it had relations, to influence its

aims and structure. Thirdly, the Union had a highly

egalitarian ideology so Tiger's contention that the tendency

to establish hierarchies is a masculine one, could be examined.

My findings support the literature (e.g. caplow, 1964, Ricks,

et al,1972) which demonstrates that the structure of organizations

is related more to their ideologies and functions than to ( whether they are men's or women's groups. - 14 -

The Sir George Union began with a traditional

organization of centralized decision making and was initially

organized by a group of men. When work was begun on

developing the Constitution, a woman who had been sriously

involved in a women's liberation group suggested a

decentralized and "non-eli tist Il structure. Thus v.rhile i t

is true that it was a woman's suggestion, it received a

receptive response from everyone, and both men and women

fought to maintain this structure against a faction which

later developed. This faction was.also supported by women,

and pushed for more clearly allocated authority in the interests

of efficiency. The Union has retained its egalitarian structure

and while participation dropped off for a while so that sorne

interests were under-represented, and the leaders always had

considerable power so that they were accused of manipulation by

the disenchanted, the main cause of centralization of power

was the unwillingness of many people to put in enough time

and energy to be effective persuaders. AlI important policy

decisions are still made at general meetings.

( - 15 -

1 \ Introduction: Footnotes

lThis introduction represents a critical summary of a wide range of Iiterature on sex roles in relation to politics. As the literature in this area is vast it is impossible to include an exhaustive bibliography here. A more complete examination, with the sources of my ideas is presented in my research proposaI (Robertson, 1972) and further references can be found in Jacob's (197l) lengthy bibliography on women's roles in different societies.

2The case of the Iroquois has been mentioned tomeas a possible exception to this generalization. Morgan (1904), describing the power of women in this society, claimed they had a decisive voice in the election of chiefs (always male). The chief's power was still based on his abilities as a warrior and provider, illustrating my point that women's interests cannot be ignored. Morgan's data is also somewhat Iimited by the fact that his study was done two hundred years after contact with Europeans had begun and the traditional political system had been considerably disrupted. The Iroquoian attempt to control the fur trade and after this the European attempt to contain the Iroquois on reservations, increased the amount of time men spent fighting and away from the village over this two hundred year period. According to Bruce Trigger (personal communication), this characteristically increases women's power and juraI rights in the domestic situation (and may also be related to the matriIineal descent pattern) - as in the matrifocal families of the New World. Trigger postulates that Morgan may have got his data from women who were romanticizing the past.

3A detailed criticism of the book MEN IN GROUPS can be found in my research proposaI (Robertson, 1972). Chapter 2. A HISTORY OF THE CONFLICT

1. Establishment of the Union

The immediate grievance which lead to the formation of NUSGWUE was connected with the working conditions of supposedly part time workers in the stacks of the Library.

They were working up to forty eight hours a week at part- time rates ($1.35 an hour) and entitled to none of the rights and privileges such as sick pay and paid public holidays, that permanent employees enjoyed. Petitions were signed by most of the Library employees and meetings were held between the representatives of the part-time/full-time workers, the head of the section and the University Librarian.

The Library management sometimes recognized the justice of

the complaints in principle but said it was impossible to do anything about the problem, quoting budgeting problems, or

the special situation in Quebec, as reas.on.

Throughout 1969 and 1970 there had also been con­

siderable discussion throughout the Library about dissatisfaction with many other aspects of working conditions. A number of individuals had tried to effect sorne changes by approaching supervisers and department heads, but the problems were basic to the structure of the entire Library. Efforts by the non- - 17 -

professional staff to cornmunicate dissatisfaction were never organized to include representation from more than one

Department at a time.

Dissatisfaction revolved around numerous issues which did not becorne clarified 'until the Union was forrned and contract negotiations began but at the root of most of the complaints was the feeling that no one had act on the problems and that the most important decisions were being made by senior staff who had little to do with everyday work problems.

In a few areas it was felt that employees were being badly exploited but discontent was expressed also by those who had worked elsewhere and appreciated the more relaxed atrnosphere typical of a University (compa~ed with private enterprise), and those who had good salaries and considerable responsibility.

The system before the formation of the Union was one of patron/client ties (Wolf, 1966: 16--18) and those who managed to establish these ties with supervisers or more often professional librarians sometirnes received benefits such as improved promotion opportunities and the right to schedule working hours according to convenience. These opportunities were often more liberal than could normally be expected in a large organization but the cornmitments were sometimes made lightly by managerial staff and - 18 -

often not fu1fi11ed. It was recognized that the University

was sometimes generous but when an individual suffered from a

decision, a great dea1 of anger was generated because the

decisions which effected peop1es' lives serious1y were

arbitrary, unpredictab1e, uneven1y app1ied and sometimes

exp1oitative. It was the very po1icy of benevo1ence which was

to become the focus of attacki the most important slogan 1ater

adopted by the Union was "Rights, not privi1eges".

The people who had been invo1ved in organizing the

petitions and meetings in connection with the part-time workers'

prob1ems decided they wou1d not accept 1ack of action on the

prob1em and began to look for a more powerful form of proteste

They recognized the support that the issue had gained throughout

the non-manageria1 staff and were aware that there was a large

fund of frustration that was being dissipated in aim1ess

comp1aining, and started to look for ways to channel this energy

into a body which wou1d be able to act effectiveIy. Sorne forro

of co11p.ctive action seemed a necessity. The idea of forroing

an empIoyees' association was rejected as management is not

1ega1Iy required to recognize a body of this kind as the Iegai

representative of the empIoyees. Unionism had aiso been discussed

( - 19 - and finally sorne of the petition organizers contactedothe

CNTUI and met a representative from that body to discuss the possibility of forming a Union at Sir George.

In March 1970 Union organizers began to inform the workers about the idea to gauge inter est in the Union. In order to measure support for the idea a meeting to which aIl the workers were invited was held on April 6th and a representative

from the CNTU answered questions. on his organization and unionism in general. Of the fifty people present about thirty

joined immediately and a provisional executive was elected. By

the end of April a legal majority (SO% + 1) was obtained and

the Union applied to the Quebec Department of Labour for

Certification. This would normally be granted immediately but management was dissatisfied with the composition of the Union and three months of discussion failed to settle these points.

This was interpreted by the Union as representing a reluctance by management to accept the Union at aIl.

At the same time several meetings were held and a voluntary committee began work on a constitution for the Union.

At about this time it was suggested that an "egalitarian and non­

elitist structure" was desirable. This would induce maximum

involvement of members in organizational tasks and formulation of

policy and was also a desirable principle in itself. - 20 -

Late in August the certification issue went before the Labour Court. Management contested the composition of the bargaining unit, particularly the inclusion of aIl

"part time" employees who worked more than 24 hours a week, five confidential secretaries, and the supervisers whose work was regarded as semi-professional, and the name of the

Union. The Union won on each po~nt and received its certificate in mid-sep"tember. The management has appealed against these decisions and at the time of writing (February

1973) sorne of these issues are still not settled.

2. Initial Conflicts

The Union selected three contra ct negotiators in

September 1970 and the Administration was to be represented by three of the senior librarians, the uniyersity Director of

Personnel, and the Salary Administrator but contract demands were not presented until January, March 1971 for a number of reasons. Delays were caused by the conflicts over the composition of the bargaining unit, by the time required for the

Union to compile these demands with reference to the wishes of aIl the workers, by disagreement bet\Veen the Administration and the Union over the procedures required at the bargaining table - 21 -

(the Union genera11y taking the stance that the elirnination of bureaucratie procedures wou1d improve the flow of communication), and by Administration concern over the fact that the Union had elected two negotiators from one Department. It was thought this wou1d adverse1y effect the functioning of that Department but the Union insisted on its right to select the individuals that would best ~epresent the interests of the workers.

However the causes of these de1ays helped to define the situation more c1ear1y and Union action on a number of issues in the interim provided an opportunity for the new organization to test its strength and served to convince more workers of the need for a strong bargaining body. This process can be illustrated by out1ining a few of the several conflicts of this periode

The customary annua1 salary increase which was granted to the rest of the University was withhe1d from the library workers on the grounds that this woulà constitute a change in working conditions. In June, after consultation with a CNTU lawyer the Union advised the Administration that this decision itse1f constituted a change in working conditions and that - 22 -

legal action would be taken if the increase were not granted

irnmediately. After obtaining written perm~sion from the

Union the increase was granted.

In September, management failed to take action on a

dangerous book hoist which had fallen and injured an employee's

hand. The Union conferred with the CNTU, after the

Administration failed to take and action and a government

inspector was asked to inspect the hoist. It was declared

inoperative by the inspector until certain repairs were made.

Another issue involved the firing of one of the

workers who had been vocal in seeking changes within his

department and was active in the Union (though it appears that

management did not know at this point who belonged to the Union).

-This employee was required to operate the Telex machine and had

assisted with French translations, a skill he felt was not

adequately compensated. On one occasion he informed the Librarian

he would not send an English message to a French institution

and was fired immediately for insubordination. T~e Union con­

tacted the CNTU and a representative went with the employee to

see the Librarian. The Librarian spoke to the CNTU representative

alone and said the firing stood. The Union threatened to make a - 23 -

a formal complaint to the Labour Relations Board. A representative from the CNTU contacted the Librarian and threatened to expose the whole issue to the press and

finally the employee was re-instated. The Union victories on these issues had the effect of weakening the credibility of management's stance that it had the interests of the workers at heart and demonstrati~g that there was now an effective tool which could influence rnanagerial decisions.

At the same time the basic structure of the Union was being worked out. The following statement opened the first draft of the Constitution.

Lwe ar~ï interested in functioning in non-hierarchical ways .... Only through such a participative, non authoritative structure will we be able to rnake the best use of the resources and talents of each member .... We are determined to have a meaningful voice in what our work environment will be and how it can and should change. We as workërs insist that we have rightsi we reject the concept and reality of benevolence. AlI our actions will be aimed at improving the quality of our lives both at workand within the society as a whole. We are part of the University community and intend to participate actively and responsibly within that cornrnunity.

This statement embodies the resistance to the concept of a traditional Union executive which was to become an important part of Union ideology. Legally, the Union was - 24 -

l requireà to provide the names of a President, Secretary and

Treasurer. Within the Union the President and Secretary were

referred to as coordinators (which individual was to be

President was decided by flipping a coin with the looser

becoming President), with equal responsibilities for the

coordination of the activities of the Union by acting as a

pivot for communications between.,the committees, the

Departmental representatives and the general meetings. The

general meeting was to be the forum where aIl policy decisions

were made and at this point it was hoped that the coordinators'

positions would eventually be phased out altogether.

Membership of committees (such as the Constitutional Cornrnittee

and the Negotiations Survey Committee) was largely voluntary

and responsibility for different tasks rotated as the need

arose.

3. The Development of Issues

When the Union began to compile opinions about desired

changes there was confidence among active Union members that

sweeping changes could be achieved so that aIl would benefit.

It was felt that with greater justice, freedom and participation,

the workers would not only be happier but that relations between - 25 -

them and the professional librarians and management would improve, making their job easier. This would also encourage a sense of commitment to the institution 50 that library service in general would improve.

Of the circulars requesting opinions on bargaining issues, slightly over half of the returns mentioned more - money, although l was informed that everyone wanted an increase.

Other issues related purely to improved working conditions were shorter hours, paid maternity leave, and over- time pay for working on holidays. AlI of the rest of the items mentioned reflected a des ire for radical changes which many hoped would not only achieve justice but would result in more efficient library service through the increased need for cooperation and opportunity to participate in decision making.

Sorne of the returns mentioned participation in decision-making directly and many others referred to means by which this might be achieved, such as inter-departmental training programmes and

changes in specifie routine procedures. 2

Many workers felt that hiring and promotions were

influenced by favouritism and the returns asked for a policy - 26 -

which would take only qualifications and seniority into

account. Other items related loosely to "justice" were

benefits equal to those enjoyed by the professional

librarians (e.g. vacations: Librarians had twenty two days

paid vacation a year, cornpared with ten days for the workers),

provision of a grievance procedure and alteration of pay

scales to reduce or eliminate th~ gap between the highest

and lowest paid workers. A desire to reduce the importance

of regulations was manifest in requests that work schedules

and breaks should be set cooperatively by the workers them~

selves. Many women workers resented dress restrictions and

wanted the dress policy abolished and one person suggested

that sick leave and vacations be combined. 3 It was also felt

that the Union which was going to achieve these improvements

should be protected and encouraged. 4 One person asked for

time off with pay for Union meetings and several requested

that a staff room be provided where aIl the workers could meet

both formally and informally.

4. Contract Negotiations Begin

On February lOth, 1971 contra ct negotiations began,

and over the next six weeks seven meetings were he Id but

( - 27 -

agreement even on what the fundamental issues were could not be reached. On March 26th the Union applied to the

Department of Labour for conciliation. This action would accomplish the legal right to strike after 90 days.

Several meetings with the conciliator were held but by June

9th he said there was still so much unresolved that the meetings should continue without him. Thirteen further meetings were held, five with the conciliator present.

Throughout this period management claimed they could not understand what the issues were. They seemed to have been

searching for a single issue on which concessions could be made leading to the resolution of the whole conflict. The

conciliator at one point thought that job security was "the

Issue". Perhaps because the librarians felt this was uncharacteristic of library workers (and it was never mentioned to me by informants), management resisted this suggestion, until

the Union gave notice that it would calI a strike on July 28th.

Then job security was offered to aIl full time permanent employees. Management thought this was such an important con-

cession that Union agreement to several issues, including

Purpose of the Agreement, Grievance Procedure and Acquired - 28 -

Rights (rightsgained by individual employees superior to

those provided by the contract), was demanded and secured.

Expectations that this would lead the way to resolution of

the other issues were to be disappointed.

The Union claimed that Management understood the

issues after seven months of bargaining but masked their

des ire to have existing policies~written into the contra ct

by quibbling over definitions. Communication was strained

by Management distrust of the CNTU adviser on the negotiating

team, an experienced industrial negotiator who was suspected

of manipulating the Union and persuading the negotiators to

take a more radical stance than was representative of the

workers' wishes. This feeling was manifest at the bargaining

table and was interpreted as reluctance to accept the bargaining

organization that the workers had chosen for themselves and as

evidence of the kind of paternalism the Union was trying to

eliminate. Union negotiators now wanted most of aIl to be

taken seriously; if this involved taking power into their own

hands and destroying the earlier vision of rational and

cooperative agreement, it was preferable to being treated like

children inneed of protection.

( - 29 -

Although they felt no advances were being made and

that acceptance of their proposaIs was unlikely, the

management negotiators knew they could not afforà to break

off negotiations and appear unwilling to bargain, ·:they

asked the Union to postpone the strike so they could make

sorne new proposaIs. In two days of negotiating sorne more

concessions were made on the out~tanding issues which

included management rights, union mernbership, promotions

and transfers, hours of work, maternity leave and vacations.

The Union had also requested a wage offer but management said

this was impossible because the University at this point was

waiting for its budget from the Provincial government. 5

Again, possibly because of the advice of the government

conciliator, management believed the contract was almost ready

to be signed. The strength and determination of the Union was

underestimated throughout the negotiations by the conciliator

and the Sir George Administration but probably less so by the

negotiating librarians. The conciliator advised management

to draw up their proposaIs formally and present them as their

final position. The Union's counter proposaIs were rejected

and the Union negotiators were told by the conciliator that they

( - 30 -

had received a fair offer and could not hope to gain more

with a first contract.

More than 90% of the Union members and sorne non a Union sympathizers went on/half day strikeon Friday 6th,

August. The strike was publicized as a demonstration of

the seriousness of the strike threat: at the same time it

was claimed that the Union did nbt wish to disrupt library

services and that they wanted to settle the dispute before

classes began. While management was expecting a full-scale

strike the Union leaders felt that a strike would accomplish

"little before classes resumed and could seriously weaken the

Union. The negotiating teams did not meet again until

November 2nd.

5. Developments within the Union

At this point the Union was faced with problems

connected with its organization and strategy. A faction had

been developing which opposed the Union leadership6 and was

fighting for more clearly defined structure and assignment of

responsibilities, which were argued to be necessary in view

of the failure of negotiations and the forthcoming struggle.

The leader of this faction suggested the Union be re-organized ( - 31 -

along the lines suggested in CNTU publications. There was

also a request from the CNTU that certain discrepancies

between the Constitution and the way in which the Union was

actually functioning be resolved to avoid legal problems.

The CNTU Strike Director for NUSGWUE wonàered whether "too

much.democracy" would threaten efficient communication during

strike action.

The legal issue was resolved by a formaI motion

temporarily relinquishing authority from the executive to the

departmental representatives who held regular meetings with

the coordinators and where decisions about appropriate actions

on immediate problems were made by cons.ensus. AlI important

policy issues had to be accepted by general meetings but the

leaders vigorously opposed pressures from both the CNTU Strike

Dir~ctor and the faction which wanted to centralize decision

making. They wanted to.defend Union autonomy as a matter of

principle and possibly partly because of fear of manipulation

by ~he larger body but mainly because it was recognized that

it was vital to maintain participation and solidarity among a

large number of people whose backgrounds did not naturally

incline them towards militant unionisme They may also have

( been aware that any appearance of manipulation by their own - 32 -

leaders, or the adoption of an overtly and rigidly radical stance, could easily alienate members and jeopardize the survival of the Union.

Their opponents argued that formaI centralization of decision-making with the executive would hardly change the de facto situation except to increase efficiency (although underlying this was the opinion that most members were not politically weIl informed enough to make the decisions which would force the hand of the Administration), and that the

Union had to achieve a transformation or radicalization of the attitudes of the workers, to make themconscious of being workers, if the original aims of the Union were to be achieved. They also wanted to initia te a full scale strike irnmediately. The leaders felt that the only way the workers would achieve political consciousness was through collective action.

It is now impossible for me to assess the relative weight of the factors influencing the members in the resolution of this conflict. AlI of the motions aimed at formalizing

Union structures and procedures and centralizing decision- making were defeated. My guess about this is that members - 33 -

were aware of their own diverse individual interests and that

there was a real opportunity to express these interests

through the present organization. While many expressed

impatience with the large number of meetings and long

discussions that resulted from the decision-making role of

general meetings and sorne felt that in spite of this

leaders were still able to manip~late members, the majo~ity

were suspicious that sorne of the opposing faction were motivated

by a des ire for power, that they might gain power with a

change in organization and that they would be less responsive

to the membership. There was general agreement that the Union

had functioned weIl in the past and that no major mistakes had

been made. The failure of the faction to achieve the changes

they wanted probably sternrned less from general opposition to the

changes than from suspicion and disapproval of the tactics employed

by the members of the faction, 0ne of whom was seen as trying

to undermine the respect for the leaders. The others were

simply carel'ess about the opinions of the less cornmitted members

and felt they could be persuaded with firmness.

The irnrnediate problem of strategy was resolved by the

election of a strike director, strike committee and information

( - 34--

cornmittee which would keep the membership informed of strike strategy and how this related to the progress of negotiations. This provided a structure with the power to organize action. The strike cornrnittee was given a mandate to plan and carry out strike action without continuous reference to the general membership but this did not alter the permanent strupture of the Union.

6. Management Tactics

Management probably interpreted the lack of Union action throughout August and september as a sign of lack of support for strike action. The tactics employed throughout this period were aimed at discrediting the Union in the eyes of ordinary members and in the light of later events may be seen as an attempt to destroy the Union. Sorne tirne after the strike, sorne of the librarians at management level while they did not say the existence of the Union was undesirable still believed that it was organized by a few radical ring leaders.

Bulletins were circulated, posted on bulletin boards and finally sent to the home addresses of library workers explaining management positions on the outstanding issues, accusing the

Union representatives of refusing "to accept a normal clarity of definition with regard to both its o'tln rtghts and those - 35 -

reserved to the Uni versi ty", of "wi thdra\-ling agreement to clauses that had previously appeared settled" (the Union responded that the University had aIse done this) , and implying that the Union was unreasonably refusing to negotiate: "the University did not break off negotiatibns".7

Ironically these tactics probably served to strengthen the

Union. Many workers became convinced that the Union leaders were correct in their assessment that management did not want to accept the Union at aIl. Many members returned management statements with covering notes informing management that they should deal with the properly elected Union representatives. The Union itself was provided with a power- fuI weapon for propaganda and responded with the following statement:

~The management posit~onï is clearly one of com­ plaisant, arrogant aloofness. Hall is attempting to by-pass our negotiators ... and hopes by this means to inject an element of doubt with respect to our negotiations committee into the minds of any of us who may be seeking compromise rather than victory ... he is incapable of imagining that miserable library assistants could possibly see through his artful attempts to sow the seeds of discord within the ranks of our Union. By our firmness and solidarity we will almost certainly disappoint him. - 36 -

7. Strike Action Begins

On October 4th, the Union began a series of unannounced work stoppages or "Study sessions", lasting from a few hours to a whole day. The Library management had no idea when the workers would return but they thought then managed to detect sorne pattern in the scheduling of walkouts which enabled them to k~ep the Library operating.

As the month wore on the number of walkouts increased and was combined with actions aimed at disruption of Library service.

Books were rnisplaced on shelves, date stamps removed and circulation cards shuffled. Library workers had student friends borrow dozens of reserve books and return them the next day. Sorne of the professional librarians were harrassed with phone calls throughout the night. The aim of this was to convince the Administration of the Union's seriousness and give rnembers a chance to cut their political teeth. It was also incidentally, to impress on the professional librarians how far removed they were from the real operation of the

Library. It was claimed they were almost unaware of the sabotage. At this point it was still hoped that a full scale strike could be avoided.

It was almost impossible for managêment to deal with - 37 -

\. these tactics although a number of Union members were

disappointed that there was no immediate response. Management

personnel felt they were unàer great strain since they were

under attack from aIl sides. The workers who dià not

support the Union and the professional librarians felt that

there was unjust pressure on them to maintain Library service.

They were critical of management.because of their failure to

solve the dispute. The Sir George Administration felt the

Library management haà let the situation get out of hand (at

the same time as tieing their hands on several issues),8 and

the government conciliator was critical of the way in which the

negotiations had been handled by management. At the same time

the Library management felt they haà to work very hard within

the Library in an attempt to help out anà to keep up morale

among the non-unionized staff and the professional librarians.

One of the senior librarians remarked that the full strike

almost carne as a relief.

The Administration advised the Union that the stoppages

were illegal anà threateneà to holà the Union responsible for

damage. It was also stated that the walkouts were useless

since they damaged only students and faculty (!). The Library - 38 -

could not be closed as this would have constituted a

lockout. The Union claimed it had been technically out

on a legal strike since August 6th so that no notice was

required, and the workers knew that in the long run the

University could not function without Library services.

The sabotage tactics also had the indirect effect of

allowing individual members to e~press their frustration

by taking as much or as little action as they wishedi the

harrassing phone calls were not planned or carried out by

the strategy cornrnittee but by individuals on their own

initiative. For many members the possibility of àoing this

combined with the sense of frustration which built up

throughout this period strengtheneà their identification with

the Union.

On October 18th a wage offer became possible but the

Administration still refused to accept any form of union shop

and had not made any new offers on the other issues. The

Union claimed this was an attempt to buy off its supporters.

Although the offer was less than the Union VIas demanding,

large increases were offered at the supervisory level increasing

the gap between the top and bottom pay scales. 9

( - 39 -

8. Full Strike

The management negotiations team, against the

advise of the conciliator who did not attend subsequent

meetings, offered to re-open bargaining on November 2nd.

Sorne issues were resolved but the Union team refused to

discuss wages until agreement could be reached on "basic

rights": discussions on union security, promotions,

management rights, pregnancy leave and vacations became

deadlocked. On November 6th 92% of the Union membership

voted in favour of a full scale strike. The Union refused

to submit to binding arbitration requested by the

Administration. sixtY five workers, including all the Union

members and several non-Union sympathizers, went out on

strike on November 17, and picket lines were set up to

patrol the entrances to each of the buildings.

The Library continued to open, though the hours eventually

had to be reduced. It was staffed by the professionals, sorne

part time workers and the workers who were either opposed to

the Union or chose not to join the strike for a variety of

reasons. l found no evidence of direct pressure on the non unionized

full time workers to continue working. However by this time

( - 40 -

it was virtually impossible not to take sides. with the

Union declaring "If you're not with us, you're against us" and management trying to discredit Union tactics, working hard at keeping the Library operating and continuously trying to convince those who rernained in that this was the right thing to do, many seemed to feel that there was a moral obligation to continue working .. For rnost the need for protection from the Administration was significant. It had become clear that the Union was a powerful force capable of protecting its supporters against any possible future mistreatrnent but there was widespread fear of retaliation from the Union or the Administration among those who had wished to remain uncornrnitted. A very few actively supported the management, more were opposed to strike action as a matter of principle or distrusted unions in general. Sorne were directly requesting the Administration to protect thern against having to join the Union and for them, continuing to work was the only way to guarantee this protection. (See also footnote 20). Several people were angry about intimidation tactics,ll and named this as their major reason for continuing to work (although these were not employed until the strike was under way). One person who was opposed to strike - 41 -

action in genera1 also expressed great con cern for the Library users. A considerable nurnber said they could not afford, or did not wish, to 100se their salaries.

As could be expected a great deal of bitterness built up arnongst the strikers against these people as the strike progressed. The strikers were paid a token sum of $15 a week

(rnarried strikers received $20) by the CNTU12. In addition, those who needed to, could borrow 1arger suros from the strike fund contributed by faculty and student sympathisers. They were picketing several hours a day in the bitterly cold

Novernber weather. At the same time these experiences, the growth of bitterness against aIl personnel who crossed the picket lines and the knowledge that the Union was something that the workers themselves had developed and whose existence they were now fighting for, stimulated among the strikers a strong sense of shared interests which a large nurober of inforrnants commented on as being satisfying in itself. This is not to say that there was complete harmony of attitudes among the strikers. Sorne were highly inflamed about the situation and pressed for more violent tactics. 13 These people were restrained with sorne difficulty by their more rnoderate colleagues but as the strike contfDued the possibility - 42 -

of violence increased. Most of the non-professional workers who were crossing the picket lines were aware of the amount

of hostility that was building up against them, sorne were vary nervous about it and sorne started to calI in to say they were ill. Others would gather in a group in the mornings

and cross the picket lines with the protection of one of the

senior librarians. However the ~ibrary management and even more the Sir George Administration; though they acknowledged

the gravity of the situation, did not seem highly concerned

about the possibility of violence. 14

The commencement of the full scale strike aro~sed the

interest and concern of a large number of students and faculty

for the first time. On the first day of the strike sorne members

of the History Department called a Departmental meeting to

discuss appropriate action. They called in Union and management

representatives in order to gain information on both sides of the

issue. While there was a general feeling of sympathy among the

faculty of this Department towards the ~trikers the issue which

deterrnined that they provide full-fledged support to the Union was

the continued opposition of management to a union shop. This was seen not as an unusual demand but a basic right, far more

significant than a conflict over wages. Tné possibility of - 43 - i \ cancelling classes was discussed. Sorne of the faculty were

opposed to this because they felt that student support for

this action was inadequate. The student body at Sir George

is largely middle class and the historians felt that most of

them were unfamiliar with the long term struggle of workers

for the right to unionise and associated union action mainly

with inconvenience and corruption. lS They resolved to teach

only labour and industrial relations history for the duration

of the strike in an effort to arouse positive student support,16

and several cancelled classes after talking about these issues.

An open meeting for students and faculty to hear

representations from both sides was held. While there was support

for the strikers at this meeting, no vote was taken. Concerned

members of the History Department continued to investigate the

situation. The President of the Sir George Williams Association

of University Teachers (SGWAUT) became concerned about this

involvement of faculty (sorne individuals in other Departments

were also lobbying for the Union) and wanted to prevent seg-

ments of the membership from acting on an ad hoc basis and

escalating the strike. He saw the strike support activities as .

unethicali to put a stop to this it was necessary for SGv.TUAUT

totake an official position. The executive circulated a - 44 -

a memorandum to its membership quoting the canadian

Association of University Teachers' Handbook, Guidelines concerning professional ethics, (1961:60)

The first responsibility of the University teacher is the pursuit and dissemination of knowledge and unoerstanding through teaching and research ..• La teacher7 is guilty of unethical conduct if he acts so as to prevent the fulfillment of these responsibilities by himself or by other members of the academic cornrnunity.

It was stated that the closing of rhe Library would prevent faculty from fulfilling their primary responsibility. While a "fair and just solution" was sought "the faculty must not violate its own code of professional ethics."17

The concerned Historians prepared two motions for the

SGWAUT meeting, one granting the strikers funds from SGWAUT and another proclaiming their syrnpathy for the workers. These motions were defeated but another calling for a re-opening of negotiations (without supporting either side in the conflict) , was passed. Several reasons were given for not supporting the strike by individual faculty members. 18 These were the lack of a united student voice on the issue, the fact that the faculty themselves haà not gone on strike when their contract negotiations broke àown, the àemanàs for a union shop and the faculty's own - 45 -

lack of management rights, which for Library workers was seen as an unreasonable demand.

This did not prevent the SGWUAUT executive from taking a stand on the issue. After discussions with a Union representative and the Administration, the President voiced con cern to both over the nature of the Union shop. He felt strongly that existing employees should not have to join the

Union as this would constitute a change in their working con­ ditions. One of the faculty, an industrial sociologist, was nominated to observe negotiations and attempt to improve communication at the bargaining table. His presence was mentioned by both management and Union negotiators as instrumental in the final breakthrough.

Arnong the students, support for the strike came mainly from the Arts Faculty. An ad hoc group, not associatéd with any one student association, was forrned "to get people actively supporting the Library workers."19 They collected 700 signatures on a petition and $140 for the strike fund but their efforts to organize a massive boycott of classes failed. The most widely held attitude among students was con cern over difficulties with preparation of final assignments and for exams - 46 -

and a desire that the conflict should be quickly resolved.

Sorne thought that the Administration was at fault and should

immediately re-open negotiations and grant the demands but

many more felt only that students' rights to pursue their

education were being denied by both sides.

In the meantime, the activists in the History Department

were not deterred by the SGWUAUT decision. They were puzzled

by the management opposition to any form of Union shop,

particularly in view of the long standing liberal approach to

social issues which they thought was characteristic of the top

administrative personnel at Sir George. In a discussion between

one of the historians and the University Librarian, the two

major issues that emerged were management's concern for the

people who did not want to join the Union20 and con cern that a

wage increase would force a reduction in the proportion of the

Library budget available for books. The Librarian was assured

that she would not be held responsible by the faculty if this

happened. Discussions with two of the senior members of the Sir

George administration revealed a faction there.

That part of the Administration which controlled non­

academic personnel had until this time controlled the negotiations

( (see Ch~rt 1,p.62). It was here that the opposition to a union shop - 47 -

and the fear of the CNTU was a powerful factor. However, because of the breakdown of negotiations and because one of the

Administration negotiators had ernbarrassed the University with his inconsistent and reactionary public statements, the principal's administrative assistant had been appointed public relations man for the Administration. This man ,,;ras also embarrassed in his public representations of the Administration position because he had been misinformed about several issues.

When one of the historians approached him he indicated no strong opposition to the CNTU or to a union shop. The historians discussed these issues with the Principal and felt that their pressure on him was successful in ameliorating the anti-union stance of the non-academic sector of the Administration.

9. Settlement

When the bargaining began again both sides had a clearer picture of where the compromises would have to lie. Agreement was reached on Decernber 7 on aIl outstanding issues. The Union agreed to a modified union shop, so that only new employees would have to join and pay dues, seniority was established as the main criterion for promotion and new employees were to be taken on only if none of the workers could fulfill the qualifications demanded for the job. Salaries for the two_lowest paid grades - 48 -

were increased by 10%, for the next grade, 9% and for the highest 8%: a lump pro rata settlement of $415 was paid to aIl non professional workers who had been on the staff sin ce

August 1970 and aIl workers were to be raised one salary level within their grades in June 1972. Sick leave was increased from twelve to twenty days a year and provision made for five months unpaid maternity leave with no loss of seniority rights.

Annual vacations were increased from two to three weeks a year.

However, there was considerable rancor over the failure to win a closed shop. The workers who had not supported the strike not only received their pay throughout the strike but were also to be granted the lump sum and salary increases, thus gaining more from the strike than the strikers themselves.

There was also a division among the "negotiators. One of them felt that the Union had achieved aIl it could. She was eXhausted and wanted an irnrnediate settlement. Another was opposed to accepting the modified shop and wanted to continue the strike.

He thought the Library management would try to destroy the Union and his opinion was re-inforced by an incident in one Department which occurred after the return to work. However, when the vote was taken a slight rnajority chose to accept the contra ct

{probably indicative of the greater respect for the former - 49 -

negotiator), and they returned to work for a few hours.

The incident referred to above almost re-established full­ scale conflict. It was reported to the Department head that one of the strikers had insulted one of the supervisers (who had resigned from the Union) as she crossed the picket line. While the Librarian expressed reluctance to take any action on this issue, she finaIIy instructed the person concerned to restrain herself in the future. The Department head also inforrned the returning workers that the Departrnent was henceforth going to be run differently, that the supervisers had her full support, that morale inside the Library had been consistently high throughout the strike, and she listed a nurnber of new regulations.

She stated that working hours and breaks as provided in the contract were going to be rigidly enforced, and that scheduling of evening and weekend shifts would be compiled by computer, eliminating aIl' choice. The tone of these statements was interpreted by the Union members in the Department as violating the lino reprimands" clause in the agreement. The Union irnrnediately organized another. walkout. The same evening a meeting was held between management, a Union negotiator and the relevant people in the Department concerned. The management agreed in writing that no action would be taken against the Union or its members and the contra ct was formally signed on IOth December. - 50 -

The dissenting negotiator did not sign the contra ct and gave

"personal.reasons" as the reason for his absence.

Most of the Union members expressed satisfaction with

the contract and did feel they had won their battle. A con-

siderable nurnber afterwards found the Library a less pleasing

place to work (although rnany of the non-unionised workers

expressed considerable satisfaction with and gratitude for the

contra ct and the irnprovement in working conditions.) The

changes were attributed to the more bureaucratie attitude of

management. It was felt that the contract was being enforced

to the letter with an unnecessary rigidity out of spite and that

management was exploiting any loopholes it could find. (Several

management personnel felt the workers had thissrne attitude to

the contract). The polarization of attitudes that developed

during the conflict lasted sorne time and many individuals on

both sides appeared to be looking for ways to re-inforce the

lf dichotorny between "us" and "thern •

( l - 51 -

A History of the Conflict: Footnotes lconfederation of National Trade Unions (confédération des Syndicats Nationaux). The choice of this Confederation was significant in terms of the cultural and political situation in Québec. The vast majority of mernber unions are Franco­ phone and the Union is associated, particularly in the minds of middle class Anglophone Quebecers, with radical socialism and the Québec separatist movement.

The selection of this particular union by the Sir George workers was considerably influenced by the distrust felt towards more traditional North ~erican unionism. TWo of the people who first suggested the CNTU had been involved in student political movements which were generally left wing and sympathetic to the cause of the workers, but also saw traditional unionism as having replaced one form of domination (by the employers) with another (by highly paid professional union executives). This distrust of Unions was mentioned also by a large number of Sir George Library workers, both union members and others. Generally, the people who took an active interest in Quebec politics and unionism were aware that the CNTU was significantly different in that it allows more autonomy to member unions, although sorne still disapproved of the CNTU involvement in "politics" meaning Provincial, national and international politics, saying it should be more concerned with working conditions.

The CNTU itself publicizes aspects of its organization which differ from traditional Anglo-North American unions, particularly the large international unions which are seen as being dominated by U.S. interests. These aspects are:

1. AlI union dues remain in canada. ·2. Properties and assets are in the name of each individual Union. 3. There are no trusteeships in the CNTU. 4. Policies are made in Canada at canadian conventions. 5. within the CNTU, each indiviàual union can disaffiliate from the organization by a simple majority vote. 6. Each union affiliated to the CNTU has its own certification with the respective provincial Labour Relations Board. 7. The CNTU stresses workers' control in management policies. (CNTU English language information releases). - 52 -

2This together with the rernarks of many employees, both workers and professionals, indicates frustration with a perceived lack of response at the higher levels to ideas for innovations. There were also specifie instances when recornmendations of supervisers in connection with hi ring and promotions were ignored.

3This might penalize people with genuine long terrn illnesses but would encourage those people who occasionally feel they sirnply need a break to predict their breaks without sacrificing any of the short vacation, and reduce the scheduling difficulties·produced by absenteeis~.

4This involved bargaining for a Union shop. It was decided they should press for the Rand Formula, \'lhich rneans that aIl employees would have to pay dues to the Union (but not to join), and that aIl new ernployees must join.

5 Some wage proposaIs had been drawn up and the Librarians thought it was very embarrassing to withhold thern as the strike approached but were not permitted to make thern public at this tirne. Several Union members expressed intense irritation about the constant reference to the Quebec budget. They claimed that the Administration was trying to escape responsibility, that the general financial strictures on universities could not justify the way the Sir George budget was administered internally, and that these problems had not prevented bargaining over wages in other universities. The wages paid to the workers at Sir George were among the lowest in the country at the time.

6Sorne o·f the members of the faction were also Union leaders because of their important roles. There were also sorne active people who agreed with sorne issues on both sides and who hoped to achieve a synthesis of the two positions. Of these, most gràdually withdrew their public support for the opposing faction as the opinions of the membership became clear. The ensuing conflict served the stated ends of the opposition faction in one sense in that it indicated who the effective leaders were. Thus for simplicity the Il''''inning li faction will be referred to as .the Union leaders.

7Infonnation Bulletin from Assistant Principal, August 27, 1971. - 53 -

8There was intially sorne feeling that this had happened because of the heavy preponderance of ~"omen in the top positions at Sir George. Later it was thought to be more likely simply a part of the wave of unionization currently taking place in many North Arnerican universities.

90n l y a few Union members supported the complete elimination of pay differentials but most thought that the gap should be reduced. The Union claimed the Administration could never quite believe this and consistently opposed the idea even though overall wage costs would remain the same.

IOSome part-time workers, most of.whom were Sir George students dependent on their earnings for"their livlihood and not eligible to join the Union, were threatened with dismissal if they did not report to work. However, of those who did join the picket lines, none later lost his job.

IIThe intimidation tactics included insulting people as they crossed the picket lines w~th both words and honking of duck horns, the posting of "scab lists" in public places and harrassing phone calls.

120nce , when the CNTU was late with the strike pay, NUSGWUE threatened ta picket the CNTU offices. If this had happened, none of the CNTU employees would have been able to cross the picket lines.

13Some of these were the same individuals who had been active in the faction discussed above.

141 am unable to account for this. Union leaders were convinced that the Administration actions were guided by the memory of the Computer Centre crisis which was specifically mentioned as the background to Administration "fear of radical movements". That series of events began with black students accusing a professor of discrimina tory marking practices and the lack of a prompt response to this accusation led to the occupation and ransacking of the Computer Centre by a large number of black students and some white sympathizers. Hm-lever, all the management level personnel responded to my queries about this as if it were quite irrelevant and one faculty member who had close contact with both Union and Administration at the time was both unaware of the situation within the Union and convînced that this was / \ - 54 -

not a factor in the Administration assessment of the conflict. He claimed there was only one member of the Sir George Administration who was especially concerned about the CNTU, which he saw as a cornrnunist organization. Tc this man the demand that aIl employees join the Union was a threat to individual rights and the possibility of serious damage to property and personnel would have provided stronger support for his case. The Union leaders were also aware that violence would probably alienate many of their supporters within the Library and in the University cornmunity as a whole. l5While picketing, one of the Coordinators got into a discussion with a student supporter who was warning him about "corrupt union bosses who sell out the workers". The Coordinator finally convinced him that this was a different situation by saying "but l AM a union boss". l6Several students in these classes reported they felt they had .learned more in those three weeks than in the whole of the rest of the year. l7Memo from SGWAUT Executive to membership, November 24, 1971. l8The georgian, November.26, 1971, p. 3.

19The georgian, November 19, 1971, p. 3.

200f these about a third were migrants from Eastern Europe. These people were strongly anti-communist, and saw the Union, especially because of its affiliation with the CNTU, as a threat to the liberties they had won by coming to Canada. Concern for the "East Europlean bloc" also motivated the SGWAUT executive's stàfice in the conflict. Chapter 3. DEVELOPMENT OF THE UNION: SOCIAL STRUCTURE OF THE LIBRARY r \

1. Background

The appointment to the position of Vice-principal

(Administration and Finance) in January 196~ of a man who

had previously been a company executive, marked the rapid

growth of the University and the emergence of a concomitant

philosophy that Sir George was becoming a large enterprise

which should be run efficiently and in accordance with business'

principles. The Library itself was expanded particularly

rapidly. A rapid turnover of staff is characteristic of

university 1ibraries and the resulting prob1ems in working

relationships were exacerbated at Sir George by this transfor-

mation of the Library from a small sca1e opera'tion where the

staff knew each other weIl and had direct access to the people

making decisions, to a more bureaucratie system where decision-

making was centra1ized and universa1istic rules replaced

dependence on face-to-face relationships (weber, 1958: 196).

This transformation took place uneven1y and management's con-

cern with providing a modern university 1ibrary service was

concentrated more on new techniques and equipment than on staff

relations. F'or example, in 1969-70 the cataloguing Departrnent

was able to reduce its staff by six, thre~ professional and - 56 -

three non-professional lias a result of completing the re­

classification of the collection, streamlining procedures

and re-assigning responsibilities" (SGWU Library, 1970:5).

Overall, the proportion of professionals was reduced and

more of the daily tasks were handled by non-professionals

while the librarians increased the time spent on administration

and planning. Complaints about having to rely on part-time

staff and shortages of full-time staff from aIl sections of

the Library, were reported (Idem.).

The Union became part of the transformation and forced

the Administration ta recognize that growth could not be achieved

at the workers' expense. Yet the unevenness of the transformation

also functioned to aid in the survival of the Union insofar as

the lag in the development of universalistic rules in working

relationships made injustice and the powerlessness of the workers

plainly visible. It also provided the support for the workers

and the lack of significant opposition to the Union from the

professional non-management librarians.

The incompleteness of the transformation to a bureaucratie

system also influenced the situation in another way. Many of the

( ~ 57 -

workers hired in the Library between 1968 and' 1970 were people who already knew other people on the staff (indeed this seerns to have given thern an advantage in gaining positions), and there were apparently no barriers to people who. might have been labelled radicals in other institutions. The core of a network of people who had cornrnon interests and social relation- ships based on ties external to the work situation, existed before the Union was established and the Union served to intensify the connectedness of these relationships. (Mitchell

1969: 17).

An explanation of the development of the conflict is necessary because of the rarity (until recently) of strike action by white collar workers in Universities, especially

Anglophone universities in Québec. Indeed the novelty of the situation and the inexperience of Sir George management personnel in industrial relations was a factor in the growth of the Union.

It is also necessary to provide additional information about the general structure of relationships in the Library to make the following discussion of sex roles rneaningful.

Dnployers do not normally weLme unions and in other comparable situations in Montreal, have taken steps to prevent their formation by taking such measures as dealing generously - 58 -

with immediate grievances and removing leaders by promoting

or firing them. In any case, a number of people both.in the

Library and on the faculty at Sir George expressed surprise

that there was no response from management to the formation

of the Union. It is true that the organizers kept their

activities secret initiallyl but it would be impossible to

recruit more than 50% of the workers without an alert manage­

ment becoming aware of what was happening.

In fact, management personnel were aware of the

development of the Union. During the development of the Union

at least two union leaders regularly discussed workers' problems

with management personnel who were also negotiators. TWo things

seem to have been happening. Firstly, these personnel were not

aware that they were getting information from Union organizers.

They held a conspiracy theory about the Union leadership and were

convinced that the Union was led by lazy malcontents (like

American draft dodgers) who would not succeed in leading collective

action because they would never gain the respect of most of the

workers. In fact none of the most important leaders at that time

was American and aIl of them were known to be competent at

their jobs. Secondly, management simply did not understand the

( basic nature of the struggle because they believed so firmly in both their own benevolence and in the moral correctness of their - 59 -

own way of doing things.

2. Non-Manaqernent Professional Librarians

The lower-ranking professional librarians aIl expressed

syrnpathy with the aims or the Union, although MOSt maintained

reservations about its tactics. In relation to management

they also felt considerable frustration and complained that it

was no longer possible to try out their own creative innovations.

While Union mernbers were Most distressed about the

failure of the professional librarians to offer them practical

support during their strllggle, the attitudes of the professionals

were significant in the success of the Union. Their youthfulness

and liberal attitudes, their inexperience in management and in

a number of cases their positive antipathy to this role, and

the breakdown of face-to-face relationships which made the

administrative aspects of their jobs more 1ifficult, were factors

which made MOSt of them initially syrnpathetic to the workers.

Tension grew between them and management as the conflict

developed.

There were two reasons for the failure of the pro­

fessionals to give active support to the Union. The first was ( their vastly superior status in the Library: they received a range of benefits denied to the workers (see Chapter 2, page 8) and - 60 -

i \ their salaries were among the highest in canada. The workers

wages ranked twenty sixth in a list of thirty universities.

The different role and superior status of the professionals

became institutionalized so that their contacts with the

workers were reduced, as the Library expanded. A few disliked

this dichotomy but most felt that their superior education

entitled them to their superior status.

This is exemplified by one case where a person who was

later to become one of the most important Union functionaries,

and was strongly in favour of the principle of unionism, refrained

from joining the Union until it was finally determined that she

was not qualified to join the professional staff.

Secondly, the professional librarians were not seen by

themselves or the Union in the early stages of its developrnent

as likely candidates for nlembership. In one section of the

Library most professionals and workers were alienated by the

tactics of a Union recruiter and many professionals throughout

the Library felt the Union had exaggerated the dichotomy between

themselves and the workers.

( - 61 -

, \ 3. Workers

Probably the most significant influence on the nature

of the Union was the fact that a large number of the non-

professional workers in the Library could be identified as

subscribing, to a greater or lesser degree, to the values,

attitudes and behaviour patterns which together have been

termed the counter culture (see Roszak, 1969). This factor

provides the basic explanation of why the factors l am about

to discuss operated in the way they did. Many of those people

who did not subscribe to counter culture values were structurally

(both in the Library, and in society generally) in an analogous

position so that many of the values which were being expresse.d

by the Union leaders held considerable appeal for them.

There were 90 library assistants on the staff at the

time when the first contra ct was signed. l interviewed 72 of

these in sorne depth with a structured but open-ended schedule

(See Appendix B), and secured similar though not as precise

data on the education, family composition, birthplace and age

of the rest from other sources.

In general (see Figure 1) the workers are young, educated,2

and come primarily from middle class backgrounds. Two thirds ( Figure 1. A11 Employees

Education Fami1y Composition Birthp1ace Have university degrees 31 Single 55 Non parents 73 1 Quebec 25 Sorne university education 36 Married 35 Parents 17 E1sewhere in Canada 14

No university education 23 Total 90 Total 90 Overseas (inc1uding u. S. ) 51

Total 90 Total 90

N \D

1 "-- - 63 -

are single and only one sixth have children. -They are mobile in several senses: less than a third corne from Quebec,_ only

20% have worked in the Library for more than two years, and most plan to move on, either by changing jobs or by travelling.

Very few are interested in -pursuing library work as a career.

Just over two thirds (62) of the workers supported the Union in its first strike, although a few of these were not actually mernbers. They ' ... ere regarded as supporters by the

Union if they could be counted on not to cross picket lines and their own categories "supporters" and "scabs" are therefore more appropriate than "mernbers" and "non-members". l asked everyone why she or he did or did not support the Union and these reasons are combined in my explanation with the other con­ straints which l saw as influential.

Of the ninety employees in the survey fifty four were women and thirty six were men. Twenty (.37%) of the women and eight (23%) of the men were scabs. There are numerous factors other than the usually assigned one of sex which produces the slightl greater tendency of men to espouse collective action in the Union.

These will be explained in the following analysis. - 64 -

i " 3.a. The Union: Ideology The most easily recognized division among Union

supporters was between the "straight" people and those

subscribing to the values of the counter culture, or the

"freaks" • (Note: this term has a very positive connotation

to the people concerned.) This division was recognized by

most of the people in the Library. The Union leaders were

careful not to ali.enate their "straight" supporters and most

of the straight people thought the Union was a radical

organization. The features of the counter culture ideology

which are pertinent here will be outlined as a prelude to an

analysis of the ways in which it effected the conflict at Sir

George. While this outline is based on rny own field research,3

a detailed description rnay be found in Roszak (1969).

The terrn counter culture was coined to describe the

values and life styles of a rnovernent which not only rejects,

but in a sense also provides a mirror image to the vision held

by its members, of white, Anglo-Saxon, Protestant, middle-class

culture. 4 The ideology of the movernent is most concerned with

the basic idea that main stream values have dehurnanized social

institutions by their stress on material weIl being. Members

( - 65 -

of the movement, while often cynically recognizing that they

must make a living and therefore be part of the system, struggle

to create a life style which is less dependent on economic

success than on activities and relationships w~ich are

satisfying in themselves rather than as a means to an end. A

rejection of modern industrial society and a desire for a

return to a simpler, more self-sufficient way of life, is

manifest in the high value placed on creativeness in any field,

but especially in those forms which enable people to reduce

their dependence on the undesirable aspects of the economic

system, and enhance the quality of life, such.as the development

of skills in a wide variety of handicrafts, cooking, especially

of health foods, organic gardening, and so on.

The ideology that l am concerned with here has been

formulated mainly by people from middle-class backgrounds who

struggle to achieve freedom by throwing off the shackles of their

middle class conditioning. There are many appropriate ways for

individuals to achieve this transformation or liberationi the

one thing which makes it possible to identify the counter culture

as a movement is the sympathy which its members ideally share

with aIl who wish to escape the constraints of the mainstream ( - 66 -

culture, in whatever area of life.

More specifically, in this situation, attitudes to politics range from a sympathy with the left wing or at least the New Left, to a d~sinterested nihilisrn which springs from the disillusionment with the entire political process, cornbined in both cases with the determined rejection of authority, whether personal or institutional. Arnong those who are more politically committed there is a general attempt to appreciate and preserve Québec culture. (Attitudes to separatism as a political issue are more cornplex and less predictable.) The nihilism and rejection of authority often contribute to the distrust of aIl institutions in which there is competition for power which is seen as corrupting whatever the ends.

A considerable number of people did adopt a more politically cornmitted stance both because of their personal experiences in the Union, and because active membership provided the opportunity to learn more about both the social and economic situation in Québec and the principles of socialist politics in general. These issues and the kind of stance which NUSGWUE as a whole should adopt on them were and are periodically discussed at general meetings. In addition the void left by the lack of commitment to more traditional goals sucà as career success and the concomitant distrust of elitism (which explains sorne of the - 67 -

antagonism to the professional librarians) often results in

a search for new kinds of socially significant activities and

a receptiveness to new forros of organization which in the past

were considered inappropriate in certain institutions. 5

The ideology also had a crucial effect on sex roles.

In general, the counter culture attempts to re-define or

elirninate ascribed roles and to approve attitudes and behaviour

which are based on personal needs and preferences. In the

Library, everyone l spoke to expressed a desire for equality

of rights for the sexes and there was an awareness, particularly

arnong rnost of the wornen, that changes in sex roles are difficult

for everyone to achieve and to deal wi th. HO".lever, the

"st.raight" people tended to be both less concerned or at least

less articulate and less about changes in sex roles and less

likely to welcome sorne of these changes, while the "counter­

culture people" felt that far-reaching changes were desirable

and could not be limi ted to one area of life Ci.• e. the dornestic

sphere). Sorne of the freak wornen said they were guided in rnost

of their decisions by the ideologies. of the wornen' s rnovernent.

None of the straight wornen said this. The men were less articulate

about sex roles and tended to think it was a woman's problern.

( - 68 -

Most Union members, both feminists and others, thought that the Union had gained a great deal through the active participation of women. This is another area in which participation in the

Union seemed to have a "liberating" effect. Many men commented appreciatively on the novelty of working with women in a political organization and said that this helped them to understand themselves better. Awareness of counter-culture ideology may have prompted them to say this to me.

The counter culture ideology influenced the internaI structure of the Union in diverse ways. In the development of leadership, the conflicts between the ideals of the leaders and the possibilities and pragmatic requirements of the situation constant.ly required resolutioni the· organization and operation of the Union also had to be made consistent with these ideals.

3.b. The Union: Leadership

The most important leaders' roles in the Union were those of the two co-ordinators (see Chapter 2, page 7), the

Departmental representatives (later called Area Grievance

Delegates) and the contract negotiators. 6 To a great extent the effectiveness of people holding any of these positions depended on their own energy, ability and something like charismatic authority (Weber, 1958: 245-248) which was gained over time - 69 -

through successfully fulfilling these roles •. It was this chararcteristic which the opposing faction (see Chapt.er 2, pages 11-12) wanted to eliminate by clearly setting out the powers and obligations of each of these positions in a more bureaucratie fashion. i. Co-ordinators. There have been three sets of elections for the co-ordinators' jobs and each time a man and a woman were elected to work together. The first two co-ordinators held their positions for nineteen months and gained a great deal of respect from the mernbership, not only because of

their ability, but also because they were almost the only

leaders who had stayed in the Library from before the time of

the establishment of the Union. They had played a leading role in the Union's success and had picked up considerable political skills. They were able to offer clear analyses in general meetings of issues under discussion, and then stand by and appear impartial while the membership took sides. One

of them, because of his position in the Library, had a large

number of contacts with the workers and assiduously tested many peoples' responses to daily events. He also maintained

communication, using a nurnber of rather innovative techniques, with the Library and University management, and continously - 70 -

relayed this information back to the mernbership.

Initially it was hoped that the role of co-ordinator

would become unnecessary and it was stipulated in the

constitution, which was not finally adopted until just before

the end of the first co-ordinators' term, that they would be

alternated every six months. Since the first two resigned

the incurnbents of these positions have changed twice. Possibly

because of this short time duration, and also because the Union

has been relatively inactive during this time so that there

has been no crisis situation to be handled any potential which

the later co-ordinators may have had to exercize effective

leadership did not emerge. While the first set worked extremely

weIl as a team, the second set was divided by sorne ideological

differences. The woman felt that the man was not very competent,

was unwilling to fulfill the responsibilities of his role and

was mainly interested in chairing general meetings. However,

her feelings about him were exacerbated by the fact that she

supported sorne of the claims of the opposing faction (see

Chapter 2, pages 11-12), and found it impossible to recruit

support for this position. The third set of co-ordinators,

very recently elected, seems willing so f~r to leave most of

{ - 71 -

; \ the work and decision-making in other peoples' hands. One

of the initial co-ordinators has now become a contra ct

negotiator and it may be that she remains the most powerful

figure in the union.

ii. Department representatives. The importance of personality

was even more significant with these positions. There have

been sorne problems in that there have been Departments where

there was no one obviously suitable for the job at one point

in time. In most cases, however, the representative was

selected not by election but through agreement in the Department

that there was one obvious and appropriate person for the job.

The bases for this "appropriateness" were sorne experience in

the Library and the ability to get on with people and to represent

their interests. Anyone who might attempt to push his own

ideological position would be inappropriate in this situation.

These roles have been evenly divided between the sexes, although

there were a couple of instances of women winning over men who

were very active in the Union probably because they were con-

sidered more able to be impartial. The opposing men were in

the faction struggle referred to previously and had shown

themselves to be so devoted to the cause of advancing socialism

that they were considered likely to ignore opposing opinions. - 72 -

iii. Contract negotiators. The first contra ct negotiators

were two men and one wornan. One of the men also led the

opposing faction and was continuously frustrated by the

failure of the Union anè its leaders to take a more

militant stance. The woman on the team probably had the

closest contacts with the mernbership'and suffered a great

deal of strain towards the end of negotiations. She was

mainly responsible for getting the Union to agree to the

contra ct at the time that it did. The third man was probably

less weIl known by the whole membership, but was greatly

respected by the leaderElhip because of his firmness vis-a-vis

management and the way in which he managed to bridge the gap

between the other two negotiators. He also became the main

public spokesman for the Union.

The second negotiating team, again consisting of

two men and one woman, has just begun its work, and so far the

indications are that these three people are better suited to

work together as a team. Observation and interviewing suggest

that the woman will emerge as the leader of the team.

iVe Committees. The effectiveness of the various committees

(dealing with mernbership, communication, ·etc.) was threatened ( - 73 -

j \ at the time the study was carried out by the .lack of

sanctions which could be brought into effect if these

committees did not fulfill their assigned responsibilities. 7

This lack of sanctions W.:lS intentiona,l - the leaders had tended

to <10 "''lny t\\flks thc",sehTe~ when other people failed to

!l" Il''''111 • ('1'11 in Wilfl il fJOU.r.CC of frustration for aIl the

co-ordinators.) One of the original co-ordinators remarked

that the most important aspect of the Union was the voluntary

sharing of tasks and that it was vital to leave these

responsibilities decentralized. The leaders would not maintain

their interest if·they felt anyone had to be coerced into

giving this kind of support. The work of the committees was

more vital in the development of the Union and its constitution

and it was here that a large part of the ideology of the Union

was thrashed out. There were also sorne verycommitted people

working on these.committees, who were completely disinterested

and sometimes personally unsuited to th~ more public roles

discussed above. After the first year there was a slight

preponderance of women serving on the committees.

3.c. Organization of the Library

The Library is divided into the Librarian's office

(with 100% solidarity among the workers who were aIl secretaries), - 74 -

and two sections, Technical services and Public services.

Technical services is further divided into two Departments

(Cataloguing and Acquisitions and a Subsection, SeriaIs).

Public services includes Circulation (and the Stacks),

Reference and Government Documents (see Chart l, page 75)

Orientation, and the Science and Engineering Library.

The formaI Library structure, until the first

contract was signed, divided the workers into a hierarchy of

five ranks. pay scales,required qualifications, experience

and responsibilities increased markedly in the upper ranks.

The supervisers were in the top rank and most of the workers

in the next rank down undertook sorne supervisory tasks. The

secretaries were also in the two top ranks.

The influence of these factors in relation to Union

support was second only to that of the counter culture.

Analysis of these factors is presented here to aid in understanding

the more detailed examination of roles within the Union presented

below.

( Chart 1. Organization

1 Principal Vice-Principal r -- Vice-principa Administration and Academie Finance

1 University Librarian's \ Office

1

Technical Services Public Services Section l Section 1

1 l I.f) 1 J 1 r- Acquisitions cataloguing Reference Circulation I Science and Orientation Department Department Department Department Engineering Lib

SeriaIs 1 1 Government 1 ~CkS Documents 1 1 1

.... ,..J '- Figure 2. Supporters and Scabs by Departrnent (See Chart 1)

t:iUl'l'U1{'l',taUj t:iL:A..tSt:i 'l'U'l'AL .1:1\1 -Ut:PKRTMENT-

Female Male Total Female Male Total Female Male Total Technical Services 15 9' 24 12 3 15 27 12 39

Public Services Circulation 7 2 9 6 - 6 13 2 15 Stack~ - 3 3 - 3 3 - 6 6 Reference (incl. Government Doc- uments 6 7 13 - 2 . 2 6 8 15 Orientation - 1 1 - - - - 1 1 Science and Engineering 4 7 Il 2 - 2 6 7 13 Library

\.D Universi ty Librarian 1 s . 1""- Office 2 - 2 - - - 2 - 2 54 36 90

--_._-- - _. ------~--- - 77 -

i. NETWORKS

Technical Services

The most significant division in terms of Union

support was between T.S. and the reste There were thirty

nine workers in this section of whom fifteen were scabs.

Twenty seven of the workers were women and twelve of the

women were scabs. It is believed that greater skills are

required to work here and of aIl the people who have worked

in the Library for over two years, 70%work in this section.

Further, 70% of the workers in T.S. were in the two top ranks

while the overall figure was only 40%. Length of employment

l'\'~l' ~ y~,\\:~ Wln"O sCùbs) but in 'l'.S. it was.54% of the long-

. . . t .. (,~.-i'l·, p.mF~:!~!"i"l-.~ ""~:'''t ~~ë/'t~~. ':1',::ir .~".~~( :.~". \~7:'.:-:·t~: ... ~ :!~:i:.~ -.:~

of management it is significant that most of the supervisers

and several rather conservative people in this section who were

weIl established in their jobs and were familiar with Library

management policies were very solid Union supporters.

There were other factors influencing scabbing in this

section. cataloguing skills, for instance require attention to ( detail and unquestioning acceptance of rules so that strong - 78 -

individuals rarely do weIl at it. 8

union organizers placed part of the blame on the

person who had done the initial PR work for the Union in

this section: one of them called him a radical fascist. In

the situation which required the most sensitive handling in

the Library, it seems a considerable number of people were

permanently alienated by his bullying tactics.

Public Services

circulation. This was the Department in which there

was most discontent. There was very rapid turnover of both

Department Head (who was the only professional in this Depart-

ment), and the workers. Most new employees worked here and many

of the tasks, such as checking off returned books, are routine

and unskilled. In addition, people are required to work evenings

and weekends and scheduling problems continuously provided a

source of conflict. This Department was thought of by the Union

leaders as being the most solid - since there was a generally

very militant pro-Union feeling here, and initially 100% belonged

to the Union. Situational factors explain the falling off of

this solidarity by the time of the strike.

/ Of the fifteen workers, six were scabs and aIl female. \ These included two supervisers who opposed the Union's stance on

reducing pay differentials and who resigned just before the strike. - 79 -

l , . They took with them another woman, a mother who was contributing

to the cost of sending her children to University, who had been

ill, had had a great deal of trouble finding a job and was

terrified of loosing this one. She also worked in the

periodicals roorn which meant she did not have to face the

hostile ranks on the Circulation Desk every day. AIso, the

original secretary to the head of the section was accused of

releasing confidential material to the Union. Her bid for power

within the Union also failed and she resigned from the Library.

Naturally she was replaced by someone who could be trusted by

management. This secretëlry was good friends with the secretary of

the Department head. They supported each other and never had

to maintain working relationships with the other workers. One

of them had earlier supported the Union, but was warned by her

father who helped her financially, that he would not support her

if she went out on strike. The one low ranking scab was supporting

an unemployed husband and Child. There were other extenuating

circumstances so people understood her. position and did not harrass

her at aIl.

Stacks. This is regarded as being a good place to work

Cafter the anomalous part-time/full-time ~ositions were eliminated

and an authoritarian superviser left). Bach person has ( - 80 -

responsibility for shelving in a particular area and thus works

independently and free of supervision by a professional,

especially when compared with the over-crowded Circulation Desk.

Three of the seven full-time workers, including the superviser,

were scabs, and aIl were male. They aIl said they did not like

the Union as an organization (or Unions in general) and did

not want to loose any pay. The superviser, who got the job

because of his anti-Union stance was probably instrumental in

turning the newest employees against the Union. They sa id it

was infiltrated by "political people" and "women's libbers".

A fourth new employee joined reluctantly. He disapproved of

Unions and strikes in general. He thought working conditions

were O.K. (but was too new to understand the Union's role in

achieving this) and probably joined only to avoid being heckled

by the "women's libbers" whom he said dominated the Union and

with whom he had daily contact. (These people, of whom the

superviser was definitely a "freak" provide a good example of

the attitudes of the a-political part of the counter culture.

(See page 66 ) •

The one newer workeL who became solidly pro-Union,

was the messenger who had considerable opportunity to observe

what was going on outside the little haven of the stacks. He ( - 81 -

also said he didn't want to be left to do aIl the work in the stacks while the Union members were out on their s~udy sessions.

He seerns also to have established stronger ties with the pro-Union people in the stacks, than with the superviser. The remaining two who also did supervisory work, had been in the stacks in the bad old days and had been part of the first group which had organized the Union.

Reference and Governrnent Documents. In this Department there were seven men and six wornen, and three of the men and one woman were very active in the Union. BotCl of the two scabs were men. The strength of the Union activists in the Department is demonstrated by their having persuaded a new member, who had previously been in Technical Services, opposed to the Union and romantically linked with one of the scabs, to join the Union.

He was solid even though he disapproved of the treatment of scabs, of the Union's political stance, and became friends with another (See page 96) reluctant member in the Department,/a French canadian woman. One of the scabs was a superviser who was still on probation during the strike, and was very worried abou~ :~v5ing his job. (In spite of his skepticism about Unions, he has recently become a member.) The other was a deserter from the U.S. 9 He was denounced as a male chauvinist by Union leaders, and this would - 82 -

have made even a freak an unsui table candidate·.

Science and Engineering Library. This was seen as a

weIl run Department which was also regarded as a good place to

work. Most of the people here had started in Circulation or

the Stacks and felt a great deal of syrnpathy with the problems

there. There were only two scabs, neither of whorn had worked

elsewhere. The Head of the Department said that as a member of

management she had to support the Administration uncompromisingly,

and this may have influenced her secretary who was also supporting

her student husband and was reputedly from a wealthy family

in Barbados, in her decision against ~he Union. The other scab

was the most believable of aIl the people who said they were

opposed to strikes. She had had professional training in Britain,

and saw her close contacts with faculty and students as the only

satisfying aspect of her job. She was extrernely resentful about

her non professional status and lack of recognition of her

abilities. She mentioned graduate students as the group who would

suffer most if the Library were closed.

ii. RANK AND POSIT~ON

The role of the thirteen supervisers, with their high

status, merits separate consideration. Supervisers were only ( - 83 -

slightly less likely to be Union supporters than people at

lower ranks. 62% of these supported the Union compared with

77.9% of the people at lower ranks.

The supervisers were responsible for bridging the gap

between the professionals and the workers and yet had little

power to go with their responsibility. Their recornrnendations were

frequently ignored. Several of the supervisers felt they were

required to do work similar or superior in skill to the tasks of

the professionals but never got sufficient credit for it. From

one point of view it might be surprising that so many of them

supported the Union, considering their relatively high pay and

closer ties with the professionals, but there was a special

strain on them imposed by the Library structure and their close

contact with the workers aroused in them a great deal of

syrnpathy with the people in the lower ranks. A significant factor

in determining whether the supervisers would support the Union

was the security of their positions. Of the five scabs, three

were underqualified for their jobs. The twootherswere the ones

who opposed the Union's stance on reducing pay differentials.

The fact that a slightly greater proportion of the women

supervisers supported the Union than men could be used to argue ( - 84 -

tha t the women were more likely to put the int.erests cf their

juniors first. The women supervisers did express their concern

for the lowest paid people while with the men this was not

explicitly stated. However, the male supervisers who scabbed

were both new on the staff and their anti-Union stance was

instrumental for them in getting their jobs since they were

both under-qualified for them. The underqualified woman was

unpopular as a superviser and her only ftiend in the Library

was her supervising librarian. It was unlikely she could lave

got a comparable job elsewhere which probably made her nervous

about the Union (especially since she was in Technical Services).

More men than women were employed at the lowest rank and

more men were employed at a lower rank than their qualifications

entitled them to expect. This may have added to masculine dis­

content and contributed to their greater support of the Union.

Four of the six secretaries were also in the top rank

and only 57% (4/7) of the secretaries supported the Union. How-

ever the close tie between management personnel and their secretaries

which l expected to be influential here was clearly operative in

only one case. The particular constraints operating on them has

already been dealt with in the section on Departments.

( - 85 -

3.d. Union SUPEorters

In order to understand the constraints operating on and the motives of the Union supporters l have separated tl·~m into several categories. They were divided first into active

(if they attended general meetings and/or took jobs on committees or as departmental representatives) and inactive.

Each of these was subdivided, mainly on the basis of reasons given by individuals for supporting the Union, into two sub­ divisions: the active people were freaks or straight and the inactive ones were solid, which meant that they could be counted on, without question not to cross picket lines (and often to join the lines) and not to inforrn on Union activitYi lO or reluctant. i. Active Freaks

There were twenty nine people (46.7% of the supporters) in this group. 87.8% of the active people were freaks. To these people the question "why did you join the Union?" was difficult insofar as to most of them it was automatic and self-evident.

They gave such answers as "I was born a radical" and "I am aware".

A few did mention working conditions but spoke about these in relation to the whole group. Only one said "self-interest".

The other criteria used in classifying individuals into this category, in addition to strong support of the Union,ll were - 86 -

} , network ties and attitudes and correlated behaviour (see pages

65-68).12 Nearly aIl the freaks had considerable social contact

with each other outside the work situation. This social network

served to incorpora te new employees who were freaks and led

in a number of cases to consolidation of leanings towards the

counter culture as a system of ideas. Changes in pOlitical

attitudes, particularly in the direction of becoming more in

favour of Unionism, as a principle, at least within Quebec,

were particularly noticeable.

ii. Other Active People

AlI of these four people gave working conditions as

their major reason for joining the Union. The major difference

between them and their younger freak colleagues, was that while

they shared a general interest in social change and felt it

desirable that the lower strata in society should have more

control over the decisions that effect them, they did not share

the idealism of the freaks. They probably never believed the

Union would establish a Utopia within the Library but were con-

cerned about improving working conditions for aIl. None was in

a position to make much direct material gain for herself or

himself. (Three had high rank, the fourth had a degree in labour

economics.) ( - 87 -

\ iii. Solid

This category (twenty four people) included most of

those who were politically more conservative but who became

aware of and resented the way in which the Administration

handled the conflict. Only ·four people in this group mentioned

their interests in social change as being part of the reason

for their support. Two of them were too busy (the woman with

her family, the man with his studies) to take active roles and

two were ideologically disinterested (the man basically was

disgruntled because the Union was not militant enough, the

woman was involved in black politics which was more important

to her). These people had the most to gain personally from

supporting the Union as mo~t of them were in the lower ranks

and sorne also mentioned being friends with Union members and

wanting to be part of that group as reasons for joining.

iv; Reluctant Supporters

These five people said they supported the Union largely

because of the pressure exerted on them by friends and colleagues

but did not believe that it had gained much (especially by

comparison with the original aims) and disliked both its internaI

dynamics and its stance vis-a-vis the Administration.

( - 88 -

General Characteristics of Supporters (see figures 3-5)

The active freaks and the solid people have several characteristics in common. They are close to each other in age and a majority of them have sorne university education.

Note that the only two categ·ories in which more pF.!ople have completed university degrees are the women freaks and the reluctant men (one of whom was from England). Of the three reluctant women, two were very young, two came from national backgrounds which were not associated with pro-Union attitudes

(see pages 95-96) and one was a secretary (see page 84). Note also that while the active non-freaks had less university education today apparently contributes to th~ critical' attitudes held by freaks), their age and experience seems to have encouraged them to support the Union.

Only 20% of the freaks (compared wi th 38% overall) wer.e married and only one person had children (3.4% compared with

18.8% overall) and this was a man. For women marriage and parent­ hood alone was not a determining variable in Union support.

However these data suggest that single marital and non-parental statuses may be correlated with the adoption of counter culture attitudes. A number of single women between the ages of 25 and 30 felt they had never had any real choice in the question of whether - 89 -

1 \ to become mothers. "The system" operates in such a way that

choosing motherhood would involve sacrificing a large nurnber

of other freedoms (including, perhaps, the freedom not to be

married). Note that in aIl other categories ma~ried women

outnurnber single women (except the reluctant, where youth was

the deter.mining factor) and the proportions of married women

are greater than the proportions of married men.

3~eo Scabs

My data on the twenty eight scabs, is rather weak. 13

l have sorne survey data on alLof them and did interview twelve.

However, sorne conclusions about group dynamics can be drawn from

the interviews, from information from other people and from an

examination of the constraints operating.

Sorne common reasons for opposing the Union were shared

by those interviewed. Most did not want to loose their wages, but

only one mentioned this as a primary reason.14 Half of the twelve

disapproved of the internaI organization, tactics and pOlicies

of the Union. They saw the leaders as manipula tors and the

followers as being motivated by selfish personal interests. One

person invented a slogan in response to the Union's valued

"collective action", which he called "collective unconscious".

Another objected strenuously to the slogan "if you 'ore not with us,

you " re against us". Only one (though there were probably more " 1---- \

Figure 3. Supportersi Average Age. ACTIVE INACTIVE Freaks Non-Freaks Solid Re1uctant F M Both F M Both F M Both F M Both 25 27 26 34 29 30 28.8 26 28 22 22 22

Figure 4. Supportersi Education. ACTIVE INACTIVE Freaks Non-Freaks Solid Re1uctant F M T F M T F M T F M T

Have University Degrees 8 1 9 - 1 1 5 4 9 1 2 3 Sorne University Education 4 13 17 - 1 1 8 3 Il 2 - 2 No University Education 2 1 3 1 1 2 3 l 4 - - - Total 14 15 29 1 3 4 16 8 24 3 2 ------5

Figure 5. Supportersi Fami1y Composition

A .VI'; T 1.1n ('WTI VE Freaks Non-Freaks Solid Re1uctant ., F M T F M T F M T F M T Single Il 13 24 - 1 1 7 6 13 2 2 4 Married 3 2 5 1 2 3 9 2 Il 1 - 1

Total 14 15 29 1 3 4 16 8 24 3 2 5 Parents 1 1 - 1 1 5 1 6 - - -

Non-parents 14 14 28 1 2 3 Il 7 18 3 2 5

Total 14 15 29 1 3 4 . 16 8 24 3 2 5 ~ ------91 -

1 , in Technical Services) positively supported management policy.

The rest felt they had been mistreated but thought that

a different method of group or personal bargaining would be

better. Sorne probably believed the Union would fail. Those

who expected to be rewarded by management for their loyalty

during the strike were disappointed and the possibility of

personal bargaining was effectively eliminated by the Union.

Disapproval of strike action was a strong factor,

and three members withdrew from the Union after the full-strike

vote was taken. Most of those who disapproved strongly of

strike action,had aspirations to a professional career in

librarianship and thought that strikes were inconsistent with

the professional service ethic. TWo stressed their responsibility

to the clients of the Library while they disclaimed any feeling

of loyalty to their employers.

Almost aIl of the scabs disapproved of the CNTU (as did

many supporters). They felt Unions should be concerned only with

working conditions and saw the CNTU's activities in Quebec politics

as meddling. This probably stems fram the fear of its Quebec

nationalist and separatist reputatian and ta a lesser extent its

( - 92 -

1 \ socialist orientation and from ignorance about- the meddling

of other federations which are less vocal in the media. One

person resented the fact that the membership had never had

any choice in the selection of the federation. (It should be

noted that none of the supporters who opposed the CNTU really

recognized that it might be possible to organize this

opposition in order to disaffiliate from the CNTU. They accepted

the affiliation as a given and tended to be reticent and to feel

powerless in general union meetings.)

Sex wasinsignificant as a cause of the slightly greater

proportion of women scabs. The factors Wl1ich show this will now

be discussed.

This was the most important variable operating on both

sexes. The average age of supporters was 27 and scabs 33.5.

Figure 6. Supporters and Scabs: Comparison of Ages

35 + over 22 - 33r4 22 and less F M T F M T F M T Supporters 3 2 6.5% 26 23 40 80.5% 5 3 8 13%

Scabs 7 3 )1: 36% 8 3 Il 39% 5 2 7 25%

F=female M=male T=total - 93 -

This figure indicates that the bulk of the supporters

were between the ages of twenty three and thirty three.while

61% of the scabs were either younger or older. Since older

people were more likely to be scabs and a greater proportion

of the women employed were over 33.5, this supports my argument

that it is the counter culture ideology rather than sex which

was dominant in determining attitudes towards the Union.

Of the two older men who were supporters, one was from

a working class background and has always been a socialist. The

other was preoccupied with writing and publishing fiction and

hoped eventually to make his living from it. Of the older women,

two worked in Reference where group pressure was successful in

producing 100% solidarity and the other was a superviser in

Technical Services who had worked in the Library for six years

and was weIl acquainted with and bitter about the changes which

had occurred. Only two of the older people were at aIl active in

the Union, indicating that it was difficult for the Union to

overcome the generation gap and successfully incorporate older people.

There was also a slightly less marked tendency for the

very young people to be scabs. Figure 6 does not show that most

of the younger people who were supporters were reluctantly so. ( - 94 -

The general attitudes of these people particularly in relation

to politics were closer to the middle-class norme Sorne of them

were as suspicious of the system as the freaks but had not had

to work in it long enough to overcome their distrust of unions.

iii. Education and Birthplace.

My contention that counter culture attitudes tend to

be encouraged by university education (see page 88) is supported

by the comparison of levels of education of scabs and supporters.

Figure 7. Supporters and Scabs: Educatio~

Supporters 1 Scabs F M T F M T Degrees 14 8 22 538

Sorne University Education 13 17 30 6 2 8

No University 7 3 10 9 3 12 Education

Total =3~4 ___=28=-~6=2~~ __~2~0 __ ~8 __ =2=8

The supporters had considerably more education than the

scabs. Twelve of the twenty eight scabs (42.9%) had no university

education while only ten of the sixtY two supporters .(16.1%) fell

in this category. Of those with university education the scabs

were more likely to have completed their degrees. Arnong the

supporters it was the men who tended to bethe dropouts, possibly

( - 95 - \

indicating their greater dissatisfaction with the system.

Of aIl the women, sixteen (of fifty four, 29.8%) compared

with only six of the thirty six men (19.1%) had no university

education. The fact that the women without university

education were more likely to be scabs than the men, may

indicate that the men expect greater rewards with fewer

qualifications. 16

Figure 8. Supporters and Scabs~ Birthplace

Supporters Scabs F M T F M T Quebec 12 4 16 459

Other canadian Provinces 4 6 10 3 1 4

Overseas 18 18 36 13 2 15

Total 34 28 62 20 8 28

The supporters were a little more geographically mobile,

with 24% (compared with 32% of the scabs) coming from Quebec.

These figures are more significant when examined together with

other factors, such as education and position in the Library, which

modified the influence of national background.

People who migrated to canada as adults from particular

parts of the world tended to be more politicaily conservative, as - 96 -

.~ - were French canadians. 17 These areas were developing countries

in Asia and the West Indies, Eastern Europe and Englan~.18 The

influence of national origin was confused by the fact that among

the scabs most of the people from these areas were also older,

less educated and holding particular positions (see section

3.c,ii). However, people of these origins who had no university

education tended to be politically conservative and distrustful

of the Union and its "counter cultural ll aims and methods. The

Department worked in (see section 3.c) was highly significant

in overcoming this influence. In Technical Services aIl but

four of the scabs came from one of these areas of the world

and of the supporters only one. She was persuaded not to cross

the picket lines by her boyfriend. 19 Ten of the fourteen scabs

ll in this section were also female so "female bonding , or sex

influencing association, may have been an additional factor, but

not the determining one. t'our of the scabs from these areas had

university education and were under thirty. There was only one

young man from one of these areas, who had no university

education. He worked in Technical Services and did support the

Union. In other sections the only people from these areas who

scabbed were ones who also had little education and held positions

(see section 3.c), which enabled them to ignore group pressure. ( - 97 -

iv. Family Composition

The figures on family composition also suppor~ my

contention that age was the most important factor in Union

support, though family composition was important in that

single and non-parent status was correlated with counter

culture attitudes (see page 88).

Figure_9. Supporters and Scabs; Fami1y Composition

Supporters Scabs F M T F M T Single 20 23 43 8 5 13

Married· 14 5 19 12 3 15

Total 34 28 62 20 8 28

Parents 5 3 8 7 2 9

Non-Parents 29 25 54 13 6 19

Total 34 28 62 20 8 28

A larger proportion of married women (12 of 26, 45%) were

scabs than of married men (3 of 9, 33%). However, this is explained

by the larger number of married women employed and the fact that

the male scabs belonged to two categories; the older married men and

a group of young single men in one department (the Stacks, see

section 3.c). Being married by itself did not make women less

likely to support the Union, although married women were less likely

to take active roles. Of the eighteen married women under 35, ( - 98 -

six of them (one third) were scabs - the same as the proportion

of scabs in the whole sample. However this was an even. less

important factor with young married men. Only one of six was a

scab.

In relation to parenthood it is difficult to generalize

because of the small nurnbers involved (five fathers, eleven

mothers). Seven of the mothers had young children (12 and under)

and five of these supported the Union. These five had husbands

with secure incomes and while none of them was active in the

Union because of lack of time and in most cases because of their

disapproval of the CNTU, their roles as mothers did not prevent

them supporting the strike. Of the two mothers with young

children who were scabs one was single and supporting both her

child and her mother. The other was supporting her husband.

Another interesting feature which may be relevant here

is that a higher proportion of the young men (under 35) in the

whole sample, were married (sixteen of thirty one, 51%. Women:

eighteen of forty six, 39%). Four of the young people were fathers

(12.5% of the men) and four were mothers (8.6% of the women).

Very few of the younger non-mothers had definite plans for

children. Nor did the younger married women plan to give up work ( - 99 -

, \, if they did have families. These data support" my hypothesis

that young middle-class working women are now less lik~ly to

be looking to their domestic situation as the main source of

satisfaction in life and are therefore becoming more concerned

with taking control of and changing their working relationships.

3.f. Surnrnary

What l have tried to do in this analysis, is to sketch

in the constraints which seem operative in the various roles which

l have identified. The main reason for choosing Barth's model

was to find out how the constraints operat:ed on each sex. l

think l have shown that the significant ones had little realtion

to sex roles.

l have not followed Barth's advice in that l have not

used the transaction as the unit of analysis (which he doesn't

either in his examples), mainly because it seems to me that it

would be labouring points already made, to identify the prestations

being exchanged between the various categories. However it may

be of sorne value to outline what l see as the valued goods and

services that the different groups were trying to gain or maximise.

1. Freaks. For these people the main satisfaction was in gaining

power through collective action. For several the experience of

( collective action itself was the most important end though aIl - 100 -

believed at least sorne peoples' working conditions needed irnproving.

Their own roles in the Union changed their attitude that winning power from the bureaucra~x is necessarily corrupting. They moved from the a-political to the cœnmitted part of the ideology.

2. Active and Solide With"both these categories, changing working conditions was the main value. Power may also have been

a value but was not mentioned. High ranking people were probably

also concerned to increase their own power vis-a-vis the

professionals. It was also in the interests of the lower ranking

people for this to happen - sin ce they could usually influence

the decisions of their non-professional supervisers more easily

than those of people higher up. Supervisers did gain power as a

result of the strike. Scab supervisers found themselves in an

almost impossible position because of the resentment against thern

and only one remains. Low ranking people wanted and got

significant improvements in working conditions and improved

access to the power structure.

3. Reluctant. Most of" these were not very distressed about con­

ditions, but had to maintain working relationships with Union mem­

bers. The Union demonstrated that it could improve working con­

ditions and would at least be able to protect them from any

possible punitive measures. - 101 -

3. Scabs: Older. Most of these, having worked under very much

worse conditions in the past were fairly satisfied with their

bargain with the employer. They saw the Union as threatening

their hard won gains.

Younger. Sorne of these, like the older people, probably had

gained more (e.g. promotions) through supporting management,

than most of their colleagues could. Others were extremely

dissatisfied with the treatment they had received, but seemed

to believe that they were more deserving 1:han the malcontents

who supported the Union. They may have believed the Union would

fail, and that management would then redress the balance.

Several scabs, recognizing that they assessed the constraints

incorrectly are now changing sides.

It is on the basis of the cornmon value among the workers

of improving conditions and gaining sorne control over the decisions

which effect them, and the proven effectiveness of the Union as a

bargaining group as an incentive, that l would predict greater

support for the Union in its next confrontation. The unknown

factor is the role of the new employees who may see the constraints

differently. However, it may be possible to test the predictive

power of Barth's model in this way.

( - 102 -

In spite of the developrnent of the Union being a novel experience to almost aIl of the people in the situation, most responded in a way that was consistent with their value orientations rather than objectively sizing up the constraints.

Only a few did not make predictable choices and the changing constraints of the situation in the Library before the Union contributed to their choices. This did not seem to make an appreciable difference to their values - they still kept aIl their ifs and buts about the Union in their heads. Most of the scabs had reservations about management as did about half the Union membership with their own leaders. The most noticable changes did seem to come about in the leadership as they modified their tactics in relation to the pragmatic requirements of the situation but it was their assessment of the situation, more than their ideals (except in the direction of increasing complexity), which changed.

There were sorne people who did seem to be more clearly guided only by their interest in maxirnizing in a pragmatic way.

These were the reluctant supporters and the scabs who resigned from the Union because of disagreement with its policy and because of their probable belief that it would fail. These were - 103 -

the fence sitters who did not seem to care about the long

term political implications of taking either si de and ·there­

fore used their own assessments of what they could gain as

individuals in making the choice. The others were more

clearly on one side of the other. This is explainable only

in terrns of the kinds of values which they brought with them

into the situation. l do not mean to say that the others did

not do this, simply that the others assessed the situation

and what they could gain more in terms of a weIl established

value system. Those scabs who have changed sides show no

signs of changing their values by becoming really involved in

Union activities yet.

4. Conclusion

The conclusion of this chapter returns to the question

raised at the beginning: what were the factors which allowed this

conflict to escalate to a strike? Havin~ examined the structure

of relations among the workers it remains to show how this influenced

the process of the conflict as described in Chapter 2.

The survival and success of the Union is attributable

both to the inability of management to understand the situation

( - 104 -

, \ and to the high proportion of able and articulate non-professional

workers who happened to be employed at the same time, who were

seen by both management and workers as being capable in their

jobs, and who put an enormO\~ s amount of time, energy and

organizing ability at the disposaI of the organization.

The counter culture ideology influenced the ways in

which the Union demands were formulated and expressed and

provided a handicap to communication between the Union and the

whole institutional framework with which Unions norrnally have

to deal, in this case, the CNTU, the Library and University

management personnel and government agencies concerned with

conciliation and arbitration. No one was quite prepared f_ ...· an

organization which attached as much or more importance to issues such

as dress policy (and its abolition) as to job security or wage

increases. Contract negotiations floundered over sorne fairly

minor issues largely because of the inability of management to

accept anything which they refused to see as relevant and which

also impinged on their traditional rights.

The government conciliator was often unable to deal

with this situation and was particularly irritated with the

failure of the management negotiations team to follow his advice ( on strategy and of the leader of the team to take a firmer stance vis-a-vis the CNTU technical adviser. It was reported to me by - 105 -

one of the management negotiators that the conçiliator said

he hoped he would never again have to deal with a dispute in

the public service sector. Several negotiators from both

Union and management, mentioned the incompetence of the

leader of the management tea~, manifest both in his often

apparent ignorance of issues under discussion and in his desire

to be a "nice guy". While management may not have been fully

aware of this factor, this man's presence on the team reinforced

the feeling of the Union leaders that they were not being taken

seriously and increased their antagonisrn to what they saw as

paternalistic benevolence on the part of the Administration.

There were potential problems for the Union in dealing

with the CNTU where there was sorne doubt about whether a union

could function effectively with the kind of structure which

NUSGWUE had. However, this handicap was minirnized by the

competence and open attitude of the technical adviser assigned by

the CNTU to NUSGWUE for its first contract negotiations and by

the democratic structure of the CNTU \olhich is based on i ts

proclaimed policy of helping to establish worker's control. This

allows mernber Unions to disaffiliate by a simple majcrity vote

and made the organization less antipathetic to NUSGWUE's insistence

on its right to determine its own internaI structure than many ( other federations would have been. - 106 - NUSGWU is the first Eng1ish University union to affiliate

with the CNTU and is seen as having potential because of its dém­

ocratie structure and the effectiveness of this. It may also be

seen as heralding more general changes in this sector.

While the management negotiating team blamed the

CNTU adviser for adding to the confusion by preventing the

Union negotiators from speaking and leading them to take a

more militant stance than they would have done without his

guidance, a different interpretation of his role is possible.

Certainly Union negotiators expressed a great deal of

gratitude to him and recognized the significance of his role,

but the management impression that he domÏ.nated them is

incorrect. There was heated debate between him and Union

leaders on many issues, but the areas in which his advice was

followed were largely restricted to strategy and legal matters.

The one policy area which he stressed and in which he probably

influenced the entire membership, but particularly the leaders,

who saw little necessity for tbese measures at first, was the

significance of issues related to the survival of the Union.

The most outstanding of these were the Union shop, and "promotion

by seniority". without the latter, victimization of Union leaders

would have been possible. That this was not an unrealistic concern

was later demonstrated by a grievance over the unfavourable

evaluation received by one of the negotiators (it was said her

( work had suffered because of her absence from the Departrnent where - 107 -

she worked due to Union activities: she had previ~usly

received glowing reports) in the year following the signing

of the first contract.

Thus the role of the technical adviser was to help

Union negotiators deal realistically with the institutional

frarnework within which they had to operate. The Union was

forced to becorne aware of and accept the fact that it was

involved in a power struggle and this contributed to sorne

bureaucritization of the organization. At the same time,

the Union showed the CNTU that it could function with its

loose structure and leaders stressed the two-way learning

process in the relationship with their technical adviser.

To surnmarize, the growth of the Library led to a number

of problerns in staff relationships. A large gap both in working

relationships and status developed between professional

librarians and non professional workers. " While rnany of the

professionals did not see their careers as totally satisfying,

the rewards in terms of status, job satisfaction and pay were

sufficient to contribute to this gap and to define the implications

of their professional status so that they would not commit them­

selves to supporting the Union. The situation was exacerbated by

( the extrernely difficult role of the non-professional supervisers - 108 -

who were weIl paid but who had to implement policy decisions

without influencing these decisions and whose advice in

relation to staff problems was often ignored, and finally by

plain injustice. The Union was developed as a reaction to

these problems, and if it has not dealt with aIl of them

successfully, it has provided an effective vehicle for

expression of the interests of what was formerly the weakest

stratum in the Library.

( - 109 -

THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE UNION: SOCIAL STRUCTURE OF THE LIBRARY

Footnotes. lThis secrecy provided the basis for irritation and SUsplclon among quite a number of workers, both members and non members many of whom mentioned that they had had no choice, for example, in which federation of unions they would join. It was regretted by one of th.e leaders who felt that continuing identification with the Union would have been stronger and more widespread if more people had been involved in organizing tasks at the beginning.

20f the 25% who have no university education, several of the women have post high school training either as secretaries or in librarianship: it should be noted that in the countries where this training was received, professional education for librarianship is not conducted within universities. This made these people ineligible for professional work in canada.

3I t should be made clear that this concept of the counter culture is an ideal type with aIl of its associated limitations. It encompasses a phenomenon which provides the problems typical of those which beset social scientists because of the difficulty of classifying and labelling complex cultural phenomena. One of the most vivid fieldwork experiences was the forcefulness with which each individual's unique personality and cognitive organization came across.

4I attempted to correlate class background with attitudes to the Union and with subcription to counter culture ideals. A clue to class membership of informants was provided only by survey data on parents' and spouse's occupation. There were only 15 who could be classified in this way as coming from working class backgrounds, but htese same people are classifiable as middle class on several other criteria. The·se was no cross-the-board difference in the attitudes of these people either towards the Union or in general, that was easily discernible.

5This may weIl be a factor in the current wave of unionization in white collar occupations throughout North America.

6The positions of contract negotiators only exist when a contra ct is being negotiated. In fact, this has been happening during most of the Union's history. - 110 -

7This was a larger problem when the study was being conducted than at any time before or since. My ability to investigate the activities of the committees was severely handicapped by the fact that field research was carried out in the sUmmer when many of the original committee members had left and when it was predictable, with the first contract in operation, that concern about the Union would be at a low level.

8 In my experience professional cataloguers tend to be authoritarian in the application of both cataloguing and disciplinary rules. My informants said the head cataloguer was extremely unpopular. The head of T.S. was also an ex-cataloguer.

9Arnericans were blamed by sorne members of management for starting the Union. This is incorrect: there were very few of them, and none gained much power in the Union before the first contra ct was signed.

l2:ome of these never joined the Union, mainly for ideological reasonSi e.g. several Jewish people believed the CNTU and Quebec nationalism generally to have an anti-semitic flavour.

llTwO of the people who could be .called freaks fell into the solid category and three of the scabs were freaks of the a-political kind.

l2There is an obvious subjective element here. One of the most obvious popular criteria used to label people is presentation of self (Goffman, 1959), dress, hairstyle, etc. A number of people who migilt have been included on these grounds were eliminated on the vasis of their IIstraightll attitudes to politics (especially towards the "radicals ll who ran the Union), sex roles and life styles.

l3The interviewing situation was usually rather tense and only four of the twelve interviews were really adequate. In addition l was not permitted into Technical Services where fifteen of the scabs worked. Two of the four adequate interviews were obtained from scabs in Technical Services but the information they gave was about their own roles more than group dynamics.

l4supporters saw the scabs as being motivated largely by financial considerations. In a few cases at least,I believe these considerations were subsidiary. \. - III - lSThe CNTU was chosen by the small group of people (see Chapter 2) who first thought of starting the Union. It was never raised later by anyone as an issue for discussion. l6possibly the women without University education felt they were doing as weIl as they could expect from the system and therefore did not expect to benefit from the Union. Until recently many middly-class women believed they could only expect rewards from the system if they worked hard and made su~e they had better than average qualifications. This disappointed expectation may prodused the greater tendan"cy of older educated women (compared with men) and those holding jobs as supervisers, to support the Union.

17My research indicated that it is mainly politically conservative and upwardly mobile French canadians who commonly seek jobs in Anglophone universities. laIt was the English women (who were clearly from middle class backgrounds) who were conservative. There were four male English supporters; three came from working class backgrounds.

19In general, the women scabs were more amenable to the influence of their male relatives. In this sense their failure to endorse collective action was not simply female conservatisme Chapter 4. CONCLUSIONS

l \ As the study was conducted in order te throw light

on particular hypotheses of Tiger's thesis, the conclusions

are organized in response to these.

HYEothesis 1: Bonding. Men tend to bond, and in power struggles

to exclude women on the basis of this bond. (Tiger, 1970:72-118).

l found that there was a distinct failure among the men running

Sir George to bond in order to control the situation. Evidence

for other kinds of bonding, or decisions being influenced by

similar status and same gender was found in three Departrnents.

Two of these were women's groups and one a men 's. The sections

where single sex groups did not operate were more successful in

incorporating people into the Union. This suggests a need for

further research on the nature of single sex and two sex groups,

especially in relation to the way "sex" is arranged in dominance

hierarchies, where they existe Burton examines this question

and notes sorne of the differences in the two kinds of groups in

several species of non-human primates (1971:11-14). l am unaware

of any comparisons of this kind in human groups. It should also

be clear that the scabs who did not tond for:mally, which Tiger

implicitly assumes is necessary for political action, were still

acting politically by refusing to support the Union. ( - 113 -

Finally, the most significant leadership bond, in the Union, was between a man and a woman.

HvEothesis 2: Leadership. Women do not commonly become leaders in bi-sexual situations, except through their status being

"improved" by their association with men, e.g. widows of pOliticians (TigOer 1970:95).

l found that leadership of the Union was evenly divided between men and women, there was no question about women's right or authority in these roles. There was one case involving one of the most dynamic leaders who was accused by several people of "power tripping". Ber femaleness may have been an added cause of resentment. In general, however, the equality of the sexes with regard to authority in no way impaired the capacity of the

Union to act politically.

BYEothesis 3: Support. Nei ther men or women readily support women in competition for power against men. (Tiger 1970:75-89).

l found that organization of the Union was highly ega li tarian.

within the context of traditional labour relations in - 114 -

in North America (see for example Derber, 1970, Mîller, 1971)

it is very unusual in the extent of its democraCYi its'members

have retained control over every facet of its organization.

The Union's technical adviser at the CNTU, which' is also rather

democratically organized by comparison with other federations,

told me that in the degree of participation and political

sophistication of its leaders, the Sir George Union was unique

in his experience. When we recall that this successful political

organization is run by both men and women, and is not fighting

for specifically feminine interests, any doubts that Tiger may

still haveIDout the possibility of new forms of political

organization in which men and women can work toge~her, ought to

be dispelled.

There have been consistently more tasks than available

bodies to do them so there were few cases of competition between

men and women. There was little evidence of any lack of support

from men or women for leaders on the grounds of gender. It may

have been a factor with sorne individuals but it did not show up

in any statistical way, or in interviewing. l found only three

cases of men and women competing for the same office. In the

first an important office (that of Strike Director) a man did win

( against a wornan. He may have won the position because of his more - 115 -

aggressive personal style. However, the vote was very close

(15 to 17). The woman, who was highly efficient, intelligent

and greatly respected was more retiring. The office was one

which required a considerable amount of pushing and directing

people so the stereotypical sex roles in this case may have

influenced voting. The second example was more illustrative

of the influence of leaders than of sex roles. A man who was

thought by many to be rather ineffectual, won a position on a

committee against a woman who was efficient but not very highly

respected, probably because one of the leaders (female) wanted

h±m there and nominated him. The committee was finally made up

of two women and a man so this case is not at aIl clearcut. In men the third case a man and a woman were elected from three/and one

women nominated to be the first co-ordinators. This reflects both

the ability of this woman and the desire to maintain sexual

equality.

The relative attendance and participation of the sexes

in meetings that l attended was equal overall. Sometimes men

were slightly in the majority, sometimes women. l used Union

minutes to analyze participation of the sexes over an 18 month

periode The figures on nominations for representatives and

( - 116 -

committees provide sorne information although they ignore such

factors as status of nominator, and nature of the office. Men

were more likely to nominate each other than women (by one

third), while women nominated equal numbers of both sexes. l

AlI the categories of nominations were equally likely to be

successful in terms of who got elected.

Again motions provide only a rough guide as many issues

are settled without need for a motion. In the first year there was

a very slight preponderance of motions proposed by men (21:19).

AlI of the women's motions were passed but three of the men's

were rejected. After the first year, women proposed significantly

more motions than men (19:12) and roughly similar proportions

of both were passed. The putting together of a statement (motion)

which represents the "feeling of the meeting" (most of the motions

l observed were like this), is an important and delicate job but

does not necessarily indicate where power lies. Several people

commented on the greater willingness of women to take on "hack"

work (supportive tasks) and the figures on motions support this

comment, as did the fact that sorne of the active men rarely par­

ticipated in this process. Unfortunately l could not obtain any

data on the breakdown of voting by sex.

/ - 117 -

RYPothesis 4. Personal Style. Here l found observable differences between men and women, and sorne of these could be labelled stereotyped "masculinity" and "femininity". There was a higher proportion of men ~"ho were initially better inforrned and more likely to articulate con cern about political issues in the wider sense (e.g. Province level). Several women became more interested in these issues as a result of Union activity, so that the proportions of each sex are now about equal, though men have remained more likely to raise general political issues at general meetings. Since this is an area which divides the

Union, the women's avoidance of it could be said to indicate a greater amount of political sense.

Arnong the less committed to the Union, men were more likely to mention individual politicians as reasons for their dislike of a particular political stance, possibly indicating greater familiarity with the pol:itical sc~ne, but also indicating that they are no more concerned purely ~ith issues than women.

Women said such things as "I just don't like Unions" where men might mention a particular Union leader. There were a number of Jewish women who were concerned about the association of the

CNTU with anti-semitism. The CNTU supports' the Arab states, but there is a more general feeling among sorne Jewish people that

Quebec nationalism is anti-semitic. Only the men ever mentioned - 118 -

the statements of an individual spokesman as evidence for anti-semitism in the CNTU.

with regard to the less easily defined aspects of style there were no readily. discernible cross the board differences between the sexes. Two of the people who seemed to desire power to an extent they lost sight of group interests

(and were said to do 50 by a large number of their peers) were women. One of the leaders who was best able to surnrnarize the feeling of a meeting, and forge a statement that incorporated minority views, demonstrating a sensitivity to conflicting interests which could almost be labelled "feminine", was a man, and the person who most aggressively and rigidly stuck to her point of view, sometimes to the point of steamrollering people, was a woman. The total effect was that there were many effective people in the Union who did not conform to stereotypical role behaviour, and that there appears to be no necessary correlation between these stereotypes and the political results. Two further examples will illustrate this point.

l was interested in who did the most talking in meetings as an indication of dominance. There was one politically radical man who always tried to lead discussion into very broad political issues. Not only was he politically inept, 50 much 50 that every- - 119 -

one wished he would stay away, but he also did'not contribute

in any way to the achievement of group aims. He never ,joined

the picket lines during the strikPr h~ never participated in

any cornmittee work and his suggestions about pOlitical stances

which the Union as a whole should adopt were always' introduced

at such innoportune moments that they were largely ignored. In

a sense he dominated - his aggressive approach distrupted meetings

but he achieved nothing.

The other example is a woman who rarely spoke much at

general meetings and was more conservative socially and politically

than any other Union activist. She took over as treasurer from a

man who had left the Union finances in a state of chaos. She was

important not only because she did an important job extremely weIl

but also because she represented a minority view which the Union

could not afford to alienate. In addition she happened to be

a superviser and had worked in the Library for six years so she

also represented that portion of the workers who were very

committed to their jobs. She probably acted as a restraining

influence more than as a positive formulator of policy in the

broad sense, but if there had been no roles for people like her

the conviction of a segment of the membership that the Union

was dominated by "radicals" would have torn it apart. Thus her ( role provides a good example of one which would not be important - 120 -

in an ethological sense, she did not dominate at aIl, but

she has considerably more potential power than the persbn

in my first example.

In conclusion, l haye examined the importance of a

cultural factor, the counter culture ideology and the ways

in which this influenced both the structure of the Union, the

values of the individuals involved and the pOlitical con-

sequences of this ideology. While cultural factors can never

be ignored, my initial research plan stressed rather the

situational factors which would explain the features which

Tiger attributed to biological differences. l searched for

these features, such as women generally being less actively

involved in the Union, and men having superior power, for

whatever reasons, but did not find them.

The success with which women participated and helped

run NUSGWUE is attributed to the sexually'egalitarian ideology

which was dominant in the situation. My hypothesis that women

in white collar jobs now feel particularly powerless, is supported

Dot only by my own data but also by Marchak's (1972) study in

British Columbia. This survey dernonstrated that Union potential

is higher among women. However, it also showed that men, particularly

1 \ as their job control and income levels increased were more - 121 -

\ - supportive of their unions. This was not the case with NUSGWUE,

and while Marchak gives no information about the particular

unions involved so that it is difficult to say whether her

unionized women still felt powerless, the difference with

NUSGWUE is easily attributable to the unusual structure of this

Union where the leaders have been most concerned to put the

interests of the weakest first and to involve them in the

running of the Union.

In conclusion, in addition to having formulated sorne

particular answers to Tiger's thesis, l have shown how other

factors, such as the economic role of women and the relation

of this to changing expectations in industrial society may

effect the ways in which both younger members of sexes respond

to political situations. One arena in which women clearly have

power and authority equal to that of men has been identified and

described.

( - 122 -

\, - Conclusions. Footnote.

lEvidence from a wide variety of sources indicating that men find it harder in our society to cross the traditional sex role boundaries than do women, is accumulating. (cam Perry, personal communication.)

( - 123 -

APPENDIX A. j ~ -

INTERVIEW SCHEDULE 1. Non professional workersi general.

1. Name 2. position in Library

3. Age 4. Sex

5. Marital status 6. Childreni Number: Ages:

7. Household composition.

8. Nationality (birthplace)

9. Level of education.

10. Active involvement in voluntary associations (women1s

liberation groups, pOlitical parties, religious organizations,

etc.)

Il. previous work experience (where relevant comparing attitudes to

working for private enterprise with working for SGWU)

12. Factors relating to taking fulltime position at SGWU

13. positions and work history at SGWU

14. Plans and ambitions for the future (including career and

domestic plans)

15. Union member? 16. Date of joining:

17. Who are your friends in the library, whom do you see socially?

18. Summarize your conception of the ideal position of men and

women in the home and in employment. ( - 124 -

INTERVIEW SCHEDULE 2. union mernbers.

1. Why did you join the Union?

2. Have you ever been on any Union Committees or held positions

such as Area Representative, grievance delegate, etc.?

3. Ifso, which ones and at'what periods?

4. How were you nominated and elected to these positions, was

there competition?

5. How much time have you put into Union work at different

periods Ce.g. in the mon th before the strike) outside

working hours? nid you attend meetings regularly (at

different times)?

Questions 6-8 for active rnemhers only.

6. Why were you active in the Union, what were the factors in

Y9ur being ready to devote time and effort to it? Here are

questions about (a) attitudes to the organization and

effectiveness of the Union (b) perception of the way in

which the Union might satisfy the needs of individuals and/or

the group as a whole and any conflict in these (c) attitudes

to unionism and the labour movement as a whole and (e)

activities and responsibilities outside the Library,will be

asked and the informant requested to weigh these factors in

relation to each other. ( - 125 -

7. Did Union work interfere with your domestic responsibilities,

activities in other organization, or other interests?

Question 9 for less active members.

9. Why did you not take a more active role in the Union? (the

factors mentioned in Q. 6 (a-e) will again be raised.)

INTERVIEW SCHEDULE 3. Non professional non Union mernbers.

1. Why did you not join the Union/resign from the Union?

(The factors mentioned in Q.6 (a-e) will again be raised.)

INTERVIEW SCHEDULE 4. Professional librarians.

1. Name 2. Position in the Library

3. Age 4. Sex

5. Marital status 6. Children: Number: Ages:

7. Household composition

8. Nationality (birthplace)

9. Level of Education

10. Active involvement in voluntary associations.

Il. previous work experience.

12. Factors relating to choice of position at SGWU.

13. Positions and work history at SGWU.

14. Plans and ambitions for the future.

15. Who are your friends in the Library? ( 16. Surnrnarize your conception of the ideal position of women in

the home and in employrnent. - 126 -

17. What was/is your attitude (a) to the formation of the Union

(b) to i ts airns

(c) to its rnethods

18. How rnuch and with whorn did you discuss Union issues?

( - 127 - • REFERENCES \. --

a. Published sources

Bardwick, Judith, 1971. The psychology of women. New York, Harper and Row.

Barth, Fredrik, 1966. Models of social organization. (Royal Anthropological Institute Occasional Paper no. 23.) London, Royal Anthropological Institute.

Burton, F.D., 1971. Untitled paper surveying male and female primate social behaviour. Presented AAA meetings, New York.

caplow, Theodore, 1964. Principles of organization. New York, Harcourt, Brace and World.

Derber, Milton, 1970. The Arnerican idea of industrial democracy, 1865-1965. Urbana, University of Illinois Press.

Goffman, E., 1959. The Eresentation of self in everyday life. New York, Doubleday.

Jacobs, Sue-Ellen, et al, 1972. Women in cross-cultural persEective. Urbana, University of Illinois. Department of Urban and Regional planning.

Kohlberg, Lawrence, 1966. "A cognitive-developmental analysis of children's sex-role concepts and attitudes" in E. Maccoby, ed. The DeveloE,IDent of sex differences, Stanford, calif., Stanford University Press.

Mîller, Richard Ulric, ed. 1971. canadian labour in transition. Scarborough Ontario, Prentice­ Hall.

Mitchell, J. Clyde, 1969. "The concept and use of social networks" in Social networks 1 in urban situations ed. by J.C. Mîtchell. Manchester University Press. - 128 -

Morgan, Lewis H., 1904. League of the Ho-Dé-Ho-Sau-Nee, or Iroguois. New York, Dodd, Mead.

Ricks, F.G. et al, 1972. "Women's liberation: a case study of organizations for social change." canadian Psychologist, 13 (1): 30-39.

Roszak, Theodore, 1969. The making of a counter culture. New York, Doubleday.

Roszak, Betty and Theodore Roszak, 1970. Masculine/Feminine: readings in sexual mythology and the liberation of women. New York, Harper and Row.

Tiger, Lionel, 1970. Men in groups. New York, Vintage Books.

Tiger, Lionel, and Robin Fox, 1971. The imperial animal. New York, Holt, Rinehart and Winston.

Weber, Max, 1958. From Max Weber: essays in sociology edited by H.H. Gerth and c. Wright Mills. New York, Oxford University Press.

wolf, Eric R., 1966. Kinship, friendship and patron-client relations in Social anthropology of cornplex societies ed. by M. Banton. (ASA Monographs nQ 4). London, Tavistock.

b. Unpublished sources

The georgian, August - December 1971. (SGWU, Student newspaper. Montreal).

Marchak, Patricia, N.D. L1972j. Wornen workers and white-collar unions. Unpublished report. Vancouver, Univer.sity of British Columbia.

Robertson, Susan, 1971. M. A. research proposaI. Unpublished ms. Copy deposi ted wi th Anthropology Dept., McGill University, Montreal. ( SGWU. Lib 1970. (Adrnin. Annual report of the University Librarian to the Vice-principal/ and Finance). June 1969-May 1970. Montreal.