Document generated on 09/23/2021 3:27 p.m. Labour/Le Travailleur Reviews / Comptes Rendus Volume 29, 1992 URI: https://id.erudit.org/iderudit/llt29rv01 See table of contents Publisher(s) Canadian Committee on Labour History ISSN 0700-3862 (print) 1911-4842 (digital) Explore this journal Cite this article (1992). Reviews / Comptes Rendus. Labour/Le Travailleur, 29, 249–318. All rights reserved © Canadian Committee on Labour History, 1992 This document is protected by copyright law. Use of the services of Érudit (including reproduction) is subject to its terms and conditions, which can be viewed online. https://apropos.erudit.org/en/users/policy-on-use/ This article is disseminated and preserved by Érudit. Érudit is a non-profit inter-university consortium of the Université de Montréal, Université Laval, and the Université du Québec à Montréal. Its mission is to promote and disseminate research. https://www.erudit.org/en/ REVIEWS / COMPTES RENDUS Wayne Roberts, Cracking The Canadian Formula: The Making of the Energy and Chemical Workers Union by Errol Black / 249 Michael Earle, éd., Workers and the State in Twentieth Century Nova Scotia by Carman Miller / 251 Allen Mills, A Fool for Christ: The Political Thought ofJ.S. Woodsworth by Kenneth McNaught / 252 Alan F. J. Artibise, éd., Interdisciplinary Approaches to Canadian Society: A Guide to the Literature by John Mannion / 254 William N.T. Wylie, The Blacksmith in Upper Canada, 1784-1850: A Study of Technology, Culture and Power by Jane Errington / 255. Eric Tucker, Administering Danger in the Workplace: The Law and Politics of Occupational Health and Safety Regulation in Ontario, 1850-1914 by Robert H. Babcock / 257 Aline Charles, Travail d'ombre et de lumière. Le bénévolat féminin à l'hôpital Sainte-Justine, 1907-1960 by Marie-Marthe T. Brault / 258 Sylvie Murray, A la jonction du mouvement ouvrier et du mouvement des femmes: la Ligue auxiliaire de l'Association internationale des machinistes, Canada, 1903-1980 by Mona Josée Gagnon / 260 Yolande Cohen, Femmes de parole: L'histoire des Cercles de fermières du Québec 1915-1990 by Frances M. Shaver / 261 Mark Leier, Where the Fraser River Flows: The Industrial Workers of the World in British Columbia by David Akers / 264 Bruce Magnuson, The Untold Story of Ontario's Bushworkers by Peter Campbell / 266 Pierre Berton, The Great Depression: 1929-1939 by Paul Axelrod / 268 Maryse Souchard, Le discours de presse L'image des syndicats au Québec (1982- 1983) by François Demers / 269 Bruce Laurie, Artisans into Workers: Labor in Nineteenth Century America by Danny Samson / 271 David M. Emmons, The Butte Irish: Class and Ethnicity in an American Mining Town, 1875-1925 by Allen Seager/ 274 Lisa M. Fine, The Souls of the Skyscraper: Female Clerical Workers in Chicago, 1870-1930 by Ileen A. De Vault / 275 Ted Ownby, Subduing Satan: Religion, Recreation, and Manhood in the Rural South, 1865-1920 by Suzanne Morton / 277 4 Lizabeth Cohen, Making a New Deal: Industrial Workers in Chicago, 1919-1939 by James R. Barrett / 279 Richard J. Altenbaugh, Education for Struggle: The American Labor Colleges of the 1920 and 1930s by Peter Seixas / 282 Dan La Botz, Rank and File Rebellion: Teamsters for a Democratic Union by Warren R. Van Tine / 284 James Bradley, Religion, Revolution and English Radicalism: Nonconformity in Eighteenth-Century Politics and Society by Nicholas Rogers / 286 Theodore Koditschek, Class formation and urban-industrial society: Bradford, 1750-1850 by David Levine / 288 George R. Boyer, An Economic History of the English Poor Law, 1750-1850 by Lynn Mackay / 290 Stuart Hall and Martin Jacques, eds., New Times, The Changing Face of Politics in the 1990s by Sean Purdy / 292 Steven A. Epstein, Wage Labor & Guilds in Medieval Europe by James Masschaele / 29S David Kaiser, Politics and War: European Conflict from Philip II to Hitler by Robert Malcolmson / 296 William Lazonick, Competitive Advantage on the Shop Floor by David A. Zonderman / 298 D.H. Whittaker, Managing Innovation: A Study of British and Japanese Factories by Michael R. Smith / 301 Susan N. Houseman, Industrial Restructuring with Job Security: The Case of European Steel by S.F. Kaliski /302 Charles Brown, James Hamilton, and James Medoff, Employers Large and Small by Gregory Albo / 304 Michael Sonenscher, Work and Wages: Natural Law, Politics and the Eighteenth- Century French Trades by William M. Reddy / 305 Chris Ward, Russia's Cotton Workers and the New Economic Policy byN.G.O.Pereira/307 Mike Parker and Jane Slaughter, Choosing Sides: Unions and the Team Concept by Don Wells/308 Bryan D. Palmer, Descent into Discourse: The Reification of Language and the Writing of Social History by Alex Callinicos /311 Gillian A. Walker, Family Violence and the Women's Movement: The Conceptual Politics of Struggle by Gary Kinsman /313 Dorinne K. Kondo, Crafting Selves: Power, Gender, and Discourses of Identity in a Japanese Workplace by Eleanor MacDonald /316 5 REVIEWS / COMPTES RENDUS Wayne Roberts, Cracking The Canadian interesting part of the story lies in the Formula: The Making of the Energy and personalities, the conflicts and struggles, Chemical Workers Union (Toronto: Be­ the political intrigues within and between tween The Lines 1990). unions, and the accidents and flukes which combined to generate the union's A FEW YEARS AGO a student (Bud Book, forward momentum. a pipefitter by trade) told me he thought The formation of the ECWU was, in it strange that workers and unions in one large part, the achievement of the OWIU of the most important sectors of the leadership, and, in particular, Neil Reimer, economy — refineries and chemicals — who was promoted from the shop floor to didn't get a mention in histories of the OWIU staff in 1951. In 1954, Reimer was labour movement in Canada. The ex­ appointed Director for Canada. He planation was, of course, a simple one: brought to the job brilliant organizing and very little had been written about workers negotiating skills, an uncanny ability to and unions in these industries. Wayne anticipate changing conditions and im­ Roberts' marvelous — "official" — his­ provise tactics to deal with them, and a tory of the Energy and Chemical Workers vision of a decent society where workers Union (ECWU) assures a place in future were treated with respect and dignity. histories of the labour movement for After the merger in 1955, the union workers and unions in this sector. followed a strategy of attracting new The book is divided into two parts. members by delivering the goods for ex­ Part I tracks the transformation of the Oil isting ones. Key strikes were waged in Workers International Union (OWIU) chemical plants in Sarnia and Edmonton from its inception in Canada in 1948 as a in the 1950s, and in refineries across the small union in petroleum refining, into a country in the 1960s. In all these disputes, powerful, national union covering vir­ the union made important gains. The 1969 tually the entire energy and chemical sec­ refinery strike in British Columbia, which tors. Roberts tells this story with verve, shut down almost the entire industry for wit, and great insight. The story hinges on five months, was especially significant, three key events: the 1955 merger of the because the union finally achieved na­ OWIU and the United Gas, Coke & tional bargaining (and national standards) Chemical Workers to form the Oil, in the industry. Chemical and Atomic Workers (OCAW); A particular strength of the OCAW the achievement of independence by the leaders was their capacity to devise better OCAW in 1979; and the 1980 merger of ways of performing trade union functions the OCAW, the Canadian Chemical — bargaining, striking and organizing. Workers and an independent union of tex­ Reimer was extremely adept at getting tile workers to form the ECWU. The issues to the top of the bargaining agenda events themselves are anticlimactic. The in the face of employer opposition (job security in 1965, the reduced work week Table of Contents for Reviews is on pp. 4 & 5. in 1973, and pay for knowledge — a sub- 249 250 LABOUR/LE TRAVAIL terfuge to get around the Anti-Inflation foundering, but merely to note that the Board — in the mid 1970s). As well, the problem is not as pervasive as he implies. OCAW advanced the concept of "all-in- While there is a fine chapter — "Dust the family unionism," pioneered member­ To Dust" — on workers and conditions in ship surveys as a means of getting feed­ the Johns-Manville asbestos products back. for the rank-and-file, and restruc­ plant in Scarborough, there is little else on tured union practices and policies to either the characteristics of ECWU mem­ accommodate the aspirations of members bers or on the conditions that confront in Quebec. them on the job. Workers in refineries and The parting of OCAW from its parent chemical plants are relatively well paid organization in 1979 was an amicable and relatively secure in their jobs. Who one, a result attributable to both the good are these workers? How do these factors will built up within the international by affect their needs and aspirations relative, OCAW leaders and members in Canada, say, to workers in foundries or garment and a progressive leadership in the United plants; and how do they affect rank-and- States. Negotiations on the merger which file participation in the union? created the ECWU in 1980 recognized Finally, Roberts notes that the ECWU Quebec's special situation in the union and its leaders are, in contrast to other constitution. Appropriately, Neil Reimer unions and other union leaders, big became the ECWU's first president. proponents of QWL programs. There is a A central theme in Roberts' analysis discussion of this issue in the third chap­ is that the ECWU (and its predecessors) ter of Part II — 'Take This Job And Shape sustained and nurtured the values and It" — which focuses on a QWL experi­ vision of early CIO unions.