On the hook : welfare capitalism on the Vancouver waterfront, 1919-1939 (original) (raw)
Related papers
The Northern Mariner / Le marin du nord, 2017
Le Syndicat des détaillants, grossistes et magasins à rayons, reconnu pour son organisation de campagnes d'adhésion auprès des principaux détaillants en Ontario, a fait son entrée en Colombie-Britannique en établissant une présence précoce et importante auprès de certains travailleurs des quais de Vancouver. Un représentant international au niveau local a recruté des travailleurs pour les syndicats affiliés aux terminaux céréaliers et de raffinerie de sucre, exigé des salaires plus élevés et de meilleures conditions de travail de la part des employeurs, demandé la conciliation dans les négociations et surpassé d'autres syndicats concurrents qui cherchaient à exercer une influence sur les quais. Les travailleurs céréaliers se sont finalement alliés à un autre syndicat, tandis que les travailleurs de sucre de la section locale 517 sont demeurés membres du Syndicat des employés de gros et de détail, dont le siège est à New Westminster. In the latter half of the 1940s, the Retail, Wholesale, and Department Store Union actively organized workers outside existing longshore trades in Vancouver, British Columbia's largest metropolitan city and the biggest commercial port in Western Canada. 1 Vancouver's large natural harbour accommodated considerable investment in maritime-related infrastructure for loading and unloading ships. Employment on the waterfront was divided by different classes of workers and the unions that represented them with employers. The stories of longshoremen, their work organization, and union traditions are fairly well documented by existing literature 1 The author thanks Ray Haynes for sharing memories and photographs of Gerald Emary and the Retail, Wholesale, and Department Store Union.
The Northern Mariner / Le marin du nord, 2016
James Shaver Woodsworth a travaillé sur le front marin de Vancouver entre sa démission du poste de ministre de l'Église méthodiste et son retour à Winnipeg et pour devenir un politicien travailliste et démocrate. La description qu'il a publiée de cette expérience est présentée et reproduite ici afin de mettre en contexte la nature de l'emploi des débardeurs, le syndicat auquel les hommes appartenaient et les luttes qu'ils ont collectivement menées. Cela va révéler ce que Woodsworth a choisi de discuter et de ne pas discuter. James Shaver Woodsworth was a prominent social democratic politician from Western Canada. Elected six consecutive times to the House of Commons as a member of parliament representing the residents of Winnipeg North Centre and as leader of the Labour Party and the Cooperative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) Party, he championed the interests of ordinary working people toward creating a better society in Canada. A popular heritage minute video produced by Historica Canada used in grade school curriculum focuses on his unwavering stance on getting legislation for old age pensions from a Liberal minority government. 1 This accomplishment was but one of many during his long career. He died on 21 March 1942 in Vancouver at the age of sixty-seven while still holding political office. Woodsworth genuinely believed in improving the economic and social lot of those who toiled for a living, as expressed in his public oratory, politics, and published writings.
Organizing on the Waterfront: The St. John's Longshoremen's Protective Union (LSPU), 1890-1914
Labour / Le Travail, 1990
Jessie Chisholm IN 1890 THE dry COUNCIL in St John's voted to increase the wages of its municipal labourers to $1.00 per day. The decision prompted a local reporter for the Daily Colonist to interview three dockworkers about wages and working conditions on the wharves. Why were earnings so low, only 70 to 80 cents a day? Why was organization so difficult? "Were the men always satisfied with the four shillings (80 cents) a day op to now? No...there have been strikes on one or two wharves where cargo was being discharged and on one occasion men got an increase of 10 cents for a while, but the old rates were soon resumed." "How do you account for this7" "The men were too poor to stick it out. .and the absence of anything like a combination among the men, account for the low wages they have been receiving " The labourers complained that the wages were further reduced by the autumn influx of "strolling outport men*' from Conception and Trinity Bays, fishermen "willing to work for less money than eighty cents, aye, and even 'take it up' in the shops. Commonplace in rural Newfoundland, the practice of paying wages in truck or in kind by certain city firms was deeply resented by St John's labourers. Dock labour in St. John's was seasonal, its rhythms determined by the ebb and flow of maritime traffic and the fluctuating patterns of the fish trade. Union organization of waterfront workers was impeded by the seasonal nature of port employment, by a diversity of hiring practices and wage schedules, and by the determined resistance of the city's mercantile interests. Yet a remarkably successful labour organization was established in 1903. Initially organized by steamboat 1 Daily Colonist (St. John's), hereafter DC.
Labour / Le Travail, 1990
THERE ARE TWO crucial watersheds in the modem history of waterfront labour (1) the successful struggle, beginning with the Pacific Coast revolts of the 1930s, to setup union-dominated hiring halls; and (2) the technological revolution in cargo handling and ship design associated with the introduction of containers in the 1960s and 70s. Bruce Nelson's historical treatment of waterfront labour focuses on the first of these watersheds, with particular emphasis on the interactions between seamen and longshoremen during the "syndicalist renaissance'' of the late 1930s. William Finlay's sociological study is concerned with the effects of the second watershed-the technological revolution in cargo handling-on skill levels, job control and status hierarchies within die longshore labour process. A good sense of the dramatically different emphases of these books can be derived by comparing their dustjackets. The cover of the Nelson study shows a photograph of a march by picketing San Francisco longshoremen, during the first week of die legendary 1934 strike. Overlaid on this are photographs of two former "Aussies" who had a large impact on the US waterfront struggles of the 1930s: Harry Bridges, who was to become the dominant figure in the International Longshoremen's and Warehousemen's Union (ILWU), and Harry Hynes, a rankand-file leader of the Communist-led Marine Workers Industrial Union (MWIU)
The Vancouver employment business, 1900-1915 : sharks and white slavers?
1991
Such has been the experience of Canada with private commercial employment agencies: the sins of commission and the spirit of venality which controls the conduct of many of these agencies, coupled with the inability of all of them as unco-ordinated activities to so function as to meet successfully the needs of modern industry, have led the governments of Canada to indict them as being incapable of efficiently discharging the responsible duties attaching to employment service work.
Employee Responsibilities and Rights Journal , 2013
Introducing new technologies often crush unions; indeed, sometimes that is the purpose. However, the International Longshore & Warehouse Union (ILWU), on the US Pacific Coast, demonstrates that need not occur. In 1960, the ILWU and Pacific Maritime Association signed the Mechanization & Modernization agreement (M&M). M&M represented among the first efforts by a union to shape this process—to “get a share of the machine.” Although workers understood that new technologies cannot simply be resisted, tremendous controversy still existed, culminating in the US shipping industry’s longest strike ever. In 1971, members of the San Francisco Bay area’s Local 10 led this strike, having experienced containerization most extensively. Although their numbers plummeted, those remaining maintained power at a strategic point of the global economy. Looking at how these workers managed to survive and partially shape the introduction of a valuable new technology suggests that it, and globalization, need not always destroy unions.
Discourse on the docks: containerization and inter-union work disputes in US ports, 1955-85
Research on labour markets has often focused on the economics of work location. Far less attention has been paid to how labour markets are constructed discursively. In this paper, I analyse how the creation of rival discourses concerning traditions of work were central elements in the efforts of two unions to structure local labour markets, in order to retain work for their members in the face of technological innovation. The struggle between the two unions centred on their abilities to construct rival discourses concerning the historical geography of work in the industry. These formed the basis for judicial interpretations concerning whether the actions of the dockers' union represented a legal work preservation action or an illegal work acquisition measure. Such interpretations shaped the subsequent evolution of work and labour markets in the industry. The ability of economic actors to shape discourse in their favour can be a powerful force in the regulation of local labour markets, and thus in the production of economic landscapes. key words International Longshoremen's Association International Brotherhood of Teamsters trade union work rules discourse United States labour markets technological innovation Rules on Containers law ports