Employers' Anti-Unionism in Niagara, 1942–1965: Questioning the Postwar Compromise

Abstract

This study explores employers ’ anti-union strategies in the Niagara Peninsula from the mid-1940s to the mid-1960s in order to enhance our understanding of the nature of relations between labour and capital during the period generally described as that of the postwar compromise. Relying on such unexplored archival collections as the papers of the St. Catharines firm, Ontario Editorial Bureau, as well as the collections of the Archives of Ontario and Library and Archives Canada, the study focuses on four main union-avoidance strategies: the establishment of company-dominated unions, anti-union public relations campaigns, corporate welfarism, and company relocation. By illustrating the depth and endurance of Niagara employers’ opposition to unions during the period of supposed compromise between employers, workers and the state the study demonstrates that there was greater continuity than we have supposed between management views of workers’ rights during the period of the postwar compromise and the neoliberalism that characterized subsequent decades. Abstract: Cette etude explore les strategies antisyndicales des employeurs dans la peninsule du Niagara depuis le milieu des annees 1940 jusqu’au milieu des annees 1960 afin d’ameliorer notre comprehension de la nature des relations entre le travail et le capital pendant la periode generalement decrite comme celle du compromis d’apres-guerre. Se fondant sur des collections d’archives inexplorees telles que les dossiers de l’entreprise de St. Catharines, le Bureau de redaction de l’Ontario, ainsi que les collections des archives publiques de l’Ontario et du Canada, l’etude met l’accent sur quatre strategies antisyndicales principales : la creation des entreprises antisyndicales, l’organisation des campagnes antisyndicales en matiere de relations publiques, le maintien du bien-etre des entreprises, et la delocalisation des entreprises. En illustrant la profondeur et l’endurance des employeurs du Niagara a l’egard de l’opposition aux syndicats au cours de la periode du compromis suppose entre les employeurs, les travailleurs et l’etat, l’etude demontre qu’il y a plus de continuite que nous avons supposee entre les opinions de la gestion sur les droits des travailleurs pendant la periode du compromis d’apres-guerre et le neoliberalisme qui a caracterise les decennies subsequentes.

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