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Business & Economics Labor

Shifting Gears

Canadian Autoworkers and the Changing Landscape of Labour Politics

by (author) Stephanie Ross & Larry Savage

Publisher
UBC Press
Initial publish date
Sep 2024
Category
Labor, Automobile Industry, Labor & Industrial Relations, Post-Confederation (1867-)
  • eBook

    ISBN
    9780774870887
    Publish Date
    Sep 2024
    List Price
    $125.00
  • Hardback

    ISBN
    9780774870856
    Publish Date
    Sep 2024
    List Price
    $99.00
  • Paperback / softback

    ISBN
    9780774870863
    Publish Date
    Apr 2025
    List Price
    $37.95

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Description

In the decades following the Second World War, autoworkers were at the forefront of the labour movement. Their union urged members to rally in the streets and use the ballot box to effect change for all working-class people. But by the turn of this century, the Canadian Auto Workers union had begun to pursue a more defensive political direction. Shifting Gears traces the evolution of CAW strategy from transformational activism to transactional politics. Class-based collective action and social democratic electoral mobilization gave way to transactional partnerships as relationships between the union, employers, and governments were refashioned. This new approach was maintained when the CAW merged with the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union in 2013 to create Unifor, Canada’s largest private-sector union. Stephanie Ross and Larry Savage explain how and why the union shifted its political tactics, offering a critical perspective on the current state of working-class politics.

About the authors

Stephanie Ross' profile page

Larry Savage is associate professor of labour studies and political science and director of the Jobs and Justice Research Unit at Brock University.

Larry Savage's profile page

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