All miners and smelter workers know the folly of going on strike when their employer holds a stockpile. In 1958 the International Nickel Company had enough nickel on hand to guarantee sales for at least six months. Despite this, fourteen thousand miners and smeltermen in Sudbury, Ontario, downed their tools and struck against the corporate titan of the mining industry.

Standing Up to Big Nickel is a comprehensive portrait of a pivotal strike by the International Union of Mine, Mill, and Smelter Workers, a union that has inspired exceptional levels of solidarity among its members. The Cold War and the resulting instabilities in the Canadian labour movement form the backdrop to Elizabeth Quinlan’s engrossing analysis. The union straddled the line, she shows, between its historical commitment to working-class struggle and the newly restrictive legal landscape of the postwar era. Retrospective accounts by surviving union members, leaders, family, and community members bring to life the history of a distinctive group of workers who sweated over smelter furnaces and toiled underground in perilous conditions.

Quinlan traces the events before, during, and after one of Canada’s greatest strikes in both magnitude and duration. Featuring biographical sketches and scenes based on archival and documentary data, Standing Up to Big Nickel captures an intensely dramatic juncture in Canadian labour history.

Elizabeth Quinlan holds a Ph.D. in Interdisciplinary Studies. She is an associate professor in the Department of Sociology and an associate member in Women’s and Gender Studies at the University of Saskatchewan. Her program of research, defined by intersections of social health, gender relations, and caring labour, employs arts-based emancipatory methods to enhance the quality and dignity of participants’ lives.

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“Standing Up to Big Nickel is compelling look at workers’ lives above and below ground and an astute analysis of the political and industrial circumstances surrounding the strike. It provides a playbook for modern organizing efforts and underlines the importance of family solidarity and community support when faced with giant corporate employers determined to stop unionization.” Ron Verzuh, author of Smelter Wars: A Rebellious Red Trade Union Fights for Its Life in Wartime Western Canada

"Standing Up to Big Nickel is a powerful and deeply researched account of one of the most defining moments in Canadian labour history: the 1958 Mine, Mill, and Smelter Workers’ strike against Inco. Elizabeth Quinlan masterfully captures the resilience, courage, and sacrifices of thousands of workers who took a stand against corporate greed to fight for fair wages, safe working conditions, and dignity on the job. This is more than a historical account – it is a tribute to the strength of solidarity and a reminder that collective action can change the course of history. Every union member, labour activist, and worker should read this book to understand the sacrifices made by those who came before us and the work that still lies ahead.” Eric Boulay, Mine Mill 598/Unifor