Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - The Labour Movement in Canada, by F. R. Scott
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
Below is the raw OCR text
from the above scanned image.
Do you see an error? Proofread the page now!
Här nedan syns maskintolkade texten från faksimilbilden ovan.
Ser du något fel? Korrekturläs sidan nu!
This page has never been proofread. / Denna sida har aldrig korrekturlästs.
that benefits all workers, whether organized or not; for instance: workmen’s
compensation laws, minimum wage laws, and family allowances.
Trade unions in Canada are divided into three different kinds of national
federation. There is the Canadian Trades and Labour Congress. This is the
oldest of the three and still the largest. There is the Canadian Congress of
Labour, a much more recently formed federation but already nearly as large
as the Trades and Labour Congress. And there is the Canadian and Catholic
Confederation of Labour, existing only in the Province of Quebec among
French speaking Canadians. There are some unions which are not affiliated
with any of these three labour federations, but these are numerically of much
less importance.
The Trades and Labour Congress contains the unions in Canada which
are branches of the American Federation of Labour. The Canadian labour
movement is closely related to the American labour movement. Most unions
in Canada are what may be called ‘international’; that is to say, they are
branches of unions which exist in both the United States and Canada. These
American Federation of Labour unions formed their own Canadian federation
for their work in Canada, and the Canadian locals of A.F. of L. unions joined
it to make the Trades and Labour Congress. The membership of this group is
a little over 400,000.
The next body in importance is the Canadian Congress of Labour, with a
membership of some 350,000. It is composed of two main groups of unions;
one which is entirely Canadian, and the other which is linked with the Congress
of Industrial Organizations in the United States. Thus the division between
the A.F. of L. and the C.I.O. in the United States has its counterpart in
Canada, though the situation is not quite parallel. The Canadian Congress
of Labour contains many of the newer unions in the mass production industries
such as steel and automobiles, and is a vigorous rival of the Trades and Labour
Congress.
The other federation, the Canadian and Catholic Confederation of Labour,
is composed exclusively of Catholic Syndicates from the Province of Quebec.
Its membership is 90,000. It has no connection whatever with the United
States.
All Canadian unions fall into two main types, the craft union and the
industrial union. The craft union is the older type, and as its name implies,
it groups together all the workers of a particular trade or craft. In contrast
to the craft union is the industrial union which embraces all the workers in a
given industry, both skilled and unskilled. These unions are more suitable to
the mass production industries, where the job may be broken down into small
component parts so that there are very few skilled workers in proportion to
the whole labour force.
Despite this basic division into craft and industrial unions, the manner in
which both types govern themselves is very similar. The foundation of every
union is the local. Each local is completely democratic, choosing its own
members, electing its own officers, and raising the funds which support not
only its own activities but also contribute to the funds for the action of the
larger federations. It is the local union which has the most intimate
contact with the individual member and with the day by day problems of
the relations with the employer.
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
