From factory workers in Welland to retail workers in St. Catharines,
from hospitality workers in Niagara Falls to migrant farm workers in
Niagara-On-The-Lake, Union Power showcases the role of working
people in the Niagara region. Charting the development of the
region's labour movement from the early nineteenth century to the
present, Patrias and Savage illustrate how workers from this highly
diversified economy struggled to improve their lives both inside and
outside the workplace. Including extensive quotations from interviews,
archival sources, and local newspapers, the story unfolds, in part,
through the voices of the people themselves: the workers who fought for
unions, the community members who supported them, and the employers who
opposed them.
Early industrial development and the appalling working conditions of
the often vulnerable common labourer prompted a movement toward worker
protection. Patrias and Savage argue that union power – power not
built on profit, status, or prestige – relies on the twin
concepts of struggle and solidarity: the solidarity of the shared
interests of the working class and the struggle to achieve common
goals. Union Power traces the evidence of these twin concepts
through the history of the Niagara region's labour movement.
