Labour Goes to War

Wendy Cuthbertson has worked for the Canadian Auto Workers Union, the Ontario Pay Equity Commission, and the Ontario Confederation of University Faculty Associations.

• Introduction1 "A Trifle Depressing": The CIO on the Eve of War2 Organizing the Unorganized in Wartime3 Wartime Organizing: Getting to a Majority4 "Becoming Unionized as Well as Organized": Union Sociability, the Transmission of Ideas, and the Creed of Equality5 "The War for the Common Man": The CIO's Narrative of a Fulfilled Democracy6 "Equal Partners in This World Crusade": Women, Equal Pay, and the CIOConclusionNotesBibliographyIndex

Although the CIO began the Second World War on precarious ground, by 1945 it had become a powerhouse. Labour Goes to War explains how this transformation took place, offering original insight into the making of the Canadian labour movement during the war years. Drawing on the reconstruction rhetoric of the peoples' war for democracy, the CIO expanded its own commitment to equality rights for women and minorities and promoted a new language of social entitlement for working people.- Joan Sangster, author of Transforming Labour: Women and Work in Postwar Canada