Canada Veneers and Irving Oil: Labour and the postwar settlement in Saint John, New Brunswick, 1945--1949

At the end of the Second World War Canadian labour relations went through a significant transition, often described as the postwar compromise or the arrival of industrial legality. This thesis examines the experience of workers between 1945 and 1949 at two industrial establishments in Saint John, New Brunswick---Canada Veneers and Irving Oil---both owned by the emergent industrialist K.C. Irving. The thesis considers labour's demands, employer responses, and government intervention in the postwar period. Following the federal initiatives in P.C. 1003 and other measures, the introduction of the New Brunswick Labour Relations Act, 1945 and its accompanying Labour Relations Board were provincial government initiatives to address the challenges of industrial relations in a period of change. With the help of Canadian Congress of Labour (CCL) organizer Angus MacLeod, workers at the oil and veneer operations secured union recognition and collective-bargaining rights under the new provisions. However, negotiations did not produce the expected results. Indeed, this thesis argues that the expected partnership between workers, employers and government failed. In the case of the Industrial Union of Veneer Workers (Local 1), Irving benefited from ineffective labour boards and used his economic power to weaken the union and eventually move the operations to Ontario. In the case of the United Oil Workers of Canada (Local 15), Irving resisted collective bargaining, avoided conciliators' recommendations, and secured a court-ordered injunction to defeat the union. In both instances, Irving thwarted industrial unionism and evaded the expectations of industrial legality. In the case of these two important local industries, this evidence demonstrates the limited success of industrial legality in postwar New Brunswick.