Book Launch: Shifting Gears - Canadian Autoworkers

Shifting Gears: Canadian Autoworkers and the Changing Landscape of Labour Politics Authors Stephanie Ross and Larry Savage in conversation with Luke Savage. In the decades following the Second World War, autoworkers were at the forefront of the labour movement. Their union mobilized members to rally in the streets for social change and make their voices heard at election time. But by the turn of this century, the Canadian Auto Workers (CAW) union had begun to pursue a more defensive political direction. Shifting Gears traces the evolution of the union’s strategy from transformational activism to transactional politics. Postwar autoworkers played a leading role in the fight for redistributive socio-economic policies for all working-class people. Class-based collective action and social democratic electoral mobilization gave way to transactional partnerships at the bargaining table and the ballot box, however, as relationships between the union, employers, and governments were refashioned. This new approach was maintained when the CAW merged with the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers (CEP) union in 2013 to create Unifor, Canada’s largest private-sector union. 0:00 Introduction with Luke Savage 4:45 Q+A with Luke and the authors 35:50 Q+A with the audience Recorded in Toronto, 20 September, 2024.