The period under study is the formative period of working-class political action in this province. The conditions and events of this time form the foundation upon which the Socialist Party of Canada, the Federated Labor Party, the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation, and the Labor Progressive Party grew to be important factors in British Columbia affairs. Consideration of this period is therefore highly relevant to any evaluation or assessment of these organizations. The wage-workers of British Columbia began to organize into unions in significant numbers in the 1880's. Being concerned with improving their lot as workers, some of the unionists turned toward the idea of taking class action on the political field in order to obtain favorable legislation. In the economic sphere, the main complaint of the workers during this period was that the many Chinese in the province worked long hours for low wages, and thus tended to lower the living standards of those who had to compete with them. Another complaint with economic as well as political aspects was that much of the land and resources of British Columbia had been alienated to such corporations as the Esquimalt and Nanaimo Railway Company and the Canadian Pacific Railway. In their political action the workers demanded a solution of these grievances, and in the case of the latter were strongly attracted to the doctrine of "single tax." They also expressed a wish for government-sponsored arbitration and conciliation procedures which would settle labor-management disputes in a peaceful manner. The demands for political reform were occasioned by the use of government in the interests of the wealthy element of the community, and were very much influenced by American and socialist ideas. The basic principle involved was that of “direct democracy”, including the initiative, referendum, and recall, and it persisted throughout the whole period in various forms. The first election to be contested by labor candidates was the provincial election of 1886. Pour candidates ran in Victoria and Nanaimo, and all were defeated. At this time the Knights of Labor was at the peak of its power. The organization soon declined, and its place was occupied in most cases by trade unions. In 1890 the Nanaimo miners' union succeeded in electing two members to the British Columbia legislature. Although these members were unable to carry through any of their own measures, their presence led to the passage of a mechanics' lien law and an arbitration and conciliation act. In 1894 the miners’ candidates were defeated but the Nationalist Party of Vancouver, a labor organization, succeeded in getting Robert Macpherson elected. Although not always strictly a labor representative, Macpherson was generally a protagonist of the cause of labor. In the 1896 federal election the Nationalists also initiated the successful candidature of Rev. George R. Maxwell, who remained in parliament until his death in 1902. In 1898 Nanaimo labor recovered part of the lost ground by electing Ralph Smith to Victoria. Smith changed to the federal field in 1900, was elected, and remained in parliament until 1911. However, he was very closely linked to the Liberal Party, and in 1902 was repudiated by the Nanaimo miners. The 1900 provincial election was the high point of labor political action in this period. Labor Candidates with reform programs appeared in Vancouver and Nanaimo. The Western Federation of Miners in the southern Interior supported non-labor candidates pledged to defend the new eight-hour law for metal-miners. All the W.F.M.-backed candidates and one Nanaimo labor man were elected. This election saw the first appearance of the term "Socialist” as the official designation of a candidate — Will MacClain. The period 1900-1906 witnessed the decline of reformist ”laborism” and the rise of socialism as a political force in the province, culminating in the capture of a Labor Party convention by members of the Socialist Party of Canada. A study of this period has a special relevance to the present political situation in British Columbia. We are now in a time of re-alignment and re-orientation of political forces, the understanding of which demands an appraisal of past political changes. The events and situations recounted and analyzed here, since they are concerned with a period of political experimentation, may afford us useful light on present changes. / Arts, Faculty of / History, Department of / Graduate

The research reported in this thesis is an attempt to test empirically the proposition that specialization in jobs negatively affects the organizational attachment of industrial blue-collar workers. Task specialization refers to the condition where the components of work process are divided into various minute tasks and only a limited number of tasks are assigned to an individual job. In the present study task specialization was operationalized in terms of production-line mechanization in workers' departments. Organizational attachment refers to a specific kind of relationship between a worker and his organization in which the worker (1) accepts and supports the goals and policies of the employing organization, (2) shows a willingness to exert effort for the success of his employing organization, and (3) shows a strong desire to remain a member of his employing organization. The above three dimensions of organizational attachment were measured by asking various questions of workers. The field work for this research was done among industrial workers in Vancouver, British Columbia. A total of fifteen companies were contacted over a period of four months. Of the nine companies which agreed to participate in the research, six were purposely selected in such a way as to have an equal number of workers at each level of production-line mechanization. Data were collected by the method of a structured questionnaire, as well as by direct observation. A total of 550 production workers in six companies were given the 'Organizational Attachment Questionnaire', and 68 percent (377) of these workers returned a completed questionnaire. An average of six to eight hours was spent in each company in observing the technological processes entailed in workers' jobs. To measure the extent of association between production-line mechanization and organizational attachment, Somers' D, which is a strong monotonic asymmetric measure of association for ordinal variables, was computed. The zero order analysis suggested a negative association between production-line mechanization and overall organizational attachment. The first order analysis suggested that there was a negative association between production-line mechanization and overall organizational attachment only for workers who were in the middle age group (30-44), who were male, who had been in the company for less than five years, and who held less than three jobs in their employing organizations. It was also found that task repetition and task simplification were, respectively, negatively related with workers' willingness to exert effort for the success of the employing organization and workers' desire to remain in the employing organization for an indefinite period of time. / Arts, Faculty of / Sociology, Department of / Graduate

The forest products industry is a major part of British Columbia's economy, employing directly or indirectly about twenty percent of the province's workforce; and accounting for a significant percentage of the province's exports and government revenues. Historically, the industry has been characterized by highly centralized bargaining structures and formal pattern bargaining between the two regions, the Interior and the Coast, and between the two main industry sectors, pulp and paper and solid wood. Recent environmental changes however, have put considerable pressure on the current system. Because of these changes employers now desire less centralized structures and more local control over terms of the collective agreement. Pressures for decentralization have resulted from a combination of world wide trends and industry specific changes. The globalization of markets, increased volatility of currency exchange rates, and the increasing rate of technological change are examples of the former. Industry specific changes include the diversification of products and markets between regions and firms, and two major labour disputes in the 1980s. These changes however, have had little effect upon bargaining in the forest products industry. Some changes have occurred, but to date they have not been significant. Employers in the province's pulp and paper sector deaccredited their employer bargaining association in March 1985. Despite this change, bargaining in the last two rounds has been done jointly, as it has been done for the past four decades. The second change noted is the severing of ties between the Pulp Bureau and FIR, the Coastal solid wood employer association. Previously overseen by a common Chairman, these two bodies are now run independently to encourage the separation of bargaining outcomes in the two sectors. The final change of note is the role reversal between the pulp unions and the IWA. For many years it was the IWA who negotiated what would become the industry wide settlement. In the last two rounds of negotiations, however, the pulp unions have settled first. Despite what appear to be significant environmental changes, there has been relatively little change in bargaining in this industry. Clearly there are forces in the industry's industrial relations system that are preserving the status quo. Several organizational forces and one environmental force are identified which are preventing change in industry bargaining structures. Organizational forces include third party pressures (specifically threats of government intervention), industry tradition and past practice, and the unions' ability to resist unilateral changes in bargaining. The environmental force preventing employers from forcing change in industry bargaining structure is the economic health of product markets in the two sectors. Not until the pressures for change are great enough to overcome these inertial organizational forces will significant change occur in the bargaining structure and patterns of the B.C. forest products industry. / Business, Sauder School of / Graduate

This thesis constitutes a sociological analysis of the establishment and operation of the Department of National Defence Relief Camp Scheme in British Columbia. During the Great Depression of the 1930s, unemployment reached unsurpassed levels, when the dependent Canadian economy could not export its primary resources. Faced with a fiscal crisis, the Canadian state was unable to support the dramatically increased number of destitute. The position of B.C. was particularly serious due to its economic dependence upon the export of raw resources. Thousands of single unemployed men who had been employed in resource industries, and for whom no adequate relief provisions were available, congregated on the west coast and became increasingly militant in their demands for 'work and wages'. The radicalization of this group was perceived as a threat that was beyond the capacity of usual state social control mechanisms. As a result, the Canadian state was obliged to undertake exceptional, repressive measures to contain these unemployed. This was accomplished through the Department of National Defence Relief Camp Scheme. Despite this extended state action, the dissident unemployed were not adequately suppressed, and the B.C. camps were characterized by a high level of militancy. The violent Regina Riot of July 1, 1935 served to break the momentum of the radical, single unemployed relief camp inmates. In 1936 the DND relief camp scheme was dismantled, and the single unemployed were dispersed. The DND relief camp scheme is examined in light of theories of the capitalist state and its role in society. It is concluded that the fiscal crisis of the 1930s rendered the Canadian state unable to mediate between the demands of the unemployed and the requirements of capital. The ensuing social crisis necessitated exceptional state coercion -- the Department of National Defence Relief Camp Scheme. / Arts, Faculty of / Anthropology, Department of / Graduate