Review
UNIONS IN THE TIME OF REVOLUTION
by Yonatan Reshef and Sandra Rastin
University of Toronto Press, 279 pp.
Today’s unions are in a difficult position. Participation rates are dropping, unions are raiding each other for members, and many rank-and-file unionists vote for the right-wing agenda at the polls.
Furthermore, unions continue to be caught between the imperatives of business- and social-unionism. Taken together, these factors restrain the application of traditional modes of collective action, particularly in terms of socio-political initiatives beyond the workplace. In Unions in the Time of Revolution: Government Restructuring in Alberta and Ontario, Yonatan Reshef and Sandra Rastin provide a magnificent overview of the practical implications of these tensions for the modern labour movement.
The authors use case studies to consider the response of the organized working class to the "Klein Revolution" in Alberta (circa 1993 to 1997) and the "Common Sense Revolution" in Ontario (circa 1995 to 2001). Subjects covered include teachers’ strikes, industrial action in the public sector, strategic voting and the 1995 Alberta laundry workers’ strike. Through these studies, the authors develop a model that considers the dimensions necessary for the use of collective action outside the site of economic production – collective action that can (theoretically) influence policy development.
However, while the model is interesting, the real value of the book rests with its comparative overview of labour’s responses in Alberta and Ontario.
For example, Reshef and Rastin argue that workers in Ontario developed a more militant approach to the "revolutions" than their counterparts in Alberta. These differences were due to a number of factors, including history, experience, the impact of the broader political culture on union members and the viewpoint that Klein was a "pragmatic populist" as opposed to the ideologically motivated Harris. As such, Klein did not tamper with the industrial legality enjoyed by the unions, and his "revolution" occurred within the context of conventional industrial relations.
Harris, on the other hand, recognizing the proven militancy of both public- and private-sector unions in Ontario, passed dramatically anti-labour legislation. This challenged the essence of organized labour, and resulted in the provision of the self-interest necessary to create and maintain the momentum of collective action.
Yet, as the volume shows, despite occasional mobilizations, common fronts and days of protest, organized labour was largely unsuccessful in seriously challenging the course of the two revolutions. Nevertheless, unions are still one of the few remaining redoubts against the callous logic of unfettered capitalism. Organized labour has a pivotal role to play in the creation of a just society and, at its heart, this book is suggestive of what could be.
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