This chapter explores Canadian experience with the prevailing ideas on forms of employee representation. Given the importance of US capital and the coverage of US international unions, Canada saw the extension of ERPs and union-management cooperation into its industrial relations system, the former dominating. The chapter will focus particularly on the experiences of the steel plants at Sydney, Nova Scotia and the CNR.

ERPs – The Extent and Impact

The Rockefeller Plan directly affected Canadian industrial relations in two ways. MacKenzie King, who helped John D. Rockefeller Junior (JDR Jr.) frame the Rockefeller Plan, was Canadian Prime Minister from 1921 to 1930 and from 1935 to 1948. As Prime Minister he delayed the introduction of legislation similar to the NLRA that favoured collective bargaining between employers and unions. The Wartime Labour Regulations Act of 1944, which was modelled on the NLRA, did not explicitly ban non-union forms of representation. The Rockefeller family also had the controlling interest in the Imperial Oil Company (IOC), which adopted the Rockefeller Plan in 1919 to reduce labour unrest and prevent unionisation. As with the CF&I plan, while the IOC claimed its plan did not discriminate against individuals who were union members, the plan aimed to maintain an “open shop.” It was part of a package that included pension benefits and a share purchase plan. By February 1921 there were 14 IOC plant councils and the company claimed that 235 issues had been settled satisfactorily, including 35 relating to wages and 58 relating to questions of sanitation, housing and social matters.

Wartime labour shortages enhanced the power of Canadian unions and their membership grew from 160,000 in 1916 to 378,000 in 1919. There was a surge of industrial unrest in 1917 with 1,123,916 striker days lost. The reasons for the discontent included inflation and demands for shorter hours. The popularity of the appeals for labour solidarity and mutual support encouraged employers to seek forms of workplace organisation that would insulate workers in each establishment from those in others, such as ERPs.