Book Description

A comprehensive history of working people in Saskatchewan, from the mid-1800s to the present, in a handsome coffee-table format, including numerous historical photos of the personalities and events that bring it to life. This book is created for the working people that it celebrates. In a plain-spoken and engaging narrative style, it captures the events and the personalities that shaped the working people of Saskatchewan, and the life of the province that those workers built. Jim Warren tells the fascinating tale of jobs, working conditions, and the attempts to effect meaningful changes in the condition of workers' lives. Starting with the Fur Trade period, and moving through the arrival of the railroad brotherhoods, the emergence of the craft unions, two world wars, modernization, and into the present age, Working in Saskatchewan shows the evolution of the work force, and the relationship between that work force and both private and public sector employers. The book wraps up with a short chapter on the imagined future of labour in the province, in the voices of a series of speakers ranging from former Premier Allan Blakeney to ordinary workers on the floor of a recent sfl convention. Working in Saskatchewan also includes a number of features that will make it even more useful for private study or school work. Two comprehensive indexes detail the chief characters who played a role in the development of the labour movement, and a list of events and important topics. A series of informational appendices present statistical information relating to the Saskatchewan labour force - size of the organized and unorganized labour force, number of women in the work force, etc. There will also be ahelpful glossary of the acronyms and abbreviations that characterize written or oral discussions about labour, and a geneology of labour which charts the rise and growth of certain unions and their transformation into, or absorption by, others.