The Myth of Labour-Management Partnerships and the Risk to Labour: A CAMI Automotive Study

The purpose of this study is to examine and explore the level of risk that CAMI workers confront under their existing labour-management partnership arrangement. Risk is explored using two distinct categories, distributive and political. Distributive risk is expressed as tangibly substantive, reflecting the real terms and conditions of employment, and the changing social relations of production on the floor. The second type of risk is political and is concerned with the effects that labour-management partnerships have on the displacement of unions as legitimate agents of/for workers within the workplace. Data was collected using three methods; content analysis, cross-sectional survey and focus group interviews. The study revealed that CAMI workers are exposed to both distributive and political risk under their current LMP arrangement.

Johns-Manville (Canada) records, 1949-1977 (non-inclusive).

The Johns-Manville Company was founded in 1901with the merging of the H.W. Johns Manufacturing Company and the Manville Covering Company. Both companies made building materials using asbestos. The new company was based in New York, New York, and made products such as insulation and roofing materials, automotive sheet packing for cylinders, asbestos/cement, acoustical and magnesia products. Significant restructuring has occurred over the years as the company shifted from production of asbestos products to other types of building materials, such as fibre glass and forest products. Since 2001, the Johns-Manville Company has been owned by Berkshire Hathaway. The company began operations in Canada in 1918 in Asbestos, Quebec, where the Jeffrey Asbestos Mine was located. A Canadian plant opened in Port Union, Scarborough Township, in 1956, and another in North Bay, Ontario, in 1957. Both of these plants have since closed. The company currently has two plants in Canada, in Innisfail, Alberta, and Cornwall, Ontario.