Series consists of files that document the interactions between the Confederation of Canadian Unions and unions affiliated to the CCU. Topics include: affiliation and disaffiliation; organizing ; collective bargaining, strikes, lockouts, boycotts, strike support and solidarity actions; relations between CCU affiliates and other labour organizations, including co-operation, merger discussions, and raiding; dues payments and other financial matters; and conventions and other meetings of affiliates, and CCU participation.
While most correspondence pertains to the affiliates and their relationship with the CCU, a significant percentage is with officers of affiliates in their alternate capacity as officers of the CCU itself (president and vice presidents); this correspondence therefore dovetails with the nominal files in the "Officers' and Staff Correspondence" series.
Much of the correspondence, particularly during the period when Kent Rowley was secretary-treasurer (1969-1978), contains frank and detailed information on developments in the CCU and in the affiliates; evidently the geographically disparate officers relied extensively on correspondence to keep one another up to date. Series also includes chronological files of circular letters sent by the CCU, generally to affiliated unions but also including some circulars sent to the CCU executive and table officers.
Records include correspondence (including printed e-mail), reports, minutes, convention documents, organizing campaign literature, strike literature, collective agreements, addresses, applications for affiliation, charters, constitutions, briefs, decisions, awards, court documents, press releases, booklets, newsletters, news clippings, and other material. The sound and video recordings consist largely of proceedings of conventions of affiliated unions. Also included are fund-raising, educational, and commemorative recordings produced by or for affiliates concerning industrial disputes and workplace health and safety issues.
Major affiliates documented in this series include: Atlantic Oil Workers Union (AOWU); Bricklayers, Masons Independent Union of Canada (a Toronto construction workers' union whose membership was predominantly Italian-Canadian); Canadian Association of Communications and Allied Workers (CACAW); Canadian Association of Industrial, Mechanical and Allied Workers (CAIMAW); Canadian Association of Smelter and Allied Workers (CASAW); la Canadian Overseas Telecommunications Union (COTU); Canadian Textile and Chemical Union (CTCU); Canadian Union of Operating Engineers (CUOE); Canadian Union of Transportation Employees (CUTE); Food and Service Workers of Canada; Independent Canadian Transit Union; McMurray Independent Oil Workers; Pulp, Paper and Woodworkers of Canada (PPWC); Rail Canada Traffic Controllers; Sudbury Mine, Mill and Smelter Workers Union, Local 598 (Mine-Mill); United Oil Workers of Canada (UWOC); and York University Staff Association (YUSA).
Series also includes three specialized groupings of files. This structure has been maintained where it existed. The "Special Files on Affiliates" (1963-1993) document significant developments within affiliates, such as major industrial disputes, plant closures, organizing campaigns, raids, internal problems, as well as with issues affecting several affiliates or the CCU as a whole (e.g., the Workers' Memorial Day, joint meetings of the various CCU oil workers' affiliates during 1980-1981, and the One Big Union proposal of 1990). Most files in the general grouping and in the Special Files are arranged alphabetically by union name (or by a key word in the case of unions whose name changed); files of a general nature are situated at the beginning of the general and Special Files groupings.
The second specialized grouping of files pertains to the organizing campaigns carried out by CCU affiliates at ALCAN and Cominco in British Columbia. Included are files on: the formation of the CASAW (1972-1973) by ALCAN workers in Kitimat who had broken away from the United Steelworkers of America (USWA); and unsuccessful raids by the Canadian Workers Union and the CAIMAW on USWA locals representing Cominco workers at Trail and Kimberley (1972-1973, 1981-1982). The files include campaign materials issued by the CCU, CCU affiliates and the USW (1951-1982, predominant 1970-1982).
The third specialized grouping documents the lockout (May 1992 - December 1993) of CASAW Local 4 members at the Giant Mine in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories operated by Royal Oaks Mines Inc. The files (dated 1989-1994) pertain to negotiations, strike breakers, the role of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, organizing financial support and other solidarity actions by the CCU and CASAW, the CASAW Ladies' Association Support System (CLASS) and its Adopt-a-Family programme, the deadly explosion of September 1992 and subsequent criminal charges, Canada Labour Relations Board cases arising from the dispute, federal intervention (including mediation and an Industrial Inquiry Commission), and the eventual resolution of the dispute.
