Between Nationalism and Continentalism: State Auto Industry Policy and the Canadian UAW, 1960-1970‪.‬

THE 1960S WERE A TURBULENT PERIOD in Canada, as the country was convulsed by worries over foreign control of the Canadian economy and debates over Canada's relations with the United States. For the Canadian section of the United Auto Workers (UAW), which also struggled with these questions as the union faced a number of government policies designed to bolster the auto industry and solve balance of payments difficulties, this was also a decade of change, culminating in the 1965 Canada-United States Automotive Products Trade Agreement (auto pact). The auto pact rationalized the Canadian Big Three (General Motors, Ford, and Chrysler) production into their parent corporations and by 1970 the Canadian industry was fully integrated into a continental system of North American automobile manufacturing. The Canadian UAW played an ineffectual role in shaping this transformation, one which rekindled and exacerbated conflict within the membership and between militant locals and the union's leadership. Nonetheless, by the end of the decade, the union had become a strong advocate of the new continental auto regime, a reflection of the increased employment and production resulting from the changes. Under the leadership of Regional Director George Burt, the Canadian UAW was unable to influence changes in policy towards the auto industry. While the Canadian UAW was instrumental in the creation of a 1961 Royal Commission on the Automotive Industry, the union played little role in the creation of government programs designed to improve the industry, especially the auto pact. Nor did the UAW exercise much of an impact on the government's adjustment assistance plans to mitigate the dislocating effect of the auto pact upon workers. Instead, the union's chief successes in the decade, such as the achievement of wage parity with its American counterpart, resulted from the normal bargaining process and further illustrated the UAW'S failure to influence effectively government policy towards the auto sector.