The Break-up of an International Labour Union: Uneven Development in the North American Auto Industry and the Schism in the UAW

Abstract

In 1985, after being represented by the United Automobile Workers union (UAW) for almost half a century, Canadian autoworkers split from the International Union to form their own independent union, the CAW. To date, most interpretations have attributed the split to political, cultural, and ideological differences between the US and Canadian sections of the union. Through an analysis of restructuring and collective bargaining in the North American automobile industry, it is argued in this paper that the split in the UAW was rooted in the tensions that arose over the different, and increasingly incompatible, bargaining agendas and strategies adopted by the Canadian and US sections of the union during the 1980s. The analysis shows that these differences in strategy resulted primarily from the geographically uneven effects of the significant restructuring which was taking place in the North American automobile industry during this period.