Labour and Industry
Windsor's industrial growth in the 20th century was inseparable from the rise of organized labour. While the automotive industry is often the focal point, a broader ecosystem of manufacturing, shipping, and public service sectors, also helped define the city's labour landscape. Workers across industries faced harsh conditions, low wages, precarious employment, leading to the emergence of strong unions and a culture of activism.
From the influential role of the Canadian Auto Workers (CAW) to organizing efforts among steelworkers, postal employees, and public sector unions, Windsor became known as a hotbed of labour militancy. Strikes, protests, and negotiations, shaped not only working conditions but also the regional dynamics.
Windsor’s emergence as a labour stronghold was the product of a century of industrial growth, worker mobilization, and shifting cross-border dynamics. Early 20th-century events like the 1918 Ford shutdown and the rise of unemployed workers’ organizations during the Depression, as shown in the exhibit, reflect what Morrison calls the “growing pains” of a region in industrial transition. As Price and Kulisek illustrate in their centennial history, Windsor’s rapid expansion was accompanied by deep tensions between capital and labour, tensions that helped embed union activism into the city’s civic fabric.
By the 1930s and 1940s, formalized labour movements like the UAW brought greater cohesion to worker demands, institutionalizing practices such as dues collection, meeting participation, and strike action—hallmarks of Windsor’s industrial culture. Yet as Sean Antaya’s study of 1970s rank-and-file organizing shows, Windsor’s labour militancy was not limited to large unions or official leadership. Grassroots efforts by groups like Workers’ Unity and the New Tendency challenged both employers and union bureaucracies, revealing an ongoing struggle over who represented the working class.
The 1945 strike handbill, calling for cross-union solidarity, captures a high point of coordinated labour resistance, while the 1956 Labour Day float highlights the cultural visibility and civic pride that union power had come to represent in postwar Windsor. Together, these artifacts reveal how Windsor’s identity was forged not just in factories, but in the persistent and public assertion of worker power.
From informal unemployed associations to national strike movements and later rank-and-file rebellions, Windsor’s labour history demonstrates that collective action was not static, it evolved, adapted, and often pushed the boundaries of both industry and unionism.
Final Offer , Sturla Gunnarsson & Robert Collison, provided by the National Film Board of Canada
Final Offer is a 1985 National Film Board film that documents the 1984 contract negotiations between General Motors and the United Auto Workers, culminating in the creation of the Canadian Auto Workers (CAW). This pivotal moment in labour history underscores the tensions between Canadian and American union priorities and highlights the enduring influence of cross-border labour relations; this is a key theme in Windsor-Essex’s development as a dynamic industrial borderland.