WHEN PUSH COMES TO SHOVE - COMPETITIVENESS, JOB INSECURITY AND LABOR-MANAGEMENT COOPERATION IN CANADA

This article questions the widespread view that the Canadian and US la bour movements are diverging with respect to their strategic orientati ons (militant vs cooperativist) towards labour-management relations. F ocusing on the Canadian Auto Workers (CAW), the leading example of mil itant, social unionism in Canada, the article analyses the CAW's movem ent away from a more militant, rejectionist orientation in the 1980s t owards a more complex, cooperativist orientation to labour-management relations at the local level in the 1990s. The CAW's changing orientat ion may exemplify broader workplace-centred cooperativist trends in Ca nada that are similar to those in the US. Union strategies in both cou ntries are strongly conditioned by growing job insecurity and other co mpetitiveness constraints in the context of highly decentralized union structures. In the case of the CAW, such cooperation with management reflects a more defensive unionism that is distinguished from a compet itive unionism embracing 'high trust' managerial and 'progressive comp etitive' social democratic agendas. However, both kinds of unionism ar e considered to be inadequate, disorganized, microeconomic responses t o increasing macroeconomic coercion.