Working People in Alberta: A History

Working People in Alberta traces the history of labour inAlberta from the period of First Nations occupation to the present.Drawing on over two hundred interviews with labour leaders, activists,and ordinary working people, as well as on archival records, the volumegives voice to the people who have toiled in Alberta over thecenturies. In so doing, it seeks to counter the view of Alberta as aone-class, one-party, one-ideology province, in which distinctionsbetween those who work and those who own are irrelevant. Workers fromacross the generations tell another tale, of an ongoing collectivestruggle to improve their economic and social circumstances in the faceof a dominant, exploitative elite. Their stories are set within asequential analysis of provincial politics and economics, supplementedby chapters on women and the labour movement and on minority workers ofcolour and their quest for social justice.

Published on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the AlbertaFederation of Labour, Working People in Alberta contrasts thestories of workers who were union members and those who were not. Inits depictions of union organizing drives, strikes, and working-classlife in cities and towns, this lavishly illustrated volume creates acomposite portrait of the men and women who have worked to build andsustain the province of Alberta.