http://www.loc.gov/mods/v3 http://www.loc.gov/standards/mods/v3/mods-3-2.xsd
an oral history of North American Mennonites and labour
This book investigates the labor history of a people who have not been involved in the twentieth-century labor movement in large numbers, North American Mennonites. It explores their historically-constructed attitudes toward organized labor and unions, which it attempts to understand on its own terms. Although Mennonites are typically associated with rural life, they in fact became very involved as workers in specific locations in both traditional Mennonite enclaves in Ohio, Indiana, Ontario and Manitoba, and those to which they migrated in the twentieth century, such as British Columbia and California. Mennonites in these locales found employment both as field workers for large agribusiness operations (for example, the orchards and packing plants of the San Joaquin Valley in California) and as factory hands in manufacturing firms (such as the automotive factories in southern Ontario). The late twentieth century experiences of North American Mennonites in these settings caused them to confront and reassess their attitudes toward unions. A study of these Mennonites, united by transnational ties of ethnic and religious identity yet shaped, at times, in distinct ways by their differing geographic locations, immigration histories and ethnic origins, denominational ties and class positions, provides insights into how and why the majority of North American Mennonites have rejected labor unions in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. The oral histories of the 113 Mennonites interviewed provide insight into why many working North Americans are not union supporters, and how people in general negotiate tensions between their commitments to faith and conscience and the demands of their employment. An important aim of the book is to bring labor historians and historians of religion into conversation.
Tables and figures -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction -- "I tell you these things because it cast my view of God:" narratives of religious belief -- "Not part of the landscape:" attitudes towards unions -- "What would you say, for the archives?" California Mennonites and migrant workers -- "What is said publicly must be carefully framed:" Mennonite memory of California conflict -- "They work with troubled conscience:" conscientious objections to unions in Manitoba -- "It's easy to write a paper; it's not so easy to live:" the faith-based workplace -- Conclusion -- Notes -- Bibliography -- INdex.
Includes bibliographical references and index.