Not Talking Union

An Oral History of North American Mennonites and Labour

Janis Thiessen

• Publisher: McGill-Queen's University Press
• Year: 2016
• Print ISBN: 9780773547537
• eBook ISBN: 9780773598959
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Sociology of Religion
• Index: Social Sciences

How does one write a labour history of a people who have not been involved in the labour movement in significant numbers and, historically, have opposed union membership? While North American Mennonites have traditionally been associated with rural life, in light of the adjustments demanded by post-1945 urbanization and industrialization, they in fact became very involved in the workforce at a time of important labour foment.

Drawing on over a hundred interviews, Janis Thiessen explores Mennonite responses to labour movements such as Cesar Chavez and the United Farm Workers, as well as Mennonite involvement in conscientious objection to unions. This innovative study of the Mennonites - a people at once united by an ethnic and religious identity, yet also shaped by differences in geography, immigration histories, denomination, and class position - provides insights into how and why they have resisted involvement in organized labour. Not Talking Union adds a unique perspective to the history of labour, exploring how people negotiate tensions between their commitments to faith and conscience and the demands of their employment.

Not Talking Union breaks new methodological ground in its close analysis of the oral narratives of North American Mennonites. Reflecting on both oral and archival sources, Thiessen shows why Mennonite labour history matters, and reveals the role of power and inequality in that history.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Copyright
• Contents
• Tables and Figure
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• 1 “I tell you these things because it cast my view of God” Narratives of Religious Belief
• 2 “Not part of the landscape” Attitudes toward Unions
• 3 “What would you say, for the archives?” California Mennonites and Migrant Workers
• 4 “What is said publicly must be carefully framed” Mennonite Memory of California Conflict
• 5 “They work with troubled conscience” Conscientious Objections to Unions in Manitoba
• 6 “It’s easy to write a paper; it’s not so easy to live” The Faith--Based Workplace
• Conclusion
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Index