Formation
The CLC was founded on April 23, 1956 through a merger of the Trades and Labour Congress of Canada (TLC) and the Canadian Congress of Labour (CCL), the two major labour congresses in Canada at the time. The TLC's affiliated unions represented workers in a specific trade while the CCL's affiliated unions represented all employees within a workplace, regardless of occupation. The trades-based organizational model, which strongly continues today especially in the building and construction industries, is based in older European traditions that can be traced back to guilds. However, with industrialization came the creation of a new group of workers without specific trades qualifications and, therefore, without ready access to the representation offered by the TLC's affiliates. In response, these workers adopted the industrial model of union organization and formed the CCL as their umbrella organization.
The spectacular growth of industrial jobs in the first half of the 20th century, combined with new legislation in most Canadian jurisdictions explicitly recognizing the industrial union organizational model, lead to fears of raiding between the unions belonging to the two federations, the TLC and the CCL. Tensions were increased because of significant political differences. The TLC leadership, in the person of President Percy Bongough, had activtely supported the Liberal Party. With the defeat of Liberal R.K. Gervin and Conservative A.F. MacArthur by Claude Jodoin at the TLC's convention in August 1953, some of the political differences between the TLC and CCL began to wane. Jodoin was not a member of the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation party, having been served for a time as a Liberal Member of the Legislative Assembly in the Province of Quebec. However, after some conflicts with the Liberals leadership, he sat as an independent and then ran (and was defeated) as an independent in the general election of 1944. Within the CCL, a different but equally important story had played out. By the early 1950s, the leadership of the CCL unions was clearly in the hands of CCF supporters after a decade-long battle between CCFers and a coalition of Liberals and Communists. This CCF leadership was confident enough in its position to down-play partisanship in order to create harmony between the rival labour organizations.
In December 1953 the TLC and CCL created a joint committee to explore means of cooperation and possible merger. On May 9, 1955 the joint committee announced that a merger agreement had been announced. The terms were accepted by the June 1955 TLC convention and in October 1955 by the CCL convention. The formation of the CLC was an important step in maintaining harmony between Canadian unions by recognizing and supporting both models of worker representation and giving all unions affiliated with the CLC a pledge of protection from raiding.
Read more about this topic: Canadian Labour Congress
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