The Gentlemen's strike : the Radio-Canada television producers dispute December 29, 1958 - March 9, 1959

From December 29, 1958, until March 9, 1959, the French-language television network of C.B.C./Radio-Canada was paralysed by a labour dispute. Seventy-four of the Corporation's eighty-five Montreal television producers walked off the job to protest local management's refusal to recognize or deal with l'Association des realisateurs, an organization the producers had formed in order to bargain collectively with management. This thesis traces the development of l'Association, follows the course of the seventy-day dispute, analyses the impact the dispute and its settlement had on the Corporation and Canadian labour relations. The producers' "strike" is significant for the precedent set by the Corporation's voluntary recognition of I'Association, which established "syndicalisme de cadres" or management unions in North America. The dispute is also significant for the overwhelming support the producers received from organized labour and the Corporation's unionized personnel in Montreal. The important role politics played — whether "nationalist" or labour — is also examined.