University Archives

Labour Archives

Additional Resources

About our Labour Archives

The study of labour and working people cuts across fields of scholarship from political science, sociology, history and Canadian studies, to law and management studies. The Archives holds a significant volume of labour union records, including the papers of the Nova Scotia Government Employees Union (NSGEU), the Nova Scotia Federation of Labour, the Marine Workers Federation and over fifty other labour unions. Many of the province’s major unions deposit their papers on a regular basis. These records are complemented by the private papers of individuals active in Nova Scotia’s labour movement, including Fred Brodie, a prominent Halifax activist and NDP politician, and Roscoe A. Fillmore, who was involved early on in both the Socialist and Communist parties of Canada.

Key Subject Areas

  • Collective bargaining
  • Labor unions--Nova Scotia
  • Labor and laboring classes--Canada

    • Featured Collections

    Published Research

    Apostle, Richard A. The Restructuration of the Faroese Economy: The Significance of the Inner Periphery. Frederiksberg, Denmark: Samfundslitteratur, 2002.

    Apostle, Richard A. and Gene Barrett. Emptying their Nets: Small Capital and Rural Industrialization in the Nova Scotia Fishing Industry. Toronto/ Buffalo: University of Toronto Press, 1992.

    Bell, John. "Archival Notes." Bulletin of the  Committee on Canadian Labour History 5 (Spring 1978): 6-8.

    —. "Fragments from the Lumberman's Life: Labour in the Nova Scotia Forest Industry 1890-1920." Bulletin of the Committee on Canadian Labour History 5 (Spring 1978): 19-25.

    Fillmore, Nicholas. Maritime Radical: The Life and Times of Roscoe Fillmore. Toronto: Between the Lines, 1992.

    Kealey, Gregory S. "Canadian Labour Archives: Some Recent Acquisitions."  International Labour and Working Class History 17 (Spring 1980): 42-45.

    McKay, Ian. "The Realm of Uncertainty: The Experience of Work in the Cumberland Coal Mines, 1873-1927.” Acadiensis 16.1 (Fall 1986): 3-57.

    Moore, Danny. "Canadian Labour Archives: Some Recent Acquisitions." Labour/Le Travail 10 (Autumn 1982): 183-92.

    Reilly, Sharon M. "The Provincial Workmen's Association of Nova Scotia, 1879-1898." MA thesis, Dalhousie University, 1979. 

    Stunden, Nancy. "Canadian Labour Archives: Some Recent Acquisitions." Labour/Le Travail 5 (Spring 1980): 149-59.