Accueil Paysage Social Ways of Working: Labour and Manual Training at Canadian University College

Ways of Working: Labour and Manual Training at Canadian University College

par David Ridley

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The early academic curriculum at Canadian Union College accommodated the work regimen. The American four unit system of academic study was organized so that book study lasted the mornings, leaving afternoons free for work and other physical activities. In the 1920s, the Academy, by then renamed Canadian Junior College, added woodworking, dressmaking and printing shops. By 1930, the printing venture was commercialized. This provided work for students as printing assistants or "printer's devils"- a name derived from the earliest days of the printing press when the astounding increase in volume and output of print material was thought of as a black art, the consequence of the printer selling his soul in exchange for the secrets of the trade. Some of these students would continue in the press and publishing industry, a hallmark activity for Seventh-day Adventists who worked as colporteurs offering both a physical and spiritual health and healing message to the public. A short-lived wheat puffing industry was also established. The development and production of healthy foodstuffs is key for Seventh-day Adventism; corn flakes were developed at an Adventist sanitarium by John W. Kellogg. The technique used to explode the wheat in the basement of the Administration building shook the foundation. The school soon divested itself of the enterprise, apparently recognizing that while tumbling walls were biblically instructive, this time it was not to their favour. In 1940, H.M. Johnson became president and was responsible for adding to the land holdings of the school, eventually growing to some 3000 acres.

Renamed Canadian Union College in 1946, the school emerged from the difficulties of the Great Depression and the Second World War with a greatly expanded program of student labour. Under the administration of H.T. Johnson (1951-65), the press and farm were expanded and a bookbindery, commercial laundry and furniture factory were established. Johnson's commitment to student work stemmed from his experience at Union College, the Seventh-day Adventist institution in Lincoln, Nebraska. Similar provisions for work at Union enabled Johnson to study, despite meagre family resources.

Motivated by a class in bookbinding in the early 1950s, a student named John Bidulock assessed the commercial possibilities and by 1955 the bindery employed two managers and 16 students. CUC's bindery operated until 1980, when manual techniques were outmoded by the efficiencies of mechanized binding. The furniture factory developed into CUC's flagship industry, providing part-time employment for as many as 90 students.⁵ In 1980, Parkland furniture had 55 fulltime employees and 60 students working in 3- and 4-hour shifts, to accommodate student class schedules. Modernization of the farm's milking facilities and the introduction of larger tractors and harvesters increased farm production. Agriculture continued to be part of the curriculum into the 1970s, whereby students received instruction in animal husbandry, worked CUC's barns and earned financial credit to defray their tuition costs.

By 1980, student employment and vocational training had burgeoned. But mounting operating losses and high interest rates - related to expansion and the demands of technical upgrading - dictated that the school's industries could not be justified if it burdened CUC's larger purpose of educating students. In 1986 the college sold the press, furniture factory and its dairy and stock holdings. While control of these enterprises remained largely in the hands of members of the community and those respectful of Seventh-day Adventist observances, CUC's link with the industries was greatly diminished.

While the expansion of the 1950s greatly increased the varieties and possibilities of student work, it also tethered the college to the chain of innovations needed to make these industries financially viable. CUC's commitment to the industries was largely educational, with the added benefit of providing a system of student finance and creating a reliable internal economy for the college. Such commitments tended to mitigate business decisions regarding the industries. Consequently, in the event of reduced sales or low demand for the industries' products and services, it was unlikely student that workers would be released.⁶ Workplaces were expected to accommodate the training of students, with the pursuant turnover, while still operating profitably and ensuring the industries would not be a financial burden for the college. Inevitably, technical improvements reduced the need for student manual labour and requiring more highly trained workers. In this situation, CUC had attempted to straddle the difficult and dramatic shifts in worklife that have faced many of Central Alberta's rural communities in the post-war decades. CUC students could still obtain employment at the industries located on or adjacent to the campus.

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