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This paper examines the political history of the failed struggle to require companies to justify their plant closing decisions in Canada's industrial heartland of Ontario. Demands for the public review of plant closing decisions began, locally, in the auto town of Windsor in the 1950s and 1960s and reached Toronto with the closure of Dunlop Tire in 1970. Another wave of closures struck in 1980, this time reaching deep into rural and small-town Ontario as well as larger industrial towns and cities, generalizing concern. The resulting Select Committee on Plant Shutdowns and Employee Adjustment, created by the Ontario legislature, took it upon itself to conduct the kind of public review of recent closures that was long demanded. Due to the strength of the political opposition to any interference with management rights, it was essential that proponents could point to precedents in Western Europe. Trade unionists also grounded their argument in favour of government regulation in the moral economy idea that long-service workers accrued a proprietary right to their jobs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents information on various developments related to labor. The State Historical Society of Wisconsin will record the oral history of the United Packinghouse Workers of America with the help of an NEH grant. Under the direction of Society Archivist Jim Cavangah, some 200 hours of interviews will be taped with union members throughout the Midwest. The Society is also the official repository of the records of the UCPWA, which is now part of the United Food and Commercial Workers Union. The Archives of Labor and Urban Affairs at Wayne State University has opened several collections relating to the history of American radicalism since the publication of its catalog in 1974. The University of Louisville, Kentucky Archives has published a microfilm edition of the City of Louisville Municipal Reports. This complete set covering the years 1866-1916 includes information of interest to labor and urban historians and costs $640. The Sixth Conference on Workers and their Communities will be held May 9-11, 1986 at the University of Ottawa, Ontario and will focus on the theme Confronting the Crisis: Struggles in Work, Communities, and the Public Sector.