Not Talking Union: An Oral History of North American Mennonites and Labour by Janis Thiessen (review)

An important, though understudied, aspect of labour history is the choice made by workers not to unionize. Flowing from her previous book, Manufacturing Mennonites (University of Toronto Press, 2013), historian Janis Thiessen presents in Not Talking Union a "qualitative not quantitative" examination of the experiences of North American Mennonite workers in several contexts in Canada and the United States (10). Locating these Mennonites in the larger context of North American religious and labour history, Thiessen's objective is to have these historical actors speak for themselves about their lives, faith, and relationship to unions or lack of one. The book certainly does this very well.

Thiessen opens her study with the basic question: "How does one write a labour history of people who have not been involved in the labour movement in significant numbers and, historically, have opposed union membership?" (3). She introduces her study with a detailed and thoughtful description of oral history methodology, explaining how the interviews were set up, which denominations were studied, and which population centres were selected. Thiessen examines the experiences of the General Conference Mennonite Churches, (Old) Mennonite Church, and the Mennonite Brethren in six urban centres: Winnipeg, Manitoba; Kitchener-Waterloo, Ontario; Abbotsford, British Columbia; Bluffton, Ohio; Goshen, Indiana; and Fresno-Reedley, California. Although she focuses primarily on the California and Manitoba experiences, she includes the broader North American story, adding nuance as well as larger historical contexts.

Chapters on religious belief, perspectives on unions, the United Farm Worker strikes, union movements and tensions with growers, and faith-based work bring the intersection of religious faith and the work-a-day life into relief. The final chapter is especially important because it reveals the unique challenges of faith-oriented employer/ employee relationships and just how tangled labour issues can become in such contexts. Thiessen's explorations into Mennonite experiences in California and Manitoba are significant for the clear fault lines on race and class that she draws on for their respective labour issues. Thiessen does well to reflect upon the work of now retired political science professor and columnist for the denominational publication Mennonite Brethren Herald, John Redekop. Her interview with him introduces the role of the Christian Labour Association of Canada and unpacks an important part of the Manitoban experience. Some Manitoban Mennonites, especially Russian Mennonites, were concerned with what they perceived to be the socialist/communist leanings of unions and their coercive nature. Although these themes could be studies on their own, this book is guided by the reflections and memories of the interviewees, as it should be, and, to this end, we learn much about the cosmology of selected Mennonites as it relates to issues of labour and unions. It is helpful to see how these worldviews were a collage of religious, theological, familial, class, racial, and experiential elements.

Thiessen observes the important role Mennonite congregationalism plays in both religious identity formation and in views regarding unions. That there is no uniform position toward unions and labour activism is reflective of this congregationalism. Even for something as dominant as pacifism, there are multifarious understandings for Mennonites. She demonstrates very well how people are an amalgam of social positions and locations where everything influences everything. While most subjects in her study revealed their views of unions as coming from their family, it is also the case that the family tradition passed down was integrated into Mennonite religious faith, though Thiessen considers much of this religious understanding to be "shaky at best" (49).

Another significant achievement is Thiessen's ability to access labour history from the position of religious faith within a tradition that has long practised an ethos of separation, or attempted aloofness, from larger worldly affairs, followed by its assimilation into the broader and urban society. Not Talking Union breaks new ground in both labour and Mennonite history and should encourage further historical projects in both oral history...