Rowley became a union leader at age 17, and after spending 2½ years in jail (1940-42) for opposing military registration, he became Canadian director for the United Textile Workers of America (AFL affil) and received a 6-month jail term for initiating an allegedly illegal strike at Valleyfield, Qué (now Salaberry-de-Valleyfield), in 1946. In 1952 Rowley and his future wife, Madeleine Parent, were fired by the UTWA for their alleged but in fact nonexistent ties with communism. Angry with American interference in Canadian sections of international unions, they began to organize all-Canadian unions and worked particularly hard to organize unorganized workers in small plants. Rowley was instrumental in establishing the Confederation of Canadian Unions in 1968 and became its secretary-treasurer. Though the CCU remained small, its critique of American unionism contributed to a spate of breakaway movements in the 1970s and 1980s.
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- MLA 8TH EDITION
- Finkel, Alvin. "Robert Kent Rowley". The Canadian Encyclopedia, 16 December 2013, Historica Canada. www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/robert-kent-rowley. Accessed 22 November 2024.
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- APA 6TH EDITION
- Finkel, A. (2013). Robert Kent Rowley. In The Canadian Encyclopedia. Retrieved from https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/robert-kent-rowley
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- CHICAGO 17TH EDITION
- Finkel, Alvin. "Robert Kent Rowley." The Canadian Encyclopedia. Historica Canada. Article published January 24, 2008; Last Edited December 16, 2013.
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- TURABIAN 8TH EDITION
- The Canadian Encyclopedia, s.v. "Robert Kent Rowley," by Alvin Finkel, Accessed November 22, 2024, https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/robert-kent-rowley
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Robert Kent Rowley
Article by Alvin Finkel
Published Online January 24, 2008
Last Edited December 16, 2013
Robert Kent Rowley, (b at Montréal 25 Oct 1917; d at Toronto 5 Feb 1978).