The collection consists of copies and a small number of photographs of political cartoons dealing with Canadian and international events that took place from 1759 to 2006. Canadian topics include conscription, immigration, French-language rights, native self-government, imperialism, nationalism, labour conditions, women’s suffrage, and prohibition. The cartoons deal with, among many other topics, the Sino-Japanese War of 1894, the French conquest of Algeria, the Cold War, the war in Vietnam, and World Wars I and II. Publication dates of the newspapers and magazines from which the collection was copied range from 1846 to 2006. Dates of the events covered by the cartoons range from the mid-eighteenth century to 2006.

The collection reflects the many aspects of the Canadian Farmworkers Union’s organization and its actions, including unionizing workers and certifying workplaces, advocating for workers’ rights, providing ESL classes and other educational programs, and speaking out on behalf of other workers’ rights and social rights in Canada and around the world. Records include administrative documents, financial records, internal and external correspondence, reference material on a variety of subjects, publications, and numerous photographs of events and activities.

The majority of the material in the collection was created or received by the CFU in the course of its work, but some material, such as the Charan Gill photographs and Craig Berggold book research records, was created by others in relation to the CFU.

The collection has been arranged into nine series: Administrative records (1974-2010); Event photographs ([198--1985]); Union action records ([1978]-1997); Programming and project records ([1965]-Printed 2013 (originally created 1986)); Research and advocacy records ([197-]-2011); Deol Society records (1977-1998); Canadian Farmworkers Union Ontario photographs and administrative records ([1979?]-1983); Charan Gill photographs ([199-]); and Craig Berggold book research records ([201-]-2013).