Canadian labour’s position at the beginning of the First World War was weak in relation to employers. Such measures were mostly able to keep radical behaviour in check during war, but this would not be the case after the armistice. In 1965, the Canadian Union of Postal Workers defies government policies and stages an illegal, country-wide strike. It began in earnest when metal trades and building workers walked off the job in early May, demanding wage increases and the right to collective bargaining. Both the political elite and labour leaders called for some form of conscription of wealth. A Short History, Toronto 2012, pp. 2384, issued on 25 September 1918, declared several political groups and unions illegal, including the International Workers of the World (IWW), the Russian Social Democratic Party, the Russian Revolutionary Group, the Russian Social Revolutionists, the Russian Workers Union, the Ukrainian Revolutionary Group, the Ukrainian Social Democratic Party, the Social Democratic Party, the Social Labour Party, the Group of Social Democrats of Bolsheviki, the Group of Social Democrats of Anarchists, the Workers International Industrial Union, the Chinese Nationalist League, and the Chinese Labour Association. The city was essentially shut down. [33] Sympathy strikes broke out in numerous Canadian cities, but none reached the fervour of Winnipeg. As the war progressed, conscription became a necessity after the high casualties Canada suffered at Vimy Ridge, Hill 70, and Passchendaele. Cook, Tim: Warlords. ): Canadian Labour History. Labour Relations Rights (No Right to Bargain Collectively and/or No Right to Strike) 5.3 Securing Essential Services by Imposing Limitations on the Right to Strike (Controlled Strike Model) 5.3.1 Federal Public Service Labour Relations Act 5.3.2 Canada Labour Code 5.4 General Observations on the Controlled or Designated Strike Model The Alberta Labour Relations Board has ruled that health-care workers who walked off the job Monday were engaged in an illegal strike. Sandrine Rastello. This started a “feminization” of clerical work that continued into the post-war years, something that did not occur in industrial occupations. [36] Though it did not achieve labour leaders’ goals, the Winnipeg General Strike remains in an important symbol of labour rights in Canada. The influence of regionalism, like the beginning of the labour revolt, remains an area of controversy among historians. Thus, while labour’s power increased during the war, government suppression prevented major changes from being consolidated, and so the gains made during the war years were effectively lost for decades to come. McKay, Ian / Morton, Suzanne: The Maritimes. Borden had first recommended a voluntary information-gathering scheme, where men submitted information about themselves to allow the government to gauge the human resources available for the Canadian war effort. The national repression of labour radicals followed in the aftermath. is licensed under: CC by-NC-ND 3.0 Germany - Attribution, Non-commercial, No Derivative Works. In 1917, 218 strikes were recorded, in which a total of more than 50,000 workers had participated. Kealey, Gregory S.: State Repression of Labour and the Left in Canada, 1914-20. Sometimes you lay the ground work for future generations. Some historians have connected to the popular resistance to conscription to the overall labour revolt. Brown, Robert Craig / Cook, Ramsay: Canada 1896-1921. 460-461. Other accounts allege that shots were fired from the crowd or from other concealed positions. St. Croix, Brad: Labour Movements, Trade Unions and Strikes (Canada) , in: 1914-1918-online. If a union and an employer are unable to reach agreement through the bargaining process, there are a number of options available. Essays in Honour of Robert Craig Brown, Toronto 2005, p. 143. The four-day strike is broken by the use of scabs and militia. The exact impact of the war on women in the workforce is still debated. 1949 - Controversial American labour unionist, 1965 – Wildcat postal strike, leading to the extension of collective bargaining rights to the majority of the public service, 1968 - Air Canada agents in British Columbia begin, 1986 - Six-month-long strike at the Gainers meatpacking plant in Edmonton, 1998 - Teenagers Jennifer Wiebe and Tessa Lowinger successfully unionize a, September 19, 2008 - A fire destroys the historic. The prevailing opinion amongst contemporary labour leaders and later historians is that the war severely weakened labour’s cause in the immediate post-war years after minor gains during the war. Some radicalism continued after the founding of the Communist Party of Canada in 1921, but it was limited. by Ute Daniel, Peter Gatrell, Oliver Janz, Heather Jones, Jennifer Keene, Alan Kramer, and Bill Nasson, issued by Freie Universität Berlin, Berlin 2018-06-28. The first recorded labor strike occurred in ancient Egypt in 1156 BC, when workers stopped working to protest late payment from the pharaoh, Ramesses III. Ian McKay identifies the challenge of the OBU to traditional union power bases as the largest home-grown left-wing organization during the First World War. Over the course of the war, union membership expanded to unprecedented levels. Naylor, James: Southern Ontario. [19] The founding of the OBU contributed to the events that led to the Winnipeg General strike in spring 1919. Drache, Daniel: The Formation and Fragmentation of the Canadian Working Class. While by the war’s end, almost 37 percent of the Canadian Expeditionary Force had listed their occupations as “industrial”, workers at home started to strike, partly in protest of the war. ): The Workers’ Revolt in Canada 1917-1925, Toronto 1998, p. 215. The Unionist party, made up of Conservatives and pro-conscription Liberals, represented conscription, while the opposition Liberals were against it. The TLC had opposed all of these elements. Non-skilled women entering the workforce were a large concern, as they threatened the traditionally male-dominated industrial occupations that allowed unions to maintain their power within Canadian labour. The Trades and Labour Congress (TLC) was the strongest labour group in Canada in the pre-war period, but it was not a national organization. International Encyclopedia of the First World War, ed. The outbreak of war caused further rifts between these two sets of the Canadian population. Mitchell, Tom / Naylor, James: The Prairies. McCalla, Douglas: The Economic Impact of the Great War, in: Mackenzie, David (ed. • 1912–1914 – Great Coal Strike on Vancouver Island, aka Vancouver Island War - Joseph Mairs martyred - memorial cairn in Ladysmith, BC Much like the rest of the population, Canadian labour largely supported the war. Desmond Morton posits labour weakness as one reason for the suppression: Others believe the federal government used the war as an excuse to begin targeting radical labour leaders and groups. Sangster, Joan: Mobilizing Women for War in: Mackenzie, David (ed. At the end of 1915, membership in Canada was at 140,000, and by 1916, had marginally increased to 160,000. Furthermore, to strike, the union must have sought and received a positive strike vote from its members within the previous 60 days. A: Section 155 of the Labour Relations Code protects pension rights and benefits during a strike or lockout. These radical groups were in the minority, and no substantial protests developed. Labour Relations refers to the relations between employers and employees. Conscription and the perceived dismissal of their concerns of depopulation by both the provincial and federal government prompted farmers to stand for and win the Ontario provincial election in October 1919. [27] This deviates from the more traditional view that the riots resulted from French-Canadian dissatisfaction with the war effort and the enforcing of conscription in Quebec. Given its commitment to socialist principles, the OBU also favoured including as many people as possible. It has been estimated 350,000 wage-earners struck from 1917-1920. Attitudes about Women’s Making Bombs and Being Bankers, in: Glassford, Sarah / Shaw, Amy (eds. Rioting broke out, resulting in two deaths, numerous injuries, and dozens of arrests. [29] The violence of the battlefields, thought to be far away, had reached Canada. [10] This position is supported by Kori Street, who demonstrates that over 50 percent of employed women in 1917 worked as clerks. Many Ontario workers benefitted from the increase in war production, and were therefore less radical. Strikes, Lockouts And Picketing. They had complex demands across many different industries and threatened to hold massive city wide strikes if their demands were not met. Growing discontent with government repression and perceived greed on the part of employers led to one of the most violent and divisive labour strikes in Canadian history. Mann, Jatinder: To the last man and the last shilling and Ready, aye ready. In most countries, strike actions were quickly made illegal, as factory … Police officers were laid off for their pro-strike inclinations and special constables hired to replace them. Unions opened their ranks to new members because of the war. Expanding the Circle of Resistance, in: Heron, Craig (ed. The TLC faced opposition from the One Big Union (OBU), which advocated that all sectors of labour, skilled and unskilled, be represented by one organization. The issue of farm labour and conscription is not often presented as being a concern in Quebec; however, Jatinder Mann argues that concerns over maintaining farm labour were a factor in French-Canadian opposition to conscription, in addition to not having an emotional connection to the British Empire. labour dispute videos and latest news articles; GlobalNews.ca your source for the latest news on labour dispute . In 1917, munitions workers made up less than 20 percent of total women workers. Farmers, particularly in Ontario and the Prairie provinces, became involved in the labour revolt because of conscription. That led to a new round of violence, which broke out on 21 June when strikers defied the ban on parades and gathered at the intersection of Portage and Main in downtown Winnipeg. Despite this, the TLC was unofficially recognized by the federal government as representing labour in Canada. ): The Workers’ Revolt in Canada 1917-1925, Toronto 1998, p. 270. When all else fails, strike! Women were still in subordinate to men in unions and many separate ethnic and racial unions were organized. Strikes became common during the Industrial Revolution, when mass labor became important in factories and mines. ... Today, nearly 30 years later, the Constitutional right to strike came to Canada carried on the sails of Justice Dickson’s dissent. These organizational weaknesses opened Canadian labour to outside influence, particularly from American-based international unions, which led to a division between craft and industrial unions. Interesting observations about … ): A Sisterhood of Suffering and Service. The later years of the war saw a larger increase in membership: By the end of 1917, the total was approximately 205,000, and in 1918 250,000. The earlier Order-in-Council P.C. [22] There was an additional ban on “any association, organization, society or corporation, one of those purposes or professed purposes is to bring about any government, political, social, industrial, or economic change within Canada”. The ‘radical’ West and the conservative East have become sorry shibboleths of Canadian historiography. Borden, Mackenzie King, and Canada’s World War, Toronto 2012, p. 117. In Canada, going on strike was a crime for some trade unionists until 1892. It claimed to speak for labour in Canada, when in fact few workers were organised into unions and not represented by the TLC. [1] On the eve of the war, Canada was suffering an economic depression, resulting in high unemployment. When pay becomes too low to bear, options exist in the form of a)negotiating with a boss and/or working overtime, b) finding a new job that pays better, or c) sucking it up. This page was last edited on 10 September 2020, at 15:05. "Timeline of labour issues and events in Canada", Learn how and when to remove this template message, Royal Commission on the Relations of Labour and Capital, 2009 City of Toronto inside and outside workers strike, Bill 115 'Putting Students First Act 2012', Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada, "Vancouver Island War", Knowledge Network preview/summary video, Canada's Sweetheart: The Saga of Hal C. Banks - NFB - Collection, "Fighting the good fight: Homer Seguin tells his story", "1973 – 1982: CUPE Becomes a Seasoned Political Force", "Merger of Retail Clerks, Meat Cutters Created Union Exceeding 1.2 Million", "Vale reaches deal with workers at Sudbury nickel mine", https://www.thecoast.ca/RealityBites/archives/transit-strike/, Records of Mayworks labour festival are held by Simon Fraser University's Special Collections and Rare Books, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Timeline_of_labour_issues_and_events_in_Canada&oldid=977718064, Articles with dead external links from July 2018, Articles with permanently dead external links, Articles needing additional references from October 2010, All articles needing additional references, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, 1900 – Parliament passes the Conciliation Act and establishes the federal, 1912–1914 – Great Coal Strike on Vancouver Island, aka, 1914 – The Workmen's Compensation Act, the first social insurance legislation in Canadian history, was adopted by the, 1919 - Western Labour Conference in Calgary leads to creation of, 1924 - An informal coalition of progressive, 1925 - One coal miner was killed and many injured during a protest as a result of a major strike at the, 1939 - Canada Declares war on Germany (1939), August 1940 – The first compulsory national. The 1919 Winnipeg General Strike was the culmination of years of war, anger, repression, and loss. Growing discontent with government repression and perceived greed on the part of employers led to one of the most violent and divisive labour strikes in Canadian history. The special constables followed, beating protestors with their batons. They blamed farmers, who they thought were growing rich off urban suffering. There is some truth to this, but other factors more strongly motivated the protestors. 1743, issued on 11 July 1918, outlawed strikes and lockouts, while assuring the right of workers to organize. The Bolshevik revolution in October 1917 and the Russian exit from the war in March 1918 led the Borden government to introduce more draconian laws against organized labour. The foundations of our understanding of 1919 must be built on national and international conjunctures.”[20] Despite the regional bias of the historiography identified by Kealey, there were changes that had a national effect on labour. Canada Post- Strikes begin in labour dispute By Marc Montgomery | english@rcinet.ca Posted: Monday, October 22, 2018 08:55 Last Updated: Monday, October 22, 2018 09:06 A union strike happens when the union and management are unable to negotiate to meet one another’s needs. There were also cases of essentially political strikes. Some historians claim the labour revolt began in 1916, while others place it in late 1917 with the election of the Union government, the introduction of conscription, and the orders in council that curbed the civil liberties of labour and trade unions. Union membership was limited at the beginning of the war, but increased with each year of conflict. / Bright, David (eds. In response to conscription and a lack of workers’ rights, labour engaged in a revolt against employers, the war, and the federal government. Heron, Craig: The Canadian Labour Movement. Royal Northwest Mounted Police (RNMP) officers on horseback used batons and gunfire to disperse the crowd. Women and Girls of Canada and Newfoundland during the First World War, Vancouver 2012, p. 150. Morton, Desmond: Working People. Remember Kirkland Lake: The Gold Miners' Strike of 1941–42 tells the story of one of the most important industrial disputes in Canadian labour history. [7] Increased employment, especially of unskilled workers and women, triggered fears in craft unions of labour dilution: If greater numbers of non-skilled workers entered the workforce, the craft unions might lose their influence in labour unions. Heron, Canadian Labour Movement 2012, p. 47. Conflict was not constrained to workers and employers, but also occurred between labour groups. On October 14, 1976 over a million workers walked off the job across Canada as part of a General Strike called by the Canadian Labour Congress to protest the federal government’s plans to impose wage and price control legislation – a broken campaign promise and betrayal of workers by the Trudeau Liberal government. [21] Order-in-Council P.C. [9] Instead, Sangster contends, women largely replaced men in clerical work, a trend that had begun before the war. Labour was divided on its support for this measure. In Western Canada the idea of the Union became very strongly represented in labour and political movements. The slowing down of economic activity, starting in the early 1980s, almost wiped out any strike activity until the mid-1990s; workers wer… However, some sectors of labour were against war, and called for general strikes to cripple the country and prevent its entry into the conflict. The most radical elements of the labour revolt did not begin until after the war had ended. 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