Workers Struggle to Survive

For almost 200 years workers in Canada have been taking concerted action in attempts to secure better wages and working conditions—their fair share of what they produce. According to legend, a group of Quebec voyageurs were the first strikers in Canada. They pulled their paddles from Lac la Pluie in 1794 as a protest over low wages.

Concern over the amount of wages wasn’t the only incentive for calling a strike. One potent reason was receiving the wages. In 1833 carpenters in York struck to force employers to pay them. A workers’ committee presented the case to the employers and asked for $5.00 in advance on account and the earned balance paid at the end of the month. When the employers refused, the workers felt justified in not returning to their jobs.

Hamilton, Ontario, tailors employed by Lawson and Brothers struck in 1854 against mechanization. The company tried to hire strikebreakers, some from the United States. (The U.S. workers left when they realized a strike was in progress.) The tailors eventually won out, but the struggle against mechanization continues today with the incorporation of high technology in many workplaces.

The general attitude of Canadian employers toward employees forming unions was the same as the attitude of U.S. employers: We won’t let them. One example of the problems unions faced in receiving recognition is reflected in an early coal-miners’ strike in British Columbia. For his refusal to participate in a strike against the Hudson’s Bay Company mine in Fort Rupert in 1855, Robert Dunsmuir received rights to mine 1,000 acres of coal in the Nanaimo fields. Then he discovered the Wellington seam in 1869 and started building a coal empire. When he cut wages from $1.20 a ton to $1.00 a ton, the workers struck and formed a union. In response, Dunsmuir placed an ad in the newspaper which said, in part, “We wish to state publicly that we have no intention to ask any of them to work for us again at any price.” The striking miners convinced most of the strikebreakers not to cross the picket line; subsequently, the strikers were evicted from their company-owned homes. Their refusal to leave prompted Dunsmuir to arrange the dispatching of a government ship with militia to enforce the evictions. Alter a four-month struggle, the strikers lost.

Prompting Legislation

The Toronto Printers’ Strike is generally considered the most famous strike by Canadian workers of the 19th century. Leading the group of employers was George Brown, publisher of’ The Globe, who inherited his antiunion reactionism from his father. Even though he once suggested labour problems could be worked out by “consultation, conference, mutual concession and arbitration,” he wouldn’t sit down and discuss differences with union representatives.

Matters came to a head in March 1872, when the Toronto Typographical Society demanded the 54-hour week and $10 weekly wages with 25 cents per hour overtime pay The employers, led by Brown, refused; and the union printers walked out. Scab printers were promptly hired, while detectives spied upon strikers. The Toronto Trades Assembly organized a rally on April 15, which attracted a crowd of about 10,000. Marching in the parade to Queen’s Park, location of the Ontario legislative building, were members of various unions then organized in Toronto: bricklayers, iron moulders, bakers, blacksmiths and coachmakers, among others. No action was taken against the crowd that day; but on April 16, 24 trade unionists were arrested and charged with belonging to an illegal combination.

The employers dug deep into the legal annals until they came up with a law which jeopardized the very structure of organized labour. This law, the Combination Act of Great Britain of 1800, had been used successfully against unions before. Although succeeding British statutes had revised the act and recognized the legal status of unions, Canadian law still observed its original provisions. However, the use of this law backfired against the employers. The unionists, released on bail, roused the public with a call to “repeal…any law that might exist to warrant such an unjustifiable interference with the rights of people.”

Finally, Sir John A. Macdonald, prime minister of Canada, saw the situation as a political opportunity to garner the support of the workers. He introduced legislation to revise Canadian law to reflect that of Great Britain and to legalize trade unions. Passage of the Trade Union Act infuriated employers, who responded by requiring “yellow dog contracts” and blacklisting known union members.

Despite employer reaction the printers were successful in gaining the 54-hour week and better wages. Also, the Trade Union Act of 1872 declared unions not to be considered associations in restraint of trade, implicitly recognizing the right to strike. In addition, the outcome made unionists more aware of how activism in the political arena might help them achieve their goals and inspired individual unions to consolidate their efforts by trying to form a federation of unions.