2. Industry and Labour

From Canadian History Portal - HCO

C. Demand For Change →→ 1. Our Struggle for Rights →→ 2. Industry and Labour →→ 3. The Canadian Industrial Boom →→ 4. Gold and Imperial Adventure →→
→→ 5. The Immigration Boom 1895-1914 →→ 6. The New West 1885-1905 →→ D. World War I

Organized Labour Emerges

Industrial workers were almost powerless to fight against the horrible working conditions of the factory system. An old British law, the Combination Act of 1833, prevented them from organizing together to improve their situation. The Act held that any action on the part of workers to assembly or discuss an improvement of their working conditions was deemed a 'conspiracy' and therefore illegal.

The Effects of Family Poverty

Nevertheless, the appalling conditions called for reform. The pay was low, conditions often unsafe and even dangerous, and there were absolutely no protections for workers. Workers could, and were, fired arbitrarily. Corporal punishment was frequently used. If a worker was injured, of even killed, on the job, there was no compensation. Because of the surplus of available labour, factory owners could easily exploit their workers. And in the absence of any government legislation, workers were virtually defenseless.

Within this context of unbridled capitalism, so-called 'captains of industry' emerged and amassed great fortunes. Frederic Nicholls, the president of Canadian General Electric, was typical of this new breed of ruthless industrialist. He was an aggressive, self-made man whose focus was on the bottom-line. Jean-Baptiste Rolland, who started as a Montreal bookseller, became a dominant player in the growing pulp and paper industry. Timothy Eaton, through his innovative ideas, famous catalogue, and multiple locations, revolutionalized retailing. Hugh Allan, well known for his involvement in the Pacific Scandal, was Canada's best-known railway promoter. The Molson family was the giant in the brewery industry.

However, as these titans controlled their various sectors of the economy, the workers they employed often suffered during periods of depression.

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The Nine Hour Movement and the Trade Union Act

Labour Day in Canada falls on the first Monday in September. The holiday originated on January 27, 1872, with workers in Hamilton, Ontario, who organized the "Nine Hour Movement. At a meeting of the Hamilton Mechanics Institute, members unanimously approved a resolution declaring the nine-hours movement to be a matter of social necessity, to enable working men to improve their education and better meet their duties as fathers and citizens.

A few employers in Hamilton brought in the nine-hour day out of sympathy, but 144 of the city's manufacturers and contractors signed a resolution opposing it in principle. Workers who pushed for it were locked out at the Sawyer farm implements plant, Wilson, Bowman and Company (manufacturers of sewing machines) and all but one of the foundries.

Hamilton Labour Parade of May 15, 1872

On May 15, 1872, Hamilton's wage-earners marched through the city, demanding the nine-hour day. They carried flags and banners, and each craft union displayed the tools and products of their trade. The parade was a greatr success, and other nine-hours leagues throughout southern Ontario sent delegates to Hamilton to form the Canadian Labour Protective and Mutual Improvement Association, Canada's first regional labour federation.

In Toronto, the Printer's Union was one of the first in the industrialized world to join the Nine Hour Movement and push for shorter work hours - 58 hours per week, much longer than today's standard 40-hour work week. The owners of the printing shops, most notably George Brown, owner and editor of The Globe, thought the demand ridiculous.

The Printers Union went on strike against the print shops in Toronto on March 25, 1872. Brown and others brought in replacement "scab workers. Brown also went ahead and sued the Printer's Union, and under the Combination Act and other archaic union laws, the picketers were arrested and jailed. Many printers lost their jobs, but after 1872 nearly all Toronto printers demanded and won a 54-hour work week.

Prime Minister John A. Macdonald saw some political advantage in becoming a champion of the working man. Plus he thoroughly detested George Brown, even though the two had worked closely together in helping to bring about Confederation in 1867.

Macdonald saw an easy way to embarrass his political rival, and on June 14, 1872, he passed the Trade Union Act that legalized and protected trade unions. Now it was no longer a conspiracy for workers to band together in order to improve their working conditions.

The first Canadian trade unions that emerged were small, local, and relatively weak. They were all in the skilled trades, such as printers, bricklayers, cigar-makers, masons, carpenters, etc. They sought minor improvements for their members in the areas of working conditions and wages. Making gains was difficult in the face of concerted opposition from the combination of employers and government. Governments were not averse to easily granting injunctions against unions or to call out the police to disperse rioters. Union organizers were blacklisted (meaning that they were fired and would not be rehired within the industry) and arrested. Especially susceptible were attempts to broaden the union movement by organizing semi-skilled and unskilled workers.

The Nine Hour Movement agitationhad a down side - close to 1,000 Hamilton men lost their jobs. By the summer of 1872 many of them had to return to their old jobs to feed their families, and any shops which had instituted the nine-hour day switched back to ten hours.

The Hamilton parade was a major morale booster, and Canadian unions began to hold yearly labour parades. Throughout the 1880s they constantly pressured the Macdonald government to make labour day an official holiday. The first Labour Day demonstration was in Toronto in 1882, and the first Labour Day (Fête du Travail) parade in Montreal in 1888. Finally on July 23, 1894 the new Prime Minister, Sir John Thompson, passed a law making Labour Day a national holiday in Canada. The first official Labour Day was christened with a five-kilometre-long parade in Winnipeg.

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The Rise of the Labour Movement

Newsboy Hawking Papers

The initial zeal for the union movement was quickly dissipated by the onset of the 1873 depression. With jobs in short supply, workers shied away from unions and were content to put up with their terrible working conditions. At least they had a job. Despite the unfavourable times, the Canadian Labour Congress (CLU) was formed in that same year to act as the political wing of the labour movement and to press its demands on government. Thirty-one craft unions banded together in the hope that there would be greater strength in improving working conditions through concerted action. However, the CLU faced an uphill struggle. The combination of the depression, severe wage cuts and job losses, government and employer opposition, the use of 'scabs' (replacement workers for strikers), and a fierce internal struggle over the issue of immigration led to its demise in a few years.

In the following decade, a new labour organization emerged. The Knights of Labour (KOL), founded originally in the United States by Samuel Powderly, wanted to broaden the union movement. Rather than focusing on skilled and craft workers, the KOL targeted semi-skilled and unskilled workers, who it wanted to form one huge union. They grew rapidly in the 1880s, mainly in major industrial centers such as Montreal, Hamilton and Toronto. Within a few years, the KOL claimed over 20 000 members in more than 100 different locations. As rapid was its rise, so too was its decline as critics claimed that it was filled with anarchists who wanted not just to improve working conditions, but also to topple governments. The Catholic Church in Quebec severely limited its following in rural areas.

Skilled workers answered the challenge of the Knights of Labour by forming the Trades and Labour Congress (TLC) in 1886. The TLC argued that the KOL, by organizing semi-skwilled and unskilled workers, weakened the labour movement. That split, between craft and unskilled workers, would bedevil the labour movement for decades to come.

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Radical Unionists

By the turn of the century, fewer than ten percent of the labour force in Canada was unionized. The entire movement oscillated between a more radical and a more moderate approach. The former was perhaps most dramatically seen with the International Workers of the World (IWW or nicknamed 'Wobblies'). They rejected the traditional gradualist (sometimes called 'bread and butter') unionism and favoured using strikes to force concessions from employers.

Although some modest gains were made by workingmen (and women) in the last quarter of the nineteenth century, conditions remained exploitative. Child labour was targeted by the passage of the 1884 Ontario Factory Act that mandated a 60 hour week for children; no boys under 13 or girls under 14 could work, and a 1 hour lunch break was compulsory. However it was sporadically enforced and violated by employers with impunity. On March 25, 1886, the TLC got the Ontario government to pass a Workman's Compensation Act. It was the first of its kind in Canada.

One of the demands of organized labour was for a public enquiry into the problems faced by working people. The Macdonald government set up such a Royal Commission on the Relations of Labour and Capital, which issued a report in 1889. Scores of witnesses revealed the extent of the appalling working conditions that were forced upon workers. The final report was a scathing indictment of the abuses of the industrial system and a demand that government take immediate steps to improve the situation. To the chagrin of labour leaders, the most important recommendations were ignored. The only one implemented was the 1894 declaration of Labour Day as an official statutory holiday as a recognition of the invaluable contribution of working people.

Labour Day was celebrated as a day off and as a workers' festival designed to give labour an occasion to celebrate its strength and dignity. Craft unions mounted elaborate parades down main streets, organized sporting and family recreation events.

Despite these advances, the plight of the average worker had not improved significantly. It would be many years before labour would be fully recognized as a credible and legitimate force within society and the economy. Still, there were glimmers of hope. In 1900, the new Liberal government of Wilfrid Laurier created a separate cabinet position for labour; its first Deputy Minister was William Lyon Mackenzie King, later Prime Minister. King had written a book called Industry and Humanity, calling for better industrial relations. In 1902, the Canadian Labour Federation was established as a lobby group for organized labour in Canada.

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The Dominion Grange

Farmers, like the urban counterparts, also saw organizing as the essential tactic for improving their lot. They suffered from the ravages of nature, high freight and interest rates, a railway monopoly, and radically fluctuating prices for their produce. The Dominion Grange championed the cooperative farm movement. They established their own companies, insurance, wholesale supply, trust, etc, to cater to the agrarian community and to the eliminate the middleman. This was especially important as agriculture was becoming more mechanized and the cost of the new equipment was out of the reach of individual farmers. However, grouping together brought it within sight.

The Grange disappeared amid internal conflicts in the mid-1880s and was replaced by the Patrons of Industry. More radical than its predecessor, it lobbied government for reduced freight and tariff rates as well as an end to railway monopolies. After making significant inroads in Ontario by becoming a viable third party, as well as in Manitoba and Quebec, the Grangers fell on hard times after their attempt to merge farm and labour collapsed.