1. Canadian Union Movement ：
Our History
For: Vancouver and District Labour
Council (VDLC)
September 18, 2012

2. Thanks for the invitation!
Vancouver & District Labour Council President
Joey Hartman

3. VDLC long tradition of
demonstrating for social justice

4. What’s the purpose of trade
unions in Canada?

5. Purpose of unions
• Organize workers collectively to represent the
interests of workers and the working class
• We organize in the workplace, in the
community and throughout the country
• For better treatment for workers and the
working class by employers and the
government
• Has our purpose changed over the years?
• Let’s explore this issue during this discussion

6. How did Canadians make a living
for 14,000 years?

7. How did Canadians make a living
for 14,000 years?
• Hunting
• Gathering

8. How else did Canadians
make a living?

9. How else did Canadians
make a living?
• Agriculture: eg. Corn (1,200 years ago),
beans, (700 years ago) and squash (2,700
years ago)

10. Then the Europeans arrived in
1500s
• And what did First Nations begin to do for a
living?

11. Europeans and First Nations Trading Furs
(Mercantile system)

12. Then capitalism began in earnest in
Europe, and here, too
• The industrial revolution and the factory
system began when in England and about
when was it basically completed?

13. England, Industrial Revolution
• 1750 to 1850

14. And of course the English brought
capitalism to Canada

15. Ontario cheese factory

16. Fredericton, New Brunswick
boot and shoe factory

17. And thus the working class began
in Canada

18. What are some significant events
in Canadian labour history?

19. Winnipeg General Strike

20. Canadian Labour History, 6 eras
• Beginnings of industrial revolution in Canada,
mid-19th Century; workers united to resist
power of capital by late 19th Century
• Workers’ revolt, early 20th Century
• Organizing in the Great Depression, 1929-
1939
• Labour gains in World War II, 1939-45
• Post – war years (up to 1976)
• Labour movement today

21. Beginnings of industrial revolution
in Canada, mid-19th Century and
workers united to resist power of
capital in late 19 Century
th

22. 1850-early 1900s industrial revolution
in Canada
• With the emergence of capitalism and the industrial
revolution, workers needed to fight back to defend their
interests
• Working conditions were terrible, hours were long and
work was very unsafe; many workers were killed or
maimed
• Wages were very low and the standard of living very poor
• Work included building of canals, railways, factories
• Western Canada, heavily resource based with
– Mining
– Forestry
– Fishing

23. Loggers having lunch;
Miners in Rossland; Women
textile workers in Toronto

24. First unions in Canada were
craft unions
• Unions were organized according to workers’
skills, e.g. machinists, carpenters, railway
workers, etc. were all in different unions
• Employers were very hostile
• Governments declared unions illegal
• Workers organized unions in secret
• Wages were low; hours long; jobs were
dangerous; no job security
• 1830s and 40s huge strikes in canal construction
and logging

25. Hamilton, Ontario demonstration,
1872: a fight for the 8 hour day?

26. Nine hours movement
• In 1872 workers organized for reduction of
work day by 2 or 3 hours
• Hamilton: 1,500 workers took to streets
• Failed but did generate basis for trade unions
on railways and in the crafts

27. What happened in Vancouver
in 1889?

28. What happened in Vancouver
in 1889?
• Vancouver & District Labour Council was
founded

29. Early struggles hard-fought
• Employers threatened and fired workers for
forming unions
• Employers hired thugs to beat workers
• Governments used army and police to beat
and imprison workers
• Employers and governments used courts to
imprison unionists, grant injunctions against
picketing and financially cripple unions

30. Industrial unions began
• Organized all workers in a
workplace, regardless of their
job, race, or heritage
• Development of true working
class consciousness
• Strikes in 1880s (e.g. boot and
shoe workers) but employers
were more powerful
• Knights of Labour arrived
from the U.S. warning of
dangers of unfettered
capitalism and Canadian
workers organized, but it
collapsed by late 1880s

31. American craft unions into Canada
• By the 1890s, business unionism had arrived here
from the U.S.
• Erosion of class consciousness, protection for
only their own members
• Opposed, e.g. to establishing a minimum wage
• Accepted capitalism and its tenets. Since the
‘pie’ the capitalists allowed labour was only so
big, they wanted a bigger slice for their own
members and not to unskilled workers.

32. Canadian unions were
industrial unions
• But the American craft unions in Canada were
successful in cutting deals with the employers
for their members and taking over the central
trade union body.
• Canadian unions were expelled from the
central trade union body in 1902 if there was
an American union with the same jurisdiction.

33. Workplaces became larger
• Automobile assembly lines in Ontario
employing thousands of workers
• Hundreds of thousands of workers from
Europe, with diverse languages and culture
• Thousands from Asia, especially Chinese
workers built the railroad in the west
• But unions, to our shame, were racist and did
not organize Chinese workers

34. 20th Century, Workers Revolt

35. Workers’ revolt, early 20th Century,
inspired by Russia, 1905 and 1917

36. What and when was BC’s first
major strike?

37. First major strike in BC, 1903
Railway workers struck Canadian Pacific Rail for union recognition
Labour leader Frank Rogers was killed while picketing at the docks by CPR
private police during that strike, becoming the British Columbia movement's
first recognized labour martyr.

38. Glace Bay, Nova Scotia, 1909 strike

39. Child workers

40. Workers’ Compensation
• Dangerous working conditions led to workers being
killed and maimed on the job, including child workers
• Employers had suffered big lawsuits, especially from
the families of child workers who could not be said to
have known about the risks. Juries of peers were
sympathetic to child workers.
• The employers feared more lawsuits and thus wanted
an insurance system which would protect them from
lawsuits
• Thus the workers’ compensation system began first in
Ontario in 1914, then spread across the country
• Employers paid the cost of the system and injured
workers or the families of dead workers were paid
benefits

41. Workers fought back and joined
industrial unions
• Industrial Workers of the
World (IWW) from U.S. from
1905 on led many strikes
• BC Federation of Labour
founded in 1910
• IWW strike: 1912 in B.C.
massive strikes in
construction camps: workers
spoke up to 16 different
languages but united to fight
back and strike
• Depression of 1913 put an
end to fight backs

42. Pre WWI, depression, 1913-15
• Employers on the
attack
• Job shortage ended by
WWI but speed-up on
assembly lines
• Workers fought back
• But Industrial Disputes
Act gave power to
government to end
disputes and impose
wages and conditions
suitable to employers

43. End of WWI, workers continued to
organize and fight back
• Industrial unions expanded and some towns
experimented with one union for all workers
(e.g. Trail, BC)
• Public sector workers (e.g. postal workers,
teachers) began to organize
• Demands by all for:
– 8 hour day
– Union recognition
– Better wages

44. Who is this fellow?

45. Ginger Goodwin

46. When was Canada’s first
general strike?

47. Canada’s first general strike
• Canada’s first general strike (called a one day
labour holiday by the organizers) occurred
following the murder of labour leader, Ginger
Goodwin, in 1918, at the Cumberland coal
mines on Vancouver Island
• Coal mines were incredibly dangerous places
to work throughout Canada with thousands of
men and children dying in explosions

48. 1919
• 150,000 workers on strike in various
workplaces across the country
• Many unions opposed to capitalism and
imperialism and inspired by Russian
Revolution
• One Big Union founded in Calgary

49. One Big Union

50. 1919 Winnipeg General Strike
May 15 – June 26
• Workers demanded union recognition and higher
wages
• Employers, vigilantes and government fought them
• Sympathy strikes in Brandon, Calgary, Edmonton,
Saskatoon, Prince Albert, Regina, Vancouver, New
Westminster, Victoria, and in as many as 20 other
towns
• Police attacked the Winnipeg strikers, arresting and
injuring many, and killing 2
• Federal government intervened, deported many
strikers

51. Winnipeg General Strike, 1919

52. Women Workers

53. Women workers
• Canada was largely a sexist society which
discriminated against women
• Canadian women fought for and won the right
to vote in 1918
• Canadian women workers were paid less than
Canadian men
• They had the worst and hardest jobs and
promotions were denied them because they
were women

54. Minimum wage laws, 1918
• For women only and only in some occupations
• Men in unions were said to be able to protect
themselves through their unions

55. 1920s, unemployment
• Unions are weaker when jobs are scarce
• But when employers imposed wage cuts of 37%
in Cape Breton and fired union leaders, coal
miners fought back in a 5 year strike (1922 to
1927)
• Police and militia used against strikers
• Much public support for miners across the
country
• They finally won union recognition and restored
most of their standard of living
• Federal government forced to restrict use of
military in strikes.

56. Organizing in the Great Depression
1929-1939

57. Great Depression, 1929 - 1939
• Huge numbers of unemployed, about 30% of
workforce
• Many rode on top of railroad boxcars from coast
to coast looking for work
• Workers, especially led by Communist Party
through the Workers Unity League (1928 to
1935), fought back and won many strikes
• 1937, 10,000 workers, many women, struck
Dominion Textile in Quebec. Quebec
government enacted most repressive labour
legislation in country.

58. What happened in 1935 in
Vancouver?

59. 1935, Ballantyne Pier strike,
Vancouver, led by CP
police hunted for strikers

60. On to Ottawa Trek: leaving
Kamloops, Calgary joiners, Regina
Riot

61. Strikes in BC led by CP
• The strike wave peaked in 1935 when
unemployed men flooded Vancouver to protest
conditions in the relief camps run by the military
in remote areas throughout the province.
• On to Ottawa trek: more than 1,000 unemployed
workers left Vancouver riding the railroad for
Ottawa to protest to federal government; joined
by 1,000 more along the way; but were stopped
by police in Regina, half way there

62. Harold Pritchett (Canadian) and Harry
Bridges (US), joining CIO in 1937

63. Industrial Unionism again
• CIO (Committee of Industrial Organizations)
formed in U.S.; Communist Party in Canada
(founded in 1921) disbanded WUL and
became main organizers of many CIO unions
in Canada.

64. 1937 UAW Strike, Oshawa

65. Oshawa, 1937
• One of most significant strikes in Canadian
history
• 4,000 auto assembly plant workers at General
Motors plant in Oshawa went on strike for union
recognition
• Demands:
– Union recognition
– 8 hour day
– Better wages and working conditions
– Seniority system to eliminate favouritism
• Union won union recognition and improvements
in other areas after 2 weeks; company concerned
about losing market share

66. Labour gains in
World War II,
1939-45

67. World War II
• Labour shortages due to workers going to war
overseas led to increased power of unions
• By 1943, strikes had exploded and more
workers were on strike than in 1919
• Big successful strikes of miners and
steelworkers
• Public opinion shifted in favour of workers

68. Where’s Kirkland Lake?

69. Where’s Kirkland Lake?

70. Kirkland Lake Strike, 1941
police protected
the company and the scabs

71. 1941 Kirkland Lake strike
• Mine Mill Union organized workers
• Government ruled workers could vote on whether
they wanted a union
• Company refused to allow the vote
• Government refused to act to compel the vote
• Workers went on strike
• Government then sided with company by sending in
police
• Although strike was lost, many union leaders were
formed in this struggle and went on to successfully
organize elsewhere

72. 1944, Unions Recognized by Federal
Government
• New law protected workers right to organize into
unions
• Required employers to recognize unions chosen by a
majority of the workforce at the workplace
• Grievance procedure to settle disputes between
contracts, (e.g. unjust firings) deemed to part of
collective agreement, whether written or not
• Ended need for union to always strike for union
recognition

73. Unemployment Insurance Plan, 1940
• Because the lack of unemployment insurance benefits
was such a central problem during the Great
Depression, unions lobbied for an unemployment
insurance system
• Unemployment insurance plan, began in 1940: federal
government run, for all working Canadians who are
out of work, paid for by employers and workers,
compulsory payment
• Back then, most unemployed workers qualified for
benefits.

74. Ford strike 1945

75. 1945 Ford strike
• Context, during WWII, there was a shortage of
labour making unions more powerful
• 17,000 Windsor, Ontario auto workers struck
for 99 days for union recognition and won
• Result was the Rand formula imposed by
Justice Rand: all workers must pay union dues
(automatic check-off) and in exchange union
must represent all workers

76. Collective Agreements negotiated by
union cover all workers in a workplace
• Only workers are members of unions. It is illegal for
managers and those who have the power to hire, fire
and discipline to join the union.
• Same wages for the same job
• E.g. auto assembly workers all make the same rate of
pay per hour
• Skilled workers such as maintenance mechanics in an
auto plant all make the same rate of pay per hour
(about 10% more than an assembly worker)
• Incentive pay is rare and unions are opposed to it
because it pits workers against each other,

77. Women Shop Stewards Burrard
Dry Dock, North Vancouver, WWII

78. Duty of Fair Representation
Unions have a legal obligation to represent individual
workers who have problems with the employers, if they
are:
•Unjustly fired
•Laid off out of seniority (principle is last hired, fired laid
off)
•Not promoted fairly
•Harassed by management
•Do not receive proper pay whether regular pay,
overtime pay, extra shift pay, vacation or holiday pay
•Or for any other violation of the collective agreement

79. Post – war years

80. Steel strike Hamilton 1946
Hamilton Mayor Sam Lawrence (White Shoes and Hat) marching
in Stelco strikers parade, 1946
Strike

81. Canadian Seamens’ Union strike,
1949

82. Cold War
• Industrial unions in Canada were controlled from the
United States.
• Communist Party members still led many industrial
unions in Canada and actively and successfully
organized workers in the late 1940s and 1950s
• But Cold War politics meant Communist Party union
leadership began to be expelled from many trade
unions and leadership went to CCF ( the Co-operative
Commonwealth Federation which was social
democratic) supporters.
• 1956 Canadian Labour Congress founded from former
competing central labour bodies.
• Fights against CP leadership in various unions
extended into 1960s and the CP leaders mostly lost.

83. Improved workers’
standard of living

84. Ideology
• The post World War II period saw workers’ standard
of living steadily increase and consumer goods
became affordable
• It became harder to convince workers that capitalism
was a fundamental problem when workers felt their
lives were improving
• Capitalist ideology in education, the media and the
workplace actively tried to persuade workers that
their interests were the same as the owners
• We call this ‘false consciousness’ when workers don’t
realize that their interests are fundamentally
different from the employers.

85. CP influence decreased; CCF
influence increased

86. Communist Party influence diminished
while CCF influence increased
• Cold War propaganda made most workers
fear the Soviet Union and the Canadian CP
remained very close to the Soviet Union
• Most workers stopped feeling that a
revolution was necessary and that socialist
ideas such as medicare could be achieved
through supporting the CCF

87. Influx of Women Workers
• Beginning in 1960s women began working
more than ever before so that by the 1980s,
56% of women worked, comprising 42% of the
Canadian workforce.
• By mid 1980s, Canadian trade unions had 35%
women members.

88. Postal Workers: Women in CUPW

89. 1960s: Public Sector Workers
Organize
• Postal workers wildcat strike in 1966 led to
right to organize in law in 1967 meant many
women became union members.
• Public sector growth since WWII meant that
many more women were employed.
• Today, the largest union in Canada, Canadian
Union of Public Employees (CUPE) is a public
sector union

90. 1966 Manitoba CUPE strike

91. 1960s
• Collective agreements: unions guarantee there
will be no strikes during the term of the
agreement (usually 3 years)
• But in the 1960s, wild-cat strikes were a growing
phenomenon; indeed, these strikes accounted
for one third of disputes reported in 1966.
Workers ignored the legalities of their contracts
and struck to protest speed-ups on the assembly
line, the firing of a fellow worker, and slow
resolution of grievances or contract negotiations.

92. Improvements in the 1960s in law or
collective agreements
• Two day weekends became standard
• Two week paid vacations were required by
law
• One day paid holidays for Christmas and other
holidays, 8 per year
• Overtime pay of time and one half if work
over 44-48 hours per week

93. Social programs introduced
• Medicare, 1966: all Canadians receive free doctor
visits and treatment at hospital (note: no drugs away
from hospital and no dental)
• Canada Pension Plan, 1965: federal government run,
for all working Canadians, paid for by employers and
workers compulsory payment; benefits according to
income
• 1971, Unemployment Insurance plan greatly
improved: 42 weeks of benefit for 10 weeks of work
and 15 weeks sickness and maternity benefits added
(benefits have been mostly cut back during the 1990s
and 2000s, except for parental leave being extended to
35 weeks in 2001)

94. Occupational Health and Safety
• Labour militancy of early 1970s including many
strikes over unsafe and unhealthy workplaces led
to new occupational health and safety laws
protecting workers
• These laws are based on three fundamental
rights for workers: to participate in joint worker
and management occupational heath and safety
committees; to know about workplace hazards;
and to refuse unsafe work.

95. Common Front

96. 1972
• Common front of Quebec unions, largest strike in
Canadian history (250,000 workers) calling for
major wage increases (context: high inflation)
and improved working conditions
• Started in public sector and spread to sympathy
strikes in private sector
• Confrontations with police
• Union leaders were arrested and jailed
• Public pressure led to their early release (4
months instead of one year)

97. Wage controls
• In response to labour militancy of early 1970s
fighting inflation and unsafe and unhealthy
work through strikes,
• Federal government imposed wage controls,
October 14, 1975
• Response to government wage controls, day
of protest, October 14, 1976, one million
workers participated across the country

98. Day of Protest, October 14, 1976

99. What Unions Face Today
and What We do About it

100. Corporate
(neoliberal)
agenda
• Corporate
agenda of
privatization,
de-regulation
and free trade

101. Lay-offs

102. 1981-2 recession, tens of thousands of workers
laid off

103. 1989, Free Trade Agreement
U.S. and Canada
Brian Mulroney and Ronald Reagan

104. 1989, Free Trade Agreement
between United States and Canada
• Tens of thousands of workers laid off
• 1991-2, recession, tens of thousands of
workers laid off

105. 1995 NAFTA
North American Free Trade Agreement
U.S., Canada and Mexico

106. 1995, NAFTA, North American Free
Trade Agreement with US, Canada
and Mexico
• Tens of thousands of workers laid off

107. 1995 WTO Founded

108. 1995, World Trade Organization
founded
• Tens of thousands of workers laid off

109. Seattle anti-WTO protest, 1999

110. 1999, battle in Seattle against WTO
and corporate agenda

111. Quebec City anti-WTO protest,
April, 2001

112. April 2001, demonstrations in
Quebec City against WTO and
corporate agenda

113. October 2008 recession
Protesting layoffs in Hamilton

114. October 2008, recession, tens of
thousands of workers laid off

115. Protesting layoffs in Ontario;
Workers deserve severance pay

116. Today, 70% of workers in unions
are in Canadian unions

117. Most workers now in
Canadian Unions
• In 1970, only 30% of workers who were
members of unions in Canada were members
of Canadian unions. The rest were members
of American-based unions.
• Today, 70% of all workers who are members
of unions in Canada, are members of Canadian
unions. The rest are members of American-
based unions.

118. Vancouver & District Labour Council
• Founded in 1889
• Second largest labour council in Canada
• Represents 65,000 workers in 118 local unions
• Executive of 5 elected officers (President is full
time) plus 12 members representing various
unions

119. Workers Continue to Fight Back