The Historical Significance Of Labour Day In Canada

Between 1900 and 1929, Canada became significantly more autonomous socially, politically, and economically from Britain and the United States; however, there were still times where Canada’s autonomy had decreased due to Canada’s dependence on Britain and the United States. Canada had gained political autonomy from Britain when it was officially and internationally recognized as an independent nation. Economically, Canada was very reliant on British and American investment. However, Canada’s social autonomy had increased because of the first world war and entertainment, like art and literature. Politically, Canada’s autonomy had increased greatly from 1900 to 1929.

In the late 1800s and the early 1900s, labor was anything but easy. Factory workers faced long hours, low pay, high unemployment fears, and poor working conditions during this time. Life today is much easier in comparison to the late 1800s. Americans have shorter days, bigger pay and easier working conditions. Not comparable to how life is today, many riots sparked, and citizens began to fight for equal treatment. Along with other important events, the Haymarket Riot, the Pullman Strike, and the Homestead strike all play a vital role in illustrating labor’s struggle to gain fair and equitable treatment during the late 1800s and early 1900s.

The demand carried by hundreds of trade unionists through Worcester’s cold streets in the winter of 1889 was the same carried throughout American labor struggles in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, “eight hours for what we will.” Equally, or in other words, logically, a day divided consists of three-eight hour sections and what countless American laborers sought during this time was eight hours for work, eight hours for sleep/rest, and eight hours for what he or she sought for leisure. This historical monograph focuses on how workers sparred to keep those eight hours for leisure and for them, what those hours signified. Centering the focus on working-class recreation in

The Labor Movement’s number one concern is to address problems associated with social inequality. The labor movement was created in order to fight for the rights of labor workers. The goal was to have better wages, safe working conditions, and reasonable working hours. Unions were formed in order to achieve this. However, this was always enough. Workers reached a point where they came together and participated in strikes which the main goal was to have their employers listen to them and come to an agreement.

We remember the strike as interesting and important because in the labour movement our understanding of the strike is shaped by organizations who remembered it for us. The strike lives on today mostly because every working-class person in Winnipeg claimed the strike as its own. People believe that the strike led to the CCF (Co-operative Commonwealth Federation) and NDP (New Democratic Party). And, although it died out in the decades after the strike, the OBU has a strong claim for a connection being that it was a product of 1919.

After the war, Canadian factories that manufactured war supplies were permanently closed. This produced a lot of unemployment and bankruptcy. The cost to live was increasing dramatically and many people (who were still employed) could not compete with the inflation.(CBC, N/A, 1). WW1 veterans who had returned home after the war found that the wages were far too low.(School Work Helpers, 2016, 1). Some people wished to be employed, while others wished for better working conditions.(CBC, N/A, 2). On May 15, 1919, metal and building workers and the trades and labor council declared a strike. In a few hours, 30,000 left their jobs to participate in the strike.(Reilly, 2006, 3). One Big Union (OBG) was designed to speak for the workers.(School Work Helpers, 2016, 1). The House Of Commons had modified the Immigration Act so that any individual who was not born in Canada would be deported.(School Work Helpers, 2016, 2). The government feared that this strike would create a revolution, so they interfered. Workers were told to either go back to work or be fired.(Reilly, 2006, 6). On June 21, 1919, otherwise known as Bloody Saturday many people engaged in a silent protest. 2 people were killed that day and many sustained injuries. Several of the union leaders were arrested.(School Work Helpers, 2016, 2). Strike leaders were afraid that more people would be killed so on June 25, they went back to work.(Reilly, 2006, 3).

Kracha portrays the two distinct classes in America as “it’s run just like any other country. In Europe your emperors and grand dukes own everything and over here it’s your millionaires and your trust” (Bell 66). Specifically, the May Day Strike where the working class rose against the owners in order to receive eight hour work days on May 1, 1886, where numerous workers left business all over the nation. Unfortunately, on May 3. 1886 violence broke out against the strikers and the police resulting in two strikers killed and many wounded. Violence also occurred in the Homestead strike resulting in “ten men were dead, seven of them steelworkers, and sixty wounded” (Bell 42). These protests by working men for their rights ultimately always ended in violence were the government had to break up the

Since this Friday is Remembrance Day, I decided to read an article about the veterans of Canada. This article was about the mental health of veterans when they return home from war, and how they need support. This article revealed that at least 70 veterans that went to war in Afghanistan, have died from suicide after their return home. In several cases, family members told the stories of their loved ones and gave information about their treatment and how they died.

Labor unions have existed in one way or another since the birth of our country in 1776. They were created in an effort to protect the working population from abuses such as sweatshops and unsafe working conditions. From the start of our Nation there were a few unions organized unions in a scattered fashion, but many were disbanded after they had achieved their goals, such as when the printers and shoemakers briefly unionized in Philadelphia and New York City in 1778 to conduct the first recorded strike for higher wages. Three years later in 1971 the first successful strike happened, when Philadelphia carpenters campaigned for a ten-hour workday. This caused the need for skilled and unskilled laborers to skyrocket during the Industrial Revolution and the Civil War and also got the ball rolling with Labor unions. At this point in our Country, there had been nothing done yet for workers’ rights, conditions, pay, and so on. People at this time saw that they could come together and do something to make their lives better for themselves and their families. Many of these dates were important in shaping our country’s labor policies into what they are today. In 1847 New Hampshire enacts as the first state to enforce a 10-hour workday law. In 1909 the International Ladies’ Garment workers’ Union calls a strike in New York, demanding a 20-percent raise and a 52-hour workweek. Within two days, more than 20,000 workers from 500 factories walk off the job. This largely successful uprising

During the Second World War, the federal government declared the state of emergency which made the Canadian government to grant the Canadians workers the same right as the American workers. It was in 1935 when the industrial unionism spread to the Canada. In 1937, Canada suffered from the great depression. This depression brought social unrest and poverty to the working class Canadians. This made the Canadian government to ignore the hard work of their labourforce for quite long time. “For example, in November 1939, the federal government introduced PC 3495, which extended the IDIA to all industries involved in war production.” Thus the order-in-council PC 1003 came into effect which granted the legal basis for the collective bargaining in Canada. The main reason for the Canadian working class to adapt to the order-in-council PC 1003 was the recognition of the union. There were many large strikes that took place before the PC 1003 was adopted. One of the significant strikes was the Winnipeg general strike that the whole world remembers. The cause that led to this strike was the employers failing to recognize a union and was under no obligation to

Over the past 200 years, there is an emergence and existence of the working class in Canada which has initiated the capitalist infrastructure (comprising the wage earners and the entrepreneurs) in Canada and also involving the struggles of the Canadian workers to claim their necessities and distress. Being the most difficult parts of the twentieth century, there had been very few people who had not been affected by the Great Depression. The working class in Canadian Society had been adversely affected during the time of Second World War and had even faced the repercussions of the War. With

Through the eyes of many, the 1920s had a major impact on Canadian history. It was a time of change and the beginning of a new era. The standard of living for Canadians was reshaped, Canada’s chief trading partner changed, and the Canadian resources grew which all contributed to the growth of the economy during this time. Women’s role in Canada drastically changed through the Person’s Case, the Federal Divorce Law and The Dominion Elections Act. Canada’s autonomy from Britain was a result of The Halibut Treaty, The King-Byng Crisis and The Balfour Declaration. The 1920’s had a positive impact on the development of Canadian society because of the economic changes, the evolution of women’s role in society and the autonomy

The major censorship and punishment of radical reformists took a heavy toll on the Knights of Labor union organization, completely setting back the labor movement as a whole by nearly a decade (Goldstein), in 1893, near the time that decade had ended, the governor of Illinois formally denounced the Haymarket case as an unfair trial, and pardoned the remaining living convicts from prison (“Haymarket Riot”). A jail pardon nearly ten years after the start of imprisonment clearly does not make up for the sentence already paid, and most definitely does not bring back the lives already taken at the hands of the law, but the acknowledgement from the government brought some peace to those still troubled by the unjust trial. The suspects can now be viewed as martyrs instead of pieces of controversy, and today the Haymarket trial is considered “one of the worst miscarriages of justice in American history” (Thale). The Haymarket Riot was a call to action for labor reformists, and inspired them to come together to work against the suppressive ways of the government and achieve their goals. Chicago proved its status in the labor movement by prompting Illinois to become the first state to incorporate the eight-hour workday (Kaster). May Day became an international labor holiday that is still celebrated

“The American Federation of Labor is an American organization,” declared William Green, president of the AFL, in his 1947 keynote speech, “It believe[d] in American, the fundamental law of the United States, the Constitution, freedom, liberty and democracy. We will have nothing to do with Communism in any shape, or form ... This sixty-sixth convention will redeclare its opposition to Communism and to Communist philosophy, and ... to [those who would] attempt to establish it among the organized labor of our country.” Though Green declared “Communism abhorrent to American labor” not all the members of the AFL were American. Indeed, Canadians and their

well-being of their country. Labor Day was promoted by the central labor union and the knights