On March 27, 1912, more than 8,000 construction workers walked off their jobs to protest the unbearable living conditions in work camps spread over 650 km of territory. Their union, the IWW, organized picket lines across the United States and Canada at employment offices to stop their employer, the Canadian Northern Railway, from recruiting scabs to undermine their strike. By…
The hogg’s hollow disaster killed five workers, galvanized a community, and changed workplace health and safety laws for the better.
March 17, 2018
On March 17, 1960 five Italian-born workers were killed while building a Toronto water main tunnel under the Don River. The deaths of these five immigrant workers shocked their community, mobilized unions and resulted in badly-needed changes to workplace health and safety laws. Working conditions on today’s construction sites and factory floors, in schools, office buildings, warehouses, restaurants – any…
A day rooted in women’s ongoing struggle for fairness, economic equality and social justice.
March 8, 2018
March 8, 1975 marked the first declaration of International Women’s Day (IWD) by the United Nations, but its roots trace back to a 1909 protest in support of women garment workers in New York City. Unions have been key to changing the lives of working women – from the bread and roses movement, to bargaining (and striking) to win parental…
Rideau canal workers riot in the streets to protest poor wages and working conditions
March 2, 2018
On March 2, 1829, hundreds of canal workers threw down their tools and took to the streets of the country’s future capital to protest low wages and brutal working conditions. In an era before workers had unions, the only means available for them to protest unfairness was to riot in the streets. Today, the rights to union membership, collective bargaining…
Workers in the federal public service win the right to collective bargaining, including the right to strike
February 23, 2018
On February 23, 1967 the Public Service Staff Relations Act (Bill C-170) received royal assent after two long years of making its way through Parliament. The new law gave bargaining rights to workers in the federal public service – including the right to arbitration and the right to strike. Workers in the federal public service were organizing themselves into unions…
On midnight February 14, 1949, workers at four Quebec asbestos mines walked off the job and with that action started a major political and cultural shift not only in that province but the history of Canada. It was, as Pierre Trudeau later wrote, “a violent announcement that a new era had begun.” “What I found [at Asbestos]… was a Quebec…
Striking pulp mill workers gunned down by local farmers in northern ontario
February 10, 2018
On February 10, 1963, one of the bloodiest labour conflicts in Canadian history took place when armed local farmers clashed with striking workers in the small community of Reesor Siding – a tragic case of working people being turned upon each other, spurred on by corporate greed. A month earlier, on January 14, the 1,500 members of Local 2995 of…
Jean-Claude Parrot, President of the Canadian Union of Postal Workers, is sent to prison for defying a back-to-work law
January 29, 2018
On January 29, 1980, Jean-Claude Parrot started serving a three-month prison term for defying Parliament after it imposed back-to-work legislation on his members, who had walked off the job in frustration after 18 months of fruitless bargaining and employer shenanigans. Labour relations between Canada Post and the workers who sort and deliver the mail for people have rarely been good.…
The Canada-U.S. auto pact created the modern Canadian auto industry
January 16, 2018
On January 16, 1965, Prime Minister, Lester Pearson, and President Lyndon Johnston met in Texas to sign the Canada-US Auto Pact. The agreement represented an important compromise between free trade and providing decent work Canadians. The Auto Pact is credited for invigorating the domestic Canadian auto industry. It established new rules for the manufacture of cars in both the U.S.…
Ralph Chaplin finishes writing Solidarity Forever, perhaps the most famous labour anthem of all.
January 15, 2018
SOLIDARITY FOREVER! On January 15, 1915, Ralph Chaplin finished composing a poem he began writing the previous year while he was covering the Kanawha coal miners’ strike in Huntington, West Virginia. Despite his later regrets – Chapman was a dedicated Wobbly who later came to lament the success of industrial unionism – Solidarity Forever has become the labour movement’s most…