The Winnipeg General Strike The year of 1919 has been one of the most influential years of strikes
in Canadian history. The event that occurred on this year still
lingers in Canadian minds and continues to be one of the most
meaningful and powerful effects of labor protest and the struggle of
people to create trade union rights. As it is stated it is “the first
and the only time in Canadian history that a major city was split
clearly into two opposing classes.” (McNaught, 1963). The implications
of The Winnipeg General Strike were far more reaching that just
Winnipeg alone. It is argued that: “it involved the federal state,
which threw its whole weight behind the business interests of
Winnipeg, and aroused deep and bitter feelings in the ranks of labor
all over the country. Its impact was far wider than the immediate
economic issues of the strike. In the end, the six weeks that shook
Winnipeg also shook the politics of Canada, and the legacy of the
strike is more to be seen in its political consequences that in any
other of its many aspects.” (Penner, 1975).
During WWI, which began in 1914, Canada showed its loyalty to Britain
by sending many Canadian soldiers to fight in the battlefield. Canada
was also a big supplier of ammunition and food to Europe during the
war. This created many jobs during the war and even the unskilled and
unemployed were able to find employment. Although war proved to be
go...
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...rtially achieve their goals.
Reference
Abid, May 20, 1919.
Abid., May 30, 1919.
Belawyder, A. (1967). The Winnipeg General Strike. Toronto, ON: The
Copp Clark
Publishing Company.
Bercuson, D.J., McNaught, K. (1974). The Winnipeg General Strike: 1919.
Toronto, ON:
Longman Canada Limited.
Masters, D.C. (1950). The Winnipeg General Strike. Toronto, ON:
University of Toronto
Press.
McNaught, K. (1963). A Prophet in Politics. Toronto, ON: University of
Toronto Press.
Penner, N. (1975). Winnipeg 1919: The striker’s own history of the
Winnipeg General
Strike. Toronto, ON: James Lorimer & Company Publishers.
Rea, J.E. (1973). The Winnipeg General Strike. Toronto, ON: Holt,
Rinehart and
Winston of Canada Limited.
Robson, K.C. (1970). Royal Commission. Manitoba.
1919 Winnipeg General Strike was Canada's most influential labour action. After World War I many Canadian soldiers returned home to find few opportunities, all while companies had enjoyed enormous profits on war contracts. Wages and working conditions were dismal and labour regulations were mostly non-existent.
the impact it had on places such as Winnipeg and Quebec, where the Winnipeg Jets and
The conflict over living conditions in Canada has been ongoing. Perhaps Canada’s most forceful movement towards change was the Winnipeg General Strike, during the summer of 1919. The strike was caused by the working class’ desire to rise out of poverty. The government hastily tried to suppress the strike by deporting the strike leaders, using gunfire to disperse crowds, and eventually ‘punishing’ the people by dismissing them from their jobs. The Winnipeg General Strike was ultimately detrimental to the wellbeing of working class Winnipeggers due to the government’s infringement of democratic ideals.
The Pullman Strike of 1894 was the first national strike in American history and it came about during a period of unrest with labor unions and controversy regarding the role of government in business.5 The strike officially started when employees organized and went to their supervisors to ask for a lowered rent and were refused.5 The strike had many different causes. For example, workers wanted higher wages and fewer working hours, but the companies would not give it to them; and the workers wanted better, more affordable living quarters, but the companies would not offer that to them either. These different causes created an interesting and controversial end to the Pullman strike. Because of this, questions were raised about the strike that are still important today. Was striking a proper means of getting what the workers wanted? Were there better means of petitioning their grievances? Was government intervention constitutional? All these questions were raised by the Pullman Strike.
There were several specific labor unions and strikes that affected the general public. In 1866, the National Labor Union was formed. Their main goal was the 8-hour work day. The National Labor Union did have some setbacks in achieving this goal; one in partic...
The organization of IWW was the first of many strikes brought up by Zinn. The IWW’s strike may have been one of the biggest and most fearful strikes of the time period. The strike started in February 1919 in Seattle, WA. The walkout of nearly 100,000 workers brought the city to a substantial halt for five days. The strike was quiet and orderly, citizens handled it quite well. The strikers organized milk
This strike involved the workers of General Motors and they were unhappy with how much they were getting payed in relation to how much profit General Motors was bringing in. They also were concerned with the notion of being fired with no warning and no help after they were layoff with no unemployment insurance. The workers that were still at the plants had no control over about of hours to be worked, or when the lines would speed up. With the workers at high tension they formed the Sit down strike (The 1937 Flint Sit- down Strike). The strike need to be this was for a few reasons, one, all the workers would not leave the building because if they held a normal strike then they would just all be fired and replaced with other people. Another reason was because although there was an early union that started in 1935, the United Automotive Workers (UAW), they are still a new union that did not have respect with he companies to negotiate with them. Also, by locking themselves inside with the machinery, the GM had to react in a peaceful way so that their machines would not be damaged(Rubenslein Ziewacz, 241). Another big step for Unions was on August 28, 1963. This was event was called the March on Washington and took place at our nations capital. Although many people now know the March on Washington to be about civil rights and freedom it was originally about Jobs and the rights of workers. My people gathered to hear Dr. King speak about freedom, but the Union officials were their as well supporting what they were fighting for as well (The 1937 Flint Sit- down
For instance, in 1892, Carnegie was trying to tear down unions and in Homestead, Pennsylvania decided to fire everyone. However, if they signed a contract stating that they would not join a union, they could get their job back. In response to this, the workers struck back and started shooting the Pinkerton's and it got to the point where the company called in the state militia who defeated the strikers. This was known as the Homestead Strike and the surviving strikers were arrested and convicted of murder. Furthermore, in 1894, the Pullman Strike occurred where a nationwide railroad strike occurred. George Pullman basically owned the town and controlled the cost of rent and food, so when he lowered wages and raised prices, the workers called for a strike. Eugene Debbs was asked to lead the strike leading to the formation of the American Railroad Workers Union (ARWU). Debbs told the workers to not work any of Pullman cars on the railroad. Since the railroads had a huge impact on the national economy, President Cleveland intervened and got the National Guard to run the trains and ordered them to crush the strike. Debbs was arrested for breaking the Sherman Anti-Trust Act, but formed the Industrial Workers of the World union (IWW) in jail. Some members of the ARWU were killed or wounded
The important prelude to the Coal Strike of 1902 was the strike of 1990. This strike occurred just as the 1900 presidential elections were happening (Grossman). John Mitchell, president of the United Mine Workers called this strike into effect on September 17, 1900 (Grossman). It proved effective because he had the support of most miners. The election also helped the miners cause as it brought the strike to national attention. Political bosses took note and convinced mine owners that a strike was bad news for their party (Grossman). This allowed the strikers to get the 1...
Union membership increased from 2 million in 1904 to 5 million in 1920. As the power of the labor movement increased, unions began demanding closed or union shops. The main advantage of the closed shop was that unions did not have to continually recruit new employees in order to maintain their presence. Most employers resisted any form of organized labor, and they especially opposed the closed shop. The wave of labor unrest that followed the end of the war, most notably the massive Steel Strike of 1919, convinced business leaders of the need to fight labor with a united
...s became even more desperate at the time of the great depression that ultimately led to the great railway strike, in which many workers lost their lives at the hand of the Pennsylvania militia. This act proved to be a major turning point in the evolution of the labor movement in the United States.
The Winnipeg General Strike was one of the largest strikes in Canadian history. Over thirty thousand workers and World War 1 veterans joined in solidarity to obtain the right for collective bargaining. This massive strike paralyzed the city of Winnipeg, even as capitalists insisted everything was normal. Business owners and government officials scrambled to find volunteers and “scabs” to fill in the countless empty positions. Despite all that, the strike failed. Their leaders were imprisoned or deported. How did a strike that was supported by the majority of the working class and World War 1 Veterans fail? To begin to contextualize this historical event, the general environment of fear and paranoia later labeled as the Red Scare must be explored.
The strike was a youth led campaign, triggered by the want of change in the way two major heads of the newspaper industry Joseph Pulitzer and William Randolph Hearst’s newspapers compensated their child labor force.
The Winnipeg General Strike, which occurred from May to June 1919, became a vocal point between for the clash between Unions and Government. While the strike occurred for little more than a month, its after effects were far reaching. The Strike only served to increase ethnic, and religious tensions across the prairie provinces. While this moderately nullified during the 1920s, due to increased economic activity, the racism that occurred during the general strike was magnified during the Great Depression in the 1930s. However this racism was not only found in Winnipeg during the Great Depression; it was also found in the rest of Western Canada during the Great Depression. As a result, while the racism that was found in the Winnipeg during the
On May 9th 1934 a organized labor strike started in San Francisco that would snowball into a city crippling strike. The International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) declared a strike for all longshoremen on the west coast, until they received better wages, a union-administered hiring hall, and union membership as a prerequisite for employed longshoremen. The Strike of 1934 lasted for three months, stopping maritime trade in the ports of the Western United States, from San Diego to Seattle. The clash was between the Industrial Association (IA), composed of big business and employers wanting to break the strike, and the ILA, along with other unions that dealt with maritime trades. The Strike of 1934 displayed the power the organized labor had, and how the mistreatment of labor can shut down an entire city and coast.