Canadian Industrial Worker Essay

The outbreak of the war transformed the dynamics, structure and objective of many large companies as they adjusted to changing national needs and industry. As evident through the corporation of the Canadian Pacific Railway, workers were directly affected by so. Many car and locomotive shops were converted to munitions productions, rail and shipping services were vital for moving troops and supplies, and railway workers were recruited overseas in the early years of the war to construct and operate rails in France and Belgium. The federal government hired technical experts from the company in an effort to boost other wartime productions. General wartime shortages of qualified workers made it much more common for young men and women to hold skilled jobs in the company, and war veterans came home to discover that others had been

Feeling “newly empowered by its role in supporting the war effort”, there was a push for more rights, first through negotiations and then strikes. Workers believed the balance of power in Canadian industry needed to change through improved working conditions, higher wages, and union recognition. An especially high period of strike activity marked the end of the war, as there were more than 400 strikes in 1919, taking place in mostly Ontario and Quebec. To list a short few of many, significant strikes include the 1918 National Postal Strike led by the Federal Association of Letter Carriers, the 1918 Vancouver General Strike as the first general strike in Canadian history, and the Cape Breton coal miner strikes of the early 1920s. In fact, strikes and lockouts occurring in the five years immediately following the war had “not only been more numerous, but also more extensive in the number of employees affected and working days lost” than any labour resistance before the