The Canada we know was not built by thepoliticians, soldiers and businessmen who populate

our history books. Our country was built on the toil andsweat of people who cleared forests, tilled fields, builtcanals, railways and cities and laboured in our factories andresource industries. When we study the lives andexperiences of these people, we rediscover our own roots.

If Canada could be advertised as “the best poor man’scountry”, it was because hard labour was often the mainfactor in exploiting the countries resources. The fisheryand the fur trade, farming and lumbering depended onback-breaking and often dangerous work which onlysettlers and their families would perform. Relativelyspeaking, manual labour was scarce and commanded apremium. In neither the French nor the British regimesdid it command social respectability or economic security.In an immigrant society, the supply of skilled workers washaphazard and undependable, raising the wage they mightclaim, but equally heightening the incentive for theirdisplacement by technological innovation.

Early unions, on the wharves of Halifax, Saint John and

Quebec during the War of 1812, existed to profit fromlabour scarcity. Others, such as the Montreal shoemakersor the Toronto printers of the 1830's, reflected theconcern of skilled workers to protect their craft and statusfrom being undermined. A persistent common factor wasthe creation of a benevolent fraternity against thedisasters of unemployment, illness and a pauper’s funeral.Yet, as many early labour historians indicate, the benefitsof organization were reserved for the lucky and few.

Before 1859, all the unions seem to have been purelylocal, except for the Amalgamated Society of Engineers(ASE), a British union that established its first Canadianbranch in Montreal in 1853, a second in Hamilton in1857, and two more (Toronto and Brantford) in 1858. Butfrom 1859 on, Canadian unionism became steadily moreand more “international”; that is, more and more of itsmembers belonged to unions with their headquarters andthe bulk of their membership in another country.

The ASE was followed during the 1860's by severalorganizations with headquarters in the United States -such as Moulders (1859), the Locomotive Engineers(1864), the Typographical Union (1865), the Knights ofSt. Crispin [shoemakers] (1868) and the Cigar Makers(1869); the Coopers also may have arrived before 1871,the Bricklayers and Masons (1872), the LocomotiveFiremen (1876), the Knights of Labor (1879), the Railwayconductors (1881), the American Brotherhood ofCarpenters (1882), the Railroad Trainmen (1885) and thePainters and Decorators (1887). British and Americanimmigrants brought some of these unions with them;others were invited by Canadian localunions that wanted to be part ofsomething bigger and stronger and whosemembers wanted to be able to move freelyto jobs in the United States when times werehard in Canada. Nevertheless, during the 1860's,1870's and 1880's, Canadian workers continuedto form purely local or provincial unions.

For many years thesevarious unions, even inthe same city or town,had very little to dowith each other.But in December 1863,several Hamiltonunions formed a

CANADIAN LABOURHISTORY

central Trades Union or Trades Assembly, a body made up ofdelegates from the constituent unions, which lasted till atleast 1875. In 1871, five craft unions formed the TorontoTrades Assembly (1871-78), the Ottawa Trades Council(1872-76) and the St. Catharines Trades Assembly (1875).In 1873, moreover, the Toronto Assembly called a nationalconvention. By that time, there must have been upwardsof a hundred unions in the country but the convention haddelegates from only 31 locals of 14 unions, all in Ontario(although the Typographical Unions in Montreal and Quebecsent letters of approval). This convention set up the firstnational central organization, the Canadian Labour Union,which met again in 1874, 1875, 1876 and 1877. Thedepression of the 1870's, however, was fatal to both thelocal and national central bodies, although many of thelocal unions, especially the branches of the internationals,survived.

Another start was made in 1883 and three years laterthis organization became the Trades and Labor Congress ofCanada (TLC), which was one of the forerunners of thepresent Canadian Labour Congress, now the major nationallabour organization in Canada. What are now known asLabour councils were cropping up in various areas, bringingtogether the unions in a particular community. At a laterstage, provincial Federations of Labour were formed,performing the same function on a provincial level.

Meanwhile, the infant Canadian labour movement hadwon a resounding and decisive legislative victory in theToronto printers’ strike of 1872, part of the nine-hoursmovement. Most of the Toronto master-printers, headedby George Brown of the Globe, were fiercely anti-union.They had 13 leading members of the Typographical Unioncommittee arrested on a charge of seditious conspiracy.Labour had assumed unions were lawful but it now foundthey were not. British Acts freeing them of their CommonLaw disabilities did not extend to Canada so that Ontariounions in 1872 were in the same legal position as Britishunions in 1791. They promptly set to work to getCanadian legislation to match the British. Sir John A.MacDonald, delighted at the opportunity to “dish theLiberals” with two pieces of legislation, lost no time inpassing through the Dominion Parliament a Trade UnionsAct and a Criminal Law Amendment Act (1872) modelledon the British Acts of the previous year. This was the firstbig piece of successful political action by Canadian unions.The prosecution was dropped and the strike was won.

With the adoption of the National Policy (1879) and theconstruction of the Canadian Pacific Railway (1881-85),Canadian industry began to revive and grow and the unionsrevived and grew with it. Some of these early unions wereprincipally craft unions which were not interested inrocking the boat in any terms of social change. Theyadjusted themselves to the status quo. They were what

are called today “bread-and-butter unions”.

But there were also differences among some of thesesmall Canadian unions. At no time were all Canadiantrade unionists concerned with “bread-and-butter” or“business” unionism to the exclusion of an active interestin progressive social policies which would benefit thecommunity as a whole, or of support for a political partywhich would give priority to such policies. Small as theywere in the early days, Canadian unions were in theforefront of the battle for social benefits such as old agepensions and unemployment insurance.

But the most spectacular feature of the 1880's was theappearance and the growth of the Knights of Labor.Actually, the Knights (which started in the United Statesbut spread to Canada, Britain, Belgium, Australia and NewZealand) began in Hamilton in the fall of 1881. Within adecade they had organized well over 300 Local Assembliesin more than 100 cities, towns and villages in everyprovince except Prince Edward Island and what is nowSaskatchewan. Many of these were short-lived, fewsurviving the turn of the century, but by 1887 there musthave been close to 200.

What is more, the Knights were mainly responsible forthe organization of the unskilled, men and women (ofwhich there had previously been very little) and of smalltown workers. Nor did they neglect the skilled. Theirfirst big effort in Canada was organizing 30 LocalAssemblies of telegraphers, from Winnipeg to NorthSydney, as part of their “National Trade District 45,United Telegraphers of North America”. This body, inthe summer of 1883, conducted the one genuinelyinternational strike in North American history, against thebig telegraph companies on both sides of the border. Thestrike failed and the Canadian Telegraphers’ Assembliesdisappeared but the Knights went on to organize almostevery conceivable craft, from carpenters to watchcasemakers, from stonecutters to musicians.

With the first burst of organizingactivity came a revival of the centralorganizations, both local and national.Significantly, the new local central bodies almostinvariably called themselves “Trades and LabourCouncils”; the “trades” were making room forthe unskilled.

As time went on, unionrights began to becircumscribed - theright to strike, picketand boycott - withno comparableobligation on employersto recognize unions

or bargain with them. Unions had little or no protectionagainst offensive or retaliatory actions by employers, suchas firing or blacklisting union members and hiringstrikebreakers.

Between 1901 and 1913 workers were involved in 14large strikes across Canada in which violence in some formoccurred. In 11 of those strikes, the militia or regularmilitary forces were used. The law placed a higherpriority on property rights and right of an employer tocarry on operations withoutinterference than it did on the rightsof workers to organize for collectivebargaining and to protect their jobs.

In addition to strikebreakers,employers were allowed to hirespecial armed guards, supplementingregular police, to protect theirproperty. Often local and provincialauthorities read the Riot Act orproclaimed Martial Law, bannedpublic meetings and brought inmilitia or regular units of thearmy.

Meanwhile the Trades and LaborCongress was made upoverwhelmingly of internationalunions and never faltered in itsallegiance to internationalunionism. By 1902, it had thrown out allorganizations “dual to” (rivals of) TLC unions, includingthe Knights of Labor. The TLC knew that, in mostindustries, international unions had the staff, experienceand money to do the job that had to be done.

The unions expelled by the TLC in 1902 promptly formedthe National Trades and Labour Congress of Canada, which,in 1908, became the Canadian Federation of Labour and in1910 took in the Provincial Workmen’s Association of NovaScotia (which has never affiliated with the TLC). In 1919,just after the Winnipeg general strike and partly as a resultof its failure, many western unionists, attracted byrevolutionary industrial unionism, broke away from the TLCand the established international unions and formed theOne Big Union (OBU), which for a time threatened to takeaway a large proportion of the TLC’s membership on thePrairies and in British Columbia. Though the OBU peteredout, its existence pointed to the inadequacy of the TLCstructure to meet the needs of growing numbers ofunskilled and semi-skilled workers in new mass productionindustries. Between 1901 and 1921, small Roman Catholicunions (some of them perhaps former Knights of LaborAssemblies) sprang up in Quebec under the fostering careof the hierarchy and church and in 1921 formed theCanadian and Catholic Confederation of Labour (CCCL).

In 1927, the Canadian Federation of Labour and othernational unions (notably the Canadian Brotherhood ofRailway Employees, which had entered the TLC in 1917 andhad been expelled from it in 1921) formed the All CanadianCongress of Labour (ACCL), dedicated to industrial andnational unionism. By 1935, purely Canadian unions ofone kind or another, including the Communist Workers’Unity League, made up nearly half the total unionmembership in Canada. Two camps had now emerged. TheACCL were all-inclusive industrial unions while the TLC were

in the main restricted to the skilled crafts.

In 1929 came the Stockmarket Crash and theDepression. The Depression wenton for most of ten years and theranks of the unemployed grew torecord levels. Governments hadlittle sympathy for theunemployed or strikers who werecombatting rampant wage cuts andintolerable working conditions. Theunemployed growing increasinglyfrustrated by government inaction“rode the rails” from B.C. hoping toget to Ottawa to protest thepolicies of the Bennett ConservativeGovernment. The government calledout the RCMP to brutally suppressthe On to Ottawa Trek. Unemployedworkers were shot or and sent backto relief camps. However, the seeds of

protest were planted.

During this time the great debate in the United Stateswas over the merits of organizing by industry (like GeneralMotors) or by crafts. The workforce of unskilled workers inmass production industries was expanding rapidly and wasready to be organized. The American Federation of Labordid not believe in organizing unskilled workers intoindustrial unions. Like the previouslymentioned OBU and ACCL, the newlyformed Congress of Industrial Organizations(CIO) arose to organize and represent theseworkers. This American division was reflected inCanada where the industrial environment waschanging in ways similar to that of the UnitedStates.

The Trades and LabourCongress of Canada wasreluctant to expel theCanadian branches ofthe CIO unions butthe American Federationof Labor was adamant.

Photo courtesy of Saskatchewan Archives

Faced with a virtual ultimatum from the AFL unions (whoseCanadian membership was far larger), it really had nochoice and in 1939 the Canadian CIO unions were expelled.

Nothing had transformed the lives of working peoplemore than unions. A series of wartime clashes, culminatingin a wildcat strike of steelworkers early in 1943, togetherwith a dramatic growth of support for the democraticsocialist Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF), wonCanadian unionists what American unionshad achieved under theWagner Act of 1935. PrivyCouncil Order 1003, knownas P.C. 1003, proclaimed inFebruary 1944, finallycreated the machinerynecessary to enforce aworker’s right to choose aunion, to impose collectivebargaining and a grievanceprocedure and to curb unfairpractices by unions andmanagement.

While some provinces hadalready come close to suchprovisions, P.C. 1003 provided anenduring basis for industrialrelations in the federal and mostprovincial jurisdictions. It wassoon reinforced at the end of 1945by the Rand Formula, a solution toa dispute between the Ford MotorCo. and the United Auto Workerswhich decreed that if a worker madeunion wages and enjoyed union benefits, they had to paydues. By imposing a form of agency shop, Mr. Justice IvanRand gave a powerful impetus to a compromise solution onthe issue of union security.

The postwar union pattern was further established by aseries of strikes in 1946 and 1947. With boomingmarkets, even powerfully anti-union corporationsconcluded that compromise was preferable when marketswere suddenly so good. In turn, union wage scales (andtheir reflection in non-union areas) helped expand theeconomy. By the 1950's, almost a third of Canadianworkers were unionized, covering almost all the resourceand manufacturing industries. Non-union firms had tomatch wages and conditions in unionized competitors inorder to keep their workers.

Despite stumbles in 1949, Canadians could easilybelieve that their prosperity was permanent. Pensionsand health insurance plans became as routine asownership of a home, a car and even a cottage and a boat.

Certainly unions experienced long strikes but the violenceof earlier years was rare, and defeats, such as Murdochvillein 1957 or the Newfoundland Loggers’ strike of 1959, wereunusual and often avenged by subsequent victory.

On the organizational side, the first step toward unityamong unions, paradoxically, created the first effective

opposition to the TLC. TheACCL and the expelled CanadianCIO Committee agreed to uniteinto the Canadian Congress ofLabour (CCL), which was setup in 1940 with completeautonomy not only for itselfbut for the Canadianbranches of CIO unions.Contrary to mostexpectations, this newCongress not only survivedbut grew and becamestrong, organizing massproduction industries andpioneering in labourresearch, workers’education and labourpublic relations.

For the next 15 yearsboth the TCL and CCLpassed resolutionsalmost every year infavour of unity and,

from 1948 on, joint action on variousmatters became increasingly common. But as long as thetwo American central bodies were at loggerheads theirCanadian counterparts could make little progress towardsreunion because of the provisions of the TLC Constitutionwhich, in effect, forbade it to affiliate any union “dual”to an AFL union. Once the Americans agreed to discussunity, this blockage disappeared.

By the end of 1953 the two CanadianCongresses had appointed a joint UnityCommittee, which first (1954) drew up a “No-raiding Agreement” (under which unions of therival organizations agreed not to try to steal eachothers’ members) and in 1955 a “MergerAgreement”. After ratification by the twoCongress conventions, theMerger Agreement cameinto force and thefounding conventionof the unitedCanadian LabourCongress (CLC) tookplace in April 1956.

Historically, political action has always been one of themost important subjects facing the Canadian labourmovement. The reform of provincial labour laws was a toppriority and some early unions viewed political action as ameans to rectify these problems. Some unions, however,did not hold this view and many of the deep splits withinthe central labour bodies over the years can be attributedin part to differing union philosophies and politicalaction.

In 1956, the Canadian Labour Congress, at its firstconvention, adopted a compromise policy on politicalaction between its CCL and TLC factions, leaving itsprovincial federation, its local councils and, ofcourse, its autonomous affiliated unions free tofollow whatever line they saw fit. It alsoauthorized its Political Education Committee toinitiate discussions with other free tradeunions, the principal farm organizations, the co-operative movement, the CCF and “other partiespledged to support the legislative programme” ofthe Congress, in order “to explore and developco-ordination of action in the legislative andpolitical field”.

Nothing much came of this until after the GeneralElection of 1958, when the Congress invited the samegroups to enter discussions looking to the formation ofa new political party. The farm organizations and the co-operatives (mainly farmer) declined; but the CCFaccepted. In 1961, the CLC and the CCF, with a variety ofsympathizers, organized in “New Party Clubs” andfunded the New Democratic Party.

The Congress did not itself affiliate with the new party(although a number of its unions, with some 200,000members, did). It remains an independent national tradeunion centre. Indeed, it is hardly too much to say thatthe founding of the New Democratic party represents thetriumph of the British tradition of direct political actionbrought to Canada by British working-class immigrantsover the non-partisan AFL tradition. It is one of themarks of the independence of the Canadian labourmovement from the American.

By 1979, CLC and affiliate union support (mainly fromthe old CCL unions) gave greater commitment andresources to the NDP. This did not sit well with thevestiges of the craft unions whose political actionphilosophy mirrored the American trade union vision ofpolitical action which is not ideologically based. Thisschism was one of the deep-rooted reasons which led tothe conflict and expulsion of the building trades (crafts)from the CLC in the early 1980's.

The history of unionism is a triumph for working

people. In 1911 there were only 133,000 union membersin Canada and at the outbreak of the First World War, stillonly 166,000. By 1919, the number had more thandoubled to 378,000; by 1924, it had sunk to 261,000, andby 1932, it had recovered to 322,000. The Depression cutit back to 281,000, but by 1938, it was slightly higherthan in 1919. During the Second World War, the immensenew industrial development and the organization of themass production industries again more than doubled thepre-war figure, and in 1949 membership passed the1,000,000-mark. From 1958 to 1964, total union

membership was almost stationary; but in1965, it started to rise again substantially.This period saw the unionization of most ofthe public sector government workers at themunicipal, provincial and federal levels ofgovernment and significantly expanded theranks of the trade union movement. Many ofthese new members were women who facedmajor inequities in pay and workingconditions.

These problems led to a huge increase in thenumber of work stoppages. By 1969, the recordfor industrial conflict was broken as governmentstatistics reported that almost eight million

person-days were lost in work stoppages. The main issuein most of them was money, as workers tried to make upfor diminished purchasing power and to cover anticipatedprice rises and galloping inflation.

As well, governments also began to impose back-to-worklegislation, compulsory arbitration and other stranglinglegislation on its employees in a bid to control any furthergrowth and influence of its public sector unions.

This era also brought a major expansion of Canada’s socialwelfare programs with the implementation of a nation widemedicare program, Canada Pension Plan, Old Age IncomeSecurity, improved Unemployment Insurance benefits thatnow included benefits for sick time andmaternity leave and cost sharedprovincial/federal social programs. Thisperiod was marked by many gains, both atthe bargaining table and in the political arena, byboth public and private sector unions.

In 1972, the unions in Quebec cametogether in solidarity against theBourassa Liberalgovernment. Theyformed a CommonFront group that ledpublic sector workerson one of the largestprovince wide strikesever seen. It was

ended after the government imposed legislation,injunctions and fines on the unions and jail terms for someof the leadership when these measures were defied by theworkers. In most cases, the unions’ contract demands weremet by the government.

By the mid 1970's, both the political climate and theeconomy had changed dramatically. Unions wereincreasingly militant in their demands and in protectingrights already won at the bargaining table. There were anumber of significant strikes and protests during thisperiod beginning with the Fleck and Inco strikes inOntario. The Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW)were threatened with back to work legislation before theywent on strike and their leader Jean-Claude Parrot wasjailed for refusing to order his members back to work.Government attacks continued, as provincial and federalgovernments were determined to limit the scope ofunions’ power at the bargaining table. The Liberalgovernment of Pierre Trudeau introduced wage and pricecontrols as a way of fighting rising inflation rates and thisangered workers. This was a historic step by the federalgovernment because it imposed limits on unions’ abilitiesto negotiate wages. This intrusion by the government wasa fundamental interference in the rights of workers andundercut free collective bargaining. As well, price controlswere not as effective as wage controls and this furtherangered workers.

In response, on October 14, 1976, the CLC led Canada’sfirst national day of protest against wage and pricecontrols and the Trudeau government. Wage and pricecontrols were lifted in 1978, but workers had lost muchearning power during this period. However, the labourmovement was to fundamentally change its approach toinfluencing the government from this time onward bybeing involved more in political action, both electorallyand in broader social movements.

In the 1980's, there were several significant actionstaken by different unions. Federal government clerksrepresented by the Public Service Alliance of Canada(PSAC) were mostly women and very poorly paid. Thegovernment would not recognize the systemic inequalitiesin pay and conditions for women and the clerks went onstrike in 1980 . This strike was one of many that focusedon pay and benefit inequities faced by women workers.This became a major issue for unions and the women’smovement in the coming years. In several other disputes,the United Autoworkers (UAW) members occupied theHoudaille (Oshawa) and Benedix (Windsor) plants asmanagement had decided to close them. Although theHoudaille plant still closed, the workers were able toincrease their severance and pensions payouts. Thesedisputes prompted the provincial government in Ontarioand other provinces to legislate better severance pay

protection for workers facing plant closures.

By 1981 the Canadian economy was in a recession andsuffered from very high interest and inflation rates. OnNovember 21, 1981, the CLC led the largest labour rally inCanadian history, to protest the government’s monetarypolicy. Unions took the position that they would not payfor the bad economic policies of the federal governmentand refused to accept concessions. There was a deliberateattack and scapegoating of unions by governments andthe business community. This attack was carried out inseveral ways.

Right wing provincialgovernments across thecountry brought in legislationthat restricted or deniedworkers the right to strike orbargain fairly. In 1982, thefederal government continuedits interference in collectivebargaining and brought inlegislation that restrictedwage increases to 6 and 5percent per year respectively.Most provincial governmentsimplemented similar formsof legislation and thispattern was followed byemployers as well. Inresponse, there was a highdegree of militancy amongstmembers and many strikes took place.

In 1983, the right wing Social Credit government ofB.C.’s Bill Bennett introduced 26 regressive bills thataggressively attacked workers’ rights, human and socialrights and made major cuts to existing education andsocial standards. The labour movement and communitygroups came together in massive demonstrations and oneday protests leading to escalating strikesthat were halted when an agreement wasreached to drop some of the offensivelegislation. Many rights and benefits weretaken away with this attack, never to be fullyrestored.

By 1985, the changing legal frameworkwas having a serious impact onunions’ abilities toorganize and bargaincollectively. InEdmonton, the strikeby the United Foodand Commercial Workers(UFCW) at the Gainer’smeat processing

plant was a long and bitter strike and saw the use ofstrikebreakers, injunctions and police to try and break theunion, tactics that ultimately proved unsuccessful. Thiswas largely due to the mobilization of the Alberta labourmovement which organized a successful province widecampaign to reform the labour law. As well, the AlbertaFederation of Labour (AFL) and the CLC organized anational boycott of Gainer’s meat products which helpedforce the company to back down.

At the same time, organizing drives to unionize workersat Eaton’s, Simpson Sears and the Canadian Imperial Bankof Commerce were successful. These drives had publiccampaigns as part of their strategy to increase public

support and pressure theselarge employers who foughthard against these workers.This was a significantbreakthrough for unions intothe largely unorganized retailand service sector that wasalways difficult to organize.Ultimately these successescould not be maintained orexpanded, but they were astarting point for unions inthese sectors.

This was also the beginningof a period where Canadianunions won more autonomyfrom international unions.Canadian sections of

international unions had a very different social andpolitical history from their U.S. counterparts. In recentbargaining, Canadian trade unions had, by and large,resisted concessions and taken a different approach at thebargaining table than the one taken by their U.S. unionbrothers and sisters.

As a result, the Canadian Autoworkers Union (CAW) wasformed in a split from their international UnitedAutoworkers Union. The Canadian PaperworkersUnion(CPU) had made an earlier break in 1974. TheEnergy and Chemical Workers Union (ECWU) andInternational Woodworkers Union (IWA) both made similarmoves. For unions that remained international, theirCanadian sections gained more political autonomy and theright to make more “made in Canada” decisions for theirmembers. The CLC also constitutionally adopted codes ofcitizenship and ethical practices to ensure that unionsaffiliated to the CLC conducted their affairs democratically.

With the repatriation of Canada’s Constitution andintroduction of the Charter of Rights, the court systemnow had new powers to make decisions dramatically

affecting workers. Despite political promises that the rightto strike and collectively bargain were covered by theCharter’s “freedom of association” clause, the SupremeCourt of Canada in a series of decisions, decided that theseprovisions were not guaranteed by the Charter of Rightsand could be limited by the courts and governments.

In these regressive times for unions, these decisions ledthe way for courts, governments and employers to restrictthe power of unions to act on behalf of their members.Another decision by the Supreme Court, called theLavigne decision, upheld the rights of unions todemocratically decide how to spend their dues monies,specifically in this case, for political purposes. All ofthese decisions signaled to unions that they could notnecessarily count on the legal system to uphold theirrights and that the mobilizing of their members andcontinued political work was more necessary than ever.

By 1987, the Mulroney Conservative government startednegotiations with the United States for the Free TradeAgreement (FTA). Many social groups across the countrywere alarmed at the proposed terms of the agreement whichrestricted the rights of Canadian provincial and federalgovernments to make decisions based on national interests.The agreement would make it easier for corporations tomake their profits, but at the expense of the Canada’ssocial, economic, cultural and environmental standardsand our Canadian way of life. Many groups came togetherin coalition to fight this agreement and it became a majorissue in the 1988 election.

Unions recognized that this agreement would open thedoor to lower labour standards in wages, workingconditions and reduce the rights to unionize and bargaincollectively. They also realized that the FTA wouldfundamentally take away the rights of the Canadian peopleto decide their future and so put many resources into thisfight. This fight forced a public debate that otherwisewould not have occurred and forced Canadians to answerthe question: “What kind of society do we want to live inand who should make these decisions forCanadians?”

Unfortunately, the Conservatives were re-elected and the FTA was signed. The FTA wasone part of the Conservative agenda thatfollowed the lead of Thatcher in Britain andReagan in the U.S. Deregulation oftransportation and otherimportant standards,privatization ofgovernment agenciesand crowncorporations, cuts toVia Rail and theimplementation of theGST were also part

of their agenda. Major cuts to transfer payments to theprovinces in education, health and social benefits resultedin significant reductions in service and the loss of manyjobs. Major strikes by the Canadian Union of PostalWorkers (CUPW), in 1987 and in 1991, and by the PublicService Alliance of Canada (PSAC) in 1991, reflected theactions taken by the government against public sectorworkers and the loss of many full-time jobs into part-timeand contract or casual work.

In private sector bargaining, employers used the FTA tothreaten workers with plant closures unless they acceptedconcessions. Four years after the FTA was signed,hundreds of manufacturing plants had closed andthousands of jobs had been lost as this work was movedby corporations to the southern U.S. or Mexico wherelabour was poorly paid and environmental regulationsminimal. The FTA was followed in 1994 with the NorthAmerican Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) which furtheropened doors for corporate trade interests in Canada, U.S.and Mexico.

Labour’s response to this right-wing corporate agendawas to campaign against these Conservative policies anddevelop its own alternatives. The CLC, with its socialallies, led many campaigns fighting privatization, cuts toVia Rail, the erosion of medicare, the GST, cuts toeducation and social benefits, reductions inUnemployment Insurance and the de-indexing of pensionbenefits. On May 15, 1993, the CLC held a largedemonstration to demand decent jobs as the Conservativescontinued to ignore the highest levels of unemploymentin Canada since the Depression. This demonstrationbecame the flashpoint for the defeat of the MulroneyConservative government in the 1993 federal election.

The membership of the labour movement and theworkforce was changing. The labour movement had beenworking internally over the last decade to open up itsinternal democracy and activities to include more women,people of colour, First Nations members, gays and lesbians,workers with disabilities, retired members and youngmembers. The CLC, the federations of labour and manyaffiliate unions created seats on their governing councilsfor representation of these members. Committees,caucuses, conferences, and schools were organized at mostlevels where these workers could strategize and voice theirissues. The different issues raised and the new forms ofunion activism demonstrated by these members broughtnew strength and diversity to the movement.

Labour was also expanding and strengthening its links tosocial and coalition partners, both within Canada andaround the world. As an example, in 1996, the CLC joinedwith the National Action Committee on the Status forWomen (NAC) in a country wide Women’s March AgainstPoverty. The march brought women’s and labour activists

together across the country in their communitieshighlighting the themes of jobs and justice.

The CLC had also been working at the international levelwith unions and social groups in the Asia-Pacific and LatinAmerican regions lobbying for fair trade rules and socialclauses in trade agreements that support reasonable labour,social and environmental standards. The CLC also continuedto grow with the building trades unions, Teamsters,teachers and nurses becoming members of the CLC.

The growth of trade unions as an institution and forcein society has benefited the lives and dignity of workers.But the interests of organized labour are not restricted tojust conditions of employment and working conditions.Canadian unions have been in the forefront, and continueto be, in the fight for better health care, education,housing, pensions and human rights. All Canadians havebenefited from the efforts of the founders and builders ofCanadian labour unions.

The debates and the issues have never been clearer.Workers’ and citizens’ interests are not corporate interests.What governments are forced to provide as legal andsocial rights for workers and citizens can be taken awaywhen governments adopt right wing policies. The fight forsocial, economic and political justice has never been morenecessary. This fight matters not just to our owncommunities and country, but to the global society we’recreating today. Will we have fair labour, social andenvironmental standards and make sure that the wealthof our world is shared equally? In order to achieve thisvision, unions must continue their fight. We can learnmuch from our labour history and use these lessons tobuild our future.

Designed and Illustratedby Armand Roy