Labour Militancy in Canada
A History of the Right to Strike
Keith, Melissa
http://ourtimes.ca/article/labour-militancy-in-canada
Date Written: 2023-01-25
Publisher: Our Times
Year Published: 2023
Resource Type: Article
Cx Number: CX24831
Bill 28, the Keeping students in Class Act, 2022, had its first reading in the Ontario Legislature on October 31, 2022. The name was a distraction from the Act's actual wording and intention, which were less about keeping students in class and more about removing education workers' right to strike.
Abstract:
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Extract:
"There's a sense that workers have very few rights in their ability to withdraw their labour, well into the 20th century. But it's actually more awkward than that, or more precarious: There seem to have been many strikes that occurred, but the right of contract was one that sort of prevailed in all cases, and employers had incredible abilities to starve out workers, to fire workers, to really blacklist workers. So when we talk about rights and corresponding duties, workers really had no ability to withdraw their labour and maintain their employment, outside of just raw class power, really forcing it through strikes."
Toronto Typographical Union members were joined by some 10,000 supporters when they led the Printers Strike of 1872. The strike was part of the wider Nine Hour Movement, an international workers' movement that took off in several Canadian cities in the 1870s and included workers from various trades, all seeking shorter workdays through the formation of Nine Hour Leagues.
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