Response To The Winnipeg General Strikes In Canada
713 Words3 Pages
The Winnipeg general strike was as the title describes a strike. But this strike was unlike any other strike that Canada had ever experienced. The event wouldn’t occur until a year after the war had ended. But the “storm” had begun to brew when the war had ended and the soldiers came back home. The soldiers themselves had expected a better country after they had assisted in ending the war. But instead they found a country filled with discontent, inflation, and unemployment. Due to the war ending many factories that had sold military based equipment weren’t needed, which also meant that the employees were effectively out of a job. Also, many of the jobs that didn’t need the war to continue to stay in business were filled in by immigrants and…show more content… In Winnipeg on the 15th of May 1919, when negotiations broke down between management and labor in the building and metal trades, the Winnipeg Trades and Labor Council (WTLC) called a general strike. This strike was for an increase in wages and better working conditions in the workplace. The response the strike would obtain would be staggering. Approximately 30 000 workers (men and women) would walk off their jobs, fundamentally crippling Winnipeg as a city. Stopping trains, closing up restaurants and other service based businesses while also cutting off communications via the telephones. During this time the city disastrous mess that was in dire need of leadership. The coordinators of the strike (the Central Strike Committee, which was composed of delegates elected from each of the unions affiliated with the WTLC) bargained with employers on behalf of the workers and handled the provision of essential services. Unfortunately for the workers who were for the strike, measures to control and subdue the workers had been put into…show more content… Using their power and connections they made the strike seem as if it were inconsequential and unreasonable, while also portraying the leaders of this strike as lowly criminals and “alien scum”. Fearing that the strikes would spark clashes in other cities the government decided to send Senator Gideon Robertson, minister of labor, and Arthur Meighen, minister of the interior and acting minister of justice, to Winnipeg to meet with the Citizens' Committee. And at the same time ignoring the Central Strike Committee’s request to do the same. Listening to the voices of the minority, the government decided that this strike needed to end. Federal workers were ordered to return to work immediately or face dismissal. The Immigration Act was amended so British-born immigrants could be deported. The Criminal Code's definition of sedition (incitement to rebellion) was also broadened. On June 21st, 1919 after a series of events (a riot, arrests, and forbidding the publication of the Western Labor News). Things finally came to a head. Finally fed up with the way the government was treating the workers. Army veterans decided to flip a streetcar and light it on fire. This subsequently demanded a full-scale offensive by the Royal North-West Mounted