Blackwell Reference Online

Extract

Labor protests accompanied the rise and maturation of industrial capitalism and urbanization in Canada during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and continued in new forms afterwards. As the employment relationship became more common, workers sought to improve their economic position and the condition of their workplaces through collective action and protest, which in turn led to the birth of a more formal Canadian labor movement. The earliest acts of working-class agitation came from canal builders, artisans, and longshoremen in the early to mid-nineteenth century. These workers used their numerical strength and influential position in the colonial economy with some success to seek better wages and other improvements. Labor organization at this time often took the form of fraternal organizations or charitable societies, though a number of these societies also functioned as unions in setting hours and wages. However, their employers' willingness to use force against strikes, the seasonal nature of much labor, and the exploitation of ethnic rivalries ensured that gains could also be taken away. Early protests sometimes took the form of crowd actions or riots, and some 350 to 400 such incidents are reported in the years prior to 1850. The most successful labor protests came from urban craftsmen whose traditional skills were threatened by the rise of industrial production ... log in or subscribe to read full text