Winnipeg General Strike

1919

Economic Causes• Inflation – prices high but

wages low• Cost of living up 75-80% from

1914-1919 but wages up only 18%

• Cost for a family of 5 = $136 per month or $1632 per year

• Building worker earns $915 per year

• Veterans from the war wanted $2000 benefits

• Factories changed to peacetime production and so there was unemployment

• Women lost their jobs due to returning men

Union Spread

• One Big Union• Formed in Calgary and

spread• Wanted all workers

together in one union• Collective bargaining• Wanted improved hours

and working conditions• Call for a general strike

Immediate Causes

• Machinists in Winnipeg were on strike

• Wanted collective bargaining under the metal trades council

• Employers refused to negotiate with a joint union

• Trades and Labour Council of Winnipeg called a GENERAL STRIKE

Events

• Massive walkout• 30,000 off work• Paralysis of Winnipeg• Anti-strike citizens called

strikers communists• Special “citizen patrols”• Federal gov’t threatened

to fire striking officials

Violent Response

• Bloody Saturday• Royal North west

Mounted Police and army move in

• Strike leaders arrested• Strikers smashed a

streetcar run by ‘blackleg’ workers

• Mounties charged• 2 strikers killed, dozens

injured

Immediate Results

• Strike collapsed due to resistance from army

• Leaders jailed for “plotting to overthrow the government”

• Government created a Royal Commission to investigate

Royal Commission Results

• Causes are:• Unemployment• Cost of living & wages• Long work week• Denial of right to form

unions• Denial of collective

bargaining

Commission Recommendations

• Minimum wage for women & unskilled labour

• Maximum 8 hour work day and weekly rest of not less than 24 hours

• Right to organize & form unions

• Payment of a living wage• Right to collective

bargaining

Final Results

• 20 years before collective bargaining was actually implemented

• No pay increase• Leaders jailed up to 2

years• 1920 4 strike leaders won

seats in MB provincial elections (William Ivens)

• 1921 minimum wage for women in MB = $0.25