Canadian Industrial Worker Essay

The outbreak of the war transformed the dynamics, structure and objective of many large companies as they adjusted to changing national needs and industry. As evident through the corporation of the Canadian Pacific Railway, workers were directly affected by so. Many car and locomotive shops were converted to munitions productions, rail and shipping services were vital for moving troops and supplies, and railway workers were recruited overseas in the early years of the war to construct and operate rails in France and Belgium. The federal government hired technical experts from the company in an effort to boost other wartime productions. General wartime shortages of qualified workers made it much more common for young men and women to hold skilled jobs in the company, and war veterans came home to discover that others had been

promoted to fill their positions. Moreover, when a serious strike seemed imminent on the CPR in 1914, just as the war broke out, the employees deferred from striking on account of the war and how it would affect the company’s contribution to so. The CPR was a vigorous supporter of the war effort in many ways.

The working-class expressed mass dissatisfaction with wartime conditions, as evident through many strikes on both regional and national levels in the later war years.

Feeling “newly empowered by its role in supporting the war effort”, there was a push for more rights, first through negotiations and then strikes. Workers believed the balance of power in Canadian industry needed to change through improved working conditions, higher wages, and union recognition. An especially high period of strike activity marked the end of the war, as there were more than 400 strikes in 1919, taking place in mostly Ontario and Quebec. To list a short few of many, significant strikes include the 1918 National Postal Strike led by the Federal Association of Letter Carriers, the 1918 Vancouver General Strike as the first general strike in Canadian history, and the Cape Breton coal miner strikes of the early 1920s. In fact, strikes and lockouts occurring in the five years immediately following the war had “not only been more numerous, but also more extensive in the number of employees affected and working days lost” than any labour resistance before the

war.

Not a single labour dispute in Canadian history is as infamous as the Winnipeg General Strike of 1919. Consisting of approximately 30,000 workers with demands of living wages, improved working conditions and the right to collective bargaining, the strike began with local building and metal workers before developing into a full-blown general strike. The significance of the strike goes beyond these central demands, as in addition to so “were added the accumulated grievances of four years of wartime privations and suffering.” The conclusion of the war had brought along unemployment, the closing of plants, divisions in industrial unions, social tensions and troubles with local trade. The vast amount of returning soldiers greatly changed the character of the strike, as with their participation it quickly escalated from a “fairly quiet affair” to a mass movement. Moreover, strike leaders claimed the nation’s sacrifice and victory in the war justified their demands as restitution in the form of financial rewards– in this case, that being a living wage. Although World War I was not the fundamental cause of the strike, it greatly heightened class tensions and created economic conditions that expedited the growth of overall labour militancy in Canada.

The war massively affected the nation’s economy, as it was detrimental to the prosperity of the working-class in the immediate post-war years. In the case of many large companies, such as the CPR, promotion possibilities plummeted after 1918 as some soldiers returned to their old jobs. Despite the creation of a national pension and benefits plan in 1918, the fragile economy was unable to support the mass number of demobilized soldiers and not all were equally eligible. The economic climate of the 1920s was quite unfavourable for further labour gains as Canada struggled in the global post-war recession. Inflation “affected every aspect of economic life” due to the war causing an unusual increase in the cost of necessities public debt continued to increase, and the “temporary” income taxes introduced in 1917 were not removed at the conclusion of the war. The working-class was once again faced with a high unemployment rate– one that took Canada about a decade to fully recover from.

Post-war Canadian society was marked by not only by economic tensions but also social and political ones. The male breadwinner ideology persisted in post-war social welfare policy, and both work and family were impacted by an increase in moral and sexual anxieties sparked by the war, such as the engagement of working-class women in new opportunities being seen as a threat to industry and society. The widespread labour revolt of the immediate post-war years established the predicaments of state repression and a need for government reorganization. But not all impacts of the war on the working-class were negative. On the other hand, unions welcomed women and ethnic minorities with greater spirit of inclusivity, and productions of munitions and other war supplies led to a sped up process of industrialization. Many wartime factories were converted to the production of household appliances, technology and automobiles that would come to improve overall quality of life.