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This Article Continues the IBEW Journal's Commemoration of The A PARTNERSHIP FOR PROGRESS Yearsof U.S./ Part II This article continues the IBEW Journal’s commemoration of the Members Confront Economic Depression and the Tragedies of War 1914 any historians portray the Roaring Twenties as a business WW I begins in Europe, boom time, but by 1928 local unions were sending reports of airplanes first used as war slow work situations to the IBEW’s Journal of Electrical Workers weapons; Great Britain M declares war on Germany; and Operators. So, when the stock market crashed in October 1929, it Canada also enters war, devastated many IBEW members already looking for work. From a high employers use war as oppor- tunity to expand working hours of 121,792 members in 1919, membership plummeted to 60,421 at the to 13 or 14 per day. Reid- end of 1930, dropping 11,000 more in the next three years. By June Murphy faction reunited with 1930 the Journal was filled with local union letters describing desolate IBEW. Ontario adopts work- men’s compensation law on work situations. For example, Frank J. Selke, press secretary of Local which today’s plans are based. 353, Toronto, bluntly stated, “Work is dead, absolutely the worst we 1916 have had for many years; and it doesn’t look any too promising for the Manitoba is first province to coming [months].” provide income to widows Despite the gloomy economy, the late gages, houses were seized and families and divorced or deserted 1920s was a time of great promise. Science evicted. The Brotherhood, too, went through women with children. hovered on the verge of revolutionary break- some real changes in the early 1930s as mem- throughs. Although not available to the gen- bership dropped to a 20-year low. eral public, television’s possibilities piqued the 1917 curiosities of even the most cynical. Radio; Organized labour protests War Brings Devastation, talking movies; solo, nonstop flights across the beginning of conscription But Also Opportunity Atlantic; and theories of general relativity led in Canada. By the middle of 1940, World War II people to believe science held the answers to embroiled most of the world in its most-bitter almost any problem—and these scientific mar- conflict. The war meant different things to the 1918 vels gave people hope during a seemingly membership. For over 35,000 members it WW I ends Nov. 11; B.C. hopeless time. meant joining the armed forces. For many it Federation of Labour Vice For the millions of men and women with- meant a tremendous jump in factory work, President Albert Goodwin out work, the winter of 1930 was especially building the planes, tanks, trucks, ships and shot to death as a draft harsh. Unemployment, with its accompanying guns of war. For others it meant restrictions by dodger; Canadian government suffering and hunger, was a worldwide phe- dozens of local and national boards and imposes an Order-in-Council nomenon. The American Federation of Labor’s offices, and rationing of basic foods and mate- prohibiting strikes in war Monthly Survey of Business revealed approxi- rials. Nevertheless, it was a time of explosive industries and railways (it’s mately 20 percent of affiliates’ members were industrial growth. rescinded one month later). out of work. Banks foreclosed on farm mort- (Continued on page 12) 10 IBEW JOURNAL, SEPTEMBER 1999 Canada IBEW Unionism centennial of the inclusion of Canadian electrical workers into the IBEW. LABOUR STRIFE RESULTS IN TRADE UNION ACT he Toronto Printers’ Strike is consid- they came up with a law which jeopardized ered one of the most significant the very structure of organized labour, the events in the history of the Cana- 1800 Combination Act of Great Britain. 1919 T Ontario Department of Labour dian labour movement. Leading the group Although succeeding British statutes had Act passes, first minister of of employers was George Brown, publisher revised the act and recognized the legal sta- labour is Walter Rollo; One of The Globe, who inherited his antiunion tus of unions, Canadian law still included its Big Union founded in western original provisions. However, the use of this reactionism from his father. Although he Canada, based on industrial law backfired against the employers. The once suggested labour problems could be rather than craft lines; unionists, released on bail, roused the pub- worked out by “consultation, conference, Winnipeg (Manitoba) General mutual concession and arbitration,” he lic with a call to “repeal…any law that Strike called (Canada’s first) wouldn’t sit down and discuss differences might exist to warrant such an unjustifiable an estimated 30,000 go out. with union representatives. interference with the rights of the people.” Matters came to a head in March 1872, Finally, Sir John A. Macdonald, prime 1921 when the Toronto Typographical Society minister of Canada, saw the situation as his Canadian Brotherhood of demanded the 54-hour week and $10 opportunity to garner the support of the Railway Employees expelled weekly wages with 25-cents-per-hour over- workers. He introduced legislation to from Trades and Labour time pay. The employers refused; the union revise Canadian law to reflect that of Great Congress in dispute over printers walked out. Scab printers were Britain and to legalize trade unions. Pas- industrial dual unionism. promptly hired, while detectives spied upon sage of the Trade Union Act infuriated strikers. employers, who responded by blacklisting 1925 The Toronto Trades Assembly organized known union members and requiring all Labour representatives in a rally on April 15, which attracted a crowd others to sign a “yellow-dog contract,” a Canada’s House of Commons of about 10,000. Marching in the parade to pledge they would not join a union. join forces with Agnes McPhail Queen’s Park, location of the Ontario leg- Despite employer reaction the printers (Canada’s first woman MP) and islative building, were members of various gained the 54-hour week and better wages. other Progressives to form the unions then organized in Toronto: bricklay- Also, the Trade Union Act of 1872 declared “Ginger Group,” a voice for work- ers, iron moulders, bakers, blacksmiths and that unions were not in restraint of trade, ing people, farmers, the handi- coachmakers, among others. No action was implicitly recognizing the right to strike. The capped and underprivileged. taken against the crowd that day; but on outcome awakened unionists to how politi- April 16, 24 trade unionists were arrested cal activism might help them achieve their 1929 and charged with belonging to an illegal goals and inspired individual unions to con- U.S. stock market crashes, combination. solidate their efforts by trying to form a fed- plunges Canada and U.S. into 1 The employers scoured legal annals until eration of unions. the Great Depression. (Continued on next page) IBEW JOURNAL, SEPTEMBER 1999 11 A PARTNERSHIP FOR PROGRESS Years (Continued from page 10) practical experience, so they turned out Canada declared war in September 1939, “youngsters with [only] a smattering of and Canadian electrical workers were among knowledge in the various [trades].” 1931 the first to experience the demands of Trade unions, the only bastion of skill left Three miners killed during wartime production efforts. Canada’s ship- in industrial society at that time, rose to the Bienfait (Saskatchewan) coal building industry, which had languished challenge. Unions, according to Ingles, miners’ strike. Statute of West- since the end of World War I, revived almost “scurried around and looked up their old minster passed, a British law overnight. The new aircraft manufacturing members,” who had been dumped on indus- granting former colonies (includ- industry expanded with the war. try’s scrap heap. Only with organized ing Canada) full legal freedom Production, however, was hampered by labour’s participation was Canada able to unless they wish to remain structural economic deficiencies. Shipbuild- meet its wartime production demands, and under British law. ing, aircraft manufacturing and other to build training schools, military camps and defense-related industries required skilled all types of factories in record time. 1933 mechanics. But Canada’s skilled work force During the war women’s labour-force Founding convention of the had been decimated by the inexorable participation increased by unprecedented Cooperative Commonwealth march of automation and specialization in numbers. As more and more men were Federation (Canada) held with factories and years of economic stagnation. shipped overseas, women took their places farm and labour representatives; “Men with the proper degree of skill were in the factories. And the IBEW, like many about 30% of Canada’s labour disappearing,” said First District Vice Presi- other North American unions, was far force unemployed. dent Ernest Ingles, and “no new blood was stronger at the end of the war years than it being infused into industry.” Technical had been at the beginning. From Pearl Har- 1935 schools employed instructors who had no bor to VJ Day, the IBEW membership almost “On to Ottawa Trek,” conducted by about 4,000 relief-camp workers Women demanding work and 50-cents- on the line. an-hour wages, results in rioting, During the leaders jailed. war women entered the work force 1937 in great Strikes increase in the late 1930s numbers. in Canada, following a marked slowdown in strike activity earlier in the Depression. 1939 Local 1472, St. John, Canada enters WWII; Trades and New Brunswick, Canada, telephone Labour Congress of Canada operators working a expels CIO unions. switchboard for the New Brunswick Telephone Company. 12 IBEW JOURNAL, SEPTEMBER 1999 doubled (from 198,591 to 361,921); Local 213, and, according to International Presi- Vancouver, British dent Ed J. Brown, IBEW members Columbia, “performed 95 percent of all the electri- members cal work used and installed in the pros- get ready ecution of the war effort.” to march.
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