For those of you who don’t know why you have Labour day off work, below is an excerpt.
For the unions out there, and especially for Buzz Hargrove, I must point out the bolded text below.
The Canadian labour movement can justly claim the title of originator of Labour Day. Peter J. McGuire, one of the founders of the American Federation of Labour has traditionally been known as the ‘Father of Labour Day’. Historical evidence indicates that McGuire obtained his idea for the establishment of an annual demonstration and public holiday from the Canadian trade unionist.
Earliest records show that the Toronto Trades Assembly, perhaps the original central labour body in Canada, organized the first North American ‘workingman’s demonstration’ of any significance for April 15,1872. The beribboned parade marched smartly in martial tread accompanied by four bands. About 10,000 Torontonians turned out to see the parade and listen to the speeches calling for abolition of the law, which decreed that trade unions were criminal conspiracies in restraint of trade.
The freedom of 24 imprisoned leaders of the Toronto Typographical Union, on strike to secure the nine-hour working day, was the immediate purpose of the parade, on what was then Thanksgiving Day. It was still a crime to be a member of a union in Canada although the law of criminal conspiracy in restraint of trade had been repealed by the United Kingdom parliament in 1871.
Toronto was not the only city to witness a labour parade in 1872. On September 3, members of seven unions in Ottawa organized a parade more than a mile long, headed by the Garrison Artillery band and flanked by city fireman carrying torches.
The Ottawa parade wound its way to the home of Prime Minister Sir John A. MacDonald where the marchers hoisted him into a carriage and drew him to Ottawa City Hall by torchlight. ‘The Old Chieftain’, aware of the discontent of workers with the laws which made unions illegal, in a ringing declaration from the steps of the City Hall, promised the marchers that his party would ‘sweep away all such barbarous laws from the statute books’.
The offending conspiracy laws were repealed by the Canadian government in 1872.
What’s that? A Conservative Prime Minister repealed the laws that outlawed unions?
Can I get a “Hell Yeah!!” from the autoworkers in Oshawa??
Can I get a “Hell Yeah!!” from the CUPE workers in Ottawa??
Can I get a “Hell Yeah!!” from the CUPW workers around the country??
Can I get a “Hell Yeah!!” from the teachers around the country??
Not a chance in hell.
Because the unions of today have gone beyond what they were created for. They are now the impervious shield of the “me generation”. The word grievance has gone from meaning “a wrong considered as grounds for a complaint” to “Back off or my mafia style organization is going to sue you, the company and the parent corporation and put you all out of business even if it costs me my job.”
Unions are not only joined to fellow union members, but they are joined to the hips of every other union’s members as well. This is most easily demonstrated by the inability for union members to cross the picket line of another union.
This post may not change the way unions operate, but perhaps it will give union members a bit more respect for the Conservative Party because, historically, it was the Conservatives who made it all possible. It was the Conservatives who cared about the working conditions. And it was the Conservatives who cared about Canadians of all stripes, and still do.
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Well said, Mulder!
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You get a hell yeah from me.
The word grievance has gone from meaning “a wrong considered as grounds for a complaint” to “Back off or my mafia style organization is going to sue you…
CUPE 4588, over 100 grievances filed in the last year – 3 ‘victories’. What does that tell you?
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no “hell yeah” for harper’s modern day social conservatives are forthcoming. however, i sense a giant “fuck you” next election.
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MacDonald is “Conservative” insofar as conservatives of his day go. Today’s conservatives are of a different breed. Some of his thoughts and ideas would not fly with today’s conservatives. I don’t think you would want to claim all “conservatives” as your own.
I posted an entry a while back that detailed some of the conservative’s historical faux-pas. If you are interested.
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jeff, if you think Harper is a social conservative, you really have been hoodwinked by the press.
rintrah, you will find good and bad qualities in all parties of all timeframes. I can agree with you there. But sometimes you just want to focus in on one item. Now if you read between the lines in my post, it doesn’t necessarily praise Sir John A. as much as it recommends leftists of today remember who gave them the gift that keeps on giving my tax dollars.
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Shere, you get your own reply. I am not sure how to interpret those numbers. On one hand they tell me that the amount of useless grievances being filed is a large percentage which goes along with my points, but on the other hand, the 3 successful claims implies that the outcomes are being scrutinized quite well to filter out the rif raf.
I had a friend who used to sleep on the job while he was a security guard at the Science Centre in Toronto. Another friend that would tell me about using the word grievance at least once a month when he worked for Kott at a Coke bottling plant in Toronto. It made me angry that other friends would sit around and laugh at these two guys and what they got away with.
Don’t even get me started with my third friend who made almost as much money cleaning TTC buses at night as he die fixing them as a mechanic but he took the cleaning job because he got to sleep in a TTC bus for 4 out of 8 hours of his night shift.
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I guess my qualm is that I don’t think any of today’s parties can actually claim John A as one of their kin. Conservatism and liberalism have changed too much over the years for anyone to claim them.
The problems with Unions and governments are of the same sort. Both are supposed to represent and protect its constituents. But both are now serving their own ends and needs. John A, oddly enough, is a perfect example – taking bribes and awarding contracts accordingly. The railroad is a symbol of serving the needs of a nation but not necessarily of the people.
Both unions and governments seek to unify a people under a banner. But both end up segregating people into appropriate groups whether it be labour and management or east and west or french and english or left and right. It is always us and them. This is not helpful. But it is always labour that keeps the nation running. Management and government merely provide structure but without labour the structure is meaningless.
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Great article, Steve.
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Jeff, do you ever contribute anything of substance to any of the conservative blogs you post on? Anything at all? It’s not like you’re presenting an alternative view. All you ever do is spit anti-Conservative vitriol, usually a single comment, often only a single sentence. Why bother?
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Unfortunately Jeff rarely has any kind of constructive opposing argument. It seems obscenity laced tirades are what pass for intellectual criticism in the narrow myopic lefty mindset.
The benefit is, we all need someone to pump gas for us, so people like Jeff will always have a job 😉
Mulder, the only situation I can equate the grievance issue to is if you shoot enough bullets into a barrel full of fish, you are going to eventually hit a couple.
I have had many experiences with many unions over the years, and one thing holds true to all in my experience: they exist only to reward the inept, while categorically punishing the worthwhile. I would sincerely like to hear examples that disprove this, but alas I fear none are forthcoming…