1. The Morning After
Life after WWI

2. Learning Goals
Understand the economic struggles that led to a workers revolt in the Winnipeg General Strike (K/U)
Understand the agrarian [cultivation of land] discontent of farmers following the war (K/U)

3. Issues at home after WWI
Inflation during the war years meant decreased real wages
Average family’s purchasing power was less
Increased unemployment as 500,000 veterans returned from overseas
Prosperity eventually returned by the mid-1920s
C&C - Chapter 3: The radio Age, starting on p The war years had been a boom period for the Canadian economy. More than half of Canadians found themselves living in poverty

4. Winnipeg General Strike (1919)
Largest Western City & Capital of Saskatchewan

5. The Lead Up Soldiers Lack of gov’t aid (pension, medical) Few jobs
Resented rich employers (factory owners)
Workers
Poor pay
Poor conditions
Influenza (Flu) Epidemic
Passed along CPR
Hit Winnipeg hard
Communist Influences
Russian Revolution (1919)
“Worker’s Unite!”
No private ownership
High Russian Population

6. Workers’ Rights in 1919 No minimum wage Low salaries No benefits
British Columbia adopted the Men’s Minimum Wage Act in 1925, making it the first province to legislate a minimum wage for male workers
2012 minimum wage in Ontario is $10.25 and the lowest in Canada is $9.00 in the Yukon
Low salaries
No benefits
No collective bargaining

7. Rules of the Workplace (Cigar Factory)
10 hrs make up a day's work
No one is allowed to stop work during working hours
All employees to be search before leaving the factory
Loud or profane talking strictly prohibited.
All employees wasting or dropping tobacco on the floor will be fined for each offence.
Hair combing not allowed in the factory

9. Mounted Police charging down Main Street during the Winnipeg Strike, June 21, 1919.

10. A crowd attempts to tip over a tramway car during the Winnipeg General Strike, June 21, 1919.

11. Veterans of the Great War parade in opposition to the Winnipeg strikers, June 4, 1919.

12. Winnipeg General Strike
Dispute over wages and collective bargaining rights in the building and metal trades
35,000 workers belonging to 50 different unions left their jobs
Collective bargaining is a process of negotiations between employers and the representatives of a unit of employees aimed at reaching agreements that regulate working conditions

13. Citizen Committee of 1000 Business leaders, politicians,factory owners
Create Special Police Force
Arrest strike leaders
Fire civic workers
“Sedition” = threatening the state
By the time the strike ended (six days after Bloody Saturday), 7 of the strike’s leaders had been charged with “seditious conspiracy”

14. Bloody Saturday (June 21, 1919)
Climax of the strike = clash between committee’s special police (N.W.M.P.) and strikers
Deaths of 2 marchers
Injury of 34 others
Arrest of another 80

15. Summary of the WGS Winnipeg in a fragile state, unhappy masses
Workers strike to protest unrest
City grinds to a halt
Citizen’s Committee of 1000 opposes
Bloody Saturday - violence erupts
Workers return back to work

16. WGS Provocative Question
Were the workers justified in their decision to strike?

17. Agrarian Discontent Farmers were Concerned about rural depopulation
Anxious to see fed. gov’t do something about tariffs
Angry at fed. gov’t’s refusal to honour its promise to exempt farmers’ songs from conscription
Tariff = tax or duty to be paid on a particular class of imports or exports. Tariffs kept he prices of manufactured goods artificially high and yet limited the markets for their grains

18. Effects of agrarian discontent
Agrarian discontent led to formation of United Farmers of Ontario (UFO) who swept the October 1919 provincial election in Ontario
United Farmers parties formed government in Alberta in 1921 and became official opposition in other prairie provinces
In next session of federal Parliament, several western members of the union government joined forces with a group of Liberals and created a farmers’ representatives under leadership of Thomas A. Crerar (National Progressive Party)
(with 43 seats, leaving the next closest at 28 for Liberals)
(Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba)

19. vs.
Activity
If you were a wealthy businessman who wanted to make more profits, write your views on the Winnipeg General Strike. If you were a worker and were not able to afford basic necessities, write your views on the Winnipeg General Strike.
Who would you vote for in the federal election of 1921?
Put the different parties in the federal election of 1921 on PP or the blackboard = 117 seats for Liberals [under Mackenzie King], 65 for Progressives, 50 for Conservatives and 3 for independent members of Parliament