The Winnipeg General Strike of 1919 Hayley, Jocelyn and Avery

Why did this strike break out? The Winnipeg general strike was one of the most influential strikes in Canadian history This took place from Thursday may 15th 1919 to June 26th 1919 This was a six week ILLEGAL strike fought by underprivileged Canadian workers This was a time of massive unemployment This strike broke out after negotiations broke down between management and labour in the building and metal trades. After this the Winnipeg Trades and Labor Council (WTLC) called a general strike for Winnipeg

Who and when Between 25,000 and 30,000 employees took strike This occurred on Thursday may 15th at 11am when all workers walked out of work Factories workers, building traders, metal workers, fire fighters, police officers and many others went on strike at this time Labor leaders from across western Canada formed the “ One Big Union” during the strike Oppositions to the strike was organized by the citizens committee shortly after the strike took place

Reasoning's The striking was agreed upon because of the dismal wages and harsh working conditions for building traders and metal workers Many other jobs also realized these issues in the work place Conflict between the labor movement and local employees had been brewing for many years before the strike took place The amount of unemployment, inflation, poor working conditions and regional disparities after World War I were the main reasons for this strike workers from both the private and public sectors joined together to shut down and reduce most services

Effects on Winnipeg during the strike During the striking some things that happened to Winnipeg were Factories shut down Retail trades were effected Trains stopped running There was no mail, street cars, taxis, news papers, telegrams, gas and milk delivery Most restaurants, stores and shops were closed

One Big Union & Central Strike Committee One Big Union (OBU) The wester labor leaders met in Calgary on March 13th 1919 to discuses the formation of the One Big Union, this took place at the wester labor conference. By June 4th 1919 the OBU was officially formed This group was a Canadian syndicalist trade union The Central Strike Committee A group of people that coordinated the strike. This group was formed from elected people from each union connected to the WTLC. This group of people bargained with the employers for the workers.

The Citizens Committee of 1,000 The Citizens Committee of 1,000 was a group of less then 1,000 people who believed there should not have been a strike. This group consisted of manufacturers, bankers and politicians, Winnipeg's most influential people. This group had a theory that the strike was being ran by a group of “alien scums” This group had there own news paper named “The Citizen” were they would attack strikers and their supporters as Bolshevik revolutionaries. They implied that the strike was largely the work of Eastern European immigrants (“Alien Scums”) One of the first actions this group took was to fire all police in Winnipeg for breaking there oath to not participate in any strikes. After they had all been fired the group hired 1,800 “special officers” recruited by the committee to control the strike. These officers were called “The Specials” These people were also know as peace keepers during the strike They helped out anyone who had been injured and put out the firers around the city

Government statuses When the strike broke out the government had worried that other cities would also begin to strike Because they were so worried Senator Gideon Robertson, minister of labour, and Arthur Meighen, minister of the interior and acting minister of justice went to Winnipeg to meet with the Citizens Committee At the time the government would only listen to the citizens committee They refused any requests from the central strike committee The government listened to the citizens committee and supported the employers Federal government forced everyone to return back to work or to be fired With the immigrate act they also stated that any British-born immigrant would be deported if not returning to work During the strike the workers were very orderly and peaceful but the government and city council was very harsh and aggressive towards the citizens, resulting in one of the major events, Bloody Saturday.

Bloody Saturday Took place on June 21st 1919 City started street cars up once again Protesters got upset with this decision Protesters stopped the street car, flipped it and set it on fire 2 strikers were killed and 30 were injured by 4pm that day 94 people were arrested with 4 of them being women The RNMP ( Royal North-West Mountain Police) was involved and also “The Specials”. They were being used to control the out of hand crowds of people striking in the streets of Winnipeg

Damages Damages to the city including the wreak of street cars and small fires being set around the city. This was a fairly peaceful strike besides Bloody Saturday so there was not many damages LINK

Why it ended The Winnipeg general strike had come to an end after Bloody Saturday The strikers had started to become reckless and out of hand Workers were forced to stop striking This became so out of hand that strikers were being beat with bats and the military and police forces had to be brought in The strike had finally come to a complete stop after the strikers had “ gone to far”

The aftermath Workers were sent back with out pay increase Many workers were sent to jail or even deported Many people ended up losing there jobs It was still another 20 years before bargaining was recognized in Canada Winnipeg's economy went down after the strike took place Winnipeg remained divided in the working classes

Why was this strike so important to Canadas history? This is the most known strike in Canadian history This strike was a turning point for Canada This was the largest strike ever in Canada (Most people) Canada formed new pollical parties after this strike ( New parties believed in workers rights) Provided and shown the power of people to make a change Discrimination against immigrants was made legal by the House of Commons