Happy Labour Day!
Do you know where Labour Day in Canada came from?
It has its roots back to a printers’ strike in Toronto seeking a nine-hour workday.
As noted by the Canadian Encyclopedia:
The “Nine Hour Movement” began in Hamilton, Ontario, and then spread to Toronto, where its demands were taken up by the Toronto Typographical Union.
In 1869, the union sent a petition to its members’ employers requesting a weekly reduction in hours per week to 58, placing itself among the leading advocates in the industrialized world for a shorter work week. Their request was refused outright by the owners of the printing shops, most vehemently by George Brown of The Globe.
By 1872, the union’s stand had hardened from a request to a demand, to a threat to strike. The employers called the demand for a shorter work week “foolish,” “absurd,” and “unreasonable.” As a result, on 25 March 1872 the printers went on strike.
On 15 April, a demonstration was held to show solidarity among the workers of Toronto. A parade of some 2,000 workers marched through the city, headed by marching bands. By the time the parade reached Queen’s Park, the sympathetic crowd had grown to 10,000.
After 1872, almost all union demands included the nine-hour day and the 54-hour week. Thus the Toronto printers were pioneers of the shorter work week in North America. Meanwhile, campaigns for an eight-hour day were already gaining in popularity, and would eventually take hold, in the United States.
The fight of the Toronto printers had a second, lasting legacy. The parades held in support of the Nine Hour Movement and the printers’ strike led to an annual celebration. In 1882, American labour leader Peter J. McGuire witnessed one of these labour festivals in Toronto. Inspired, he returned to New York and organized the first American “labor day” on 5 September of the same year. Throughout the 1880s, pressure built in Canada to declare a national labour holiday and on 23 July 1894, the government of Prime Minister John Thompson passed a law making Labour Day official.
We hope you have a Happy Labour Day and take a moment to reflect on the important contributions and ongoing role of our movement in building better workplaces and a better world!
In solidarity,
Thomas Hesse, President
Richelle Stewart, Secretary Treasurer
UFCW Local 401
Posted on: September 02,2024