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Speaker 1: This Day in History Class is a production of I

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Speaker 1: Heart Radio. Hey everyone, I'm Eves and welcome to This

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Speaker 1: Day in History Class, a podcast that flips through the

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Speaker 1: book of history and tears out of page every single day.

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Speaker 1: Today is ding. The day was dun fourteenth. Eighteen seventy two,

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Speaker 1: Parliament passed the Trade Unions Act in Canada, legalizing unions.

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Speaker 1: Laborers in Canada have been striking for better living and

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Speaker 1: working conditions for decades. By the time the Act was passed,

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Speaker 1: in the mid nineteenth century, industrial workers labored ten to

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Speaker 1: twelve hours a day, six days a week. Unions were

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Speaker 1: growing and spreading, but they were not legally recognized. Strikes

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Speaker 1: were illegal, and unionist could be charged with crimes, including

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Speaker 1: conspiracy and sedition. Some strikes inside it progress, but many

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Speaker 1: were unsuccessful. Railway workers, printers and shoemakers were some of

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Speaker 1: the people who struck for shorter work days in the

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Speaker 1: eighteen hundreds. Printers formed the Toronto Typeographical Union in the

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Speaker 1: eighteen forties. They kept up with politics across North America

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Speaker 1: and in Britain. They were aware of workers movements happening

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Speaker 1: in the United States in the mid eighteen hundreds as

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Speaker 1: they rallied and petitioned for better conditions. In August of

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Speaker 1: eighteen seventy one, news of a strike in Newcastle, England

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Speaker 1: over reduced working hours made its way to Canada. Canadian

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Speaker 1: workers were encouraged by the strike in England and by

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Speaker 1: the immigrant workers who moved from England to Canada in

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Speaker 1: eighteen seventy one. In January of eighteen seventy two, an

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Speaker 1: international effort known as the Nine Hour Movement began in Hamilton, Ontario.

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Speaker 1: Skilled and unskilled workers gathered to form the Nine Hour League,

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Speaker 1: an organization that sought a nine hour work day through

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Speaker 1: collective protests and strikes. The demand for the nine hour

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Speaker 1: day soon spread to groups in Montreal, as well as

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Speaker 1: Toronto and other towns in Ontario. It also emerged in

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Speaker 1: places as far as Halifax, but the movement in these

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Speaker 1: places operated relatively independently from the movements in Ontario and Quebec.

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Speaker 1: The movement gained a lot of support and saw meetings

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Speaker 1: that sometimes involved hundreds of people, but that's not to

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Speaker 1: say there weren't divisions and hostilities within the movement. Racism, sexism,

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Speaker 1: prejudices against unskilled workers, and religious hostilities all affected the

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Speaker 1: workers involved, and it was hard to coordinate a movement

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Speaker 1: that was growing so rapidly, but some people did emerge

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Speaker 1: as leaders in the movement, including printer J. S. Williams, Cooper,

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Speaker 1: John Hewitt, engineer James Ryan, and railway mechanic James Black.

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Speaker 1: They helped establish local nine hour chapters, worked to develop

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Speaker 1: coordinated strategies, and helped build connections across Canada. The Toronto

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Speaker 1: Typographical Union passed emotion in favor of a fifty five

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Speaker 1: our work week, informed a strike committee. It also petitioned

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Speaker 1: Toronto's newspaper owners for nine hour days. Their demands weren't met,

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Speaker 1: and the printers went on strike on March. The strike

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Speaker 1: made headlines and garner support and opposition. In April, around

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Speaker 1: ten thousand people marched in Toronto in support of the

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Speaker 1: nine hour movement. George Brown, owner of the newspaper The Globe,

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Speaker 1: and the Master Printers Association that he had organized, went

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Speaker 1: up against the demonstrators, but Prime Minister John A. McDonald

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Speaker 1: introduced legislation to legalized unions. The Trade Unions Act, passed

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Speaker 1: into law on June fourteenth, was modeled on British legislation

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Speaker 1: that had passed in eight see The Act said that

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Speaker 1: unions would not be considered associations that obstructed trade. The

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Speaker 1: right to strike was recognized, but picketing remained a criminal offense.

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Speaker 1: The Nine Hour Movement proved largely unsuccessful due to a

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Speaker 1: lack of coordination, employer hostile, the waning prosperity in Canada,

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Speaker 1: and divisions within the working class, but the legalization of

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Speaker 1: unions was a win for the movement. In seventy three,

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Speaker 1: the Canadian Labor Union was formed. Throughout the next couple

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Speaker 1: of decades, Canadian workers organized more trade unions and participated

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Speaker 1: in more strikes. I'm each Jeff Coote and hopefully you

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Speaker 1: know a little more about history today than you did yesterday.

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Speaker 1: And if you have any comments or suggestions, you can

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Speaker 1: send them to us via email at this Day at

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Speaker 1: iHeartMedia dot com. You can also hit us up on

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Speaker 1: social media at T D I h C podcast. Thanks

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Speaker 1: again for listening to the show and we'll see you tomorrow.

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