Winnipeg General Strike

On May fifteenth, 1919, the city of Winnipeg came together in a union, and essentially shut down. At exactly eleven o’clock in the morning on this day, over thirty thousand Winnipeg workers walked off the job to begin what became one of the most influential strikes in Canadian history. The initial reaction was overwhelming. Of ninety-six unions in Winnipeg, ninety-four of them joined the strike. The only two that did not join were the typographers and the local police. In fact, the police had voted heavily in favor of the strike, but the Central Strike Committee asked them to stay on the job to maintain order. Non-unionized workers joined the strike as well, as everyone from waiters to ushers walked away from their jobs. The city was under a siege of silence. The poor working conditions, lack of jobs, low salaries, and long hours in which the Canadian troops from World War I came home to was the main reason this strike occurred. Many ask how the Winnipeg General Strike of 1919 was significant to Canadian History. The answer is simple: the strike set the stage for future labour guidelines and policies for workers around the country. Winnipeg was the fastest growing city in Canada from the period 1901 to 1911 with a population increase of three-hundred percent over ten years. The population launched from forty-two thousand to ninety thousand between the years 1901 to 1906 and again from ninety thousand to one hundred thirty-six thousand by 1911. It was a fast growing city before the war because of the easy immigration process and it grew to be an even larger city after World War I. Immigrants came over with very few possessions looking for jobs; the government wanted the immigrants to be farmers but many of the immigrants migrated to the cities where the urban atmosphere would support an easier life. They would take the jobs that Canadian troops once had as they went off to war. They accepted less pay, long working hours in any condition because they were