1930s: The Split

During the early 1930s, the ITU Local 191 maintained a slate of skilled tradespeople, but there had been huge losses in the late 1920s, and the printers had not been spared in the widespread Depression of the 1930s. It became very clear, also, that the typographers as a group were beginning to diverge. One group were "job printers," who were typographers employed at various commercial shops, while the other group included the "newspaper printers," typographers employed at the major newspapers in Winnipeg.

The 1930s brought with it, the campaign for the five-day week. This was an issue on the ITU "Book of Laws" and it was to become part of every ITU contract signed. With the outbreak of World War II, the six-day week became the norm, and the five-day workweek issue was set aside in the War effort.

In 1934, Local 191 included:
Newspaper Sector - The Winnipeg Free Press (113), The Winnipeg Tribune (63)
Job Printer Sector - De Montfort Press (3), T. Eaton Co. (15), Public Press (14), Saturday Post (5), Wallingford Press (10), Columbia Press (4), Henderson Bros. (4), Israelite Press (7), National Press (6), W.C.I. Underwriters (5), Grain Trade News (3), Secretary's Chapel (31)
The Secretary's Chapel included members working in open shops, member-operated shops, etc.
The figures in parentheses are estimates of number of employees based on referendum, April, 1934 - Local 191 Minutes
(Source: Chapel Assessment Books, Winnipeg Typographical Union papers, Manitoba Archives)

The differences became more marked in the 1930s.Consistant employment for job printers was much less stable, and more likely to be on a short-term basis, than for the newspaper printers. This accounts the tendency of unemployed job printers to set up their own shops. "The unusual solidarity shown by Local 191 in response to the social and political challenges of 1918, gave way to the reassertion of traditional divisions within the trade. Heightened by the International's actions in retrenchment, the postwar depression, and the separate directions taken in industrial disputes, these differences represented a latent source of tension between the two groups of printers." (Zenon Gawron, postgraduate paper on "Local 191 in the '30s" - University of Manitoba, 1985)

This difference in working conditions reached a turning point in 1935, when the newspaper typographers split from the ITU. The central dispute surrounding the seceding of the newspaper chapels had to do with the refusal of the newspaper typographers to share hours with unemployed ITU members -- many of whom were job printers. The result was that the newspaper chapels left Local 191, and set up their own newspaper Local. It became clear, however, that the newspaper locals could not exist in a vacuum. The solution seemed to be to join the CCL in order to have some position in the labour movement. In the words of R.B. Russell in 1935, the move was clearly practical: "they refused to divide the work with their fellow workers, and unless they were able to extend their organization further afield, it would be put out of business by the employers." (OBU, Central Labour Council minutes, April 2, 1935, R.B. Russell papers, Manitoba Archives)

In 1936, Jasper Nix, who had been president of Local 191 in 1932, addressed the Central Council of the One Big Union. According to the secretary's records: Brother Nix "... pointed out that, after 35 years as a cardholder in the A.F. of L., he felt that he had learned more in one year since he had entered the Canadian Labour movement and severed his connections with the typographical union and he hoped to be able to render valuable service to the Canadian Labour movement." (OBU Central Labour Council minutes, May 5, 1936, R.B. Russell papers, Manitoba Archives)

This was to prove to be a temporary move lasting 8 years. The newspaper chapels returned to Local 191 in 1943.