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 Typographical
Union A First
By
MARY V. JORDAN
reprinted
from Labour
Annual, 1966
Local 191, Winnipeg
Typographical Union (ITU) was the first International Craft to be organized
in Western Canada. Its Charter bears the date of November 1, 1881. Its
Offices are in the Labour Temple, 165 James Avenue, Winnipeg, Manitoba,
where the "home of Labour" has been established since 1904, the date on
the cornerstone of the historic building which houses the labour unions
in the Province of Manitoba. Manitoba.
TEN PIONEERS OF LABOUR
IN MANITOBA
The Charter
of Local 191, more than 75 years old, is signed by President George Clark
of Toronto. The Winnipeg printers who have their names inscribed therein
are the pioneers of Labour Unions in the province of Manitoba. They are
so recorded and written into history: Archibald King, David Cassels, James
McCaw, T. Morgan, A. C. Simpson, Alex Newlands, Patrick Considine, Alex
McLiver, W. H. Cullen, and J. B. McDowell.
FRONTIER BACKGROUND
Early settlements
of the Red River of 1869 soon became what they called in those days "a
hamlet" in the colony of Assiniboia. The hamlet became a boom town of
11,500 people and ownership was transferred to Canada by the Hudson Bay
Company, Dec. 1st, 1869. The "Boom Town" had a newspaper called the "Nor'wester",
owned by Dr. Christian Schultz, a physician from Kingston, Ontario. Under
the Provisional Government of Louis Riel the "Nor'Wester" was replaced
by the New Nation. By this time Winnipeg, at
the junction of the Assiniboine and Red Rivers was chosen as the capital
city of the 11,000 square miles of territory in the new Province of Manitoba.
The printers, the press, typesetting machines, boycotts, injunctions and
strikes, made their appearance spontaneously.
Legislative Assemblies
of the Manitoba Government had passed their first decade before Labour
Unions really established themselves with potential growth, although they
were made legal entities in Canada by the Trades Union Act of Canadian
Parliament in 1872, counterpart of the British Trades Union Act. Manitoba
remained isolated from Great Britain, by the seas, from the East, by rivers,
muskeg, and deep forest. The Canadian Pacific Railway did not get its
tracks completed until 1885. From Lake Superior to Lake Winnipeg by canoe
was a long journey, therefore it was natural that the influence of strong
"Craft" organizations in the United States would have such a far-reaching
effect upon the future trade union movement in Canada.
It was indeed the
"travel-card" system of the Typographical union which became the great
contributing factor to growth of craft unions. A printer coming into Manitoba
to work, had to have a travel card which showed he was in good standing
with the International Typographical Union and he was thereby entitled
to the friendship and good offices of all unions under the jurisdiction
of the ITU.
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Excerpts from the
Constitution and Bylaws of the 191 Typographical local in 1882 show that
Winnipeg Typographical
Union 191 was a subordinate union of the International. Its members believed
in the ITU as a way of life. Some of the rulings of 1886 have been removed
from the Constitution. For example the imposition upon a member of a "fine"
of twenty cents if he left a meeting without the consent of the President:
"Any member, who during a meeting made use of profane or improper language,
or who appeared at a meeting in a state of intoxication was fined $1.00
to $5.00 or ejected."
The origin of the
Printers' Chapel is interesting. In order to overcome the provisions of
the law governing cessation of work and outside assemblage, the printers
took advantage of the prevailing religious tendencies and designated their
workroom as a "Chapel" or house
of Worship. Even today Printers refer to "The Chapel" and the "Father
of the Chapel" inside their local unions. The Journeyman's salutation,
when entering a print shop was "God bless the noble art," which custom
no longer exists. The Oath of Obligation however, retains the word, "God"
in it, a Candidate vowing that the obligation to serve shall in no way
interfere "with any duty I owe to God or my country."
ORIGIN OF STRIKES
The rise of
modern industrialism led into the techniques of strikes and boycotts which
were initiated principally to establish the right to organize. Employers'
refusal to bargain collectively for wages, hours of labour, and working
conditions brought about the economic strike, the forerunner in Western
Canada, of the evolution of the General Sympathetic Strike. This strike
weapon called out all unions in sympathy with a segment of the labour
movement to establish demands considered just and reasonable.
The close of the eighties
found the Printers Union involved in economic strikes and boycotts. Introduction
of typesetting machines, the monotype, in 1885 led to a struggle to master
new methods of operation, and to maintain high skills in the evolution
of machinery. In 1905 and 1906 Local 191 joined the parent body in striking
for an eight-hour day in the trade.
OTHER FIRSTS FOR THE
PRINTERS . .
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In Eastern Canada,
it was a member of Local 91 ITU of Toronto who sent out a call for the
Convention of pioneer labour Unions. This call was issued 1883, under
the name of "Canadian Labour Congress". Historical significance grows
out of the fact that in 1956 seventy-four percent of the Labour Unions
in Canada heralded the 1883 title, Canadian Labour Congress for the Canada-wide
million membership organization.
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