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- Let Us Rise, Doug Smith In 1905, Winnipeg printers took part in an international campaign for the shorter work week." |
The International Typographical Union was a large international union that had members on both sides of the Canada-U.S border.
In 1918, one year before the 1919 General Strike in Winnipeg, a labour dispute relating to civic workers erupted in a sympathetic strike among other unions. It was a show of solidarity for the civic workers. Local 191 went out in the 1918 sympathetic strike, though significant ITU members such as A. Puttee, disputed any such action. The later events of 1919 marked the end of his editorship of The Voice, and likewise the end of his position as a credible labour leader. The Local voted 143 to 101 in favor of action and made a financial contribution to the strike fund. According to the Local's Minutes: "This ended one of the most memorable gatherings in the history of Local 191. The excitement rendered seemed to cut its lengthiness, and the adjournment was accepted at 11:30 p.m." (United We Stand, Jim Pringle). The sympathetic strike of 1918 was successful, and the civic union was able to negotiate its collective agreement.
| The U.S. headquarters of the ITU was not pleased with Local 191's participation in the 1918 sympathetic strike, however. In the Chrismas Souvenir Book of the Winnipeg Typographical Union Local 191 - 1918: - "It is a well-known fact that a man may go doing the right thing in the right way for a lifetime and nobody will take any notice, but let the same man make one little slip and he immediately becomes talked about. This same fact seems equally applicable to trade unions. Since its inception Winnipeg Typographical Union No. 191 has been a faithful, loyal subordinate union of the I.T.U. never attempting to break or evade any of the mandates of the executive council, nor attempting to make or unmake any of the laws of the International. The result was Winnipeg Typographical Union was practicaly unknown. unheard of and ignored. But when, suffering from the strain of four years war and the high cost of living, this union broke over the traces and ignored the paid officials at headquarters, then the fame (or infamy as the subordinate committee would say) of No. 191 immediately becomes blazoned all over the American continent, and at the Scranton convention, the Winnipeg union was the most talked-of union in the jurisdiction. Forgotten were the long years of faithful dues-paying servitude, and the Winnipeg union and its officials were dubbed Bolshevists. This action by the Scranton convention caused much amusement in local labour circles, where No. 191 is known as the most conservative of the unions affiliated with the Trades Council ... It is stated that Alderman John Queen laughed when he heard about it."(p.2) |
In
1919, as the sequence of events that led to the General Strike fomented, the
International headquarters of the ITU in the United States sent executive members
to Winnipeg to ensure the Local did not go out this time. The arguement was
that participation in a General Strike, which would be a wildcat move, would
be a breach of their properly-negotiated contract, and put the whole principle
of Union-honoured collective agreements into jeopardy. It was a pressure tactic
that worked, and Local 191 did not have a membership vote on the issue, and
indeed did not go out during the 1919 General Strike. The effect of the International
Union was obviously two-sided -- the benefits achieved through international
campaigns, such as the 8-hour day, were offset by the control exercised during
this critical period of Winnipeg labour history. The newspapers continued to
be printed throughout the strike.
In the 1920s, "the printing trades . . . were decimated by a lengthy strike in the mid twenties. The International Typographical Union had long been in the forefront of the battles for for the shorter working day, and had won the 44-hour week in its 1919 contract. But in 1921 the printing industry launched what amounted to a continent-wide campaign to increase the hours of work for printers." (Let Us Rise, Doug Smith) The ensuing strike lasted three years, and ended with the pressmen going back without a Contract, with the bookbinders' union being destroyed, and with the ITU being almost completely wiped out in Winnipeg. The economic recovery of 1926 brought with it subsequent Contracts that saw weak wage increases, until the economic "Crash of 1929."
The
"International" part of the International Typographical Union had
left its mark, good and bad, on Local 191 -- an ironic subscript: "Mr.
Woodruff Randalph, speaking at the 50th Jubilee Dinner of Winnipeg Local 191,
on 7 December, 1931, came from Indianapolis, Indiana, where 80 years before,
the ITU was first organized. He praised the Winnipeg foundation of printers
for giving leadership in Western Canada." (Mary Jordan, Labour Annual
1966 )
"The
period of 1900 to 1920 was a period of growth for the ITU. There were
several important developments at this time. The fight for an 8-hour day
(and the ensuing strike) was a positive achievement.