Labour Day is a complex holiday.
It marks the end of summer and the return of fall activities, including going back to school. Itsa国际传媒 the last summer-weather long weekend. And for some it has a lot of meaning 鈥 remember and recommitting to the struggle for better working conditions.
The North Okanagan Labour Council will combine the party and message aspects of the day into a single event with a Labour Day barbecue and picnic in Ben Lee Park from noon to 3:30 p.m.
Labour organizations across the country will host picnics, and in some cases parades. Penticton has held Labour Day events in the past, but nothing is on the slate this year. The South Okanagan-Boundary Labour Council often hosts events on May Day instead.
May 1 is considered the rest of the worldsa国际传媒 Labour Day. North America does it on the first Monday in September. This was a case where the United States followed Canadasa国际传媒 lead.
According to widely accepted history, campaigns in Ottawa and Toronto in the 1860s and '70s for a nine-hour work day were the spark that led to acceptance of the union movement, a shorter workday and, eventually, creation of Labour Day.
A good source of information on Labour Day history is the Canadian Encyclopedia, which explains that the 鈥淣ine-Hour Movement鈥 began in Hamilton, Ont., and spread to Toronto, where its demands were taken up by the Toronto Typographical Union.
In 1869, the union sent a petition to employers requesting a reduction in weekly work hours to 58. The request was refused by printing shops owners, most vehemently by George Brown of the Globe newspaper. (Up to 12-hour workdays and six-day work weeks were common then.)
On March 25, 1872, the printers went on strike.
On April 14, a demonstration was held with some 2,000 workers marching through the city. By the time the parade reached the Ontario legislature, the crowd had grown to 10,000.
The employers brought in replacement workers and, police, using a 1792 law that made union membership illegal, arrested and jailed 24 members of the strike committee.
Prime Minister Sir John A. Macdonald, Brown's chief political rival, however, had been watching the Nine-Hour Movement with sympathy.
On June 14, the Macdonald government passed a Trade Union Act, which legalized and protected union activity.
Many strikers lost their jobs, but their sacrifices had long-term impacts. After 1872, almost all union demands in Canada and the United States included a 54-hour week.
The parades in support of the Nine-Hour Movement and the printers' strike led to annual celebrations. On July 22, 1882, American labour leader Peter J. McGuire attended one of these events. Inspired, he returned to New York and organized the first American 鈥渓abour day鈥 on Sept. 5 of that year.
Throughout the 1880s, pressure built in Canada to declare a national labour holiday, as it did in the United States. On July 23, 1894, the government of Sir John Thompson passed a law declaring the first Monday of September as Labour Day.
This year, as Labour Day arrives, the most prominent dispute is on Canadasa国际传媒 rail lines where CN and CPKC locked out their Teamsters members.
The Canada Industrial Relations Board last Saturday ordered CN and CPKC to resume operations and 9,300 workers to return to their posts at 12:01 a.m. Monday ahead of binding arbitration set to begin this week.
In a Labour Day statement, the Teamsters Canada Rail Conference said: 鈥淭he recent decision by the Canada Industrial Relations Board (CIRB), allowing the federal government to end job action in the rail sector, has set a dangerous precedent. It signals that the rights of Canadian workers can be diminished at the whim of corporate interests and government intervention.
鈥淲e must be clear: the Teamsters Canada Rail Conference will comply with the law, but we will not stand idle in the face of this injustice. We will appeal this ruling in federal court and continue to fight for the rights and dignity of every member.鈥
The Teamsters served CN with strike notice after being ordered back to work.
The Canadian Labour Congress plans to mark Labour Day by launching a new campaign on Monday, which they have teased on X. A Google search reveals: 鈥淭his Labour Day, Canada's unions are launching 鈥榃orkers Together: For a Better Deal,鈥 to empower workers and elevate their voices,鈥 but those web pages are not yet active.
Another union, the United Food and Commercials Workers Canada is using Labour Day to promote its campaign for paid sick days. 鈥淭here is no better way to thank frontline workers than supporting their activism on campaigns that are critical to improving their working conditions like access to paid sick days. This labour day ensure to send a message to public officials that paid sick days matter and demand they enact the necessary changes now,鈥 the union says in a statement.
The UFCW is calling on all governments in Canada to legislate 10 paid sick days for all workers. Many union contracts have them, but in many provinces, non-union workers aren鈥檛 entitled to sick days. sa国际传媒 allows workers up to five paid sick days. Federally regulated workers are entitled to 10.
