Kingston Labour History
CRAFT AND COMMUNITY
THE EARLY YEARS: 1800-1880

In the late 1700s Kingston served as an important military, industrial and political base for the European conquest of North America. Labourers and skilled craftpeople imported from Europe served to build the necessary military installations and associated infrastructure Although records are scarce, it is probable that some of the artificiers had been asssociated with the active European trade guilds such as the masons and carpenters. Craft workers in this period often took action to secure better wages and working conditions. One of the earliest records of this type of action was in 1809 when Kingston’s dockyard carpenters engaged in “concerted action” or possibly a strike. As a result, their overseer sought “authority to employ a lawyer to bind them down to their agreement.”

During the War of 1812 Kingston’s shipyards played an integral role in supplying British naval forces, and over one thousand artificers were brought to Kingston from Quebec and Great Britain. In a struggle against unacceptable working conditions, on March 10th and again on September 27, 1813 one hundred and fifty shipyard artificers and general labourers went on strike.

Although protests by labourers in the early years were often isolated and of short duration, there is evidence that workers and their organizations were in contact with one another. For example, French Canadian artificers from Montreal and British officers met at Kingston in June of 1816 to discuss trade and work matters - revealing a level of organization and solidarity that crossed geographic, cultural and linguistic barriers.

Futher military exploits in the late 1820s necessitated the construction of the Rideau Canal to create an inland transport route safe from American attack. Under the direction of Colonel By, the Superintending Engineer, the largest single work force ever in British North America was mobilized. Predominantly French-Canadian or recently arrived British immigrants, workers and their families arrived in the thousands. With only primitive tools thay constructed an elaborate canal system between Ottawa and Kingston during the years 1826-1832. In 1830 the project employed 1,316 people. The majority of wages was eaten up by the cost of living and wages were often reduced by an irregularity of work, the inability of contractors to pay and illness. Hazardous working conditions, hierarchical housing and diseases exacted a heavy toll, and in the shanty towns where many families lived conditions were extremely poor. There were several illnesses that plagued the workers, including various fevers (malaria), bowel disorders, consumption and exhaustion. In three consecutive years, 1828-1830, work in late summer at the Kingston Mills had to be stopped due to malaria. The disease spread through the shanty town of North Kingston and took many lives. Over a five year period, five hundred people died at Kingston Mills alone. The conditions in Kingston became so poor that in 1827 a provincial in Kingston noted: “There is scarcely a Hut or Loghouse here but is filled with Sick and Needy, who are suffering, not only from Disease, but also hunger, and from almost every other Misery concomitant upon the want of the common Necessaries of Life… principally occasion’d I understand, by the numerous Labourers returning from the Rideau Canal, where they have fallen victims of Disease.” There were several occasions when workers refused to work under malaria conditions.

At this early stage a sense of communal action that revolved around work and trade skills often served as the extent of formal organization. An example of this trade solidarity was the protest in 1822 by Kingston’s shoemakers against unjust treatment by the courts of fellow shoemaker John Mullin. Although early trades activity expressed a certain limited solidarity, the experiences of daily life revealed deep divisions along religious, racial and ethnic lines within Kingston’s early working class community. Kingston’s Protestant Orangemen (mostly Britsh) battled with Catholics (largely Irish) in riots in 1825, 1827, 1843, and 1844; a state of riot was observed when a tavern brawl spilled out into the streets in 1834; soldiers rioted with sailors in 1845. These actions served as expressions of the many divisions among working people, but also highlighted a population that was far from placid and orderly, but rather one that often engaged in mass action and protest.

2. In this early period, actions by workers did not conform to legalistic means. Because of criminal conspiracy in restraint of trade laws union activity was illegal in Canada until 1872. In 1835, Kingston shoemakers outraged at an attempt to cut their wages, dumped and smeared garbage on the front of their employers’ house. When the British Whig newspaper reported this as an “outrage,” they did the same thing to the newspapers’ offices. As today, workers had good reason to avoid the courts, since attempts to organize and struggle for rights were met by heavy legal repression in the form of “conspiracy” and “illegal combination” charges. Such was the case when six journeymen bakers struck for a week to secure better wages in February, 1837. They were brought before the court accused of “combination” and “intimidation in preventing men..from proceeding with their work.”

Other organizations, such as the Young Men (Clerks) of Kingston serves as social organizations and fought for better work conditions. On February 22, 1837 the Young Men (Clerks) held a meeting at city hall and drafted a request to city merchants to close their shops at 7 o’clock during the winter and 8 o’clock during the summer. Their letter to the merchants was signed by thirty-two clerks and re-printed in the press. These actions were quickly railed against through a proclamation in the British Whig by editor Terence O’Shaughnessy, accusing that the action had originated at the hands of: “…certain calculating Yankees, for the purpose of propagating and disseminating in this our loyal town, the pernicious, treasonable democratic doctrines of Atheism, Republicanism and Revolution.”

Not all workers’ organizations met with such resistance. For example, in the 1830s the Kingston Mechanics Institute served as a trade association and social club with upwards of two hundred members; and was engaged in an ongoing political battle over competition from prison labour.

Official unions were few and far between during this period. Instead many workers organized into social clubs, societies and other less formal organizations. It was not until the later half of the 1800s that more formal organizations began to appear in Kingston. In 1848 Shipwrights and Caulkers formed an organization, and Stonecutters struck in May of 1852 in opposition to competition from prison labour. There is also evidence that Kingston Carpenters struck in May the following year in an attempt to raise wages to the Toronto standard.

The 1870s witnessed growth in the number of organizations in Kingston, and the level of involvement in national and international organizations. The British based Amalgamated Society of Engineers (ASE) metal union established one of the first locals of an international union in 1861. The National Union of Iron Moulders tried unsuccessfully to organize in 1863, and eventually chartered Local 236 in 1874. A branch of the British Amalgamated Society of Carpenters and Joiners was formed in 1877, and sailors were formally organized by the Lake Seaman’a International Union in 1879. In the national arena, in the early 1870s Kingston workers were thought to be in contact with the Toronto based Canadian Labour Protective and Mutual Improvement Society, and two Kingston delegates from the ASE and the Moulders were present at the national convention of the Canadian Labour Union in August of 1874. At the Canadian Labour Union convention in 1876 twenty-two ASE delegates from Kingston were in attendance.

By the end of the 1870s Kingston’s labour movement had evolved considerably. Although largely exclusive to skilled workers, they had successfully organized a number of local union and workers’ societies, participated in national and international labour bodies, and had successfully engaged in protest and strike in their struggle for rights and better working conditions.

3. During the 1880s Kingston was one of Ontario’s five largest cities, boasting a population of 14,091 in 1881 - a figure that would climb to 19,263 within a decade. Shipbuilding, lake freight, locomotive works, foundry work, and cotton and woolen mills played central roles in local industry. Merchants, smaller craft shops, and construction also employed significant numbers. Labour organizations, workers’ societies and unions had been an integral part of working life in Kingston for well over half a century.

Through tight control over skills many craft workers made significant gains in the quality of their working lives. However, up until the 1880s little effort had been made to extend the benefits of organization to lesser skilled workers and women. In many cases craft-based organizations jealously guarded their skills and separated themselves from the less “respectable” masses, for which craft organizations have been criticized as the “aristocracy of labour.”

In contrast to the exclusive nature of craft union, a new type of labour movement swept across North America in the 1880s which embraced all working people by organizing the skilled and unskilled, women and men, and people of all races into one movement. Founded in Philadelphia, the Knights of Labour would have hundreds of thousands of members across North America at their peak. In Ontario the first Local Assembly was established in Hamilton in 1881. District and Local Assemblies of the Knights of Labour sprang up across the province. The Knights came late to Kingston, reaching their peak during the years 1886-1887. Under the umbrella of Belleville-based District Assembly 235, five Local Assemblies were formed in Kingston with a combined membership of over 1,500 in 1887. According to some sources, at their height the Knights of Labour represented one hundred percent of Kingston’s skilled, semi-skilled and industrial workers.

The coming of the Knights of Labour signalled an unparalled upsurge in labour movement activity in Kingston. In addition to being a ‘mass’ labour organization, they gained complete coverage in many areas of the city’s workforce. Riding an overall upsurge in organization and strike activity among both union and non-union workers in Kingston, the Knights struggled at the workplace for better wages and working conditions. From 1880 to 1887 Kingston witnessed forty-seven strikes, lockouts or slowdowns among skilled and unskilled, union and non-union workers.

During the 1880s the percentage of women working in Kingston’s skilled, unskilled and industrial jobs grew from 18% to 26% in 1891. Unlike other labour organizations, women played a significant role in the Knights of Labour, anmd Kingston shared the rare distinction of having one of the only three Local Assemblies in Ontario comprised solely of women workers. The Mayflower, Local Assembly 10432, was comprised of over one hundred women workers in the cotton and knitting mills, as well as women garment trade workers. During the 1880s the women mill workers struck for improved conditions in April 1882, and in May and July of 1887.

In 1883 Kingston’s telegraphers took part in one of Canada’s first international strikes. As members of the Knights of Labour and the Brotherhood of Telegraphers of the United States and Canada, thirty women and men left their keys on July 19, 1883. Although the telegraphers left the Knights of Labour during the strike, a press report showed that they had strong support from the community as funds from Kingston’s citizens were “sufficient… to carry the agitation all summer.” In an attempt to break the monopoly power of their employer, the telegraphers attempted to form their own telegraph service with Kingston area merchants. Although the international strike ended in failure, the telegraphers had gained tremendous public support and demonstrated their ability to carry out international action.

By the end of the 1880s, lack of leadership, economic forces, resistance to new ideas and craft rivalries combined to undermine the Knights of Labour. By the end of the decade the Knights had lost their stronghold within the North American labour movement. Many skilled trades and craft workers broke ties with the Knights and returned to their own exclusive organizations. For example, Kingston’s building trades Local #741 raised their fees to exclude lesser skilled workers. And four out of five Local Assemblies in Kingston had collapsed by the end of 1889. Although the Knights had effectively lost their power by the beginning of the 20th century, their contribution to the Canadian Labour movement was considerable. The Knights organized the unorganized, particularly the semi-skilled and unskilled, pioneered industrial unionism, led strikes, and were early proponents of political action.

4. RISE AND FALL - THE SECOND TIME AROUND: 1900-1930.
Although the collapse of the Knights of Labour signalled the end of a broad-based movement, the labour movement in Kingston continued to grow in numbers and organizational strength. Many setbacks occured in the recessionary period of 1893-97, but as Kingston faced the 20th Century there were already over twenty unions operating in the area, representing skilled, craft, unskilled and industrial workers.

A labour council was formed in 1894 and may have survived until 1899 when the Kingston Trades and Labour Council was first formed. The Labour Council would later be officially chartered in 1906. The Council’s mandate did not limit itself to improving the workplace, rather it also entered the political arena. By 1910 the Labour Council supported the “8 Hour Day” bill, sought to place labour candidates in City Hall, and organized around a number of municipal issues including holding seats on the Boards of Education and of Health.

During this period the Labour Council was in continuous contact with City officials concerning such issues as health and safety, securing a 9 hour day clause in City contracts and lobbying City Councillors to establish a minimum wage of 25 cents an hour. As the decade wore on, the Labour Council worked with a Toronto-based labour paper edited by Joseph Marx called the Industrial Banner. The Council was increasingly active in the political arena and in 1917 they sponsored a meeting of the Labour Political Party of Toronto and worked to organize a “People’s Forum” to discuss issues of the day. Kingston’s Labour movement garnered increasing support as evidenced by a crowd of over 1,900 at the 1917 Labour Day Picnic.

During the heady times of the late ‘teens, the imagination of many workers around the world had been captured by the revolutionary events in Russia. Parts of the Canadian labour movement were on the march as Western labour federations pressed for revolutionary action, and workers across the nation explored new possibilities. In this context, increasing political activity and growing labour solidarity played a significant role in Kingston’s textile strike of 1918, and attempts at a general strike in 1919.

Records of Council indicate that a woman organizer arrived in Kingston in early 1918, and shortly thereafter the workers at Dominion Textile formed Local 1172 of the United Textile Workers of America. Within weeks the first two women delegates, “Sister Caverly and Sister Fryo,” were seated at the Kingston Trades and Labour Council. By December of the same year, the company’s refusal to recognize the union and grant better wages and working conditions brought 110 women and men employed at the cotton mill out on strike. Support for the strike was quickly organized by the workers and the Labour Council as mass pickets were placed around the mill. Press reports indicated that on December 13, 1918 the police were called to “quell the disturbance” and to ferry scabs through crowded picket lines, comprised mostly of “women, girls and boys.”

Fundraising efforts were increased and a horse was even raffled off as the strike wore on through the holidays. Management tried to bribe key strikers with five or ten dollars but the women stood fast. When the strike entered its sixth week with little sign of a fair settlement, the Labour Council, in an unparalleled show of solidarity, began to organize for a general strike in support of the cotton mill workers. Ads were placed, the press was notified and telegrams were sent as a mass meeting was called for January 27, 1919. Despite the fact that a general strike never materialized, the cotton mill strike was won within two weeks.

Throughout the 1920s labour organizing continued in the workplace and in the community, with Labour Day attracting crowds of over 1,000. In early 1920 the Labour Council helped form a Kingston chapter of the Independent Labour Party; and later the same year the success of the Council’s social functions necessitated the purchase of ten tables and a piano for banquets, dances and card parties.

Kingston’s labour movement increasingly worked to educate its members and put on educational forums which included a series of twenty-four lectures organized by the Worker’s Education Association in 1926. The following year the Labour Council hosted a lecture by J.S. Woodsworth, an early socialist Member of Parliament from Winnipeg, who spoke to a capacity crowd of several hundred at the Capital Theatre on Princess Street.

By the late 1920s the solidarity and mass organization witnessed during the cotton mill strike of 1918 had dissipated. The Labour Council consisted almost exclusively of building trade unions after workers in other industries separated from the Council. The decline of a vibrant and mass movement left Kingston’s labour community ill-prepared for the Great Depression. Reminiscent of the collapse of the Kinghts of Labour, Kingston’s labour movement had reached new heights and fallen back again.

5. DEPRESSION & INDUSTRIAL UNIONISM: THE 1930S.
Unregulated markets and the consolidation of monopoly capital spun out of control as the economic crisis of world capitalism came to a head in 1929. Stock markets crashed, businesses shut down and workers were thrown into the streets. Hundreds of thousands across Canada found themselves unemployed, destitute and relying on meagre public assistance. The national unemployment rate reached 32% in the winter of 1933, and by 1935 nearly 20% of the entire population was dependent on public aid. Thousands of unemployed workers, mostly young men, travelled from city to city in search of work, food and shelter. In the absence of any action from Prime Minister Bennett’s Conservative government some municipalities went bankrupt in their attempts to provide relief. In response to the growing “problem of transients,” Bennett’s government proposed to herd thousand of young, unmarried, unemployed men into military controlled “relief camps” where they would work for 20 cents a day.

The Communist Party’s Workers’ Unity League (WUL) organized the unemployed under the banner of “Work for Wages” and formed unions within the relief camps. In the military-controlled camps, strikes and protests were quickly dealt with by tossing the “agitaors” out of camp and running them out of town. In August of 1933 relief camp workers in Barriefield successfully threatened to strike to secure better food, but in September of the same year a strike by fourteen workers at Kingston's’Relief Camp #37 ended when strikers were tossed out of camp, arrested and brought to court for trespassing, and given five hours to leave town.

Rising protest against the Conservative government culminated in the “On-To-Ottawa” trek in 1935. Originating on the West coast, more than 15,000 unemployed “rode the rails” to bring their protest to Ottawa. In order to stop the march before it could reach Winnipeg, Bennett’s government brought the full weight of the R.C.M.P. down upon the unemployed workers in what was known as the “Regina Riots.”
v In Ontario, over 400 unemployed organized to join the trek to Ottawa. On July 31st, 400 “On-To-Ottawa” marchers arrived in Kingston where they held a mass meeting and a concert on the fair grounds. Kingston City Council prohibited the marchers from making a door-to-door canvas for food and money, and arrested marchers for posting notices. The marchers eventually made it to Ottawa where the protest fizzled.

Throughout the 1930s the leadership of the conservative craft unions remained primarily interested in retaining their membership, and as the Depression wore on existing tensions within the American Federation of Labor culminated in a split in 1935. The split created what would become the Congress of Industrial Organization. CIO in the United States and the Canadian Labour Congress, CLC, in Canada. The CIO fought to organize skilled and unskilled workers on the basis of industry.

In Kington, the CIO would not arrive until later in the decade, but the Depression took its toll on the dominant craft union in Kingston - the Trades and Labour Congress. Membership dropped off due to unemployment and for much of 1933 to 1935 a quorum could not be reached. The late 1930s saw an extreme change in atmosphere.

6. THE SECOND GOLDEN AGE: WWII - 1973.
Spurred on by a booming war economy, CIO and CCL unions successfully organized throughout the late 1930s and during WWII. In response to a call for post-war stability and hoping to avoid another depression many industrial workers signed union cards for the first time. During the war thousands of women “war workers” were called into industry, and although rarely mentioned, many women played central roles in organizing the new CIO industrial unions.

In Kingston, the Alcan works was the scene of one such organizing drive. Throughout the early 1940s attempts were made to organize the workers, the majority of whom were women war workers, but each attempt was met with fierce resistance by the company. Alcan eventually established a company union as a sop to workers. After a long struggle, the United Steelworkers of America chartered Local 343 in 1845 in what would long remain one of Kingston’s key industries.

By the 1940s the Canadian Government changed the balance in favor of the unions. By 1946 a climate much more condusive and favorable to union activity led to a blossoming in union membership. Throughout the 1950s union membership would steadily climb as industrial unionism made further in-roads, and gains were made in establishing unions in the public sector including fields such as hospitals, schools, universities, and government.

Although the post-war period was one of expansion, it was also one of serious in-fighting within the labour movement over its philosophical direction. Government created hysteria over the “Red Scare” increased as world powers aligned themselves behind Western nations or the Eastern Bloc. Within this political climate some argue that the labour movement was granted a degree of legitimacy by the government in what has been called the “post-war compromise” that exchanged legal rights for the adoption of a less radicl stance free of communists and socialists. This policy conflict escalated until those who disagreed with the growing conservative direction of the labour leadership were branded “communist.” Kingston’s labour movement was affected when a fierce battle erupted over alleged communist infiltration of the labour movement and certain unions came under fire for their political outlook. At times the battle raged across the headlines of the local press, particularly as the Gananoque Labour Council merged with Kingston’s in an effort to oust communists. At other times local solidarity prevailed over politics when “communist unions” were aided on the picket lines by opposing unions.

The hysteria eventually calmed, but by the time it was over North America’s and Kingston’s labour movement had been purged of many militant and radical activists, and the direction of the labour movement had been set for decades to come.

Simultaneously effoerts were under way to achieve labour unity by merging the long feuding Congress of Industrial Organization with the American Federation of Labour in the U.S. and the Canadian Congress of Labour with the Trades and Labour Congress of Canada. In 1956 the Kingston Trades and Labour Council celebrated their fiftieth anniversary as they merged with the CIO affiliated Kingston Labour Council. On September 11, 1956 the merger created what would become today’s Kingston and District Labour Council.

The Kingston labour movement became increasingly active in the community throughout this period. It assisted in the creation of Kingston’s public transit system and designating Lemoine’s Point as a public park. The Council also worked with a number of local community organizations including a book drive for the library, holding a seat on the Frontenac Unemployment Advisory Committee, working for the United Appeal, and agitating for the formation of co-operative housing.

The founding convention of the New Democratic Party in Canada was held July 31 - August 4, 1961. During the convention the trade union movement was committed to providing active support for a “braodly based political instrument of the Canadian people.” The convention was attended by what was, until then, the largest gathering of trade union delegates ever to participate in a political convention. Links remain between the NDP and the CLC today.

During the late 1960s and early 1970s public sector unions grew in number and influence across Canada and, more specifically, in Kingston. And in 1974 the Federal Government worker’s union, the Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC), affiliated with the Kingston and District Labour Council.

During this period the growth of public sector unions brought many womrn into the labour movement. In 1974 the Canadian Union of Public Employee (CUPE) member Madaline Anderson was the first woman to be elected as President of the Kingston and District Labour Council. By the mid-1970s Kingston’s labour movement had grown substantially and expanded into unimagined areas of the economy. In 1939 just 17% of Canada’s labour force held union memberships, but by 1972 that number had doubled to 34% representing over two and a quarter million workers. Women comprised nearly a quarter of all union memberships.

During the 1970s the post-war boom started to fade and corporations were shocked to learn that workers refused to bear the brunt of economic fluctuations alone. In response, governments and their corporate allies began to dismantle the established system of labour relations.

7. ATTACKS, CHANGE AND NEW DIRECTIONS: 1970S.
The direction of the labour movement was relatively constant following the Second World War. For nearly thirty years Canada’s labour movement had pursued a strategy that resulted in growing membership with an increasing reliance on legalistic means of protecting workers’ fundamental rights. However, in the mid-1970s this all changed. The period spanning 1945 to 1973 was a ‘second golden age’ for the Canadian economy and therefore the labour movement. Economic growth seemed automatic, government was in favor of unions and union membership blossomed. However, after 1973 that rosy world disappeared. The 1973 Oil shock compunded the situation. The assumption of automatic economic growth held by Canadians was severely disabused. Supply side policies resulted in inflation. The Liberal government led by Pierre Trudeau tried to correct this trend by wage and price controls. Under the Anti-Inflation Board (AIB), government attempted to suspend free-collective bargaining be removing workers’ right to organize and strike. The AIB illegally tried to extend agreements beyond their expiry date and roll-backs occured.

The labour movement united to fight against wage controls and on October 14th, 1976 workers in Kingston and across Canada joined in a one-day general strike under the banner of the “National Day of Protest.” From the mid-1970s onwards, provincial and national governments have declared open season on workers’ rights.
8. THE 1980S AND 1990S.
In the midst of this widening attack on workers’ rights, corporate and government mismanagement fuelled a growing recession in the early 1980s. Technological developments, a changing world trade environment and social transformations combined to set Canada’s economy on a new path, but rather than designing policies to help workers through this transition, governments and corporations continue to pursue strategies where people’s lives were left to factors so-called “free-market adjustment.” The economy and workplace continued to change throughout the 1980s as more women entered the labour force, and the nature of work continued to switch from full-time industrial and resource sector jobs to more part-time and casual jobs in the service sector. The labour movement bagan to respond to these changes by organizing workers in these growing sectors of the economy, but have been hampered by inflexible government legislation.

The 1980s brought to power Mulroney’s Conservatives with a disastrous platform of Free Trade, attacks on social programs, pensions, unemployment insurance and the creation of taxes like the GST. Throughout this period the labour movement played an important role in opposing these policies. On many occasions the Canadian labour movement has battled government over anti-union attitudes which have manifested themselves in such disputes as the Eatons, Visa, CUPW and Grant strikes with basic union rights in jeopardy. In 1981, the Canadian Labour Congress was integral in putting together a coalition of twenty-five anti-poverty and home-owner groups and staged a massive demonstration on Parliament Hill against high interest rates. Another example of a government directed attack on labour was Bill C-124 under Trudeau’s Liberals. This Bill had three main components. It was designed to prohibit collective bargaining and deny the right to strike to all workers for at least two years; it provided for a two year extension of collective agreements and freeze all rights and benefits; and lastly it called for a wage reduction program.

The Kingston and District Labour Council was active throughout the 1980s within the community and in fighting attacks on labour. The Council energetically supported the New Democratic Party and presented labours’ position on issues to the community at large. The Council had a number of committes responsible for community work. Some of these included an Organization committee, Family Counselling Committee and Family Welfare, Health and Safety, Education, Political Action and Social Committees. The Labour Council also established an Unemployment Help Centre which provided a vital function and worked with the United Way Appeal.

Despite negative attitudes towards labour, a NDP government, led by Bob Rae was elected in Ontario in the early 1990s. This government implemented some of the most progressive labour legislation in the country to date. This legislation, Bill 40, prohibited companies from hiring replacement workers during a strike, banned any union member who wanted to work from going to his/her job during a strike, and expanded the pay equity system introduced by the Liberals. In another move that garnered labour support Rae personally negotiated an employee buy-out of Algoma Steel and the Kimberly-Clark Pulp Mill when business interests threatened to shut them down. In doing so, Rae helped to save thousands of jobs. However, Rae lost some of his traditional labour support when he pushed his ‘social contract’ upon labour. This contract betrayed the fundamental principles of collective bargaining by rolling back wages of public sector workers over three years.

One of the greatest blows to organized labour in Ontario occured with the election of Mike Harris as Premier. ‘Mike the Knife’ and his ‘Common Sense Revolution’ are a threat to past and future achievements of the labour movement. Harris’ programs are in direct opposition to the needs vocalized by such organizations as the Kingston and District Labour Council. There are several main aspects of the Harris legislation. It calls for the dismantling of social programs; slashing welfare payments and introducing workfare; reduce workers’ compensation payments; repealing Bill 40 (Labour Relations Act) and Bill 79 (the employment equity legislation); and reducing taxes. At this time, many of these programs have already been implemented.

The Kingston and District Labour Council has been an active voice of opposition to Harris’ Common Sense Revolution and has presented policy papers and statements of position for the OFL and the CLC to this affect. In the 1990s the Labour Council has invested its time in a number of community and political projects.. In 1990 the Labour Council signed an agreement with the United Way to co-operate in serving the social needs of those less fortunate in the community. It established the Kingston Area Labour Adjustment Council to assist the unemployed in dealing with labour adjustment needs. It later organized a special ‘Day of Mourning’ to honor those workers injured or killed in the workplace (April 28). The Labour Council also received a number of ‘Artists in the Workplace’ grants. An impressive mural was completed (by Laurie Swim) entitled ‘Pulling Together’ and is on permanent display at the Hotel Dieu Hospital. The Council also received a grant to establish a brass historical plaque to honour the workers killed or injured during the construction of the Rideau Canal between 1826-1832. The Council began to publish a very informative annual labour magazine. It worked with the CLC and the Action Plan Network to organize a demonstration in 1993, to highlight concerns about unemployment and government policies. The Labour Council also worked with the OFL Community Economic Development Project to research and development a community action plan for industrial retention. These are only a few of the projects undertaken by the Kingston and District Labour Council in an attempt to provide viable alternatives to Harris’ agenda.

The 1990s have witnessed a rightwing reorientation of governments in Canada and the United States. This supply side revolution has resulted in a spate or frenzy of de-regulation, a general loosening of anti-scab laws, an end to successor rights, and attacks on social programs. New legislation has placed unions on the defensive because of decreasing enrollments, decertification, and the new economy, as we emerge from the current recession, promotes part-time work without benefits. The results are challenges, although very different in character, no less severe then those faced by labour in the 1920s. If the labour movement is to achieve victories it needs a leadership that is in tune with present political - economic realities.

9. WOMEN AND THE LABOUR MOVEMENT.
From the 1800s to the 1880s, although women’s labour counted for little of industrial production, their work in the home and agriculture was vital to the development of today’s economy. Kingston women began to work outside the home in large numbers in the 1880s in an industry that would become known for hiring women: the textile industry.

When the Knights of Labour organized in the Kingston area, their working sisters formed a subsection of the Knights in 1885, the Mayflower, which consisted of workers from cotton mills, woollen mills, and tailoresses. Women in these industries waged many successful strikes, paving the way for both male and female workers to come.

The history of these workers is rich with enthusiastic activism and strike activity despite the demise of the Knights of Labour by 1890. Women continued to work outside the home in growing numbers and organized the Dominion Textile Company in 1918, sending delegates to the Kingston Trades and Labour Council.

Kingston women continued to enter the industrial workforce in unparelleled numbers right up to the Second Worls War. With the war economy, women were hired at the new Alcan plant in such numbers (well over a thousand) that they were bussed in from as far away as Belleville and a dormitory sleeping four hundred was built for them.

These women worked to organize the Steelworkers Local 343 at Alcan, rolling aluminum for warplanes. With the return of Kingston’s soldiers, all women at Alcan were fired. Many other women war workers found themselves in the same boat. Their gains went under attack in the 1950s while large numbers of women found wotk in the public service sector. Women organized this sector and regained some of their rights in the 1960s as organizations like the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE), provincial government unions, and the Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC) grew in numbers and strength.

Since then, Kingston women workers have held top positions in both their locals and the Kingston and District Labour Council and have brought issues like child care, and pay equity to the forefront of the labour movement as well as the need to amend the Sexual Assault Provisions in the Criminal Code of Canada. Our labour sisters have come along way from the days of unpaid labour and continue to fight for equality in the workplace, the union and society.

Our History, It Helps us Move Forward - Makes Us Proud!

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