Early retirement rush in Canada sparks fight over pension surplus and job security

This month in labour history

1-04-1903 In Montréal, more than 2000 longshoremen go on strike at the beginning of the shipping season in the port. Militia are called out, and crowds rally to support the strikers. After five weeks, they win union recognition and more pay. [more]

6-04-1980 The Canadian Farmworkers Union holds its founding convention at Douglas College in Vancouver. Delegates elect Raj Chouhan as president of the CFU, Canada's first union of agricultural workers. [more]

8-04-1937 In Oshawa, Ontario, 4,000 workers go on strike at the General Motors plant for recognition of the United Auto Workers. They win major concessions, and the strike is often considered the birth of industrial unionism in Canada. [more]

9-04-1983 A tractor trailer drives through a picket line at a strikebound Alcan plant in Scarborough, Ontario, causing the death of Claude Dougdeen, 51, a Trinidad immigrant and father of seven. Outraged union leaders call on the province to bring in anti-scab laws. [more]

11-04-1972 More than 200,000 public sector workers, organized in the Québec Common Front, begin a ten-day strike. Three leaders are jailed, but the Common Front ultimately succeeds in winning a $100 minimum weekly wage for public employees. [more]

15-04-1872 Toronto printers attract a massive crowd of 10,000 people to Queen's Park in support of their strike for the nine-hour day. Union leaders are arrested for conspiracy the next day. [more]

15-04-1937 More than 5,000 Montreal “midinettes”, most of them French Canadian women, surprise garment factory owners by going on strike for shorter hours and overtime pay. Within weeks they win a victory for the International Ladies Garment Workers Union. [more]

15-04-1903 British Columbia union organizer Frank Rogers, a longshoreman, dies after he is shot while supporting clerical workers on strike against the Canadian Pacific Railway in Vancouver. [more]

18-04-1872 Prime Minister Sir John A. Macdonald announces a Trade Union Act stating that unions are legal. This is two days after leaders of the Toronto printers, with strong public support in their strike for a nine-hour day, are arrested for common conspiracy. [more]

18-04-1872 The first issue of the Ontario Workman appears, with the slogan “The equalization of all elements of society in the social scale should be the true aim of civilization.” It also publishes an excerpt on "the normal working day" from Karl Marx's Capital. [more]

19-04-1974 In a targeted campaign for pay equity, postal workers begin a seven-day illegal strike that wins women postal code machine operators the same pay as male postal clerks. [more]

19-04-2023 After more than a year of bargaining, 155,000 public service workers across 30 federal government departments go out on a successful strike, marking one of the largest strikes by federal employees in Canadian history. [more]

23-04-1956 More than 1600 delegates attend the founding convention of the Canadian Labour Congress, a merger of the Trades and Labour Congress and the Canadian Congress of Labour. They call for a national health plan, full employment and a guaranteed annual wage. [more]

25-04-2004 The British Columbia Liberal government imposes a 15 per cent wages cut on health services workers. This leads to an illegal strike by 40,000 members of the Hospital Employees Union and a settlement that fails to stop the privatization of services. [more]

26-04-1918 After years of agitation by reformers and unions, the New Brunswick Workmen’s Compensation Act receives Royal Assent. [more]

27-04-1983 As part of its anti-labour agenda, the Alberta government brings in legislation denying firefighters and healthcare workers the right to strike. [more]

28-04-1984 The Canadian Labour Congress establishes the first National Day of Mourning for workers killed or injured on the job. The idea of a Workers' Memorial Day is adopted by more than 100 countries around the world. [more]

29-04-1903 A sudden rock slide at Turtle Mountain kills more than 76 men, women and children in and around the town of Frank in the Crowsnest Pass. From inside the mine, 17 coal miners dig their way to safety. [more]