Risk to Canadian jobs remains at crisis level despite U.S. Supreme Court ruling

This month in labour history

3-02-1939 The first group of Canadian veterans of the Spanish Civil War disembark at Halifax. Of the almost 1,700 Canadians who fought fascism in Spain, more than 400 were killed. Many of the volunteers were union activists and others radicalized in the 1930s. [more]

6-02-2012 Eleven farmworkers, including nine migrant workers from Peru, are killed in a highway crash at Hampstead, Ontario. The tragedy highlights unsafe conditions in the sector and the exploitation of seasonal workers. [more]

9-02-1869 Birth of James Bryson McLachlan, at Ecclefechan, Scotland. As a union leader in Canada he becomes the champion of the Nova Scotia coal miners and a leading spokesman for the cause of labour radicalism. [more]

10-02-1928 At the Hollinger Consolidated Gold Mine at Timmins, Ontario, the largest in North America, 39 miners are killed when a fire spreads carbon monoxide through the workings. There is no rescue plan in place and it takes five days to put out the fire. [more]

11-02-1908 Eight workers are killed in an explosion at the Standard Explosive Company works on Île Perrot, near Montreal. [more]

11-02-1963 At Reesor Siding, near Kapuskasing, Ontario, eleven union members are shot, three fatally, in a confrontation over pulpwood supplies for a strikebound mill. Three of the attackers are later fined for possessing dangerous firearms. [more]

14-02-1949 In defiance of provincial laws, asbestos workers in Québec begin a four-month strike for better wages and workplace safety. With strong public support for the miners' cause, the strike becomes a forerunner of the province's Quiet Revolution. [more]

15-02-1912 Male garment workers at the Eaton’s factory in Toronto are locked out when they protest changes that deprive women workers of jobs. More than a thousand employees join the protest. Solidarity marches and public boycotts continue for several months. [more]

15-02-1982 All 84 crew on board are lost when an oil-drilling rig capsizes and sinks in a storm on the Grand Banks off Newfoundland and Labrador. The Ocean Ranger disaster is attributed to failures in structural design and inadequate safety measures. [more]

17-02-1944 Wartime unrest convinces the federal government to bring in an emergency order, P.C. 1003, which requires employers to recognize and bargain with unions supported by the majority of employees. This breakthrough sets a standard for postwar labour relations. [more]

19-02-2017 Labour leader Bob White dies at 81 years of age. He is remembered as a founder of the Canadian Auto Workers and a popular president of the Canadian Labour Congress. [more]

21-02-1891 At Springhill, Nova Scotia an explosion takes the lives of 125 men and boys in the province's largest coal mine disaster. They leave more than 200 widows and children. [more]

22-02-1932 On an international day of protest against unemployment, thousands of men, women and children march in Vancouver, British Columbia to support immediate relief measures and radical social reforms. [more]

24-02-1996 The Days of Action mounted by Ontario unions in response to the anti-worker agenda of the provincial Conservative government end in Hamilton, Ontario. This is the largest of the mass actions across the province. [more]

25-02-1931 In Toronto more than 500 women dressmakers protest sweatshop conditions in the needle trades and begin a strike for better wages and union recognition. Large numbers of scabs and police are deployed. [more]

29-02-1956 In Sudbury, Ontario, the great African-American singer and activist Paul Robeson performs at the Mine Mill union hall. It is his last concert in Canada, as the Canadian government soon afterwards blocks his return for an extensive concert tour. [more]