Yukon May Day: What Has Changed, and What Still Matters

This month in labour history

1-05-1906 Socialists in Montreal organize Canada's first May Day demonstration. The following year ten thousand people assemble in the Champs de Mars before the crowd is dispersed by police. [more]

1-05-1986 Shirley Carr becomes the first woman president of the Canadian Labour Congress. A coal miner's daughter who became a member of the Canadian Union of Public Employees, she is also the first CLC president from a public sector union. [more]

2-05-1952 More than 1,000 retail employees, most of them women, begin a strike at Dupuis Frères, a major department store in Montréal. It takes three months, but support for the new militancy among Catholic unions helps the workers win a collective agreement. [more]

3-05-1887 British Columbia's worst mine disaster takes 150 lives after an explosion in a deep underground mine at Nanaimo. The casualties include 53 Chinese labourers, whose names were not recorded by the company. [more]

4-05-1937 In one of a wave of strikes in Québec this year, workers at the shipyards in Sorel demand union recognition, better wages, and reinstatement of dismissed union leaders. [more]

5-05-1972 Saskatchewan brings in an Occupational Health (and Safety) Act, considered the first of its kind in North America. It includes the right to information about workplace hazards, to participate in safety decisions and to refuse unsafe work. [more]

9-05-1992 An underground explosion takes the lives of 26 miners in Pictou County, Nova Scotia. A public inquiry into the Westray Disaster blames politicians, managers and bureaucrats for creating “a predictable path to disaster.” [more]

9-05-1972 Leaders of the Québec Common Front go to jail for defying back to work laws during the April general strike. More than 300,000 workers participate in work stoppages and occupations that bring the provincial government back to the bargaining table [more]

14-05-1940 Emma Goldman, the veteran feminist, labour and anarchist organizer, dies in Toronto, Ontario. A memorial service is held at the Labour Lyceum on Spadina Avenue. She is buried with the Haymarket martyrs in Chicago. [more]

15-05-1946 A six-week strike by loggers in British Columbia begins, the first after the achievement of collective bargaining rights during the war. The strike helps set postwar standards by achieving higher wages, shorter hours, and an industry-wide contract. [more]

15-05-1872 Some 1500 workers in Hamilton, Ontario take to the streets under the banners of the Nine Hours movement, to demonstrate for a reduction in working hours. [more]

15-05-1919 A general strike in a major city brings thousands of workers out in support of labour rights and social change. Winnipeg comes to a standstill in an urban rebellion that exposes the unresolved class conflicts of capitalist democracy in Canada. [more]

18-05-1952 The American singer and activist Paul Robeson performs for more than 25,000 people at a union-sponsored concert at the Peace Arch between Washington State and British Columbia. His passport had been revoked and he was prevented from crossing the border. [more]

21-05-1975 After police bludgeon striking workers at United Aircraft in Longueuil, Québec, a general strike brings out 100,000 protesters. Later, a new government changes labour laws to support union security and ban the use of strikebreakers. [more]

23-05-1921 The Communist Party of Canada is founded at a three-day meeting in a barn in Guelph, Ontario. The party achieves its greatest influence in the 1930s and 1940s organizing unemployed workers and industrial unions, and in struggles against war and fascism. [more]

24-05-1919 Coal miners in Drumheller, Alberta go on strike for recognition of the One Big Union after they vote overwhelmingly to leave the United Mine Workers of America. [more]

26-05-1919 Thousands of workers in Calgary and Edmonton go on strike in solidarity with their Winnipeg counterparts. [more]

28-05-1927 The House of Commons approves a limited old age pension plan. To qualify, Canadians must be 70 years of age and pass a means test. Also, they must live in a participating province. [more]