History of Labor Day in Canada - Essay Example

Book Review on "'The Workers' Festival: A History of Labor Day in Canada" Think about a history book written most humanely making a phenomenon like parade versus break in the country-pivotal to the story. Or spare a thought about writers delving into this stow way back in 1897, where "the speeches concluded beforetime when the restive crowd the Reverend S.S. Craig's address with shouts of 'Play Ball.' They got what they aspired: Craig simply wrapped up his umbrella and hat and left the stage." Another book by one of the authors, Craig Heron's The Canadian Labor Movement: A Short History has this same famous sweep. On a Sunday evening a century ago this weekend, 14,000 francophone workers gathered on Old Montreal to prepare for Labor Day. Instead of shouting through the streets, they quietly converged in Notre Dame Church, where Paul Bruschesi, then Archbishop of Montreal, urged them to shun strikes and show reverence to their employers. That same day, 2,000 Anglophone workers descended on what later became St. Patrick's Basilica, in the core of modern downtown Montreal, to prepare for the next day's parade. They heard the identical don't-rock-the-boat message as clergy instructed them to put their trust in church arbitrators to resolve disputes over pay, hours and conditions of work and other issues. Now two Toronto historians have crafted an illuminating, sometimes offensive retrospective of how Labor Day has been marked across Canada. With anecdotes like those above, York University history professor Craig Heron and Steve Penfold, an assistant professor of history at the University of Toronto, deliver substantial analysis. They show how the Labor movement has evolved since the 1880s, along with Canadian society as a whole. In many parts of the country, "Labor Day would eventually die out completely as a workers' festival, or limp on as a spiritless exercise in commercialized civic boosterism" Strong words, Stirring prose.In significant ways, the authors conclude, Labor Day in Canada "is the story of a holiday that never really belonged to workers" and has been supplanted by such holidays as May Day and International Women's Day. Their tone is not entirely bitter or sardonic, though. Heron and Penfold linger in loving detail over the floats, costumes, banners and placards that once made Labor Day parades a key event on community calendars. And they illustrate their points with superbly evocative photos. Even readers inclined to disagree with their hard-edged assessments will concede that Heron and Penfold have laid invaluable groundwork in an area that to date has been poorly documented. They note that times have changed. Early in the last century, "no Asian workers from British Columbia's fish-packing plants and sawmills ever got invitations to join the West Coast marchers. "In fact," they add, "Victoria's tailors carried a banner in 1901 blaming the Chinese for their plight." Heron and Penfold were hampered, while researching the book, by the fact that few records of past Labor Days have survived, beyond newspaper accounts of the day. In typically quiche fashion, they note that an 1898 parade float by Winnipeg tailors lambasted the awarding of a city-council contract for firemen's uniforms to a local sweat shop -- an open display of dissent that was "apparently ignored by the mainstream newspapers." They learned of it from a small workers' newspaper. In this painstakingly researched volume they elaborate how Labor Day parades have had splendid moments in our history. Primarily, the parades were a much sought-after festival aimed at eliciting attention to the role and needs of Labor. They became a very rich art form developed jointly by organized workers in Canada. Nevertheless, they were also bitterly disheartening to those who attempted to indulge masses of workers in the celebration. The first Labor Day procession was in Toronto in 1882. At that time one of the demands of Labor was to call for a public enquiry into the status of Labor and capital. Such a Royal Commission was set up and reported in 1889. To the utter disappointment of Labor leaders, the most essential recommendations were ruled out. The only recommendation enforced was the pronouncement of Labor Day as a constitutional holiday in 1894. The granting of a workers' holiday was not unanimously espoused. The book's conclusion is inescapable. However elaborate or passionate they were, celebrations of Labor Day never did provide workers with full voice. Reporter Jan Ravensbergen is vice-president, Canada East, of The Newspaper Guild-CWA, a sector of the Communications Workers of America. This book carefully explores the ups and downs of the workers' festival. A Background In 1984, Labor Day's first recorded celebration was in Canada, London. Those were the days of craft unions and men paraded--usually marched--clad in suits as well as top hats or bowler hats. Ennobled press coverage emphasized the priceless role of these workers and even management talked optimistically: "At times barbers could be seen shaving faces or cutting hair. Building tradesmen put on a good exhibit almost everywhere possible: bricklayers built walls, chimneys or even small cottages, stonecutters shaped granite, lathers nailed up their wooden frames, plasterers fashioned fancy arches, painters slapped on paint or papered a room, and carpenters made small buildings, all the time riding on top of a wagon. Blacksmiths, boilermakers and moulders often put on stunning exhibits of sound and light with their little furnaces and hot iron. "The Knights of Labor did all to add more non-skilled, multicultural workers and ensured women's participation to labors' demonstrations. However, its influence had petered out by 1900. By 1900 we are also into the period when companies themselves often displayed their wares which Heron and Penfold call "commercial boosterism," a change of emphasis from (Labor) process to (company) product. Even the notoriously anti-Labor T. Eaton Company "sponsored an elaborate float carrying three symbolic figures 'Inspiration, Achievement and Labor' over the banner 'the reward of labor.' The early decades of the twentieth century entrusted Labor with a colossal internal endeavor--the challenge of unskilled Labor, the growing militancy of many workers for whom May Day became a more important celebration for Labor than Labor Day. As a matter of fact, looking at the country as a whole, it was not till the 1940s that Labor Day started to come out again as a celebration of some importance. This was the time when Labor was excessively dominated by the giants like the steelworkers, the autoworkers, and quite a few other new faces. Some general points: the place of churches was an amalgamation of a few sympathetic social gospel priests and ministers, a second cautious group who wanted mostly to give small sermons on "materialism," but also a large Quebec Catholic union organization which formed many enormous demonstrations but was mainly dedicated to the harmony among religion, management and Labor. It was not till the arrival of the new anti-Duplessis unions in Quebec in the 1950s, led by such people as Madeleine Parent (shown in one of the book's 201 photos) that militant Quebec workers got the leadership they badly wanted. Then there was the shifting role of women in these Labor Day parades. For the early decades they were restricted to cheering their husbands and friends from the sidewalks. By the late 1930s women often appeared in pin-up contests or as drum-majorettes in short skirts. After World War II, with the appearance of the Women's Movement, alternative parades were often held by women and some Organized Working Women groups appeared regularly in Labor Day parades. But the honest authors point to the lure of out-of-town and in-town leisure as the main reason that Labor Day ceremonies and parades have had such a mixed history. Certain holidays other than Labor Day often loomed larger in citizens' minds: the Santa Claus Parade, Empire Day (later Canada Day), Victoria Day, St. Jean Baptiste Day in Quebec, Orange Order Day (July 12th), St. Patrick's Day. And, of course, running through their whole book is the message that the newspapers constantly passed on: present us with a totally satisfied and well-behaved Labor, or we'll damn you to hell. Parliament made Labor Day a statutory holiday in 1894, the same year a Montreal workers' march rang with the slogan "We want honest government." Since the Second World War, the authors tell us, Labor Day parades, and the amateur games and dancing long associated with the holiday, have lost verve and vigor in most Canadian cities. Over time, the confidence and morale that powered these often elaborate civic events have been eroded, "regularly sapped by bitter, union- busting strikes, hostile courts, unemployment and transient memberships." Labor Day parades were a spectacular event in a number of Canadian cities and towns in the first decade of the last century. Between 1910 and the beginning years of World War 2 Labor was very much undermined by powerful attacks by employers and governments. The parades all but vanished from the scene. There was a huge rise in union membership and activity during WW2 and the instant post-war years. A wave of strike activity followed in 1946 when workers and returning veterans demanded wage increases that had been denied during the war years. Labor Day parades with strong political messages reappeared and became the norm. The political messages were much quieter in the 1950's and '60's. Parade floats were to be attention-grabbing, while women were exploited as sexual attractions. Professionally designed floats became undulating commercials for the companies that the demonstrators ventured for. Nevertheless, from the 1970's until the present, the message of the parades has again become markedly political. Even though the Toronto parade today still draws from 25,000 to 35,000 demonstrators, the post-war revival has proved to be partial, jagged and by and large unsuccessful. So much so, Canadian workers have opted for cottages, sporting events, television, and barbeques over parades of grave content. The authors illustrate how the holiday was largely taken away from workers. Over a century, politicians, clergy, editorial writers and commercial interests have appropriated the holiday for their own purposes. Retail stores promoted Labor Day as a shopping day before the start of school. The authors cite one outrageous example of how the staunchly anti-union T. Eaton Company placed a float in the 1933 Toronto Labor Day parade. The book explains why Labor Day is a uniquely North American holiday while workers in the rest of the world celebrate May Day. Workers in the United States originated the celebration of May 1st. It was taken up by European socialists and became a day of international solidarity. In order to divert American workers away from radical activity on May 1st, the US government and employers declared the first Monday in September as Labor Day. Canada soon followed. The irony is that May 1st has become the international day of Labor solidarity in almost every country in the world except in the US, where it originated. As the author states: May Day was a day of protest, Labor Day one of celebration. At the time that Labor Day and other holidays were proclaimed as statutory holidays, they were without pay. Missing from this book is the story of Labor's struggles to gain holidays with pay. It was only through collective bargaining in the 1940's and onward that Labor unions fought for and gained holidays with pay. It would take 72 years from the time Labor Day was declared a statutory holiday until the Canadian Government in 1966 legislated holidays with pay. Works Cited Heron, Craig, and Steve Penfold. The Workers' Festival: A History of Labour Day in Canada. University of Toronto Press, 2005. Read More