Labour Day honours the role of workers in Canada

By Al Beeber - Lethbridge Herald on September 2, 2023.

LETHBRIDGE HERALDabeeber@lethbridgeherald.com

For many, it’s just the last long weekend of summer, a time to relax or do last- minute shopping before the kids go back to school.
But Labour Day is much more than that – it’s a holiday whose origins date back to the 1800s when activists in both Canada and the United States worked to establish a day that would pay tribute to workers.
On July 23, 1894, the Canadian government, led by Prime Minister John Thompson, made Labour Day official with a new law.
According to United Way Canada, Winnipeg was the site of a huge parade that year and Labour Day celebrations began happening across the country.
In the U.S., the first Labour (spelled Labor south of the 49th parallel) Day was staged Sept. 5, 1882 in New York City with 10,000 workers marching in a parade organized by two labour organizations. That day was held after an American labour leader witnessed similar festivities in Toronto earlier that same year and was inspired to do something in the U.S.
But it took until 1894 before the U.S. government established the first Monday of September as a legal holiday after president Grover Cleveland signed a congressional act.
In Canada, trade unions had started holding parades in Toronto and Ottawa 20 years previously to celebrate the 1872 successful Toronto printers’ strike, which the United Way says was the original fight for fairness that resulted in major changes for labour in the country including the decriminalization of unions.
In March of 1872 the Toronto Typographical Union went on strike for a nine-hour work day and on April 15 they paraded along with 10,000 union supporters to Queen’s Park, home of the Ontario provincial government. Strike leaders were charged with criminal conspiracy but Prime Minister Sir John A. Macdonald – seeking the support of workers – passed the Trade Union Act which legalized labour groups. Although restrictions remained on union activity, the strike did succeed in having the nine-hour work day established.
After the success of the strike, unions began to demand safer workplaces and fair wages for Canadian workers.
Lethbridge MP Rachael Thomas in a statement Friday quoted British intellectual Bertrand Russell who once stated “No great achievement is possible without persistent work.”
The MP added “”Labour Day serves as a great opportunity to pause and celebrate the men and women who work hard to keep our country going strong. We commemorate the value and dignity of workers throughout Canada. We recognize the accomplishments of those who work on the seas, in fields, factories, workshops, homes, labs, offices, mines, and more.
“There are gifts, talents and abilities in everyone. Work is the place those talents get to be used for the betterment of our community. To all workers, thank you for your contributions to the growth and prosperity of all Canadians,” said Thomas.
For Guy Smith, president of the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees, Labour Day is a time to reflect upon, and recognize, the role of workers in this country.
“It’s a day to honour and respect the role workers play in this society which is pretty much everything, and also recognizing the role of the unions that support and protect workers. And also the role unions play in bringing balance into society and being a counter balance to those forces that want to dismantle public services or want to continue to push workers down.” said Smith who was first elected president in 2009 and has been re-elected six times.
“So I think unions play a very important role and I think Labour Day recognizes that. It’s part of why Labour Day exists.”
For those working within the labour movement, “it’s an opportunity to quietly reflect on the work we’ve done over the last year and the massive amounts of work we’re preparing to do in the near future because about 82,000 of our members will be in negotiations with various employers in 2024 and we know it’s going to be a very tough round and we’re putting a lot of effort into preparing them for that,” added Smith.
He said he hopes all Albertans have the opportunity to enjoy the last long weekend of the summer.
“And obviously recognizing and respecting the fact that a big chunk of our members work through long weekends because they’re providing services to Albertans 24/7,” added Smith.
The AUPE is a large and diverse union, says the president.
“We’re probably the most complex and diverse union in western Canada, certainly the largest and that brings its own challenges but I’m very proud of all of our members and the work they do for Albertans, the vast majority of which work in the public sector,” said Smith.
The union has about 97,000 members at the moment, added Smith.
“We’ve steadily grown over the years, and believe me it’s not because government is hiring more workers. We’re organizing workers who are currently unorganized, mostly in private long-term care so we’ve grown steadily,” added Smith.
“What’s amazing about our union is that despite that we all manage to pull together and work together.”
Smith said dozens of collective agreements are open and will be addressed next year.
“Workers are looking for decent wage increases and better working conditions” and bargaining in recent years has been challenging, he said.
While there have been wage increases, they don’t match inflation and higher interest rates.
“Workers are suffering, families are suffering and that’s part of the role the union plays is to life those families in those communities so that can live without the fear of not being able to pay bills or put food on the table,” added Smith.
“Alberta is fundamentally built on a sense of community, that everywhere you go in Alberta despite people’s feelings and perspectives, they pull together. And that’s the kind of culture we try to bring into AUPE,” he added.
“I think it’s really important that they recognize they’re part of something bigger but also recognize that traditionally in Alberta we’ve had right wing government that passed legislation or take actions to try to undermine workers rights. So the struggle in Alberta is different than it is everywhere else and that kind of made our union unique because we’ve had to take on challenge after challenge after challenge. It’s never, ever been easy. It’s tiring but it builds a backbone, and it builds a sort of steely revolve that we need to maintain.”

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