List of strikes in Canada


This is a chronological list of labour strikes in Canada and other significant labour-related events in the country's history.

1700s

  • 1799After establishing fur trading post Greenwich House at Lac la Biche, workers refuse to proceed to Lesser Slave River because of lack of provisions. First known strike action in Canada.

Early-mid 1800s

  • 1803Seven men working for Peter Fidler at Lake Athabasca, Alberta refuse to stay on job unless wages are increased.
  • ca. 1812Dock workers in St. John and Halifax organize a union.
  • 1820Oxford House, Manitoba where fur trade employees, without benefit of a formal union, go on strike demanding better pay.
  • 1835–1845Shiners' War, Irish labour strife at Bytown.
  • 1842In Quebec, T.M. Moore begins to publish People's Magazine and Workingman's Guardian, the first labour-oriented reform newspaper.
  • 1840sWelland Canal Riot in which Irish immigrants fight each other for jobs. From 1842–1843, faction rioting occurs between Corkmen and Connaughtmen working on a canal in Broad Creek, Ontario. Small-scale strikes are common. When blacklisting and arrests under existing laws fail to halt labour unrest, the Board of Works secures passage by the government of the United Canadas of the 1845 Act for the Preservation of the Peace near Public Works, the first of Canada's regulatory acts that seeks to control Canadian canal and railway workers.
  • 1844Toronto Typographical Union is formed. It still exists today as a local of the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada.
  • 1849Saint John Labourers Benevolent Association is founded. It is the precursor to the International Longshoremen's Association in the city. At the time, there is friction between the anti-Catholic Orange Order and a wave of poor unskilled Irish immigrants, resulting in a July 12, 1849 riot in which 12 are killed. Labourers' Benevolent Association erects the "Labourers' Bell" in 1849 on the Saint John waterfront to enforce the ten-hour day.

1870s

  • 1871Toronto Trades Assembly is formed. First central union body in Canada.
  • 1872Nine Hour Movement - labour activists call for nine-hour day and 54-hour workweek.
  • 1872 March 25The Toronto Typographical Union goes on strike against their employer, the editor of The Globe. Liberal Party leader George Brown demands a nine-hour workday. Union activity then being a criminal offence, 24 members of strike committee are jailed for conspiracy. John A. Macdonald's Conservative government passes Trade Unions Act on June 14, legalizing trade unions.
  • 1872 April 15The Toronto Trades Assembly organizes the country's first significant workers demonstration.
  • 1872 September 3Ottawa unionists hold a 10,000-person-strong parade through the city. Prime Minister John A. Macdonald joins and gives a speech where he promises to abolish the sorts of laws that had put the Toronto printers in jail. Canadian Parliament names Labour Day a holiday in 1894, and now it is a world-wide holiday.
  • 1873An initial attempt at establishing a national trade union centre is made by the founding of the Canadian Labour Union. It is dissolved in 1878.
  • 1873Drummond Mine explosion at Westville, Nova Scotia kills 60 or 70. Considered Canada's first mining disaster.

1880s

  • 1880 November 12Foord Pit coal mine explosion at Stellarton, Nova Scotia kills at least 44.
  • 1880–1900Knights of Labor, formed in 1869 in Philadelphia, becomes active in Ontario.
  • 1882Toronto Women shoemakers went on strike in five factories. This was one of the earliest strikes by Canadian women and was supported by male unionists.
  • 1883The Trades and Labour Congress of Canada, a Canada-wide central federation of trade unions, is formed.
  • 1885 February 10Vale Colliery mine explosion near Thorburn, Nova Scotia kills 13.
  • 1886Mutiny among North-West Mounted Police constables at Edmonton over poor food and overcrowding. Mutineers arrested, taken to NWMP headquarters at Regina, are punished and/or driven from the force.
  • 1887Mine explosion at Nanaimo, British Columbia kills 148.
  • 1889 The commission, chaired at first by James Sherrard Armstrong, notes the many workplace injuries and deaths, and condemns working conditions in many workplaces. The commission recommends several changes to improve working conditions. In a hearing before the commission, Olivier-David Benoît makes a strong case about the conditions faced by workers in the boot and shoe industry.

1890s

1900s

  • 1900Parliament passes the Conciliation Act and establishes the federal Department of Labour
  • 1900 Arthur Puttee elected as the [List of Labour Member of Parliament (Canada)|MPs (Canada)|first Labour] Member of Parliament. Runs under the Winnipeg Labour Party label. Serves as MP 1900–1904.
  • 1900Quebec shoe worker strike/lockout. Its resolution is said to be the first direct intervention in a labour conflict by Québec Catholic clergy. The strike/lockout was an important step toward the organization of unions for Catholics and of the Confédération des syndicats nationaux, founded in 1921.
  • 1902 May 22Coal Creek mine disaster kills 128.
  • 1903Consolidated Lake Superior riot due to layoffs and unpaid wages.
  • 1903Frank Rogers shot to death at picket line during strike at Canadian Pacific Railway, Vancouver.
  • 1904 November 23Carbonada mine - Coal mine disaster kills 14.
  • 1904Socialist Party of Canada founded by E.T. Kingsley, R.P. Pettipiece and others of the earlier Canadian Socialist League. The Western Clarion becomes its official organ. The Socialist Party elects MLAs in BC, Alberta and Manitoba, before disbanding in 1925.
  • 1906Thomas Belanger and Francois Theriault are shot to death during a strike at Maclaren Company pulp mill at Buckingham, QU.
  • 1906Industrial Workers of the World, formed in Chicago in 1905 and then came to BC. Founding convention of BC branch in 1906. Western Federation of Miners instrumental in its early efforts.
  • 1906IWW Lumber Handlers Union No. 526, composed primarily of Tsleil-Watuth First Nations people of Burrard, strikes in opposition to demands of longer hours and lower pay. First IWW strike in western Canada. Strike largely unsuccessful; only victories are in getting jobs back and having scabs fired.
  • 1906Thunder Bay - the first strike at the Lakehead begins. Again and again, area workers band together to fight for wage increases, job security and non-discriminatory hiring practices.
  • 1907Quebec Bridge, still under construction, collapses, killing 75, including 33 Mohawk steelworkers from the Kahnawake reserve near Montreal.
  • 1907IWW achieves majority control of the AFL-CIO unions in Nelson.
  • 1907 Sept. 7-8Vancouver Labour Day march by unionists leads to anti-Asian-immigration riot. Chinatown and Japantown are attacked, causing property damage and numerous injuries.
  • 1907 August 28At Cobalt, an IWW member is killed when scabs overload a charge at the mine.
  • 1907Rise of industrial unionism pre-World War I involves the IWW and other workers as well. In Quebec in 1907, workers in the textile sector, predominantly Francophone or Jews, organize industrial unions and conduct strikes.
  • 1907Some miners in Edmonton gain eight-hour day.
  • 1909Alberta provincial election: Charles O'Brien, of the Socialist Party of Canada, elected by coal miners in the Rockies.
  • 1909 October 5Wellington Collieries cave-in at Extension, BC kills 32.
  • 1909Prince Rupert - 123 IWW men walk off sewer construction worksite.
  • 1909Victoria IWW branch signs up 300 men employed in street construction and leads them out on strike. That same year, Victoria IWW calls for a general strike to demand release of McNamara brothers, arrested for the bombing of the Los Angeles Times building.
  • 1909Vancouver Free Speech Fight, wherein the IWW, supported by the Socialist Party of Canada, refuses to give in to demands by mayor and police that labourites not hold open-air rallies and meetings. Prominent U.S. leftist speakers Lucy Parsons and Elizabeth Gurley Flynn also assist.

1910s

  • 1910 December 9Bellevue mine disaster at Bellevue, Alberta kills 30 miners.
  • 1911Vancouver Free Speech Fight is re-fought in 1911. 1911 result: outdoor meetings allowed on certain streetcorners.
  • 1911 December 23At Nelson, BC, John LeTual and Caleb A. Barton are murdered while organizing for Industrial Workers of the World.
  • 1911 23 AprilNova Scotia -- An undercover private detective who had infiltrated the local coal miners union to sabotage union activity shot one man dead and fatally wounded another. J. B. McLachlan, later a prominent Cape Breton Communist, was present and survived by taking cover behind a desk.
  • 1912IWW, assisted by Socialist Party of Canada, conducts successful fight for free speech in Vancouver. R.P. Pettipiece, former Alberta/BC newspaperman and now prominent BC labour radical, arrested. IWW calls for a general strike and advocates "direct action up to and including sabotage".
  • 1912Edmonton sewer ditch diggers, organized by IWW, strike for fair wages.
  • 1912Alberta Federation of Labour formed, the first provincial union central body in Canada. Special prominence given to delegates of the United Farmers of Alberta, in a show of worker-farmer solidarity.
  • 1912–1914Great Coal Strike on Vancouver Island, aka Vancouver Island War. Miner Joseph Mairs sentenced to 18 months prison term, dies in jail of internal illness, having received no medical attention. He is 21 years of age. A memorial cairn stands in Ladysmith, British Columbia.
  • 1913Thunder Bay - conductors and motormen of the civic railway go on strike. Violence on both sides. The 1913 strike is the last major outburst of labour violence in Thunder Bay prior to World War I.
  • 1913Social Democratic Party activist Richard Rigg elected to Winnipeg city council.
  • 1913New Brunswick Federation of Labour formed, the second in Canada after Alberta's.
  • 1914S.S. Newfoundland sealing disaster - abandoned on ice floes for two nights, 78 sealers perish.
  • 1914St. John street railway strike
  • 1914-1932Welland Ship Canal construction claims lives of more than a hundred workers. Workers suffered 137 documented deaths between 1914 and 1932.
  • 1914The Workmen's Compensation Act, the first social insurance legislation in Canadian history, is adopted by the Legislative Assembly of Ontario.
  • 1914 June 19Alberta - Hillcrest mine disaster. 189 workers killed. The worst coal mining disaster in Canadian history.
  • 1914 July 1In Lac La Biche, Alberta, outspoken socialist and Wobblie Hiram Johnson is killed in a brutal knife and axe attack. He had written how his neighbours abhorred his politics. His murder is pinned on James Rowan and W.E. Barrett, two IWW organizers active in Edmonton who discovered Johnson's body. Their legal defence depletes the resources of the Edmonton IWW. The charges are eventually dropped, and the two men are instead sentenced to six months hard labour for vagrancy. Rowan goes on to write .
  • 1914 August 20In Vancouver, Clarke Wallace Connell dies from abscess on the brain while in police custody.
  • 1915Social Democratic Party activist Richard Rigg elected to Manitoba legislature. He has backing from the Labour Representation Committee. Sitting MLA Fred Dixon is re-elected, with backing from the LRC.
  • 1916Hamilton machinists' strike
  • 1916Second Quebec Bridge Collapse, killing 13 workers.
  • 1917The Canadian Labour Party is founded on the initiative of the Trades and Labour Congress of Canada.
  • 1917 July 25Dominion No. 12 Colliery mine explosion at New Waterford, Nova Scotia kills 65.
  • 1918 September 24Federal government outlaws the IWW by an Order in Council. IWW is soon partly replaced by One Big Union.
  • 1917-1920Left-wing faction of the Socialist Party of Canada, known as the "Impossibilists", are arrested for sedition. In 1918, the federal government bans the SPC's journal, the Western Clarion. The Red Flag replaces the Clarion but then it too is suppressed the following year. By 1920, government repression against the SPC eases.
  • 1918Ontario machinists strive for common wages, eight-hour day, and improved work conditions across the province. Hold first provincial convention of machinists in Toronto in July 1918.
  • 1918-1925Canadian Labor Revolt, series of strikes aimed at revolution, at least in theory, sweep across Canada.
  • 1918Vancouver general strike, Canada's first general strike, is sparked by the shooting death of Albert "Ginger" Goodwin.
  • 1918Protection Island mining disaster; 16 are killed when the hoisting cable frays on a mine shaft elevator.
  • 1918Dominion Labor Party is founded as a successor to the moribund Canadian Labour Party. DLP becomes a powerful political force in Alberta and Manitoba.
  • 1919Western Labor Conference in Calgary votes to found the One Big Union on June 4.
  • 1919Winnipeg general strike, May 15-June 26. Two shot dead by police.
  • 1919General strikes in Vancouver, Toronto, Calgary, Edmonton, Victoria, Brandon, Amherst. The 1919 Vancouver strike, in sympathy with Winnipeg, is the longest general strike in Canadian history.
  • 1919Alberta Coal miners at Drumheller and elsewhere struck for recognition of the OBU union as their union.
  • 1919Labour unrest in Montreal.
  • 1919Mathers Royal Commission on Industrial Relations releases its report shortly after end of the Winnipeg General Strike.
  • 1919United Farmers of Ontario-Labour Party coalition government comes to power in Ontario..

1920s

1930s

1940s

1950s

  • 1951Oil Workers International Union's Neil Reimer conducts unionization drive at Edmonton British-American refinery. Manning's [Alberta Alberta Social Credit Party|Social Credit Party|Social Credit] government delays union certification and changes labour law so that signatures of majority of workers are no longer enough. When unionization vote held, it loses by ten votes.
  • 1952First Peace Arch concert by musician and labour activist Paul Robeson
  • 1952 January 14McGregor Mine explosion at Stellarton, Nova Scotia kills 19.
  • 1956The Canadian Labour Congress is formed through the merger of the Trades and Labour Congress of Canada and the Canadian Congress of Labour.
  • 1956Nova Scotia - Springhill mining disaster kills 39.
  • 1956The Mine, Mill and Smelter Workers hold a national convention in Sudbury, Ontario, at which singer and activist Paul Robeson gives his first concert outside the United States since being placed under a travel ban by the United States government in 1950.
  • 1957Murdochville miners' strike - 1000 copper miners struck for seven months at the Gaspé Copper Mines in Murdochville, Quebec. Three major bombings occur during the strike. One dynamite blast caused the death of miner Ange-Marie Kenney, on his way to work at the time. Said to be the most dramatic episode in the 12-year struggle that led eventually to the 1965 unionization of the Murdochville miners.
  • 1958Nova Scotia - Springhill mining disaster kills 75. The first major event to appear in live television broadcasts.
  • 1958Vancouver - Second Narrows Bridge disaster - bridge still under construction, collapses, killing 18. A diver drowns while searching for bodies. Bridge later renamed Ironworkers Memorial Second Narrows Bridge.
  • 1958Newfoundland Loggers' Strike is conducted by the International Woodworkers of America

1960s

1970s

1980s

  • 1980Canada wing of Oil, Chemical and Atomic Workers forms the Energy and Chemical Workers Union with Neil Reimer as its leader.
  • 1981At Hibernia oilfield near Newfoundland, Ocean Ranger—an offshore oil platform—sinks, killing all 84 workers on board.
  • 1981 July 7-October 8Cape Breton coal strike of 1981. A bomb was detonated at a DEVCO mine, and DEVCO coal railcars are derailed at the company's Lingan mine in New Waterford. Strikers win a new contract.
  • 1983 January-AugustProvince-wide Quebec general strike discussed. Militant trade unionists attempt to bring down the PQ premier René Lévesque due to likelihood that government would pass a right-to-work bill. The Centrale des syndicats du Québec called for a general strike starting on January 10. The situation escalates when teachers affiliated to the union walk out on the school-year, closing many of Quebec's public schools. This strike began as an illegal walkout by members of a common front of the province's major unions in protest against legislation by the Lévesque government, which rolled back contract gains that public sector workers had made. In response, Lévesque forces through the right-to-work bill and additional back-to work laws that undercut local bargaining leverage and the right to strike.
  • 1983 July-August"Women Against the Budget" is formed to fight the 1983 BC budget and other actions taken by Bill Bennett's Social Credit government against working people. The broad-based umbrella organization of activist women helps create the BC Federation of Labour's Operation Solidarity and Solidarity Coalition. On August 10, 40,000 rally at Vancouver's Empire Stadium to protest the BC government. In the face of a threatened general strike, the government backs down on its plans for mass layoffs of its employees.
  • 1983 July-AugustMembers of the BC Government Employees' Union hold a three-week occupation of Tranquille Institution in Kamloops, after learning the provincial government is planning its closure. Due to the occupation, the institution is allowed to function until 1985.
  • 1983"La Grève de la fierté", strike by garment workers in Montréal, Canada; the first strike by International Ladies Garment Workers Union members in Montréal in 43 years.
  • 1984The Canadian Auto Workers Union is founded. Bob White, an official of the United Auto Workers, encourages the Canadian membership of the U.A.W. to split away and form a separate union. White is C.A.W.'s first president.
  • 1984Strike at Eaton's department stores by the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union begins in November in southern Ontario. The strike is settled the following May.
  • 1985The Canadian Auto Workers becomes independent of their former parent union, the United Auto Workers. This process is documented in the film Final Offer.
  • 1986Alberta NDP takes 16 seats, a record for the party up to that time and until 2015. It becomes Official Opposition..
  • 1986Six-month-long strike at the Gainers meatpacking plant in Edmonton. picket line violence, and hundreds arrested. Alberta government loaned owner Pocklington millions. He ended strike, but did not repay government loan.

1990s

2000s

2010s

  • 2004-2006The Ottawa Panhandlers' Union unionizes anyone who makes their living in the street, including buskers, street vendors, the homeless, scrappers, and panhandlers. In the summer of 2004, the Union leads a strike by the homeless in Ottawa. The strike causes Ottawa city council to agree to fund a street newspaper created and sold by the homeless. In 2006, the Union takes over the Elgin Street police station for a day.
  • 2010 July 5A tentative resolution of the Vale strike in Sudbury is announced.
  • 2012 February 2In Halifax, Amalgamated Transit Union goes on strike, crippling the city's public transportation. Transit workers had been denied salary or compensation increases due to a reported $3M deficit. The strike ended March 14, 2012.
  • 2012 September 11Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty and the Liberal party pass Bill 115 'Putting Students First Act 2012', thereby eliminating the rights of all teachers in the province to go on strike for the next two years. Bill 115 also freezes wages, grants ten sick days per year and eliminates banked sick days from previous years. Unions state that this bill is a violation of their members' rights under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms and that the bill violates the Ontario Labour Relations Act of 1995.
  • 2013Unifor is formed through the merger of the Canadian Auto Workers and the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada, becoming largest private-sector union in the country.
  • 2015NDP elected to government in Alberta, stays in power until 2019.
  • 2018Series of strikes by Canadian Union of Postal Workers begin in October. The following month, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's government mandates that CUPW members return to work, wjhich they do although they are without a new contract ratified until September 2021.
  • 2019Sheet Metal Workers' International Association ICI members go on strike in Ontario for 8 weeks in May and June, first strike in 30 years for that organization.

2020s