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Labour History
April 23, 1956 – Founding of the Canadian Labour Congress
As workers come together to form unions those unions too come together in solidarity. The Canadian Labour Congress (CLC) is a union of unions. It is also referred to as the “House of Labour” because unions all join under one roof. The uniting of unions goes a long way back to the 1860s and 70s when local unions came together to form city wide labour groups, Hamilton Ontario set up a Labour Council in 1863 and Toronto in 1871. The first national organization was the Canadian Labour Union which held its founding meeting in Toronto in 1873 but lasting only a few years. Then in 1886, the Trades and Labor Congress of Canada was a was founded making it a Canada-wide central federation of unions.
Following a 1935 disagreement in the North American labour movement over the organizing workers in industrial wide unions versus those based on trades split the movement. There were now two competing labour federation in the US and in Canada. They often spent as much time and energy fighting each other as they did the employers. Yet at the grass roots union members knew that solidarity of workers united in the workplace provided protection. So wider solidarity was needed to promote policies for better workplaces and a society that recognized and protected all workers regardless of workplace.
The Canadian Congress of Labour (CCL) and the Trades and Labor Congress (TLC) were the two competing bodies in Canada. During the Second World War social solidarity and hardships caused the TLC and CCL to work together representing workers’ needs to the government. The war also increased industrialization and the growth in workers joining unions. Following war both federations worked together on human rights issues. A unity committee was established in 1953 by the leaders of both federations. At the same time discussions were taking place in the US to merge the American Federation of Labor (AFL) and Committee for Industrial Organizing (CIO) to form AFL-CIO.
Unions realized that one organization was much stronger than two so put aside their differences to create the largest labour central Canada had ever had. On April 23, 1956, they formed a new umbrella organization, the Canadian Labour Congress. Today the CLC brings together dozens of national and international unions, provincial and territorial federations of labour and community-based labour councils to represent more than 3 million workers across the country. Since 1956 the number of public employees and professional workers has increased their participation in the CLC. In 2024 even the Canadian Football League Players’ Association (CFLPA) joined. Working together the CLC unions strive to ensure a better Canada for all; the protection and expansion of our health care system, funded childcare for all, Human Rights for everyone, the ability of every Canadian to retire with income security and dignity. And of course, good safe jobs for all workers which we will remember on April 28th our National Day of Mourning for workers killed or injured on the job.
