This Month in
Labour History

War Leads to New Labour Laws

Winning a war takes more than soldiers and bombs it takes a labour force willing to sacrifice to produce the goods and services a nation needs.  During the Second World War Canadian workers made many sacrifices while many businesses made great profits.  Workers and their unions had pledged not to strike during the war and so had little recourse to defend themselves. In the United States the Federal government has passed the Wagner Act that established a legal framework to force union recognition and bargaining rights of workers on reluctant employers.  Wanting to maintain Labour peace, the government of Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King adopted similar labour regulations on February 17, 1944, passing Order in Council P.C. 1003.

This was the first time in Canada that a government recognized workers’ rights included union rights. They forced a legal system on both employers and workers to regulate collective bargaining.  Now if a majority of workers wanted a union the employer was required to recognize their wishes.  Under the order unions received recognition by the employer, a legal framework to force collective bargaining, a process to address grievances, and outside arbitration of disputes.  Conciliation services were introduced through the Labour Department to the bargaining process before there could be a strike. These new laws transferred direct action by unions to a legal system. Unions lost the right to strike during the life of a collective agreement. Now disputes and disagreements over the collective agreement interpretation were to be settled through grievances and arbitrations.  

Using the powers of the War Measures Act the government forced all the provinces to follow the new rules. For the duration of the war all Canadian workers were under the Wartime Labour Relations Board.  This continued after the war until 1948, when the provinces passed similar legislation within their jurisdictions. Workers reacted quickly to the new legal status and gained rights for their unions. Activists across the country organized new workplaces and industries. They signed new union collective agreements for their members gaining benefits.  Both national labour federations, the Canadian Congress of Labour (CCL) and the Trades and Labor Congress (TLC) co-operated in a campaign that convert the emergency provisions of PC 1003 into the laws that continue to govern collective bargaining process till this day.