May 15, 1919 - Winnipeg General Strike - a podcast by Stephen Hammond

Winnipeg general strike begins 40 days of social unrest.Canadian soldiers returned from World War I to find war factories shutting down and bankruptcies triggering massive unemployment and rapid inflation. Knowing that many had profiteered from the war industry, the veterans resented their futile search for decent jobs, pay and working conditions. On May 1, 1919, the Building and Metal Workers Union of Winnipeg went on strike for better wages, prompting the Winnipeg Trades and Labour Council to expand matters into a general strike. On May 15, 1919, the city’s telephone operators, known as the “hello girls,” became the first of 30,000 union and non-union workers to take to the streets. It had been only two years since similar worker frustration had led to the Russian Revolution – a fact that so scared the Canadian government, officials quickly amended the Immigration Act and the criminal code to threaten strikers with deportation and imprisonment.Winnipeg’s mayor went even further, firing most of the city’s police officers for sympathizing with the workers. He then hired 1,800 special constables equipped with horses and baseball bats. Early June was marked with riots, the arrest of union leaders, protests and violence. Two strikers were killed and 34 wounded before union leaders wanting to prevent full-scale violence called off the general strike on June 25. Seven strike leaders were given jail terms of up to two years for trying to overthrow the government.

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