These Were the Reasons, Video
Using archival images and personal stories, this 26-minute video discusses the historical struggles and ongoing importance of unions in BC.
It highlights the deplorable working conditions workers faced before unions, including child labor, extremely long hours, low wages, and dangerous environments like coal mines with explosive gas and frequent fatalities. Some employers treated workers “like damn cattle” and would even fire them for trivial reasons.
The video emphasizes that unions became necessary to protect workers, ensure fair treatment, and improve conditions. Key events and issues mentioned include:
● Early Working Conditions: Children as young as 10 worked in canneries with no overtime, often until the early morning hours. Miners faced perilous conditions, with explosions leading to numerous deaths, and bodies sometimes taking a month to recover.
● Strikes and Repression: Workers went on strike for the right to unionize and demand better conditions, even in the face of violent opposition. Companies brought in “scabs” under police protection to keep mines open during strikes. Authorities used force, including machine guns and the militia, to break strikes, as seen in the Nanaimo coal miners’ strike and the Winnipeg General Strike of 1919. The Regina Riot, where RCMP attacked a mass meeting of unemployed men, is another example of state-sanctioned violence against workers.
● Achievements of Unions: Unions fought for and achieved significant improvements such as the 40-hour work week, unemployment insurance, and equal pay for equal work, though the latter took 20 years to truly implement in some sectors like fish canneries.
● Ongoing Challenges: Despite past successes, the content notes that nearly half of BC workers today are not unionized, and some, like farm and domestic workers, have almost no rights. Wage controls in peacetime Canada were seen as a direct attack on collective bargaining, allowing the government to undermine union-won demands. The ongoing struggle for workers’ rights is highlighted by more recent conflicts involving healthcare workers and teachers, where legislation has been used to challenge unions and affect livelihoods.
Overall, the content presents unions as crucial for securing basic rights, improving working conditions, and fighting against exploitation and government legislation perceived as anti-worker.