Why more than 150 years later, Hamilton's Nine Hour Movement still matters

Why more than 150 years later, Hamilton's Nine Hour Movement still matters

Despite its failure, the movement marked the start of progress in the Canadian labour movement

On May 15, 1872, 1,500 workers marched in Hamilton, demanding the workday be reduced to nine hours. Though the movement ultimately failed, it paved the way for laws that protect workers today.

At the time, Hamilton was coming into its "heyday" as an industrial city, according to Stephanie Ross, a professor in the School of Labour Studies at McMaster University.

The workday the movement was aiming to reduce was typically 10 to 12 hours at the time, six days a week, according to Ross.

"You can imagine, it was exhausting," she said in an interview ahead of Labour Day.

It became a big issue for Canadian workers of the day, who believed that they should have "time for themselves." A relatively normal belief now, but not a concept factory owners — who, Ross said, saw workers as a means of production — supported back then.

Hamilton workers played a big part in the movement, mostly centred around railway yards, where workers in different crafts worked together and shared ideas about the kind of workplace they wanted.

Workers in Toronto's printers union and Montreal's rail yards were also having similar conversations at the time and — realizing all employers would have to reduce work hours in order for the movement to succeed — joined forces.

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'Those fights, 150 years later, still happen'

In addition to the 1,500 workers who marched in Hamilton, Ross said a lot of people lined the street to support the demand. It became, virtually, a general strike in Hamilton, involving all the craftspeople in the city.

"The nine-hour workday was a safety measure … to give people's bodies time to relax and to spend more time with their family," said Frank Crowder, president of United Steelworkers (USW) Local 7135.

"Those fights, 150 years later, still happen."

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Crowder is one of the 1,200 workers on strike at National Steel Car in Hamilton, asking for higher wages and for the union to have a say in a "dangerous" incentive program.

He said workers at National Steel Car want the same thing workers in the Nine Hour Movement wanted at the time: more time to rest and spend with their families.

Workers at the company have an incentive program that allows them to take lower pay and get paid an extra 25 per cent of their wages if they make enough product.

Recently, production levels have been set too high for workers to achieve, Crowder said. The union has no say in the program, as per their collective agreement.

"These workers will not have time for their families if they can't return home to [them] … We don't have time to rest our bodies because we're overexerting ourselves trying to meet a quota that is unattainable," he said.

"So the fight still happens today for at least that connection to the nine-hour workday."

Crowder says the company has not returned to the bargaining table, despite an open invitation from the union.

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The Nine Hour Movement ultimately failed after printers in Toronto were engaged in a fight with The Globe that forced them to go on strike early, said Ross. In April of 1872, 10,000 people protested in defence of the printers union in Toronto.

The Globe's editor, George Brown, who was anti-union, according to Ross, tried to have those workers arrested and charged with criminal misdeeds.

Despite its failure, the movement marked the beginning of other things in the Canadian labour movement, Ross said.

Canada's first prime minister, John A. Macdonald, saw it as an opportunity to gain the working class vote and to "put a spoke in the wheels of George Brown's bicycle," who was his political rival, Ross said.

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Macdonald's government passed the Trade Unions Act in June 1892, decriminalizing unions in Canada which, prior to the act, were not legally allowed to organize to set wages in a particular industry, according to Ross.

The act was an important step towards organizing around the shorter working day, she said.

The Nine Hour Movement also led to the creation of the early version of the Hamilton & District Labour Council and started to build cross-union federations such as the Canadian Labour Union.

The movement also helped workers — who, up until that time, had been pitted against each other and strongly identified with their occupations — realize they shared interests across workplaces.

"That's partly why Hamilton should be understood and continues to be understood as a place where workers are on the leading edge of struggles that have a wider impact," said Ross.

Crowder said the history of the movement highlights how unions have been fighting for workers this entire time, even when it was illegal.

"We're still as necessary today as we were back then," he said.

Aura Carreño Rosas is a reporter at CBC Hamilton. She's originally from Venezuela. She has extensive experience in covering stories about immigrants and migrant workers as well as interesting people with diverse journeys. You can contact her at aura.carreno.rosas@cbc.ca