The outcome showed overwhelming support for a general strike, 8,667 to 645. Preliminary results of the vote among the Labour Council's member unions were announced on May 13. On a smaller scale, this tactic had achieved success for striking city workers a year earlier in 1918. ![]() ![]() The Labour Council decided to call on their 12,000 affiliated members to vote on a proposal for a general strike. Shortly afterwards, the situation was discussed at meetings of the Winnipeg Trades and Labour Council, the umbrella body for the city's unions. When the Metal Trades Council and the Building Trades Council had both failed to secure contracts with employers by the end of April, they went on strike, the building trades on May 1 and the metal trades on May 2. The most immediate cause of the strike involved support for collective bargaining in the metal trades and building trades, where workers were attempting to negotiate contracts through their trades councils. Similar volatile conditions existed elsewhere in Canada, and in other countries around the world, at the end of World War I, but the combination of circumstances in Winnipeg proved to be explosive. However, the "one big union" idea contributed to the atmosphere of unrest. The idea that the OBU instigated the general strike is misleading, as the OBU was not formed until June 1919. They also called for the establishment of a new union centre, the One Big Union, to promote class solidarity by uniting workers from all trades and industries in one organization. A meeting of western labour delegates in Calgary in March 1919 adopted numerous radical resolutions, including support for a five-day week and a six-hour day. These attracted greater interest, especially among the large population of immigrants from Eastern Europe, after the Russian Revolution of 1917. Many workers were also influenced by socialist ideas voiced by local reformers, radicals and revolutionaries. Most workers did not have union representation, but many were influenced by the hope of achieving greater economic security through unions. Soldiers returning from the war were determined to see improved social conditions and opportunities after their harrowing experiences overseas. ![]() In addition, there was resentment of the enormous profits enjoyed by employers during the war. Wages were low, prices were rising, employment was unstable, immigrants faced discrimination, housing and health conditions were poor. There were many background causes for the strike, most of them related to the prevailing social inequalities and the impoverished condition of the city's working class. Newsreel footage of the Winnipeg general strike of 1919 In the short term, the strike ended in arrests, bloodshed, and defeat, but in the long run it contributed to the development of a stronger labour movement and the tradition of social democratic politics in Canada. For six weeks, May 15 to June 26, more than 30,000 strikers brought economic activity to a standstill in Winnipeg, Manitoba, which at the time was Canada's third largest city. The Winnipeg General Strike of 1919 was one of the most famous and influential strikes in Canadian history.
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