The Winnipeg General Strike of 1919 was one of the most famous and influential strikes in Canadian history. 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. 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.
The Progressive Party of Canada, formally the National Progressive Party, was a federal-level political party in Canada in the 1920s until 1930. It was linked with the provincial United Farmers parties in several provinces, and it spawned the Progressive Party of Saskatchewan, and the Progressive Party of Manitoba, which formed the government of that province. The Progressive Party was part of the farmers' political movement that included federal and provincial Progressive and United Farmers' parties.
Events from the year 1872 in Canada.
There have been various groups in Canada that have nominated candidates under the label Labour Party or Independent Labour Party, or other variations from the 1870s until the 1960s. These were usually local or provincial groups using the Labour Party or Independent Labour Party name, backed by local labour councils made up of many union locals in a particular city, or individual trade unions. There was an attempt to create a national Canadian Labour Party in the late 1910s and in the 1920s, but these were only partly successful.
The Directors Guild of Canada is a Canadian labour union representing more than 5,500 professionals from 48 different occupations in the Canadian film and television industry. Founded in 1962, the DGC represents directors, editors, assistant directors, location managers, production assistants and others.
The New Democratic Party of Manitoba fielded a full slate of candidates in the 1999 provincial election, and won 32 seats out of 57 to win a majority government in the legislature. Many of the party's candidates have their own biography pages; information about others may be found here.
The National Union of Public and General Employees (NUPGE) is a Canadian trade union. Taken in total it is the second largest union in Canada. Most of its 425,000 members work in the provincial public service sector. There is also a large and growing number of members who work for private businesses.
The Canadian Federation of Nurses Unions is a trade union centre in Canada. The CFNU is a federation of provincial unions representing nurses, nurse practitioners, student nurses, and various allied health care workers. It advocates on a national level for issues related to nurses, patient care, the health care system, and working conditions. As of 2023, the CNFU represents nearly 250,000 nurses and student nurses across Canada, who are members of the nine provincial nurses unions and Canadian Nursing Students’ Association.
The Manitoba Federation of Labour is the Manitoba provincial trade union federation of the Canadian Labour Congress.
The Manitoba Teachers' Society (MTS) is the trade union representing schoolteachers in Manitoba, Canada. It was founded in 1919, and currently has around 16,000 members. It is an affiliate of the Canadian Teachers' Federation. Originally called the Manitoba Teachers' Federation, the union adopted its current name in 1942.
Founded in 1973, the Ontario Nurses’ Association (ONA) is the trade union that represents 60,000 registered nurses and allied health professionals working in hospitals, long-term care facilities, public health, community agencies and industry throughout the province of Ontario. ONA has more than 14,000 nursing student affiliates; all members of the Canadian Nursing Students' Association who study in the province.
The Winnipeg Labour Council is a labour council based in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. Chartered by the Canadian Labour Congress, it represents 50,000+ workers in Winnipeg through 27 affiliated labour unions.
The organizations listed below constitute the Canadian Labour Congress, the national federation of trade unions:
Jennifer Howard is a Canadian politician and political staffer. She is currently chief of staff to Jagmeet Singh, the leader of the federal New Democratic Party. She was previously a member of the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba, first elected in the 2007 provincial election in the electoral district of Fort Rouge. Howard is a member of the New Democratic Party.
The United Nurses of Alberta (UNA) is a trade union representing more than 30,000 Registered Nurses, Registered Psychiatric Nurses, and allied health workers in Alberta, Canada. UNA negotiates collective bargaining with the employers, of which the largest are Alberta Health Services and Covenant Health.
Uzoma Asagwara is a Canadian politician who has served as the Deputy Premier and Minister of Health, Seniors and Long-term Care of Manitoba since October 3rd 2023. Prior to politics they were a nurse and basketball player. Since 2019, they have represented the Union Station electoral district in the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba. Asagwara is a member of the Manitoba New Democratic Party.
Beatrice Bruske is a Canadian labour leader and the current President of the Canadian Labour Congress, an organization that advocates on behalf of three million working people across Canada.
There has been a nursing shortage in Canada for decades. This became more acute in the period between 1943 and 1952 as Canada's health services were expanding, and the number of hospital beds increased along with the number of hospitalizations. By the mid-1940s across Canada the shortage, estimated at 8,700, led to a re-organization and re-conceptualization of nursing in Canada, according to a 2020 journal article in BC Studies. The nature of nursing was changing with new and time-consuming responsibilities, such as the administration of penicillin. During that period, there was no unemployment for nurses, especially if they were willing to be mobile. However, working conditions for nurses were very poor, with low wages combined with long hours; nursing force retention was challenging. As well, since almost all nurses were women, they had responsibilities at home they had to manage. In response to the shortage of nurses, women who had trained as registered nurses (RNs) but had left the workforce when they married, were encouraged to return to work; volunteers were engaged; nursing courses were accelerated; and new categories of regulated nursing were added to registered nursing—"practical nurses" and "nursing assistants." At that time, a "utopia of nursing" referred to teams of nursing staff which included registered nurses and other regulated nursing and hospital worker support personnel. Some of these auxiliary positions were also open to First Nations women and other racialized groups.
