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Railway Construction
Archives of Manitoba,
Workers came from many backgrounds to build western Canada's railroads. Relations between railway owners and workers were often strained. In this period of unfettered capitalism before the First World War, management refused to recognize the workers' right to bargain collectively. Workers organized unions such as the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and occasionally went on strike for better wages or working conditions but since they could be fired without legal redress, most strikes were unsuccessful. For example, when Italian workers constructing the Lake Manitoba and Canal Company Railway went on strike for higher wages and better working conditions, management sent the Irish and Swedes to round them up and send their leaders bound by 2 inch thick rope to the nearest town to be fined.
Lloyd Penner, “A History of Railroads in Manitoba” (Paper commissioned by the Transportation Heritage & Technology Centre), 2002, p. 26.
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