The Strike That Avoided Almost-Certain Bloodshed And Made History
By: Regis Yaworski
Tags: Violence, Union Dues, Rand Formula, Labor History

Thee blockade that thwarted police (Source: Windsor Star)

The precedent set in 1945 is still a major influence on Canadian labor

By traditional measures, November 4, 1945 should have gone down as the most violent labor action in Canada’s history. The stage was set, the conditions were ripe, and a dangerous degree of pent-up anger seemed to point to the inevitable.

By dint of a brilliant tactic and old-fashioned union solidarity, the anticipated bloodbath didn’t happen.

The occasion, which ended up establishing a dramatic precedent in Canadian labor relations, was the Ford Motor Company strike of 1945 in Windsor, Ontario.

Negotiations between Ford and the United Auto Workers Canadian division toward a new collective agreement were sluggish at best. At the heart of the discussions, the union was asking for a formal declaration of the union’s right to represent the employees and automatic collection of union dues. Ford had granted similar concessions to its American locals but refused to extend these to Canada.

After 18 months of unproductive talks, the Windsor workers walked off their jobs on September 12, 1945, in a wildcat (unauthorized) strike. Instead of dealing with the union security issue, the company threatened large-scale layoffs.

Once the strike started, Windsor’s Mayor Art Reaume declared his support for the strikers; the Windsor Police Commission, however, took a more aggressive approach, asking for reinforcements to maintain peace and order.

Stage set for massive police charge on picket lines

On November 4, 125 Ontario Provincial Police officers and 125 Royal Canadian Police officers were set to storm the union barricades. In addition, arrangements were being made for the use of armored military vehicles.

Somebody came up with an idea that would effectively neutralize the police. Ford employees, families and friends drove their cars and trucks or buses to the Ford plant, parked them and abandoned them there, creating an entangled blockade for 15 blocks surrounding the center of the action. Estimates at the time were that 1,500 to 2,000 vehicles were involved. Meanwhile, that same morning, 25 Canadian worksites were struck with sympathy strikes, sending an additional 8,000 demonstrators to join the 11,000 Ford employees.

The strike continued for a total of 99 days up to December 19, ending in a temporary truce.

Having witnessed the potential of the strike and related labor actions to slow the post-war economic re-start, the Canadian government stepped in with an arbitration offer. Supreme Court Justice Ivan C. Rand was appointed to examine the issues, hold hearings and come up with a ruling on the key issues.

Rand wrote a judgment that established a bold precedent in labor relations, a formula that was applied to almost every collective agreement in the country.

Rand’s ruling legitimized the role of the union as the exclusive bargaining agent for employees in a specified bargaining unit. More ground-breaking and controversial was “a provision requiring the employer to deduct from the wages of each employee in the unit affected by the collective agreement, whether or not the employee is a member of the union, the amount of the regular union dues and to remit the amount to the trade union forthwith.”

In effect, Rand ruled that if an employee derived benefits from the work of the union, the employee was required to pay union dues whether or not the employee chose to be a member of the union. The key exception was religion. A worker whose religion conflicted with the union’s political or moral policies could designate that dues be directed to an approved charity.

Over the years following the 1946 ruling, what became known as “the Rand formula” was adopted as part of Canadian labor jurisprudence and the vast majority of collective agreements in the country. With minor exceptions, this remains the case today and exerts a powerful influence on labor’s place in the Canadian commercial-industrial landscape.

Union membership in Canada is approximately 32 percent compared to about 13 percent in the United States. The difference is often attributed to the legal advantage created by Mr. Justice Rand. American labor is also governed by “right to work” laws, by which employees could opt out of union membership.