page_title: Oshawa
section_title: Strike: 1937
hierarchical_section_title: Oshawa / History / Strike: 1937
caption_attribution_description: English: St. Gregory the Great Catholic Church, first Catholic in Durham Region.
context_page_description: Oshawa is a city in Ontario, Canada, on the Lake Ontario shoreline. It lies in Southern Ontario, approximately 60 km east of Downtown Toronto. It is commonly viewed as the eastern anchor of the Greater Toronto Area and of the Golden Horseshoe. It is the largest municipality in the Regional Municipality of Durham. The name Oshawa originates from the Ojibwa term aaz haway, meaning "the crossing place" or just "a cross".
  Oshawa's roots are tied to the automobile industry, specifically the Canadian division of General Motors, known as General Motors Canada. Founded in 1876 as the McLaughlin Carriage Company by Robert McLaughlin, and then McLaughlin Motors Ltd by his son, Sam, General Motors of Canada's headquarters are located in the city. The automotive industry was the inspiration for Oshawa's previous mottos: "The City that Motovates Canada", and "The City in Motion". The lavish home of the automotive company's founder, Parkwood Estate, is a National Historic Site of Canada and a backdrop favoured by numerous film crews, featured in many films including It, Billy Madison, Chicago, and X-Men.
context_section_description: On 8 April 1937, disputes between 4,000 assembly line workers and General Motors management led to the Oshawa Strike, a salient event in the history of Canadian trade unionism. As the weight of the Great Depression slowly began to lift, demand for automobiles again began to grow. The workers sought higher wages, an eight-hour workday, better working conditions and recognition of their union, the United Auto Workers (Local 222). The then-Liberal government of Mitchell Hepburn, which had been elected on a platform of being the working man's friend, sided with the corporation and brought in armed university students to break up any union agitation. These much-derided "Hepburn's Hussars" and "Sons of Bitches" were never needed as the union refused to be drawn into violent acts. The union and workers had the backing of the local population, other unions and the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation party and, on 23 April, two weeks after the strike started, the company gave in to most of the workers' demands, although it pointedly did not recognize the union.
caption: A historic church in Oshawa: St. Gregory the Great
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