Munitions and Labour Militancy: The 1916 Hamilton Machinists' Strike

The 1916 Hamilton machinists' strike was the first prolonged work stoppage to disrupt munitions production during the First World War. It exhibited many of the features which were to become a fixed pattern in Canadian industrial relations through to 1919: fierce employer resistance to the demands of organized labour: opportunistic policy decisions by government and the Imperial Munitions Board: and embattled trade union leaders struggling to assert their own code of responsible union behaviour against a restive membership. This paper explores each of these themes as well as the strike's impact on the labour movement in Hamilton and the rest of Canada.