Burden with asbestos

The strike of asbestos , so known under the name of strike of Asbestos of 1949 , was a work-related conflict of the asbestos minors of the Quebec. This event is regarded as a revolving point of the history of Quebec and one of the first tests towards the Quiet revolution.

Beginning

At midnight the February 14th 1949, the minors of Asbestos and Thetford Mines in Quebec begin a sick leave, in four mines of the area of the Cantons of the east. Although the owners of these mines were is American or of English Canada, the majority of the employees were French-speaking. The most important owner at this time was the multinational Johns-Manville.

Requests

The trade unions had several requests. Inter alia that to eliminate dust from asbestos inside and outside the factories; a rise in wages in 15 hundreds of the hour; an increase of 05 hundreds of the hour for the hours of night; the creation of funds of social security managed by the trade union; the installation of the formula Rand as well as the time tariff doubles for work carried out Sunday or bank holidays. These requests were considered, then, radical. They were refused by the employer. February 13rd, 1949 the workmen voted for the strike. The employees were then represented by the National federation of the employees of mining industry like by the Canadian and catholic Fédération of work. Jean Marchand was the general secretary of the latter and thus saw affubler de facto of the title of " leader" strike. He will become later politician.

Legality

The strike was illegal. The Prime Minister for the time Maurice Duplessis took party for the employers, mainly because of his hostility towards any form of Socialisme. The provincial government has affected several hundreds of police officers to the protection of the mines. The government of the National union was hitherto very close to the Catholic church, but at this time part of the clergy supported the workers. The strikers had also the sympathy of the population and the media of Quebec. A journalist very for Owe, Gerard Pelletier, was also very favorable to the strikers. Pierre Elliott Trudeau, then journalist for Free Cité had also written in a favorable way on the subject.

Violences

At the sixth week of strike, Johns-Mansville engages of the strikebreakers. The community of Asbestos then was very divided. Some of the workers crossed the strike pickets. The strike takes a violent character when 5000 strikers attack and destroy the residences of certain strikebreakers. Police reinforcement was sent to protect the strikebreakers ( scabs ). There is brawl between the police officers and the strikers, of the hundreds of those are put in a state of arrest. Among the many incidents one notes:

on March 14th, an explosion with dynamite destroys part of railroad leading to the mine of Johns-Mansville,
on March 16th, one reverses a Jeep company, making a casualty,
on March 18th, an officer of the company is removed with his residence and is severely beaten.

Supports

The strikers had the support of Canadian trade unions and also of part of the Catholic church for Quebec. The position taken by the Catholic church, which until this moment largely supported the government of the National union of Maurice Duplessis, had a major impact on the strike. Certain priests supported the companies, but the majority, were behind their parishioners. March 5th the archbishop Joseph Charbonneau makes a speech or sermon deeply in favor of the strikers and invites the people to make monetary donations to come to assistance of the strikers. The archbishop will have to resign besides in 1950 mainly because of his implication at the time of this strike. This event marked the Québécois company, which will evolve slowly to the Quiet revolution. It is indeed about a first stake which will lead to the scission between the clergy and the policy.

End of the strike

May 5th, the strikers try in an ultimate effort to close the mine by barricading all the access roads to this one as well as the access roads to the city. The attempts of the police force to cross these barricades show failures. The strikers must however put an end to their seat when the provincial police force threat to make fire on the strikers. The following day, the anti-riot law their is read, and begins from the hundreds of arrests, an operation at the time which the strikers as their chiefs are beaten, and the local church is ransacked.

Following all these arrests the trade unions decide to seek a compromise and the negotiations with the companies begin again. The archbishop Maurice Roy of the town of Quebec becomes the mediator about it. In June the employees turn over to work with very few profits. At the end of the argument, the employees receive a small rise in wages, however several will never turn over to the mine. In the long run, the work conditions as well as the wage conditions of the employees improved considerably.

Importance of the event

This work-related conflict was one of sourest and the more violent ones in the history of Quebec. It caused a great upheaval of the Québécois company. The trade unionist Jean Marchand was one of principal the instigator. The journalist Gerard Pelletier as well as the future Prime Minister of the Canada Pierre Elliott Trudeau, which was him also journalist at that time, there played a very important part. These three characters, Merchant, Furrier and Trudeau became thereafter Canadian politicians very in sight. They will be recognized later in their political career under the name of the three colombes' . This trio is mainly responsible for the orientation which has took the federalism in Quebec for at least a generation. The fact that this strike was for them a springboard towards a later political career adds much to the importance of this event. Later Trudeau will publish an English book “The Asbestos Strike”, it presents to it the strike as being at the origin of modern Quebec. Certain historians minimize this judgment of Trudeau, believing rather than the minors more sought to improve their conditions to revolutionize the company.

The public opinion largely supported this strike movement. In addition to offering this moral support, the population came to assistance of the strikers by the means of monetary and material gifts. It is extremely probable that without this help the strike would have lasted much less longer.

the historians Esther Delisle and Pierre K. Malouf publish in 2004 one entitled book the quartet of Asbestos .

External bonds

Assessment of the century: Beginning of the strike of asbestos with Asbestos
Extracts from an article of the Duty
Société of the historical files of the area of Asbestos

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