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Tom Monto

WWI Peace Treaty recognizes labour rights - Borden weighs in on General Strike

Prime Minister Robert Borden, when questioned about the government's attitude toward the Winnipeg General Strike, said that industrial unrest was found in many places in the world and recent negotiation of the peace treaty led way to new social climate.


"I hope that both employers and employed.., and especially the employers, not overlook the principles that were adopted by all the nations represented in the Peace Conference at Paris, and which are included in the peace treaty as presented to the Germans.


I regard these principles as of sufficient importance to justify me in reading them, with the indulgence of the House:


The High Contracting Parties, recognizing that the well-being, physical, moral and intellectual, of industrial wage earners is of supreme international importance, have framed in order to further this great end the permanent machinery provided for in section 1 and associated with that of the League of Nations.


They recognize that differences of climate, habits and customs, of economic opportunity and industrial tradition, make strict uniformity in the conditions of labour difficult of immediate attainment. But, holding, as they do, that labour should not be regarded merely as an article of commerce, they think that there are methods and principles for regulating labour conditions which all industrial communities should endeavour to apply so far as their special circumstances will permit.


Among these methods and principles, the following seem to the High Contracting Parties to be of special and urgent importance :


First. The guiding principle above enunciated that labour should not be regarded merely as a commodity or article of commerce.


Second. The right of association for all lawful purposes by the employed as well as by the employers.


Third. The payment to the employed of a wage adequate to maintain a reasonable standard of life as this is understood in their time and country.


Fourth. The adoption of an eight hours day or a forty-eight hours week as the standard to be aimed at where it has not already been attained.


Fifth. The adoption of a weekly rest of at least twenty-four bourse which should include Sunday wherever practicable.


Sixth. The abolition of child labour and the imposition of such limitations on the labour of young persons as shall permit the continuation of their education and assure their proper physical development.


Seventh. The principle that men and women should receive equal remuneration for work of equal value.


Eighth. The standards set by law in each country with respect to the conditions of labour should have due regard to the equitable economic treatment of all workers lawfully resident therein.


Ninth. Each State should make provision for a system of inspection in which women should take part, in order to ensure the enforcement of the laws and regulations for the protection of the employed.


Without claiming that these methods and principles are complete, the High Contracting Parties are of opinion that they are well fitted to guide the policy of the League of Nations; and that, if adopted by the industrial communities who are members of the League, and safeguarded in practice by an adequate system of such inspection, they will confer lasting benefits upon the wage earners of the world....


I hope, it will be equally obvious to all the people of Canada, that if the needs of the people as a whole are to be regarded we cannot have in this country a complete dislocation of public services founded upon sudh reasons as have been put forward by the postal employees of Winnipeg.

The Government of this country is in an entirely different situation from a private employer. The Government employs persons who are servants of all the people of the country. It differs from a private employer in many respects, but especially so in two important respects.


In the first place, the duties for which public servants are employed have a direct relation to the maintenance of law and order and, as well, a direct relation to the operation of public services which are necessary for the convenience of the people.


But in addition to that, it does not employ these people for any purpose of private gain or private interest; it is acting merely as the representative of the people as a whole, under the mandate, and only so long as it has the mandate of the majority of the people's representatives in Parliament.


Therefore, certain considerations which must obviously be taken into account in dealing with the relations between a private employer and those whom he employs are utterly wanting when we come to consider the situation of persons who are employed in the public service.


As the Government of the country has and can have no private interests to serve, inasmuch as it represents the people as a whole and acts under the authority of a mandate from Parliament, by whom its acts can be corrected at any time, if they seem to be improper or unjust, one would naturally suppose that in these circumstances the Government might be trusted to act fairly in respect of the remuneration of public servants and in respect of the conditions of their employment.


But I should be prepared to go further than that and say that in appropriate cases the public servants of the country - persons usually known as members of the Civil Service - might ask for and obtain a sort of appeal against the Government of the country by arbitration or some such method; but always subject to final approval by Parliament, which is the ultimate authority so far as the Government is concerned.


In dealing with the situation at Winnipeg, there are certain fundamental considerations to which this Government is committed and which, I hope, will commend themselves to the people and to their representatives in this Parliament.


In the first place, we are absolutely determined that law and order should be maintained; and,


In the second place, we are of the opinion that members of the Civil Service cannot be permitted to disregard their public duties and to dislocate the public service under the conditions which have arisen in the city of Winnipeg.


On the one hand the Government directs them to discharge a public duty, a duty to the whole of the people of this country; on the other hand another authority directs them to disregard that duty. They must make their choice as to whether they will serve the public as a whole, or whether, by disregarding that duty, they will abandon once for all the public service.


So far as "collective bargaining" is concerned, since my hon. friend who has asked this question (MP George Andrews (Winnipeg Centre)) spoke to me on the subject yesterday, I have made a good many inquiries as to precisely what that term conveys, and I am thoroughly satisfied that it has not any definite and final meaning which is recognized in all parts' of this country. I am further satisfied that in some parts of Canada, in some cities in this country, it may be understood by some persons in one sense, and 'by other persons in another sense.


I want to make it perfectly plain that so far as my opinion goes, and I think it is the opinion of all the members of the Government, every possible facility should be given for discussion between employers and employed, and for the making of arrangements that will bring about industrial peace and maintain and stabilize industrial conditions to the end that wasteful unemployment, used as a coercive measure, may be put to one side, and other methods - methods which must be so established as to do complete justice and remove any inequality - may be substituted in its place." (Hansard, May 27, 1919)

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