SAMUEL GOMPERS AND THE FRENCH-CANADIAN WORKER, 1900–1914

Abstract

Current dissension among Quebec labor groups has its roots deep in the past. This essay argues that Samuel Gompers and the American Federation of Labor bear some responsibility for the contemporary divisions within Canadian labor. At the Berlin convention of the Trades and Labor Congress in 1902, AFL-affiliated international union delegates expelled seventeen groups containing the bulk of organized labor in Quebec. Gompers and his colleagues, sharing all the Anglo-Saxon biases of that era, fully expected to woo them into the American international unions within a brief time. They showed no awareness of the special cultural and historical circumstances governing the evolution of economic institutions in that province. They ignored the early efforts by Quebec clergy to establish independent locals under the guidance of church-appointed chaplains. The AFL continued to rely upon John A. Flett, an Ontarian, and other English-speaking organizers. In consequence dual unionism surfaced again and again in Quebec. Finally in 1909 the AFL hired a bilingual Montreal carpenter, Joseph Ainey, to organize the province, but Ainey soon quit to go into politics. Judging by the dearth of rival unions in Quebec at that time, Gompers concluded that there was little need for the AFL to replace him. Organizing at a leisurely pace and judging their successes by the number of dual unions threatening them, AFL unions generally failed to hire French-speaking organizers, to use literature printed in the French language, or to mount a vigorous campaign in the smaller cities and towns.