Work it

by Genevieve Paiement

Ever the champion of the underdog, the Écomusée du fier monde kicks off their fall season with an exhibit spanning 100 years of labour history in Canada. All We Worked For: 100 Years of Canadian Workers' History is a travelling exhibit organized by the Ontario Workers Arts and Heritage Centre and traces labour struggles from 1872 to 1972. The story is told through paintings, etchings, posters, magazine covers, slogans, poems and photographs.

It was in 1872, at the height of the industrial revolution, that factory workers in Hamilton, Ontario, joined together to demand that their workday be reduced to nine hours. In 1912, the socialist Wobblies (Industrial Workers of the World) made unionization widespread. In 1922, Cape Breton's miners striked when their salaries were cut by a third. In '35, workers and the unemployed marched from Vancouver to Ottawa in protest. The Ford workers in Windsor kick-started the workers' rights movement after the war in '45, with their 99-day strike and, finally, the exhibit looks at the Quebec's 10-day government worker strike in '72. School yourself in the struggles that paved the way for the fact that you even have a lunch break. At 2050 Amherst until Dec. 2. Info: 528-8444.

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