Economic Boom and Problems of the 1950s and 1960s

Economic Boom and Problems of the 1950s and 1960s

Factories and Businesses

Stedmans V&S

Working Conditions

Working In Clothing Factories

The 1950s proved to be an active period for the car factories, like the Chrysler plant seen here in 1954.

Chrysler Car Factory

Farming

• In 1952, workers did a 48 hour week on average.
• In 1952, 8.7 million people worked in manufacturing.
• Around 880,000 worked in mining and quarrying.
• Today a typical worker with a full-time job does only 37 hours weekly.

Farming in the 1950s and 60s had serious challenges, and millions of farmers left for jobs in town or the city. But, in many ways, the 50s and 60s were both the best of times and the worst of times. Farm numbers did shrink, especially over these two decades.

Average Wage

• In 1950, the average weekly wage in Canada was $45.08.

• In 1960, the average weekly wage in Canada was $75.83.

By:

Ella, Joelle, Shawna

Urban Life

• The development of better cars in the 1950s led to the birth of the “commuter age”

• These new cars became a new focus of society (house with a garage, more roads, parking, etc.)

• The first suburbs began to emerge to the north and east of Toronto (York, North York &Scarborough)

• A new set of values emerged.

• This began to change cities into the urban/suburban layout we have today.

The Asbestos Strike

Economic Boom Years

During the relatively tranquil period of 1950-65 there were still a half-dozen highly significant strikes, with one million working days lost in most of them. The railways were beginning their long decline, and their employees were fighting for their jobs, threatened by a technological change in the form of diesel engines. That period also saw the first strike by first-line managers for union recognition (the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation producers' strike in 1959), and the first of many desperate strikes against the introduction of computers in the newspaper industry. The workers belonging to one of the oldest unions in the printing trades were not struggling to obtain better conditions any more, but simply to keep their jobs.

• The largest strike of the post-war era.

• Happened in 1949 and took place in Asbestos, Quebec.

• The purpose of the strike was for the company to propose protection against cancer-causing asbestos dust and to raise the worker’s pay by 15 cents an hour.

• The company disregarded all of the other union demands however they offered a 5 cent an hour pay raise.

• The strike was professed illegal due to the fact that the workers had gone on strike before going to arbitration (to bring in a referee to settle an argument between two parties).

• The 1950s was the age of television.

• During this period, The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and smaller, private television stations escalated.

• During the 1960s, several governments experimented with innovations in social programs and extended state funding for education, health, and income security.

• The strike was demanded for a second time after the province withdrew the union’s legal status.

• 5000 Quebec workers participated in the strike.

• 200 police officers were called to put an end to the strike which provoked violence.

• As a result, the strike lasted five months and workers received only a 10 cent an hour pay increase.

Strike History