Glory Days

By Bill Freeman

Subjects: Grève de la Steel Company of Canada, Hamilton, Ont., 1946, United Steelworkers of America, Theatre, Métallurgistes unis d'Amérique, Histoire, United Steelworkers of America. Local 1005 (Hamilton, Ont.), Théâtre, Stelco, Steel Company of Canada Strike, Hamilton, Ont., 1946, Drama, History, Métallurgistes unis d'Amérique. Local 1005 (Hamilton, Ont.)

Description: It’s 1946 and lives are ripped apart and drawn back together again as Stelco hits the headlines with major turmoil and the formation of local 1005. This is a story of the muscle, bone and heart that goes into making steel. Glory Days describes Stelco in the 1930s and early ’40s as a workplace rank with discrimination and favouritism. The workers lived under a form of tyranny where the boss was king and their needs and wishes were simply disregarded. …the common belief of management of the day was that workers needed to be disciplined and tough foremen were an absolute necessity if companies were to survive. Under that system, workers had no power and no means to be able to struggle against that tyranny. The greatest achievement of unions is that they gave workers the means to challenge this system, and this led to a change of attitudes to the point where today no company, unionized or non-unionized, would dare treat their workforce in such autocratic and discriminatory ways.