Fall
The union's maximum was attained during late 1919 or early 1920. Due to persecution by employers, the media, government and even other unions, membership decreased. Employers refused to bargain with the OBU's representatives, and OBU organizers were beaten, kidnapped and dismissed from coalfields. By 1921, it had only approximately 5,000 members, by 1927 only 1,600, almost all in Winnipeg. By 1922, most of the union's income came from a lottery it operated in its weekly bulletin. At the time lotteries were illegal in Canada, but it took the authorities years to successfully prosecute the union. The bulletin had a large circulation because of the lottery, even many businessmen bought it for the lottery coupons.
During the late 1920s the OBU briefly joined the All-Canadian Congress of Labour and considered joining the Canadian Congress of Labour during World War II, but by then its members were almost all employees of the Winnipeg Transit System. The One Big Union, by then with 24,000 members, merged into the Canadian Labour Congress during 1956.
Read more about this topic: One Big Union (Canada)
Famous quotes containing the word fall:
“Here’s neither bush nor shrub to bear off any weather at all. And another storm brewing, I hear it sing i’ the wind. Yond same black cloud, yond huge one, looks like a foul bombard that would shed his liquor. If it should thunder as it did before, I know not where to hide my head. Yond same cloud cannot choose but fall by pailfuls.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“You know what’s wrong with you, Miss Whoever you are? You’re chicken. You’ve got no guts. You’re afraid to stick out your chin and say, “Okay, life’s a fact. People do fall in love. People do belong to each other, because that’s the only chance anybody’s got for real happiness.””
—George Axelrod (b. 1922)
“... there are persons who seem to have overcome obstacles and by character and perseverance to have risen to the top. But we have no record of the numbers of able persons who fall by the wayside, persons who, with enough encouragement and opportunity, might make great contributions.”
—Mary Barnett Gilson (1877–?)