It was April 15, 1872.  Ontario workers were preparing to march to the Ontario legislature at Queen's Park in Toronto.  They were going to demand a shorter work week.  At noon, thousands began lining up for the march.  There were bricklayers, iron workers, cigar makers, blacksmiths, machinists, bakers, barrel makers, masons, and other workers.  All were there to support the printers.

    Two weeks before, even though their union was not legally recognized, the printers had gone on strike to push for a nine-hour work day instead of the usual ten.  newspaper owners, led by George Brown, editor of The Globe, had turned down the workers' demands.  Brown and the others were bitter enemies of unions.  They believed that they had the right to produce goods by the cheapest way.  If the workers objected to unhealthy working conditions, long hours, and low wages, they could find themselves another job.  The newspaper owners started to hire workers who did not belong to the printers' union.

    About 10 000 marchers set out to Queen's Park in Toronto.  Crowds cheered when leaders said, "Fifty-four hours a week is enough for anyone to work."

    But the employers won.  Several members of the printers' union were arrested.  Soon after, however, the  federal government passed a law making unions legal, and the printers won the right to work a nine-hour day.

The above is excerpted from Cruxton, 2008 (e. and o. e.)