1914 Saint John street railway strike
The strike shattered the image of Saint John as a conservative town dominated primarily by ethnic and religious (rather than class) divisions, and highlighting tensions between railway industrialists and the local working population.
Warning shocks of the conflict to come were indicated by repeated episodes of crowd violence starting in the early 1900s, often revolving around holidays such as New Year's Eve, which would set a tone of decisive mass action on the part of ordinary people living in Saint John.
The company delayed expansion of the system to Saint John's West Side, with contemporary critics claiming it as an issue of class, arguing that "the railway clings to the streets where the nickels are the thickest.
This issue acted as a microcosm of political relations in the province; the Tory opposition, led by John Douglas Hazen (a Saint John native), endorsed a municipal trolley service, while the ruling Liberal government instead placed the railway in charge of snow removal and street repair along its route, making a great deal of public infrastructure maintenance contingent on the railway company's goodwill.
Further attempts by the city to purchase the railway failed, and the company executives issued even more stock to finance moderate expansions amid complaints of overcrowding in the downtown and the inaccessibility of suburbs.
By then, it had come under the control of Colonel Hugh H. McLean (a prominent Orangeman and maritime lawyer, known for representing Canadian Pacific and Bank of Montreal interests), F.R.
This renewed class consciousness and class-based form of organization helped to weaken the ethnic and religious ties which bound working-class Catholics and Protestants to the company owners and divided them against each other, something which would set the stage for the antagonism to follow.
The union made a filing under the Industrial Disputes Investigation Act to challenge Ramsay's firing and threatening a strike if the company did not negotiate.
The union also made the tactical decision to hire a horse-drawn bus to provide service to Saint John inhabitants who were inconvenienced from the strike, winning public support and denying the company fares in the same act.
The situation peaked when a mob of up to 10,000 people tossed small stones at passing trolleys in King Square, with the crowd defending itself from police attacks, disarming one policeman when he fired on them with his revolver.
[1] Incensed, the crowd overturned nearby trolley cars, then proceeded to the headquarters of the St. John Railway Company, smashing windows and shutting down the city's electrical generators.
The deadlock was broken by Fred Ramsey's resignation as union president in exchange for accepting a job with the city public works department, a deal negotiated between him and John B.M.
