A PLAY
Written by Craig Heron
(with the assistance of members of the theatre group)

Directed by Aida Jordao

Performances:

January 14, 15, & 16, 2026

7:30 PM

Steelworkers Hall, 25 Cecil St., Toronto M5T1N1

There was a time when workers sweated through ten or twelve-hour working days. How did we end up with more time off the job? By unions demanding it, again and again.

It all began in 1872. That year a movement for a nine-hour day burst onto the public stage in cities and towns across central Canada. Toronto was the site of one of the most famous incidents in that campaign when the printers went on strike against almost all the city’s newspapers.

They faced a formidable opponent: the publisher of the Globe and Father of

Confederation, George Brown. Determined to shut down the workers’ movement, Brown rallied bosses in all industries and had union leaders arrested for conspiracy.

The nine-hour campaign nonetheless marked the emergence of a broader labour movement in Canada that brought together unions from many trades and led to the passage of a new law to legalize unions.