Last week as I lay on the couch, having come down with an illness, I switched on the TV to watch something to help pass the time while I recovered. I ended up watching a TV Series called “The Porter”. It was so engaging that even though I felt weak and tired, I ended up watching the whole series  in one go. I bet some of you have seen it as well, but it helped inspire in me some new thoughts on how to mobilize and re-invigorate our labour movement. I saw examples in that show of true, rank-and-file engagement and mobilization in the face of seemingly impossible odds… and I went on to research more about the show. Here’s some of what I found:

Inspired by real events and set in the roar of the 1920s, The Porter follows the journeys of an ensemble of characters who hustle, dream, cross borders and pursue their ambitions in the fight for liberation - on and off the railways that crossed North America. 

It is a gripping story of empowerment and idealism that highlights the moment when railway workers from both Canada and the United States joined together to give birth to the world’s first Black union. 

Set primarily in Montreal, Chicago and Detroit as the world rebuilds after the First World War, The Porter depicts the Black community in St. Antoine, Montreal - known, at the time, as the “Harlem of the North.” They’re young, gifted and Black, from Canada, the Caribbean, and the U.S. via the Underground Railroad and through the Great Migration, and they find themselves thrown together north and south of the colour line, in an era that boasts anything is possible - but if change isn’t coming for them, they will come for it. By any means necessary.

The show is an adaptation of The Sleeping Car Porter, a 2022 novel by Canadian Writer, Suzette Mayr. The novel’s main character is called Baxter, a Black, gay man from the Caribbean, who has dreams of being a dentist, and takes a job as a train porter to try to save money for his education. Mayr’s novel went on to win the 2022 Giller Prize, and making history in more ways than one: it the first novel with LGBTQ themes and the first novel by an LGBTQ writer to win the Giller Prize.

Mayr’s novel and its television adaptation focuses on the fight for equity for Black workers on multiple fronts: with their employer, with the union that excluded Black workers from membership and of course, within society. 

In the first half of the 20th century, most railway porters who worked on sleeper coach trains were Black men. It was one of the few job opportunities that they could apply to, which improved their status within their communities, but at the cost of poor working conditions - namely long hours, and low wages, in addition to the brutal systemic racism they incurred on the job from passengers and management. As a result of these conditions, in 1917, Black-identified porters formed the first dedicated Black Railway Union in North America.

As we celebrate Black excellence and history, let’s keep the brave and courageous Black workers who fought tirelessly, rallied, mobilized and - when shunned by the union brass in power, formed their own union. 

It is a solemn reminder to us no union is immune to criticism, and not without those in power who seek to wield it against workers with the least amount of access and the highest personal risk. Indeed, the real power is with the rank-and-file - with those who are uninvited to meetings at the top - to host their own meetings, form their own groups, and where they are shut out from an existing union, build a union of their own. 

I look to these brave union activists as a source of inspiration, and a personal reminder to me as I continue in my role as HRRR representative. I too have power in my union, and I invite any of you reading this to share in that wealth. The union is for us all, and we must make it so. 

To learn more about the organization and mobilization of Black railway workers in Canada, see this short video: Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters | Canada History Week 2019

Bernadette D’Souza and Camar(CeCe) Cameron

Human Rights & Race Relations Representatives, Ontario Regional Council