The "Italian experience" in Toronto residential construction explored

Early Italian immigrants played a significant hand in shaping the current landscape of Toronto’s construction industry, according to a new book by Stefano Agnoletto titled, The Italians Who Built Toronto: Italian Workers and Contractors in the City’s Housebuilding Industry, 1950-1980.

The book explores what Agnoletto dubs the "Italian experience", where a large wave of Italian immigrants made their way to Toronto during the 50s and 60s and worked in construction, particularly the residential sector.

"In my opinion, the most important reason why Italians concentrated in the construction industry was because it gave the opportunity to enter the labour market," said Agnoletto, in an interview with the Daily Commercial News.

"Basically, Italians were pushed into that sector because it was the only sector where they could find jobs."

According to the book, 60 per cent of workers in the 50s and 60s, working in the residential sector, had Italian roots.

"It’s not because Italians are a special gift to the construction industry, it’s because at that time, the construction industry was the best opportunity they had in order to be a part of the Toronto community," added Agnoletto.

As a generally poor, uneducated community of people at the time, Agnoletto says working in construction was the only way to generate any household income.

The average income for Italians working in Metropolitan Toronto’s labour force was $4,520 in 1960-1961, the lowest compared to other ethnic labour groups that include British, French, Jewish, German and Ukrainian.

Italian women brought in just over half of that, averaging $2,394.

"We had a mass of poor Italians with no education, they didn’t speak English, they worked like animals in the beginning and they were able to build their part as workers and employers," he said.

Agnoletto says much of the success of the Italian experience can be credited to great timing. Italians arrived in the city during a time it was experiencing a construction boom and labourers were in demand.

"If they didn’t have the opportunity to arrive during the construction boom, clearly all the experience would be different," he said.

"The experience of Italians is interesting and differs from other immigrants because they had opportunities to exploit situations (such as the construction boom). They were able to organize themselves to use this niche."

Working in the residential sector — the Italian niche — through the late 50s and early 60s exposed a dark side of working in a non-unionized sector, which included poor working conditions and worker exploitation.

Notably, in 1960, five non-unionized Italian construction workers died while installing a water main underneath the Don River at Hogg’s Hollow.

The news sparked an explosion of emotion in the Italian community and caught the attention of mainstream media as well.

The incident became the catalyst to form the Brandon Union Group (BUG), an organization made up of five locals representing residential construction workers.

They went on a three-week strike in 1960, pushing for better working conditions, fair pay, a 40-hour work week and welfare benefits.

Despite receiving most of its demands during the strike, the BUG rallied a second work stoppage in 1961, because a handful of firms in each trade were still non-unionized. Unionized firms were not able to keep up with other companies who were paying below-union wages.

The result was a report by the Goldenberg Commission, who were a group of official representatives of international unions in the construction industry. The report recommended a minimum wage, higher vacation pay, maximum hour rules and stricter safety provisions.

"I think this is one of the most important consequences of the Italian experience in the Toronto construction industry," he said.

"After the strikes in 1960 and 1961, we had the first important law on security in the construction industry and we had the first contract in the construction industry."

"I think it was the beginning of a new pattern of industry relation and cooperation between worker, contractors and builders," he added.

"It was the first attempt to introduce new rules, new ways, cooperation, new laws to support security."

Agnoletto spent a year and a half in Toronto to research Italians in the city and their rich history tied to the construction industry. He has written a number of books and articles in the past, but The Italians Who Built Toronto marks his first English-written book.

Agnoletto currently teaches Business History at the Bocconi University of Milano in Italy.