Labour Day

I was born into a large family in Cape Breton. My Father was a coal Miner and a union man.His union was UMW District 26 and supported the many miners who worked in the dangerous coal mines in that area. In 1948 there were thousands of miners working for less than $10 a day. The president of the union called the men out on strike supported by John L. Lewis who was the international president of the UMW. This was the year that my oldest sister attended Normal School in Truro , Nova Scotia. You can imagine the problems that this strike had on our family.

My Mother and Father were very resourceful. We had a piece of land where we grew potatoes and vegetables. Mom looked after chickens and we had a cow and horse. Relatively speaking we were well off as we always had food.Many people were less fortunate and poverty became epidemic and my school mates suffered greatly.  The Red Cross gave we children a jam sandwich and a half pint of milk daily and on Friday we received a sandwich made of jam and peanut butter and chocolate milk. This was a godsend for many and is a lasting memory.

The union fought for the men and after months  the talks resumed  and the men went back to work with little or no compensation for their trouble.In those days unions played a great part in getting better working conditions and a safer work place. Money was important but the workers rights became the most important issue. As a result miners and other workers advanced their status and families benefited greatly. There were other strikes as well for the same reason and slowly life for the miners and others improved but the need for coal almost vanished with the railways moving away from steam power and the shutting down of our steel mills. Imported coal from the USA was cheaper to produce and cleaner to use in the coal fired energy plants so the coal miners lost their jobs

Today there is hardly a coal mine in the Maritimes and none at all in Sydney Mines which was the coal capitol of the east. The unions were a necessary part of society during those days and every year they were celebrated by Labour Day holidays across the nation.Today there are less than 25% of workers protected by labour unions and governments find ways to take the teeth from those that do exist by anti-union legislation. During the past year we have seen the government legislate unions back to work and denied their right to strike. I am not saying that this is good or bad but the matter still stands that there is a strong anti-union message shown by our governments. Unions are under attack and this will reflect the working conditions and safety factors for our working people.

Labour Day and Unions should be celebrated for their struggles in the past and there still is a role for them to play in the future. We live in a changing world where most of our manufacturing is done in countries where workers are not protected by some form of a union and we know the drastic effect it has on our ability to compete on a level playing field. Time will tell whether unions will make a comeback in these other nations and workers will be represented by fair unions to fight for their rights to a proper work place and fair wages.

On this Labour  Day I shall think back to the contributions made by unions for working people.