Chapter 2 Estevan 1931 continued ...

(part two)

The absence of a grievance mechanism placed the miners in an extremely difficult position. Experience extending over many years indicated that any complaint-or even inquiry-regarding wages or working conditions would be met with the reply: "If you don't like it, pack your tools and get out."⁽⁴⁴⁾ The magnitude of this fear of dismissal was to be emphasized during the royal commission inquiry that followed the strike when J.H. Harris, a miner at Bienfait Mines and spokesman for the workers, requested protection against any friction or discrimination resulting from the miners testimony.⁽⁴⁵⁾

Several miners alleged that blacklisting was another technique management employed in handling labour grievances. Wilbur Enmark, an employee at eastern Collieries, claimed that when he protested the amount of compensation received as a result of an injury suffered in a mine accident, Edward Pierce Jr., the mine manager, told him he had better take what he was getting or he would "get a damned sight less." During the ensuing argument, Pierce reportedly said: "I will chase you out of the country."⁽⁴⁶⁾ Enmark went on to say that, after being without work for a year, R .J. Hassard hired him saying:"I am going to give you a job, but Mr. Pierce asked me not to give you one."⁽⁴⁷⁾

Several miners also alleged that they were subjected to abusive language by employers whenever a grievance was voiced. A shovel operator at Manitoba and Saskatchewan Coal reported that when he complained of not being credited with four hours of overtime, the pit boss answered,"God damn you, you are lucky you get one hour."⁽⁴⁸⁾ Another miner testified that the pit boss at Eastern Collieries cursed his men constantly. William Kushnerus, the man referred to, acknowledged that he used "rough language," but only to obtain results, not to silence complaints.⁽⁴⁹⁾ Although profanity exists in many working situations, this excessive verbal abuse was indicative of the treatment the miners were receiving at the hands of their employers, a treatment hardly designed to foster good employer-employee relations.

Under such circumstances, it is not surprising that the thoughts of miners in the Souris field turned to unionization. Evidence of this is sketchy, but there is no question that they took up the subject during the recession that followed World War I. It is highly probable that they then requested the newly formed Big One Union (OBU) to organize them and thereby improve their bargaining position when seeking improved wages and conditions. In any case, in 1920 the OBU assumed responsibility for doing so and an organizer from Calgary, P.M. Christophers, arrived in Bienfait on June 30, 1920, to organize a local branch of the union.

Unfortunately for the Souris miners, Christophers's visit was abruptly terminated-he was kidnapped, driven across the border, and promised "a real reception which would start with tar and feathers" should he ever return to Canada.⁽⁵⁰⁾ The matter was quickly taken up by the police, whereupon seven men were arrested and charged with the kidnapping. These included Sam Dryden, president of the Estevan branch of the Great War Veterans' Association, Corporal George Hunter of the Saskatchewan Provincial Police (SPP), Tom Jones, Amos Gough, James Clarke, Tom Munroe and Ray Thompson. But only one of them was to be penalized in any way by the authorities for the alleged crime. The case against Jones, Thompson, Dryden and Gough was dismissed at the preliminary trial. After hearing eight prosecution witnesses and deliberating for half an hour, the jury returned a verdict of "not guilty" in the case of Hunter, Clarke and Munroe because"the evidence did not bear out the charge of kidnapping."⁽⁵¹⁾ The commissioner of the SPP disagreed with the verdict but believed he could do little about it, except to have Corporal Hunter suspended from the force. In his annual report, he stated that, although the Crown felt there was sufficient evidence to obtain a conviction, "the state of the popular mind...was such as to make the securing of a conviction exceedingly difficult, if not impossible."⁽⁵²⁾

After the abortive attempt at unionization in 1920, Souris miners apparently refrained from taking further action until the early thirties, when they set out anew by making representations to various labour leaders in Saskatchewan, but "apparently no action was taken by trade unions affiliated with either the Dominion Trades and Labour Congress or the All Canadian Congress [of Labor].⁽⁵³⁾ ON one occasion a group of miners also approached M.J. McGrath, a mine inspector, and asked him to locate and send a union organizer to the district. This request, too, was unavailing. McGrath later asserted:"That is entirely outside the jurisdiction of the department and we paid no attention to the request at all."⁽⁵⁴⁾

Having failed in their efforts to obtain the co-operation and assistance of either provincial labour leaders or the government of Premier J.T.M. Anderson, the miners undertook to form their own organization. During July and August of 1931, men from the various mines in the field met secretly to discuss the situation and to devise some form of local organization. In early August "men's committees" were formed at each of the larger mines. In addition, a "mines committee" was established with John Loughran as acting president and Bernard Winn as vice-president. This committee consisted of twenty-eight members, twenty-five representing the employees of the six large deep-seam mines and three representing those miners employed at the smaller mines in the district.⁽⁵⁵⁾ Upon the formation of this committee, a letter was directed to the Workers' Unity League of Canada (WUL) requesting that an organizer be sent to the district. The league dispatched Martin Forkin, who counselled the men to join a mine union; after several meetings, the miners agreed to approach the Mine Workers' Union of Canada (MWUC). Upon request, the latter forwarded the requisite books and membership cards and organization of a local got underway.⁽⁵⁶⁾

Even before the local branch of MWUC was fully organized, Loughran, Winn and associates faced their first test of strength and enjoyed their first taste of victory over an employer. Perhaps this event facilitated organization of the union by demonstrating the value of unity; it also likely strengthened the miners for the greater confrontation which was soon to follow, and increased their confidence as to its outcome. If it did, it may to some extent have helped to precipitate the September strike. Be that as it may, the organizers of the mines' committee were evidently determined to be as strong as possible when they presented their demands to the operators for better wages and conditions. For this purpose, it would appear that they charged certain individuals with responsibility for organizing those men referred to as "foreign workers" at the various mines. This brought action from management. On August 21, John Adams was fired by Crescent Collieries for organizing that mine's foreign employees. A flurry of activity on the part of the mines' committee executive followed. It met with the Crescent men's committee and workers and then dispatched a delegation to Frank Newsome, the mine manager, to demand the man's reinstatement. Newsome refused to comply. Nor, while acknowledging that Adams was a capable miner, would he give any reason for dismissing him. Faced with such a response, the executive called upon Crescent employees to walk off the job, a procedure which proved much more effective. After a strike lasting two and a half days, Newsome capitulated and reinstated Adams, and the men resumed work.⁽⁵⁷⁾

In the last week of August, under such propitious circumstances, organization of the union went forward rapidly. During the week both Sam Scarlett of the WUL and James Sloan, president of the MWUC, appeared on the scene to help with organization and were greeted with enthusiasm by miners and their families. Scarlett, an organizer for the WUL in Saskatoon, addressed crowd of some 1200 people attending a picnic at Taylorton arranged by the mines' committee on August 23.⁽⁵⁸⁾ Sloan arrived from Calgary two days later and, after conferring with the men's committees at the various mines, arranged a meeting attended by more than one thousand people at Estevan that evening. It was at this meeting that Sloan announced that the MWUC had succeeded in obtaining a one hundred per cent sign-up and had a total membership in the Souris coal field of more than six hundred men.⁽⁵⁹⁾

With the formation of a branch of the MWUC in the Souris coal field, a crisis arose that eventually culminated in the September 8 walkout. The operators of the large mines adamantly refused to recognize the new organization as a body with constituted authority to negotiate on behalf of the miners. The miners were equally adamant in their refusal to negotiate independently of their union. When requested by the union to attend a joint meeting of all operators and miners' representatives in the Estevan Town Hall at 8:30 p.m. on September 3 for the purpose of reaching an agreement on hours of work, wages and living conditions, only the operators of six smaller mines complied. The operators of the six deep-seam mines stated:

We will not meet you [Sloan] or any representative of an organization such as yours which, by your own statement, boasts a direct connection with the "entire Workers Unity League and the Red Internationale of Soviet Russia"⁽⁶⁰⁾

Under these circumstances, the union decided to use its ultimate weapon and voted to cease to work at midnight on September 7, 1931.

The sudden threat of a serious labour dispute in the Souris coal field probably came as no great surprise to provincial authorities. Mine inspectors had been intermittently reporting to their superiors the existence of considerable unrest among the miners. Provided officials in the Department of Railways, Labour and Industries promptly passed information on to their minister, the government must have been aware that trouble was brewing as early as January 1931. However, for undetermined reasons, they took no action. Perhaps they were preoccupied with the multitude of other problems resulting from the Depression and the drought. Or they may simply believed that existing problems would be either settled locally, as they had been in the past, or their settlement facilitated by conditions produced by the Depression itself. When they finally did intervene, it was a case of too little, too late.

With only a few days remaining until the September 8 deadline, the Honourable J.A.Merkley, minister of Railways, Labour and Industries in the Saskatchewan government, dispatched his deputy, T.M.Molloy, to Estevan to assess the situation. On September 3 and 4, Molloy met with several Estevan citizens and civic officials, as well as with the operators of the deep-seam mines and with the representatives of the union. Although many individuals expressed considerable sympathy with the miners cause, they were opposed to the union owing to the revolutionary nature of the Workers' Unity League with which the MWUC was affiliated. Molloy's attempts to bring the disputants together were unsuccessful. The men insisted that their union be accorded recognition, and the coal operators adamantly refused to accede to their demand.⁽⁶¹⁾

In dealing with the immediate causes of the strike, one final factor must be taken into consideration-the antagonistic attitude of James Sloan, president of the MWUC, towards a board of conciliation that might have served as an alternative to a strike. Molloy discussed the invoking of such a board at the September 3 meeting with the union, and he telegraphed Sloan on September 7, urging him to advise the men to observe the law by remaining at work and to apply immediately for the establishment of a conciliation board under the Industrial Disputes Investigation Act. Commenting on the telegram from Molloy, Sloan stated:

We are not breaking any laws; we have a right to strike. As for a board of conciliation, our fight is right here with the operators and here we stay. That is the course the executive committee have decided upon. ⁽⁶²⁾

His reaction to a somewhat similar suggestion by W.W. Lynd, an Estevan lawyer, was even more explicit. When informed of Lynd's call for a conciliation board, Sloan reportedly replied: "To hell with the lawyers in Estevan, and to hell with the conciliation board, we don't want it and we are not going to have it."⁽⁶³⁾

Where, then, does one place responsibility for the coming of the strike? A royal commission examining its causes was to state: "An organization in each mine with a committee authorized to represent the men in any difference or complaint...would have removed much of the [miner's] dissatisfaction."⁽⁶⁴⁾ The management of National Mines had consistently made a concerted effort to keep in touch with its men, and as a result this mine received little or no serious criticism from employees. According to Freeman, a men's committee to deal with grievances had been established at National Mines prior to the organization created by Loughran and Winn. Under this system, complaints were placed before the committee and discussed immediately. If it were felt that a matter warranted further consideration, a delegate approached management. Freeman stated that, in many instances, grievances were ameliorated by the committee without ever being referred to the employer.⁽⁶⁵⁾ The operators of the other mines would have been well-advised to have followed National's example and established mechanisms whereby labour could legitimately and easily seek rectification of any grievances.

The position adopted by the operators regarding recognition of the MWUC also helped to bring on the strike. A statement issued by the United Farmers of Canada (Saskatchewan section) is pertinent:

It would be just as logical for the owners to refuse to negotiate with the men as unionists because they were Liberals or Conservatives as because they are Communists...If, after a settlement has been effected on union lines, the owners find that any of their employees are attempting to foment discontent among the workers without just cause, and purely in the interest of a political party, then will be the time to take a stand against them as politicians.⁽⁶⁶⁾

Several Alberta coal operators had recognized the new union as a constituted body with the authority to represent miners in any employer-employee negotiations. Despite its affiliation with the revolutionary WUL, the MWUC was also registered under the Trade Unions Act⁽⁶⁷⁾ It would appear that the anti-union sentiment of the Saskatchewan operators was at least as important a consideration in their stand against recognition as their professed anti-Communist beliefs. Even the offer of the Coal Operators' Association to negotiate with a committee of men is suspect. The history of labour-management relations in the Souris coal field clearly demonstrated that any employee grievance invariably was countered with a dictatorial "If you don't like it, pack your tools and get out." Obviously, past experience had taught the miners a lesson.

It is not inconceivable that the organization of the Estevan-Bienfait miners as a branch of the MWUC, an event that gave operators the opportunity to raise the issue of communism, could have been avoided. The union's success in organizing the men was a victory won only by default. It was only after their representations to the Trades and Labour Congress and the All-Canadian Congress of Labour failed to produce any results that the miners appealed to the MWUC. Only the MWUC responded to the request for assistance in organizing the coal miners; only the MWUC was prepared to assume the expense of the requisite organizational activities.

Although undoubtedly politically inspired, Norman McLeod's attack on provincial Labour Minister J.A. Merkley during the 1932 budget debate was not completely unfounded: "The minister of Labour [has] been placed in the House by the labour union, and yet he [has] not sent representatives of recognized unions into the field to assist the men in joining any recognized labour body."⁽⁶⁸⁾ Given its knowledge of the unrest in the Souris coal field-much of it as a result of the miners' unorganized status and consequently weakened bargaining position-the provincial government acted unwisely , to say the least, in completely ignoring the miners' request that a union organizer be sent to the district.

When mine operators in the Souris coal field awoke on the morning of September 8, only one mine was in operation. Because Truax-Traer did not employ men underground and its employees were non-union, it was not directly affected by work stoppage. Sloan intimated that the fifty men engaged in stripping coal and laying track there would be allowed to continue working despite the union's call for a one hundred per cent walkout. He warned, however, that there would be trouble if any attempt were made to have the men load or ship coal.⁽⁶⁹⁾ The union further stated that it was prepared to permit coal to be shipped to Dominion Electric Power and the Estevan Hospital, but would vigorously oppose any shipments destined for outside markets.⁽⁷⁰⁾ Provision was also made for local supply. Soon after the strike began, union officials granted the owners of several hillside mines permission to supply coal for local consumption, and to fill orders from farmers within a twenty-five-mile radius of Estevan.⁽⁷¹⁾

Despite the gestures of goodwill by the union towards those in the vicinity of the coal field who might require fuel, and despite the sympathetic response to the plight of the striking miners by workers and others elsewhere, suspicions quickly arose that the strike might not be altogether peaceful. Hence, to assist the two-man local detachment in quelling any future disturbance, a squad of four RCMP officers arrived in Estevan from Regina at noon on September 8.⁽⁷²⁾

As the strike progressed and tension mounted, additional reinforcements were sent to the strike zone. A dozen RCMP under the command of Detective Staff-Sergeant Mortimer arrived and began operating twenty-four-hour-a-day patrols throughout the district for the stated purpose of maintaining law and order. In addition, the Saskatchewan Coal Operators' Association engaged a private force of thirteen special constables to assist police in protecting mine property.⁽⁷³⁾

The strike was not a week old when the operators intimated that they might hire new men to operate the mines. Soon afterwards a third party also thrust itself into the dispute, announcing that it woild recruit six hundred men in the Calgary area and move them to Estevan with the object of breaking the strike. Organized in early 1931, the Canadian Defenders' League allegedly was formed to fight the spread of communism and to protect British subjects. Lewis McDonald, president of the League and formerly a leader of the Alberta miners, telegraphed C.C.Morfit offering to supply as many men as were required to bring the strike to a halt.⁽⁷⁴⁾ At a meeting of the strikers, referring to McDonald as "the biggest scab herder in Canada," Martin Forkin said: "If he comes to Bienfait he will get what is coming to him ..." "You bet he will," said a striker. "He won't go back," said another.⁽⁷⁵⁾ In the end, failure to arrange for transportation to Estevan prevented the Defenders from accomplishing their goal.

On September 15, Eastern Collieries, Western Dominion and Manitoba and Saskatchewan Coal attempted to reopen, using farm youths from the district. Because it was obviously impossible to work the mines with a small group if inexperienced men, it can only be concluded that these farm youths were brought in to provoke the strikers to some overt act of violence, thus creating a crisis situation demanding police interference. However, the ploy failed. Hundreds of miners assembled at these mines, met with the workers and demanded that management dismiss them. Management, on the advice of the police, complied with the miners' demands and the Big Six were again closed down.⁽⁷⁶⁾

Despite the increasing number of law-enforcement personnel in the district, the coal operators were dissatisfied. Morfit in particular believed that the RCMP were handling the situation poorly. Morfit, "an American with extreme ideas who has had experience in the Pensylvania [sic] USA strikes, "⁽⁷⁷⁾ reportedly stated that "if this was in the States, it would soon be settled ...the strikers would be mowed down with machine guns if they carried on the way they do up here."⁽⁷⁸⁾

At the conclusion of a conference held September 18, the coal operators issued a statement charging that the absence of adequate police protection had prevented the reopening of the mines.⁽⁷⁹⁾ A few days later, the operators requested that additional police be sent to the strike sector "to insure protection to life, property and the peaceful operation of our industries."⁽⁸⁰⁾ Their plea fell on deaf ears. The acting attorney-general, the Honourable Howard McConnell, seemingly of the opinion that the Saskatchewan government was not responsible for breaking strikes, stated that the government had been and still was according the mine owners ample police protection in the Estevan district coal field.⁽⁸¹⁾

At about the same time, M.S.Campbell , chief conciliation officer with the Canada Department of Labour, arrived in Estevan. After a brief conference with the coal operators, he obtained their assurance that if the miners agreed to return to work pending an investigation of their grievances, they would be reinstated in their former positions without discrimination⁽⁸²⁾ However, when it became obvious that the operators would not recognize the union, negotiations collapsed and Campbell proceeded to Regina to meet with provincial authorities. Testifying later before a royal commission, Dan Moar, a miner and officer of the MWUC local, stated that upon his arrival Campbell told the miners' committee that the royal commission, headed by Judge E.R.Wylie of Estevan, which had just been appointed to inquire into the labour dispute, could not proceed until the men resumed work. He quoted Campbell as saying that "the government wasn't going to spend money if we wouldn't go back to work ..."⁽⁸³⁾ When told the men would not do so, Campbell allegedly said "If that is your attitude, I am through with you, I leave this morning."⁽⁸⁴⁾ Thus, the stalemate continued and the stage was set for violence.

On September 28, information was conveyed to Estevan Police Chief McCutcheon that the miners intended to hold a "nuisance parade" in Estevan the following day. The parade was to be held for the purpose of dramatizing the miners plight in order to gain local support, and to advertise a mass meeting scheduled for the evening of the twenty-ninth in the town hall, at which Anne Fuller, a WUL organizer from Winnipeg, would address the assembly.⁽⁸⁵⁾ As no application for a permit to hold a parade had been made, Mayor Bannatyne called a special session of the town council for the morning of the twenty-ninth to discuss it, as well as the matter of renting the hall to the strikers. After brief deliberations, council, it has been said, passed a resolution prohibiting the renting of the town hall to the strikers, banning the parade and authorizing the Estevan police and the RCMP to prevent any such demonstration.⁽⁸⁶⁾

While the meeting was in progress, McCutcheon received a long distance call from Sloan regarding the proposed parade. Sloan was informed that council was in session and that resolutions had been adopted prohibiting any demonstration or meeting within the limits of Estevan. When asked what he proposed to do about the parade, Sloan stated that he was not going to commit himself.⁽⁸⁷⁾ Shortly after the session adjourned, Dan Moar, Harry Hesketh, and James McLean, members of the mines' committee executive, arrived at the town clerk's office to pay for the rental of the hall on a previous occasion. McLean was handed a letter informing him of council's decision to ban the meeting slated for that evening, and Moar was given a copy of a telegram which read: "The Council have resolved unanimously that no parade be allowed in the Town of Estevan nor meeting in the Town Hall. ⁽⁸⁸⁾

After some discussion, a miners' committee at Bienfait concluded that while the council might prohibit a walking parade, the resolution would not apply to a motor cavalcade. On this basis, organization of the demonstration proceeded. It was not until the day following the riot that Moar received a letter confirming the contents of the telegram. The letter, dated September 29 and postmarked ten p.m., contained an additional piece of important information-the police would prevent any parade or demonstration. Testifying later before the Wylie Commission, Moar was to state that until this letter had been received neither he nor anyone else was aware that council had instructed the police to stop the parade: "Had there been any such knowledge of such an order to the police, the miners would never have attempted to hold either a parade or motor-car procession in Estevan."⁽⁸⁹⁾

At 1:30 p.m. on the twenty-ninth, some two hundred miners, all of them apparently unaware that they would soon be confronted by the police, assembled in Bienfait intent on motoring to Estevan, accompanied by their wives and children, to interview Mayor Bannatyne regarding prohibition of the public meeting scheduled that evening in the town hall. At two o'clock the group departed for Crescent Collieries, three miles distant. That mine had been chosen for a rendevous and soon cars and lorries bearing strikers and their families arrived from various points throughout the district. Here the men boarded lorries, a few of which were draped with Union Jacks, and the women and children entered automobiles for the seventeen-mile journey. The caravan, consisting of thirty or forty vehicles, extending for a distance of a mile along the highway and moving at a speed aptly described as that of a funeral cortege, then threaded its way through the idle mining district, picking up recruits en route. As it approached Estevan, banners proclaiming "We will not work for starvation wages," "We want houses, not piano boxes" and "Down with the company stores" were unfurled.⁽⁹⁰⁾

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