Pat MacAdam, in last Saturday’s column, said the basis for strike action among District 26 members during the 1940s was “usually for a nickel an hour more.”
MacAdam went on to assert that “a strike is the dumbest arrow in labour’s quiver.”
These statements are historically inaccurate. They overlook the fact that prior to the 1940s, when the rule of force rather than the rule of law governed labour relations in Cape Breton, coal miners had no other means to achieve better working and living conditions but through collective strike action.
MacAdam also misrepresents the aspirations of the miners in the 1940s. Wages were only one aspect of their fight for “industrial democracy,” which included a range of demands that addressed the workplace and community, from public libraries to garbage collection to a pension fund.