Crowsnest!Pass'!
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! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! A!Community!in!Conflict:!The!Crowsnest!Pass’!1932!Coal!Strike! ! by! ! Trevor!I.E.!Stace! ! ! ! ! A!thesis!submitted!in!partial!fulfillment!of!the!requirements!for!the!degree!of!! ! Master!of!Arts! ! in! ! History! ! ! Department!of!History!and!Classics! University!of!Alberta! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ©!!Trevor!I.!E.!Stace,!2015! ! ii! Abstract! In late-February of 1932, the Mine Workers Union of Canada called a strike against three Crowsnest Pass coal operators: West Canadian Collieries, International Coal and Coke and McGillivray Creek Coal and Coke. Seven months of work stoppage bore down on Alberta’s Crowsnest community and several bitter incidents manifested both against classes, and within. This study examines multiple perspectives that arose during the course of the strike. Several community members shaped the dispute in key ways, affecting how people came to understand the strike and also the union that called it. I explore the perspectives and actions of mine operators, union organizers, rank and file workers and their families, authorities, and other community members as the strike proceeded for seven months. My analysis starts by examining the commercial contexts of West Canadian Collieries. This focus draws attention to the impact the Canadian Pacific Railway had in both the union’s choice to call a strike and why West Canadian’s officials hesitated in resolving the dispute too quickly. A breakdown of the dispute’s momentous May picket lines follows. When West Canadian tried to reopen one of its mines, picket support came from women of the community and several were arrested. Prominent union organizer Harvey Murphy was also taken into custody following the May pickets. The organizer used his courtroom proceedings to scrutinize the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and the conditions of his arrest. The pickets of May in combination with other confrontational incidents inside the Crowsnest community provoked resistance to the strike and I analyze this feature. Several members of the community organized a citizens’ league and looked to combat strife brought by the strike. As a final component to this study, the strike’s resolution is examined. Settlement occurred in two disparate ways. International and McGillivray mineworkers opted for a local union instead of a national union and West Canadian’s workers pushed towards ! iii! settlement with the Mine Workers Union of Canada. The latter’s strike conclusion implicated authorities in their negotiations. By using a multi-perspective approach, the Crowsnest Pass Strike of 1932 reveals how tensions were shaped and reshaped during the course of one hundred and ninety-five days of work stoppage. ! iv! Dedication To my family, past and present ! v! Acknowledgements I should like to take this opportunity to thank Lynn and my family. They were kind and patient enough to let me explore ideas found in this work over our many conversations in the past few years, lending their ears and their personal insights. I would also like to thank each Canadian history professor inside the University of Alberta’s History and Classics department who I had the privilege of studying from during my undergraduate and graduate degrees. David Mills, Linda Kerr, Frances Swyripa, Liza Piper, Paul Voisey, and Gerhard Ens each in their own way added to the foundation of my academic pursuits. While doing this research, I was grateful for the welcoming atmosphere from staff and volunteers, like Karen Simonson and Shannon Cherkowski, at the Provincial Archives of Alberta and Glenbow Archives. They made the archives feel like a second home. I especially want to thank James Muir, my supervisor in this project. He introduced me to important elements on the writing of history, elements that I am looking forward to continue building on in the future. I am also appreciative of the feedback from my thesis committee members Eric Strikwerda and Jeremy Mouat who pushed me to think about my thesis on different levels. Finally, I would like to thank Steven Hijmans and Andrew Gow. Their encouragement to see history as a discipline to pursue is not forgotten. vi Table of Contents Abstract................................................................................................................................ii Dedication...........................................................................................................................iv Acknowledgements..............................................................................................................v Table of Contents................................................................................................................vi List of Figures or Illustrations...........................................................................................vii List of Abbreviations........................................................................................................viii Map of the Crowsnest Pass.................................................................................................ix INTRODUCTION...............................................................................................................1 CHAPTER ONE: SOURCES OF STRAIN......................................................................16 CHAPTER TWO: THE PICKETS OF MAY....................................................................50 CHAPTER THREE: BEYOND THE PICKETS...............................................................89 CHAPTER FOUR: TO SETTLE A STRIKE..................................................................118 CONCLUSION................................................................................................................152 Bibliography....................................................................................................................159 ! vii List of Illustrations or Figures Illustrations Communist in Crowsnest Pass Miners’ Strike, 1 Miners Union Rally in Country, Crowsnest Pass, Alberta, 47 Royal Canadian Mounted Police Watching Strike Meeting, 80 Figures 1. Demands Presented By the Bellevue and Greenhill Unions February 25th, 1932. Agreement, 28. Maps Map of the Crowsnest Pass, ! ! viii! List of Abbreviations BMA- Bellevue Miners’ Association CCF- Co-operative Commonwealth Federation CPC- Communist Party of Canada CPR- Canadian Pacific Railway MWUC- Mine Workers Union of Canada UFA- United Farmers of Alberta UMWA- United Mine Workers of America WCC- West Canadian Collieries WUL- Worker’s Unity League RCMP- Royal Canadian Mounted Police ! ix! Map!of!the!Crowsnest!Pass! ! ! 1 Introduction ‘Communist in Crowsnest Pass Miners’ Strike,’ 1932, Glenbow Archives, NA- 3634-24. John Stokaluk Standing on the Right. “one less scab to work … in the future”1 John Stokaluk John Stokaluk, official secretary of the Mine Workers Union of Canada [MWUC], spoke stern and unsympathetic words about a miner killed in Coleman, Alberta in June of 1932. One of the town’s local mines had a roof cave in, crushing a miner to death under the weight of timbers 1 “Bellevue Scene of Strike Parade and Mass Meeting,” Lethbridge Herald, 2 June 1932. 2 and rock. Paralleling mining ‘workscapes’ in other areas, fatal workplace accidents were an unfortunate and all-to-common feature of early-twentieth century coal production in the Crowsnest Pass.2 More compassion and consideration from a labour leader in the mining industry might have been in order. But that year, Stokaluk had been trying to keep a united strike front against three coal companies, West Canadian Collieries (WCC), International Coal and Coke, and McGillivray Collieries in the Crowsnest towns of Bellevue, Blairmore, and Coleman. With 1930 work agreements set to expire in April of 1932, miners in Blairmore decided to call a strike in late-February, with Bellevue and Coleman’s miners quickly following Blairmore’s lead. In total, roughly one thousand coalminers struck, with MWUC leaders representing all of the miners in the negotiations. The choice by Coleman miners to return to the International and McGillivray Collieries after two months was seen as a betrayal to ardent MWUC supporters. In replacing the MWUC with a local union, roughly six hundred Coleman miners left Blairmore and Bellevue miners to face West Canadian Collieries alone. Stokaluk had worked in one of the mines of Coleman before assuming a leadership role in the MWUC.3 Moreover, Coleman was one of the four towns which represented the birth point for the national union. Seven years earlier in 1925, miners of the Crowsnest Pass brought the Mine Workers Union of Canada into existence.4 The newly formed labour organization held national aspirations, looking to organize all coal and metal workers inside Canada.5 The union originated 2 See Karen Buckley’s Danger, Death and Disaster in the Crowsnest Pass Mines, 1902-1928 (Calgary, University of Calgary Press, 2004). 3 Allen Seager, “A History of the Mine Workers’ Union of Canada” (master’s thesis, McGill University, 1977), 33-34. 4 Ibid. 5 Donald Avery, ‘Dangerous Foreigners: European Immigrant Workers and Labour Radicalism in Canada, 1896-1932 (Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1980), 123. 3 from a vacuum produced when many miners in Alberta’s coal industry lost faith in the United Mine Workers of America. The international union came under fire as miners believed the organization inadequately represented their local interests.6 When Coleman miners ousted the MWUC as their work representatives, they shifted the power dynamics of the dispute. They