Page 14 - The 1923 Strike in Steel and the Miners' Sympathy Strike

ISSUE : Issue 22

Published by Ronald Caplan on 1979/6/1

still in force • you violated your con? tract," which he did, of course. So John L. Lewis broke the strike. Bernie Galloway; You see, John L. Lewis said you shouldn* t have any sympathetic strikes • and he revoked the charter from Jim McLachlan and he set up a new slate of officers. And one of the fellows he set up was Silby Barrett • and he was a real arch? enemy of Jim McLachlan. McLachlan was con? sidered too radical. Barrett took over and that was the end of the strike. I went to a meeting. I was still in the mines at that time. And there was a steelworker there. And they told him to tell the steelworkers that now we're broke, that we can't do a damn thing to help you fellows now, the charter is revoked and we've got no strength. Go and tell the steelworkers that the strike is broke • but some other day, he says, we'll come back again. And that was the end of the whole thing. The miners were gone and that was it. And that was the breaking of the sympathetic strike, as they call it. We continued on strike, but we couldn't make it without the miners. Your biggest trouble was you had men in the plant that didn't want to strike, they were anti-un? ion and they kept working. Scabs we used to call them. Crawl underneath the fence and get in. Later on, I worked with a man in the acid plant and he told me he got a mattress in and he put it in a shed and he stayed there all the time the strike was on, working in the steel plant. So you had those to contend with. And then on the other side you had strikers who were pro? voking things. Strikers used to come in and take the foremen • which is wrong, be? cause the foreman's not in the union and he's not in the strike • but they'd come in and take the foreman and parade him up the street. I knew an old Englishman, my boss, he was a chemist • he was an old, old man then, pretty near 75 • and they took him and paraded him up Victoria Road. So one was sometimes as bad as the other. Because we were weak, we had no real organization. (With the miners forced back to work, the steelworkers tried to hold out. They call? ed a mass meeting, Whitney Pier, July 21.) Dan MacKay; You were not allowed to hold a meeting any? where. I remember myself going down to a meeting, the HH JM ''' • 'y place we could WL ""''B have it was in Fr. wtk i' Viola's field down HBg ' IH sit the Pier, be- ??fln _' ' mm cause he had a. '??|'' • >.? J'B place fenced a- 'HHk ' I'H' round there and we 'W'Mi ''"' ,' / ''?? were off the street. MMMMk ?? " I - 'Kt So we got in there H|H|''k ( 'B and we held our ??HHHHk. W meeting. The minute fHSKsKKsBBk. • W we came out of the meeting onto the sidewalks, the soldiers were there on horseback, about 50 of them. The officer commanding them gave them the orders, "Forward march, half right, half left." CONTINUED NEXT PAGE You'll never forget the World's Largest Fiddlers' Festival The Glendale Fiddlers' Festival July D, ' O at Glendale, on the Trans-Canada Highway CANADA'S LARGEST AND BEST-KNOWN RECORD STOR| • Rock N' Soul • Celtic (Scotish, Irish) • Blues N' Bluegrass 'Country • Pop Vocal • Classical • Pop Instrumental -Comedy • Children's • Sound Tracks • 8-Tracks 'Cassettes • 45's (Chart and Golden Oldies) • Blank Recording Tapes • Complete Catalogue Ordering • Accessories • Record Care Products aJR MAIL ORDERS WELCOMED • 200 Charlotte Street, Sydney • Senator's Corner, Glace Bay OPEN 9 to 5, Mon, Teus, Weds and Sat 9 to 11, Thurs and Friday "The Only Record Store You'll Ever Need" CAPE BRETON STEAM RAILWAY The Cape Breton Steam Railway's operations are centered in the mining town of Glace Bay and in the classic fishing village of Port Morien,' located on a magnificent bay of the Atlantic Ocean. In both locations the visitor can experience the sight and sounds of steam in a close-up way that is unique. The Cape Breton Steam Railway operates twice daily (except Saturday and Monday) from July 1, 1979, to September 7, 1979. Departs Glace Bay, Union Street Station at 2:30 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. with a licensed, air conditioned bar car and live entertainment featured nightly P. O. Box 84, Glace Bay, Nova Scotia Telephone 849-2425 for reservations

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