Articles

•  “Irving Strikers Seek Fair Rates”, Canadian Labour, vol. 9 (March 1964), pp. 25

  OCAW Local 9-691 at the Irving Refinery in Saint John continue their strike which began in mid September of 1963. While the 145 member workforce attained record breaking production, their wages are 75 cents an hour less than the prevailing rate for Canadian refinery workers, employees have no health or hospitalization coverage and five per cent of their wages are deducted by the Irving company towards a pension plan on which no concrete information is available. An inquiry into the strike is being conducted by Dr. A. M. Sinclair of the UNB economics department for the New Brunswick provincial government. The Irving company stated to Dr. Sinclair that it opposed raising the wages of refinery workers because if one company paid significantly higher wages it would upset local conditions. After an investigation, the Saint John Ministerial Association has publicly supported the position of the union. The Saint John and District Labour Council has demanded the resignation of the New Brunswick Labour Minister for his ineffective handling of the strike and requested that the strike be referred to the federal labour department for an impartial decision.

•  “NBFL Welcomes Bargaining Rights for Government Employees”, Canadian Labour, vol. 14 (December 1969), pp. 28

  More than 30,000 New Brunswick provincial government employees secure collective bargaining rights with the New Brunswick Public Service Labour Relations Act which takes force on 1 December, 1969. Paul Lepage, president of the NBFL states: “This new legislation should indicate to those employers in the private sector who have not fully accepted trade unions as part of our free enterprise system that the elected representatives of the people have accepted this principle...”

•  “‘Day of Concern' in Bathurst”, Canadian Labour, vol. 17 (February 1972), pp. 18

  In a “Day of Concern” sponsored by the NBFL and a Citizens Co-ordinating Committee in Bathurst, more than 10,000 people demanded immediate action on th economic development of northern New Brunswick. The Gloucester Ministerial Association and the Priests' Senate of the Catholic Diocese of Bathurst called upon the New Brunswick government to consider proposals put forward by the NBFL to alleviate the disastrous economic conditions of the area.

•  “Working”, The Plain Dealer (June 1976)

  An occasional series of profiles of New Brunswick workingmen and women published during 1976 and 1977. “Mary Boles, Cannery Worker” (4 June 1976) lives in Milltown and works at a tuna fish plant 25 miles away. “Harold Currie, Doorman Gaiety Theatre” (4 June 1976) describes the changes he has seen working at a Fredericton moviehouse. “John Turner, Odd Jobs Man” (4 June 1976) has lived and worked as a manual labourer in St. Stephen all his life. “Duffy Stewart, Leather Cutter” (17 November 1976) has worked as a leather cutter in Fredericton for 29 years. Lloyd and Alma Mosher and their children, Charlotte County,(15 December 1976) make Christmas wreaths for the American market. “Art Curry, Fire-fighter” (3 January 1977) describes his work in this hazardous occupation. “Art Irvine, Shoemaker” (12 January 1977) reflects on the skills and satisfactions of his trade. Dave Brooks, “The Best ­­­- The Only ­- Damn Cheesemaker from Campbellton to Sussex” (7 October 1977) ­describes his expert work at the Barbour Foods cheese factory in Sussex, the province's only cheese producer. A longer article, “Fear and Trembling at the Napadogan Mill” (3 June 1977) describes in detail a day's work at a wood veneer mill in the Stanley area: “Exhaustion, monotony, long hours, no drinking water, a toilet room that had been spiked shut, and a distinct possibility that today would be the day you would catch a few hundred pounds of rock maple in the face, across your legs or on your feet” .

•  “Never Mind ‘Woodsman Spare that Tree', Who the Hell is Going to Spare the Woodsman - and His Family?”, The Plain Dealer (October 1976), pp. 14-15

  A critical assessment of the failure of the Charlotte County Wood Producers Association to win fair wages and dignity for the work of its members. The author, who worked as an organizer with the wood cutters, truckers and woodlot owners of Charlotte County, identifies the economic, political and cultural realities that work against collective attempts to wood producers to challenge the power of the pulp and paper companies. Among these realities are the operational costs of harvesting borne by the small producers and the leasing of crown land to pulp companies by the provincial government. The on-going struggle between wood producers, the provincial government and the pulp companies is depicted in a large cartoon entitled Babes in the Woods, A Game Designed to Make You Think You Have A Chance of Winning When You Really Never Have.

•  “Struggle to Unionize”, Canadian Dimension, vol. 12, no 6 (1977), pp. 12-13

  In 1977 workers at Georgia Pacific's plywood sheeting mill in McAdam attempted to unionize in spite of the anti-union activities of the company, town council, and members of the community -- including the local boy scouts. Aided by $1.8 million in federal and provincial grants, almost 200 jobs were created. The working conditions consisted of a seven day work week. One man who had worked 38 straight days was fired after asking for a Sunday off. The organizer for the Canadian Paperworkers Union, Doug Homer, reported many fears by the workers over the union drive and early meetings were held in deserted areas. A certification vote was 131 to 66 in favour of the union.

•  “‘Doption, sir, is when folks get a girl to work without wages”, Atlantic Insight, vol. 1, no 5 (August 1979), pp. 36-39

  In the first decades of the 20th century, large numbers of British children -- some orphans, many the children of poor parents -- were brought to Canada by various organizations who claimed they could provide them with a better life. Most of the children were placed on farms where they had to work until 16 or 18 years of age in return for bed and board, clothing, and a chance to go to school. This article gives a short history of the British home children movement and selections from interviews with some of them still living in Canada. Included are recollections of two who came to New Brunswick.

•  “UNB Collective Agreement Signed”, Atlantic Provinces Library Association Bulletin, vol. 44 (March 1981), pp. 51

  After 18 months of negotiations, the first collective agreement was signed on 3 November 1980, between the University of New Brunswick and the Association of University of New Brunswick Teachers representing librarians, faculty and instructors on campuses in Fredericton and Saint John.

•  “Victory for the MFU”, New Maritimes, vol. 2, no 8 (May 1984), pp. 12

  A short item reporting that in March 1984, after eight years of effort, the Maritime Fishermen's Union was officially certified as the bargaining representative for about 600 New Brunswick fishermen. Legislation had been passed in 1982 allowing the MFU to apply for certification, but there had been uncertainty about the place of cooperative fish companies in the collective bargaining process.

• BABCOCK, Robert H., “The Saint John Street Railwaymen's Strike and Riot, 1914”, Acadiensis, vol. 11, no 2 (Spring 1982), pp. 3-27

  On the night of 24 July 1914 a crowd of some 10,000 people gathered in the streets of Saint John to show their support for the city’s striking street railwaymen. It was a night of violence and disorder: streetcars were overturned in the streets, there were clashes between the crowd and a detachment of cavalry, and an attack on the street railway headquarters plunged the city into darkness. This article provides a careful and often colourful description of these dramatic events, explaining how they were part of a long traditon of crowd action in Saint John. The strike was set off by the company’s attempt to fire the president of a newly-organized union, and the conflict between the Saint John Railway Company and the Amalgamated Association of Street and Electric Railway Employees is examined in detail. In addition, this article also sheds light on the rise of an organized labour movement in the city in the early 20th century and the growth of the street railway as an important and often controversial feature of the urban way of life. Based on a large volume of newspaper and archival research, this is a well-written and sophisticated work of historical analysis which supercedes other, more fragmentary accounts of the events of July 1914. Illustrations: one map, one photograph.

• BAIRD, K.A., “John Watson Blacksmith”, New Brunswick Historical Society Collections, vol. 18 (1963), pp. 64-71

  An excellent description of a blacksmith's shop in Salmon Creek, N.B. and the evolution of his role as he comes into conflict with the mass production of factories at the turn of the century. Once the primary producer of such diverse articles as wagons, carriages, sleighs, skates, and axes, he became the repairman for these items. Even his role of shoeing horses was affected, since he no longer made the shoes but bought blanks of various sizes instead. While the blacksmith fell victim to companies such as the F.B. Edgecombe Co. in Fredericton, who made carriages, and the MacFarlane Wagon factory in Nashwaaksis, those factories in turn fell victim to the competition of Ontario-made vehicles.

• BEAULIEU, Jean, “Le conteur de la région de Grand-Sault”, Colloque d'histoire orale en Atlantique (octobre 1980), pp. 35-46

• BEGLEY, Lorraine, “Rampage in Restigouche -- Northeastern New Brunswick Fights for Its Economic Life”, New Maritimes, vol. 1, no 10 (June 1983), pp. 4-5

  An account of the sometimes violent protests of truckers and woodsworkers who are alarmed about the use of Quebec workers to haul wood to the New Brunswick International Paper Mill in Dalhousie. Official unemployment figures in the area exceed 23 per cent, and other estimates are as high as 50 per cent. Heavy debts on their idle equipment threaten to turn samll owner-operators into welfare recipients. Feeling ignored by their own provincial government, local workers turned to protests and demonstrations, particularly at the interprovincial bridge. Ironically, unemployment is even higher on the Quebec side of the border. Yet, despite the violence and use of police, the author notes that negotiations and changes are underway and the protesters seem to have found “quite an efficient way to jump-start the slow process of political change in New Brunswick” .

• BENOÎT, Carmelle, “Une économie de déportation”, Possibles, vol. 5, no 1 (1980), pp. 63-81

• BRANCH, Stephen N., “The Harness Makers of Sackville”, New Brunswick, vol. 3, no 4 (1978), pp. 1-2

  Sackville Harness Ltd. was established before the turn of the century and has survived by making quality harness and collars for draught horses. They sell what they make across the continent, employing eight workers. A description of horse collar making is included.

• BROOKES, Alan A., “‘The Provincials’ by Albert J. Kennedy”, Acadiensis, vol. 4, no 2 (Spring 1975), pp. 85-101

  The historian of Maritime emigration to New England, Alan Brookes, here presents a rediscovered manuscript by a Boston social worker describing the life and work of Maritime immigrants in the Boston area before the First World War. In Kennedy's view, Boston was the natural “Big City” for the sons and daughters of the Maritimes in the late 19th century. By 1905 there were more than 3,000 New Brunswickers in the Boston area. Women tended to find work as nurses, domestics, hairdressers, dressmakers and in office and shop work. Men worked as carpenters, cabinetmakers, millworkers, machinists, clerks. Other aspects of immigrant life, including social activities and politics, are also described. “The majority of Canadians who come to this country, despite the dream of returning, remain here”, the author writes. And, “as a rule the second generation is thoroughly Americanized”.

• BUNTING, Nonie, “Fishermen - View of an Insider: School Provides New Ways”, Atlantic Advocate, vol. 62 (October 1971), pp. 14-15

  The Caraquet School of Fisheries established by the provincial government in 1963 has made an impact on the region's fishermen. Take the case of Aldéo Gionet; he studied three years at the school and learned how old and new technologies could help out his work. Aldéo was taught how to use radar, sonar and radio equipment as well as new methods of fishing. These changes were essential to the modern fisherman if he wished to survive. Fishing has changed from a small to a large scale enterprise. Vessels cost as much as $210,000 and nets $50,000. Although equipment for the fishermen has improved, the sea and the fluctuating prices for fish are still the biggest hazards for the people.

• BURRILL, Gary, “Solidarity and Self-Reliance: The Campbellton-Dalhousie and District Labour Council”, New Maritimes, vol. 1, no 1 (September 1982), pp. 8-9

  A profile of the local labour council and its involvement in labour and community action. In addition to noting episodes of labour solidarity, such as strikes at the Sobeys store and the paper mill, the article describes the ways in which the council has taken up community issues, such as rail and hospital services for the area. Through voluntary payroll deductions and donated labour, the council has helped establish a new training centre for mentally handicapped children. The result of such activism is that the labour council is seen as “a solid and respected part of the community”.

• CALHOUN, Sue, “Netting the Maritime Fishermen”, Maclean's Magazine, vol. 94, no 41 (October 1981), pp. 58-60

  A brief account of the movement towards unionization among Maritime fishermen. One obstacle faced by the fishermen is that “boat-owning fishermen remain outside the collective bargainingprocess because they don't fit neatly into the traditionalemployer-employee relationship”. The Maritime Fishermen's Union has been pressing provincial governments to change this “Catch-22”. Formed at a high school at Baie St. Anne in 1977, the MFU has been “a militant and largely Acadian union”. It claims a membership of 2,000, mainly in New Brunswick, northern Nova Scotia and Cape Breton. Executive secretary Gilles Thériault feels new labour legislation will help in organizing the fragmented industry: “If you are properly certified, processors by law have to sit down and talk to you. That doesn't mean you are always going to get what you want, but I think it will be enough to finally bring fishermen together”.

• CAMERON, Lyle, “Science in the Forest - the Acadia Story”, Atlantic Advocate, vol. 56 (June 1966), pp. 61 [63]

  In 1933 the Acadia Forest Experimental Station near Fredericton was created in order to provide relief employment. The construction of buildings and roads, as well as the tree planting and harvesting provided labour. The men would get twenty cents a day plus clothing, board and tobacco. Working alongside labourers and transients were lawyers, once-prominent businessmen , engineers and others. By 1939 however, these workers were replaced by younger men under the National Forestry Programme. During the war period the labour was supplied by a local internment camp which housed “refugees from Hitlerism and any Canadian thought to be hostile to the war effort” . After the war, research became the main objective of the station.

• CASS, Martin, “The Grizzled Old Veterans”, Atlantic Advocate, vol. 66 (April 1976), pp. 35-36

  A personal recollection of the last long lumber drive down the Nashwaak River in 1929. The author pays tribute to the heroic rivermen with whom he worked and describes the work and living conditions they experienced.

• CHAPMAN, James K., “H.H. Stuart”, The Canadian Forum, vol. 23 (May 1953), pp. 33

  H.H. Stuart, teacher, lay-preacher and newpaper editor “placed his stamp upon New Brunswick life as an organizer.” Stuart helped organize the first teacher's union in Canada, the New Brunswick Teachers' Union (1902), assisted in the organization of a farmer's party in Northumberland County and independent labour parties in several other counties in the province. The Farmer-Labour party coalition won 25 per cent of the seats in the New Brunswick provincial election of 1920. Stuart also helped form a local of the Socialist Party of Canada in Fredericton.

• CHAPMAN, James K., “Henry Harvey Stuart (1873-1952): New Brunswick Reformer”, Acadiensis, vol. 5, no 2 (Spring 1976), pp. 79-104

  Although New Brunswick has always been looked upon as conservative and traditional, there were, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, radical socialist leaders. One of these was a reformer by the name of Henry Harvey Stuart. An exceptional man by any standard, Stuart was a leading advocate for social and economic reform during his lifetime. He influenced people through his editorials, teaching and lectures. Stuart had many varied careers: starting as an apprentice printer in 1890 he was later preacher, temperance worker, union organizer and teacher among other things. Stuart became a licensed lay preacher for the Methodist Church in 1900 and attended their General Conferences where he made an impact. Many other social gospel leaders agreed with his view of the social ills caused by capitalism and that the church should be an agent of change. Stuart practised what he preached. In 1902 he organized the first socialist party of New Brunswick, the Fredericton Socialist League. He also helped organize, and was a leading member of, the New Brunswick Teacher's Union in 1903. He helped organize the woodworkers on the Miramichi in 1919. He also participated in the rapprochement of labour and farmers during the 1920s. His social and religious beliefs were evident in his life-long struggle to educate the people of New Brunswick about the ills of thier society. Stuart got directly involved in the political arena as well. He held a seat on the municipal council in Newcastle where he voted against giving bonuses and concessions away to industry. He was nominated for a seat in the legislature in 1920, though he was forced to withdraw by his employer the Moncton School Board.

• CHAUSSADE, Jean, “La pêche au homard dans les provinces maritimes du Canada”, Cahiers de la Société historique acadienne, vol. 9, no 1 (mars 1978), pp. 22-34

• CHILDS, Gerry, “Profile: Fred Hodges”, Atlantic Advocate, vol. 75, no 11 (July 1985), pp. 33

  A brief portrait of a black Saint John labour leader, Frederick Douglas Hodges. A descendant of Black Loyalists who came to Saint John in 1795, he left high school in the 1930s to work for 20 cents a day. In 1940 he became a railway freight handler and was the first black man to become a member of the union. He served as president of the Saint John District Labour Council for ten years and also served three terms as a city councillor. He was named a member of the Order of Canada in 1982, and received an honorary degree from the University of New Brunswick in 1984. Includes photograph.

• CHOUINARD, Omer, “La lutte pour le droit à la syndicalisation et le projet de loi 94”, Égalité, vol. 3, no 5 (printemps 1982), pp. 39-57

• CLEMENT, Wallace, “Canada's Coastal Fisheries: Formation of Unions, Cooperatives, and Associations”, Journal of Canadian Studies, vol. 19 (Spring 1984), pp. 5-33

  A sophisticated analysis of class relations and fishermen’s organizations on the east and west coasts. The term “fisherman” conceals more than it reveals and is “not adequate for understanding the complex dynamics of class struggle which are brewing within the industry”. In Clement's view, the industrialization of the fisheries has created a form of petty bourgeois production in which passive forms of legal ownership are less significant than the active forms of economic ownership which control the development of the industry. This theoretical approach is followed by an analysis of the role of unions, cooperatives and associations in the fisheries. The Maritime Fishermen’s Union, whose strength is based in New Brunswick, is described as a representative of “dependent commodity producers” who have been seeking since the 1970s to bargain the price of fish with the fish plants. Also strong in New Brunswick is the United Maritime Fishermen’s Cooperative, a federated marketing cooperative established as part of the cooperative movement of the 1930s. Interestingly, many MFU members sell their fish to UMF plants. However, Clement notes that there have been some indications of possible alliances between the older cooperative and the newer union in the industry. Another organization is the Eastern Fishermen’s Federation, formed in 1979; this is a lobbying association which tends to accept an entrepreneurial interpretation of the fisherman's interests. In general, the author points out that this organizational complexity corresponds to structural variations in the industry: “No sector has a more complex structure of organizations representing its participants than does fishing”.

• CÔTÉ, Serge, “Syndicats et grèves au Nouveau-Brunswick”, Revue de l'Université de Moncton, vol. 10, no 1 (1977), pp. 41-50

• COUSINEAU, Jean-Michel, “La mobilité interprovinciale de la main-d'œuvre au Canada: le cas de l'Ontario, de la Nouvelle-Ecosse et du Nouveau-Brunswick”, Actualité Economique, vol. 55, no 4 (octobre 1979), pp. 501-515

• CRANDALL, Esther, “Wages Low, Service Poor; Company Profits: Bus Drivers Prefer City to Irving”, The Plain Dealer (September 1976), pp. 6 [9]

  Bus drivers of the Amalgamated Transit Union, Local 1182, ask the city of Saint John to take over public bus service now contracted to their employer, City Transit Ltd., an Irving-owned company. The workers argue that their low wages and their lack of a pension plan subsidize City Transit. They also express concern over the deteriorating service provided by that company to the community. Bus drivers had earlier protested job cutbacks and split shift work in a wildcat walkout.

• CRANDALL, Esther, “A Vanishing Breed?”, New Brunswick, vol. 5, no 3 (1980), pp. 16-18

  Fred Codner has been an independent milkman for more than 20 years in Saint John. His 16-hour work-day and the difficulties of operating a small business are described. Since 1972, Baxter Dairies has had a monopoly in the city and this combined with the inflation of the 1970s had a severe effect on the independents' struggle to survive. In addition, operating costs, especially gasoline, have cut profits. The non-unionized independents have threatened to pull their trucks off the road in order to back demands for more money. The company's response was a threat to suspend home deliveries altogether and sell through retail stores.

• CROSSMAN, Bill, “11 Gleaner Writers Axed: Talk of Union Leads to Firings”, The Plain Dealer (August 1977), pp. 3

  Eleven writers and editors are fired without notice from the Irving-owned Fredericton newspper, the Daily Gleaner. The dismissals follow confrontations between staff journalists and management over the daily's news coverage policies. The former employees charge that they were fired when the Gleaner management learned of their discussions about unionization.

• CROWELL, Ivan H., “The Little Old Mills of New Brunswick: The Bradley Axe Factory of Nashwaak Village”, Collections of the New Brunswick Historical Society, no 19 (1966), pp. 79-87

  William and George Bradley operated their axe factory on the premises of their farm from 1860 until it ceased operations shortly before the First World War. They made axes, peavys, picks, and sleds in addition to the general blacksmithing jobs they were asked to perform.

• DAYE, Vera L., “Fish from Fundy”, Canadian Business (June 1946), pp. 30-31

  Fishermen in Grand Manan are expanding their market by diversifying the uses of herring. Besides the new sardine factory, new methods of processing herring are being explored. There is an attempt to expand and rationalize the industry in preparation for the soon-expected return of European fishermen. Fishing herring in the Bay of Fundy is difficult and labour intensive. The use of weirs, which is described in great detail in the article, is the main method of herring fishing. Seining a weir, as it is called, takes at least eight fishermen and seven boats to haul in 375 hogsheds of fish which is considered a good catch. A hogshead was worth $16.50 in 1946. Once the fish are returned to port they are processed. This work is divided between the men and women. Men are used mainly in transportation and women are involved in the processing of the fish from boning to drying. The women earn approximately $4 a day.

• DAYE, Vera L., “Booming Bustling Moncton”, Atlantic Advocate, vol. 48 (October 1957), pp. 15 [17]

  Moncton, a city created by the European and North American Railroad (1857), has grown steadily to a stable economy as the most important transportation and distribution point in the Atlantic area. The city's largest employer is C.N.R. with more than 6,000 employees followed closely by the T. Eaton Company while a number of smaller local firms, such as the Record Stove and Furnace Co., Marvin's Ltd., Humphrey's Woollen Mills and Broven-Holder Biscuits are also important employers in the community. “Living may be a bit higher and salaries a bit lower than in other parts of Canada, but there is room to breathe and live the leisurely kind of life Maritimers like.”

• DAYE, Vera L., “Christmas Tree Harvest”, Atlantic Advocate, vol. 50 (November 1959), pp. 63 [65]

  Christmas trees are a valuable cash crop for New Brunswick farmers, woodlot owners and growers. It could be more valuable if producers would take the advice offered by company officials and the provincial government forestry department.

• DEVEAUX, Bert, “Lumberjacks Strike Back; Kidnap Machines to Save Jobs”, The Plain Dealer (July 1976), pp. 7

  Some 250 unemployed woodcutters in Restigouche County seize two pulp harvesters owned by New Brunswick International Paper in an unsuccessful attempt to protect jobs in the forest industry against mechanization. Each new harvester means 30 fewer jobs for woodcutters in an area of the province with the highest rate of unemployment.

• DEVEAUX, Bert, “Woodsworkers Want Out; Union and Company Unite Against Them”, The Plain Dealer (December 1976), pp. 17

  A brief account of the efforts of woodcutters and truckers at the Fraser mill in Edmundston to secure a stronger and more democratic union. Workers charge that the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America has failed to represent their best interests on the issues of wages and the use of mechanical harvesters. A request by these workers for decertification and a switch to the Canadian Paperworkers Union has been turned down by the New Brunswick Labour Relations Board.

• DEVEAUX, Bert, “On Picket Duty with the Plumbers”, The Plain Dealer (June 1977), pp. 2

  Striking members of the Plumbers’ and Pipefitters’ Union, Local 772, maintain their picket lines in Fredericton despite court injunctions and solid opposition from local contractors. Wages and a union security clause are issues in the strike, but union members feel that the real battle “is whether unions in Fredericton will stay or go”.

• DEVEAUX, Bert, “The Americanization of McAdam”, The Plain Dealer (June 1977), pp. 4-5

  When a Georgia-Pacific Building Materials plant was constructed in McAdam two years ago, residents of the community held high hopes for the future of their local economy. Now the town is divided over the changes that have followed. Employees at the Georgia-Pacific plant recently organized in Local 12 of the Canadian Paperworkers Union (CPU) to fight seven-day work weeks, indiscriminate firings and their on the job treatment. Local organizer Doug Homer also expressed fears that “McAdam is becoming a company town [...] G.P. owns the mobile homes housing the men; they’re building a shopping centre; and they’re a strong influence on the Town Council. They’re simply out to control the town”. The McAdam Town Council, fearing that a union will result in lay-offs by Georgia-Pacific, issued an appeal against certification and had it personally delivered to each Georgia-Pacific worker by members of the local Boy Scouts Venturers club. Georgia-Pacific has issued its own anti-union pamphlets with adages such as “Happiness is a lunch break without hearing the word ‘union’”.

• DEVEAUX, Bert, “Trucking Firms' Tactics Take Toll Over the Long Haul”, The Plain Dealer (August 1977), pp. 6

  This is the story of the struggle by the Truckers’ Association (l’Association des Voituriers Remorquers du Québec) for recognition, fair wages and improved working conditions. Included in the article are interviews with New Brunswick truckers, including the association’s vice-president, Jean Plante of Edmundston. Only two trucking firms, Smith Transport and Day and Ross Ltd., both McCain-owned, have refused to recognize the Association. Quebec Provincial Police and the RCMP are escorting Day and Ross trucks driven by non-unionized drivers over the Quebec-New Brunswick border.

• DEVEAUX, Bert, “Truckers Paid 6 Cents an Hour! Strike for Fair Wage”, The Plain Dealer (August 1977), pp. 7

  This is the story of the struggle by the Truckers’ Association (l’Association des Voituriers Remorquers du Québec) for recognition, fair wages and improved working conditions. Included in the article are interviews with New Brunswick truckers, including the association’s vice-president, Jean Plante of Edmundston. Only two trucking firms, Smith Transport and Day and Ross Ltd., both McCain-owned, have refused to recognize the Association. Quebec Provincial Police and the RCMP are escorting Day and Ross trucks driven by non-unionized drivers over the Quebec-New Brunswick border.

• DOIRON, Narcisse, “1930: Working in the Woods”, New Maritimes, vol. 4, no 6 (February 1986), pp. 8-9

  An account of working in the woods of northern New Brunswick in the 1930s, as recalled by a group of eight men interviewed for the Acadian newspaper, Le Ven’d’est (novembre 1985) and here translated for English-readers. Brief excerpts from the conversations describe life in the lumber camps, cutting, hauling and driving, food, pay and other conditions of life and work in the woods 50 years ago.

• DOUCET, Luc, “Dalhousie, les employés de la CIP en grève depuis 75 jours à 35 $ par semaine”, L'Acayen, vol. 1, no 4 (1973), pp. 6-9

• DYCK, D. et F. LAWRENCE, “Relocation Adjustments of Farm Families”, The Economics Annalist, vol. 30 (February 1960), pp. 4-12

  In 1952, 428 resident property owners, many of them farmers in Sunbury County, were forced to move from their homes to make way for a military base, Camp Gagetown, which was established by the Department of National Defence. These people, their farms and the process of expropriation and relocation are analyzed in this report of a study by the Rural Sociology Unit of the Department of Agriculture.

• DYCK, D., “Relocation Adjustments of 95 New Brunswick Farm Families, 1956-1960”, The Economic Annalist, vol. 32 (August 1962), pp. 87-93

  Most of the families whose farms where expropriated in 1952 for Camp Gagetown continued to farm after relocating in other areas of New Brunswick. There were, however, significant changes in family source of income, farm indebtedness and farm size according to this follow-up study on how these events changed their lives.

• DYCK, D., “Relocation Adjustments of 95 New Brunswick Farm Families, 1956-1960”, The Economic Annalist, vol. 32 (October 1962), pp. 101-109

  Most of the families whose farms where expropriated in 1952 for Camp Gagetown continued to farm after relocating in other areas of New Brunswick. There were, however, significant changes in family source of income, farm indebtedness and farm size according to this follow-up study on how these events changed their lives.

• ELLIOT, Robert S., “Relative Recollections - Gardner's Creek, North America”, Journal of the New Brunswick Museum (1979), pp. 54-70

  William Forbes recalls his life from the turn of the century while living in Gardner's Creek on the Bay of Fundy: “I hear some of the old people say what the good days was years ago and I say like hell they were.” His mixed farming was supplemented by work in the lumbering industry and fishing, as well as shipbuilding in the First World War. He sees in the changing times the withering away of small self-help groups composed of individual farmers who had assisted one another. They have since ceased to be a vital aspect of community life.

• EVERETT, Jon, “Chatham Fights For Its Life”, Atlantic Insight, vol. 3 (April 1981), pp. 14

  Canadian Forces Base Chatham accounts for one-quarter of all jobs in the Newcastle-Chatham area. At a time when it is rumoured that the air base will be closed, local politicians and businessmen voice their fears for the future of their communities.

• EVERETT, Jon, “New Brunswick: Dalhousie Loses in Grocery Store Wars”, Atlantic Insight, vol. 3 (May 1981), pp. 20

  In 1980, employees of a Sobeys supermarket in Dalhousie organized under the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union. During negotiations for a first contract, the company and the union disagreed over whether two employees should belong to the union or be designated as management. In support of the union's position, the 14 employees of the store went out on strike. In response, Sobeys closed down the store. This is a summary of the sequence of events leading to the closure of the store.

• EVERETT, Jon, “Labour: Raising Hell For A Reason”, Atlantic Insight, vol. 3 (October 1981), pp. 40-41

  Larry Hanley, the new president of the New Brunswick Federation of Labour, promises to change the conservative and cooperative character of the NBFL to a new militancy in defence of the working people of the province. Hanley's past record of labour activism in New Brunswick is outlined and some of his personal perceptions on the province are presented.

• EVERETT, Jon, “New Brunswick: God Rest Ye Merry, McAdam”, Atlantic Insight, vol. 3 (November 1981), pp. 18

  The people of McAdam face a grim Christmas with the closure of the Georgia Pacific Plywood Mill and the loss of 274 jobs. The plant closure is the second major economic blow to the community within the year. The other major employer in McAdam, Canadian Pacific Railway, recently transferred the last of its repair operations to Saint John.

• EVERETT, Jon, “Labour: Will Inter-union Warfare Scuttle the Fiery Mathilda Blanchard?”, Atlantic Insight, vol. 4 (January 1982), pp. 29

  Mathilda Blanchard is fired by the Canadian Seafood and Allied Workers' Union from the position she has held for 11 years as their representative in New Brunswick. Recently, some French-speaking fish plant workers in New Brunswick broke away from the CSAWU to form their own union, the Syndicat Acadien des Travailleurs Affiliés et des Pêches. Blanchard had refused to organize SATAP but had expressed sympathy for the frustrations felt by the French-speaking members of CSAWU which is based in anglophone Halifax.

• EVERETT, Jon, “New Brunswick: Saint John Unions vs. Argentina: Round Two in the Hot Cargo War”, Atlantic Insight, vol. 4 (August 1982), pp. 8

  Abel (Sonny) LeBlanc, president of Local 273 of the International Longshoremen's Association in Saint John, announces that the ILA local will refuse to handle nuclear reactor fuel rods arriving from Moncton and destined for Argentina.

• FERGUSON, Carol, “Cash Relief on Cranston Avenue: The Workers' League of Saint John -- 1932”, New Maritimes, vol. 2, no 3 (November 1983), pp. 12

  A brief account of an organization of unemployed workers and their families in Saint John in the early 1930s. The Workers' League, formed in August 1932, defended the interests of unemployed workers in the deepest part of the Great Depression. The League protested evictions, called for higher relief payments, and conducted “We Want Work” marches through the city. On principle, the League objected to being forced to work for the city in return for relief supplies, stating that this was an offence against the rights of freeborn British citizens. A confrontation over this issue took place in November 1932 at a Cranston Avenue construction sewer and water project, and the League was broken up by the police. Its successor, the Unemployed Relief Association, continued to defend the rights of the unemployed and to confront municipal authorities with some success. These episodes contradict the image of unemployed workers as bewildered individuals unable to join forces in a common cause.

• FILLMORE, Roscoe, “Early Socialism in the Maritimes”, Acadiensis, vol. 11, no 2 (Spring 1982), pp. 84-94

  An autobiographical manuscript by an early New Brunswick socialist. As a youth Fillmore left his home in Albert County to work in a railway shop in Portland, Maine. He also travelled west on harvest excursions and worked in railway construction camps in Western Canada. In 1908 he returned to New Brunswick and became an active spokesman for the socialist movement in the Maritimes. Later he settled in Nova Scotia, where his Centreville nursery was well-known among gardeners, but he remained faithful to the basic political ideas he had learned in his youth: “I find it impossible to this day to comprehend how any sensible, thinking person can resist the logic, the morality and ideology of Socialism. To me it means a decent human way to believe and live, and for a long time I was obsessed with the idea that all we had to do was explain its meaning to people and they would immediately begin to work and vote for the cooperative society.” Written in the 1950s, this excerpt from Fillmore's reminiscences offers a lively, anecdotal account of his conversion to socialism and his adventures as a radical socialist in the Maritimes before the First World War. Nolan Reilly provides a useful introduction.

• FOLSTER, David, “New Brunswick: The Cranes are Flying”, Maclean's, vol. 93 (January 1980), pp. 24-25

  Charles Little, a bridge crane operator with Saint John Shipbuilding and Dry Dock was forced by the company to retire at age 65 in December 1977. Little was an unpensioned worker whose retirement send-off consisted of company and union gifts of $100 each and $700 from co-workers. After appeal to the New Brunswick Human Rights Commission, an inquiry established by the provincial labour minister reported in his favour and the company was ordered to end its mandatory retirement policy. This was the first case in Canada involving a person over 65.

• FOLSTER, David, “Why McAdam, New Brunswick has such a big railway station”, Canadian Geographic, vol. 102 (April-May 1982), pp. 34-36

  A brief history of the McAdam railway station, which grew to be the Canadian Pacific Railway's busiest junction east of Montreal. Large maintenance facilities were established by the CPR to service the many passenger and freight trains which made their way to McAdam and resulted in a peak employment level of 650 employees. A focus of the article is on the chateau-style station which was begun in 1900 and completed in 1911. In addition to hotel rooms and restaurants, there were separate men's and women's waiting rooms, customs and immigration quarters, an express office, baggage room and even a police office with a small jail. On the third floor were rooms for 28 young women who worked in the hotel and dining-room. The switch to diesel engines began to affect the heavy rail traffic by the early 1950s. Thereafter rail volume fell off quickly and consequently the workload and the workforce were drastically reduced. The hotel section of McAdam station was closed in 1959.

• FORSEY, Harriet, “Distribution of Income in the Maritimes”, The Canadian Forum, vol. 21 (February 1942), pp. 332-333

  One aspect of the economic conditions in the Maritimes from the late 1920s to the early 1940s not dealt with by S. A. Saunders in his classic Economic History of the Maritime Provinces (1939) is what happened to the income of various groups during the periods of depression and recovery. From evidence presented to the Rowell-Sirois Commission it can be seen that from 1929 to 1933, bond interest and dividends fell only four per cent while wages in manufacturing fell 30 per cent, wages in mining fell 36 per cent, agricultural income dropped by 30 per cent and fishermen's income fell 60 per cent. By 1937, Maritime bond and shareholders had experienced economic recovery while wage-earners, fishermen and farmers had not recovered their income levels.

• FRANK, David et Nolan REILLY, “The Emergence of the Socialist Movement in the Maritimes, 1899-1916”, Labour/Le Travailleur, vol. 4 (1979), pp. 85-113

  At the beginning of the 20th century, the Maritimes witnessed the emergence of a small but active socialist movement, whose experience tends to undermine the Maritime stereotype of conservatism. As early as 1898 Butler's Journal in Fredericton had published and endorsed the Socialist Labor Party's Declaration of Principles, and was also publishing socialist writings by H.H. Stuart, who argued that “socialism in its true sense is nothing more or less than Christianity applied.” A Fabian League was organized in Saint John in 1901. In July 1902, Butler and Stuart established the Fredericton Socialist League, a branch of the Canadian Socialist League. Their programme announced that the league “stands squarely for the public owership of all the means of production, distribution and exchange.” The socialists expected to “educate the people to become conscious of their interests and to refuse to fight the battles of the capitalists.” They advocated “united action at the polls” as the means to challenge “the collective power of capitalism.” Their final goal was “the overthrow of capitalism and the establishment of the Co-operative Commonwealth.” Following the creation of the Socialist Party of Canada in 1905, the Fredericton group affiliated as Local No. 1 of New Brunswick. A second local, with 40 members, was formed in February 1908 among railway workers at McAdam Junction. In Albert County Roscoe Fillmore, returning home from work in the United States and Western Canada, formed another SPC local in 1908. In 1909 additional groups were formed in Saint John, Newcastle, and Moncton, and a small local of farmers was formed in 1913 at Whitehead. Cotton's Weekly a national newspaper dedicated to socialist ideas, at its peak in 1912, distributed more than 400 copies a week in New Brunswick, most of these in Saint John and Moncton and the surrounding areas. Among the New Brunswick episodes described here are street meetings in Moncton, blacklisting in Albert County, the visit of W.D. “Big Bill” Haywood to Saint John in 1909, and the participation of Saint John socialists in the Trades and Labour Council and the New Brunswick Federation of Labour, of which Fred Hyatt was an executive member in 1913. By the time of the First World War, the socialist movement was in decline. By 1916, only the Saint John local remained in existence, and it became dormant after Wilfrid Gribble was arrested for an anti-war speech and given a two-month jail sentence on charges of sedition in January 1916. Nevertheless, pre-war socialists such as Stuart and Fillmore remained life long radicals, and re-emerged as activists in other labour and political organizations in the years after the First World War.

• GAUVIN, Bernard, “Le droit de grève au Nouveau-Brunswick”, L'Acayen, vol. 2, no 9 (1975), pp. 15-26

• GAUVIN-CHOUINARD, Monique et Michèle CARON, “Les femmes et le syndicalisme au Nouveau-Brunswick”, Égalité, no 10 (automne 1983), pp. 95-108

• HAMBLING, Skip, “Blueberries: the Hidden Harvest”, The Plain Dealer (August 1977), pp. 11 [18]

  Child labour is usually thought of as part of the 19th century Canadian experience ended by reform campaigns for compulsory school attendance and protective labour legislation. Yet much of the seasonal work of the blueberry harvest in New Brunswick is done by children, many of them working alongside their parents in the fields. This article describes a blueberry harvest in Charlotte County and the skills of a blueberry raker.

• HAMBLING, Skip, “Union Certified, May Sue McAdam Mayor”, The Plain Dealer (August 1977), pp. 6

  Some 250 unemployed woodcutters in Restigouche County seize two pulp harvesters owned by New Brunswick International Paper in an unsuccessful attempt to protect jobs in the forest industry against mechanization. Each new harvester means 30 fewer jobs for woodcutters in an area of the province with the highest rate of unemployment.

• HANSEN, J.C., “Industrial Relations and Social Security: Labour Legislation in New Brunswick, 1786-1945”, Public Affairs (September 1946), pp. 255-260

  A survey of the development of laws affecting workers in New Brunswick from the days of George III to 1945. The Employers' Liability Act (1903) limited the liability of employers for injuries suffered by workers. The Workmen's Compensation Act (1918) established a compulsory system of collective liability. The New Brunswick Factories Act (1905) established minimum ages for the employment of children (14) and contained regulations regarding hours of work for children and women. Beginning in 1906, the province also required compulsory school attendance of children. In 1933 the province fixed the age of 16 as the minimum age for working in the mines. The Public Health Act (1918) contained provisions regarding the workplace. In 1913 the province required a “fair wage schedule” be attached to every contract entered into by the Department of Public Works. In 1935 a Forest Operations Commission was given the power to establish minimum wages and scales for the lumber industry. The Fair Wage Act (1936) allowed a government official to intervene in wage disputes, and in 1937 the Fair Wage Board was given the right to arbitrate wage rates in any trade. This was included in the Labour and Industrial Relations Act (1938), which also “specifically authorized employers and employees to bargain collectively”; conciliation was provided for and the legal right to strike was protected. Since 1935, the author notes: “the Legislature seem to have been making deliberate attempts to equalize the bargaining powers of labour and capital”; however, he adds, “although Canada is a member of the International Labour Organization, New Brunswick, like the other provinces, has failed to implement the conventions of that organization.” He notes that labour legislation in New Brunswick has also tended to lag behind other parts of Canada. He points out the lack of industrial expansion and the prevalence of small-scale, marginal industries in the province, factors which have discouraged the growth of a strong labour movement and legislative advances for labour. “For, in the final analysis”, he notes, “labour legislation only arrives on the statute books as a result of working class pressure expressed through the union movement.”

• JACK, Ronald, “The Chinese Connection”, New Brunswick, vol. 7, no 3 (1982), pp. 22-30

  In 1890, a Chinese community came into existence in Saint John. It flourished and then all but disappeared by the end of the Depression in the 1930s. The first wave of immigration came by way of Montreal. By 1922, there were an estimated 120 Chinese living in Saint John. They established many businesses, the majority being hand laundry shops, which had little capital investment and were labour-intensive. Other businesses serviced the Chinese community itself, in a compact Chinatown consisting of cafés, a grocery store, a tea wholesaler, and a hotel. The community was largely a bachelor society as few were able to bring their wives and children with them. In 1922 a Saint John branch of the Chinese National Association was formed and a Tong Meeting Hall was opened. The churches were the only organized body which offered help to the Chinese, teaching them English and providing recreational activity. It also encouraged the Chinese leadership to assert itself. The Chinese faced racial prejudice and were the victims of a highly publicized campaign that was launched in 1915 against the “social evils rampant among Chinese.” The Chinese Immigration Act of 1923 restricted further immigration, causing many to leave and rejoin their families in China. Others gradually left for other centres and were not replaced.

• JAIN, Hem C., “Impact of Ethnic Differences in the Work Force in Industrial Relations: A Case Study”, Relations industrielles/Industrial Relations, vol. 24, no 2 (1969), pp. 383-402

  A study of industrial relations at the newsprint mill at Dalhousie, which is operated by the New Brunswick International Paper Company, an American multinational corporation. Briefly the article traces the evolution of labour relations at the mill. Strongly opposed to unions, the paper company established plant councils in its mills in 1933. In 1934 members of Local 146, International Brotherhood of Pulp, Sulphite and Paper Mill Workers decided to lift the ban on participation in the plant councils and place union men on the council. In 1937 the company abolished the councils and granted union recognition. The position of the unions was strengthened in the mill during the wartime conditions in the 1940s. At the time of writing there were eight unions representing the various crafts and trades and sections of the mill, six of them bargaining jointly. Labour relations have been generally stable and harmonious. Wages and benefits have been equivalent to those at company mills in Quebec and Ontario, and management has accepted the place of unions and collective bargaining in the mill. The article also provides observations on ethnic relations in the mill. Most management and skilled workers are of British origins, Protestant and English-speaking, while the majority of the work force and the community are of French origins, Catholic and French-speaking. Some cases of alleged favouritism in hiring English-speaking workers are examined, but complaints have declined since the 1950s. In general, the author concludes that “ethnic and cultural differences have not played as significant a role in industrial relations as have other external economic and organizational factors.”

• JAIN, Hem C., “The Current Debate in New Brunswick”, Canadian Personnel and Industrial Relations Journal, vol. 26, no 3 (May 1979), pp. 22-27

  A discussion of the debate between business and labour on two bills that were proposed to the New Brunswick legislature in October 1978. Bill 70, the Employment Termination Act, would have required employers to give government and workers up to 12 weeks' notice of layoffs, depending on the number to be laid off and length of service. Bill 76, the Employment Standards Code, was proposed to consolidate existing legislation on minimum wages, hours of work, public holidays, paid vacations, etc. While Bill 76 was primarily to protect the interests of unorganized workers, who made up the majority of paid labour in the province, business argued that the new code should not be universal and that those under collective agreements should be exempted. Business also objected to what they claimed was New Brunswick acting as a trend-setter in terms of benefits and working conditions. This, they argued, the province could not afford to be.

• JONES, Ted, “McAdam Junction: The End of an Era”, Atlantic Advocate, vol. 74, no 12 (August 1984), pp. 33-36

  In keen detail, Jones recalls the sights, sounds and smells of his boyhood in McAdam during the 1940s and 1950s, where his grandfather was a locomotive foreman and his father a boilermaker in the roundhouse. The article conveys a sense of bitter-sweet nostalgia for the days when McAdam was a busy railtown, serving as many as 16 Canadian Pacific passenger trains every day. Now the station stands as a “giant tombstone with its blackened granite”, and there is little evidence of the hundreds of railway workers “who had blindly committed themselves to the CPR” .

• KEHOE, Mary, “Anti-Union Takeover at Marysville Mill”, Canadian Labour, vol. 18 (July-Sept. 1973), pp. 38-41

  “The Marysville, N.B. textile mill dates back to the last century. So do the union attitudes of its new owners...” Upon the purchase of the mill, Whittaker Textiles International Ltd. refuse to recognize the existing Textile Workers' Union of America Local 1795 as the bargaining agent for the mill employees, despite New Brunswick law which provides “successor rights” to unions in such an ownership change. The TWUA fought a similar battle for certification when the mill was sold by Canadian Cotton Co. to Cosmos Imperial Mills in 1957, and achieved success only in 1969.

• KELLY, Léontine, “J'écris ma vie”, Acadiensis, vol. 15, no 1 (automne 1985), pp. 133-140

  A short autobiography by an Acadian woman born at Tracadie in 1907. Madame Kelly and her husband Allan Kelly are well-known as singers of traditional Irish and Acadian music and are often interviewed by folklorists. In these pages, however, Madame Kelly sets forth the life-experience of herself and her family. Prior to marriage, she worked as a domestic in hotels and private homes. Allan worked in the mills and in the woods. They have also farmed and kept a store. It is a matter-of-fact story of the hardship and perseverance of working-class life. As folklorist Ronald Labelle states in introducing this document: “The life-experience of people like the Kellys is just as important to remember as is their repertoire of folksongs or folktales”. The introduction is in English; the autobiography is in French.

• LANDRY, Romain, “La Noranda fait un cadeau au Local 5385”, L'Acayen, vol. 2, no 5 (1975), pp. 10-13

• LEBLANC, Aristide, “Souvenir d'un pêcheur”, Sur l'empremier, vol. 1, no 2 (1982), pp. 62-64

• LÉGÈRE, Lorraine, “Cirtex”, L'Acayen, vol. 3, no 1 (1976), pp. 10-15

• LILL, Wendy, “Working for the (Corporate) Man”, Harrowsmith, vol. 4 (October 1979), pp. 56-68 [97]

  Potato farmers in New Brunswick were delighted in the late 1950s when McCain's offered them a market for their product. Contracts were eagerly signed and expensive equipment quickly purchased by the farmers in order to increase their production. In 1975, however, McCain's were shipping potatoes in from the United States to be processed while New Brunswick farmers were unable to sell their crop. In protest, more than 400 New Brunswick farmers blocked the Trans-Canada Highway at Grand Falls and staged a massive potato giveaway.

• LUETCHFORD, Al, “JML Shirt Accused of Union Busting”, The Plain Dealer (December 1976), pp. 7

  Eighteen former employees of the J.M.L. Shirts Ltd. factory in Edmundston have pressed charges of harassment, discrimination and intimidation against that company and are seeking compensation and reinstatement in their jobs from the New Brunswick Labour Relations Board. Workers, many with 20 years of service, were fired earlier in the year in the midst of organizing a local of the Amalgamated Clothing and Textile Workers' Union.

• MACKINNON, F.B., “What Family Allowances Mean to the Maritimes”, Public Affairs, vol. 8 (Winter 1945), pp. 103-108

  A defence of family allowances and their effect on the social and economic life of the Maritime Provinces written before the program began on 1 July 1945. MacKinnon counters arguments that family allowances will be used by employers as an excuse to keep wages low or that such payments will induce low income earners to refuse to work. Pointing to the relatively low family incomes in the Maritimes and the low expenditures on public welfare in these three provinces, MacKinnon argues that family allowances will create buying power and thus help stabilize the post-Second World War transition.

• MACLAGGAN, Isabel, “Community Profile: Bustling Bathurst”, Atlantic Advocate, vol. 70 (April 1980), pp. 10-12 [14]

  A salute to Bathurst's new economic prosperity which is based on the pulp and paper mill of Consolidated-Bathurst Ltd. and the mining operations at Brunswick Mining, Brunswick Smelting and Belledune Fertilizer. The work force for these industries totals almost 3,300 people.

• MALCOLM, David, “Ken Bayard: A Fighting Farmer”, The Plain Dealer (June 1976), pp. 23

  Ken Bayard, still farming at 78 years of age, talks about his long history of organizing among the farmers of Kings, Queens and Saint John Counties. In the following poem, Ken Bayard writes of the changes he sees in the rural communities around him: “There's a province called New Brunswick / Where some farmers still exist, / But if things keep on a-going / They'll be on the vacant list. / You can look out all around you / In the valley and on the hill, / Vacant farms, deserted homesteads / Land our forefathers once did till... / It's bein fast deserted; / The reason, so they say, / They couldn't make a living, / They couldn't make it pay.”

• MANNY, Louise, “The Ballad of Peter Amberley”, Atlantic Advocate, vol. 53 (July 1963), pp. 67-74

  Miramichi farmer and lumberman John Calhoun wrote the Ballad of Peter Amberley in memory of a young man killed while working in the lumberwoods in the 1880's. This song has travelled with woodsworkers across North America. Included with a short biography of Calhoun are the lyrics and music for three of his songs. Includes portraits of John Calhoun and his wife, and photographs of lumbermen in Miramichi woods.

• MANWARING, John A., “Vers une réforme du droit du travail au Nouveau-Brunswick”, Égalité, vol. 3, no 5 (printemps 1982), pp. 81-105

• MCANN, Aida, “Busy Hands in New Brunswick Where Home Crafts Are Now Enthusiastically Revived”, Canadian Geographical Journal, vol. 20 (March 1940), pp. 126-141

  The Depression of the 1930s ended the emigration of young people from New Brunswick to the textile mills and factories of the city. Adult education courses in handicrafts and community leadership now assist these young people in learning to survive in New Brunswick. Under the Dominion-Provincial Youth Training Plan, some 1,500 young unemployed single women received training in weaving and making clothing, skills intended for their own personal use rather than for commercial sale. Similar instruction is provided to Indian women on reservations near Woodstock and the Tobique River.

• MCANN, Aida, “Maritime Women at Work in War and Peace”, Public Affairs, vol. 7 (Winter 1944), pp. 117-122

  The Second World War created new work opportunities for Maritime women in volunteer work, the armed services, civilian services and war manufacturing. Large numbers of Maritime women left the region to work in Central Canada where wartime production was concentrated. One survey indicated that a significant proportion of working women were married (27 per cent ) and many had children (9 per cent). For many women, the war did not change the type of work they did. Large numbers of women continued to work in textile factories or food processing as “sorters, peelers, slicers, trimmers, weighers, tray loaders and packers.” In the steel mills women performed new kinds of work as “bundlers, learners in the machine shop, coremakers in the foundry, burners in the boiler shop, truck drivers.” In the steel mills, shipyards and aircraft industries, women were paid the same wages as men for the same work. But as Aida McAnn found , employers in these industries reported that women did different work from men. Even though women in war manufacturing industries did not receive equal wages to men, McAnn found that 70 per cent of women wished to remain in employment after the war ended. McAnn argues that women deserve a “fair deal” in the lay-offs at the end of the war. “The women of the Maritimes don't want to ‘go back' anywhere; they want to go forward to better conditions in the home, the school, industry and business.”

• MCANN, Aida B., “The Maritime Conference on Industrial Relations in Saint John”, Public Affairs, vol. 6 (Summer 1943), pp. 226-229

  A report on the proceedings of the Maritime Conference on Industrial Relations held in Saint John on 25 June 1943. The conference unanimously expressed recognition of the need for greater co-operation between management and labour as well as the “real desire to make business justify its existence not only as a profit-making enterprise, but as a means for the satisfaction of human needs.” Speakers at the conference included prominent representatives of business, government and universities.

• MCFARLAND, Joan, “Women and Unions: Help or Hindrance”, Atlantis: A Women's Studies Journal, vol. 4, no 2 (Spring 1979), pp. 48-70

  Women make up one in five union members in New Brunswick. This study examines the extent to which the needs and concerns - even the presence - ­of women is recognized in union contracts. A total of 59 collective agreements were examined, covering more than half of the total 22,706 female union members in New Brunswick in 1976. In the use of language, only five of the contracts were considered to be non-sexist. Most of the contracts included sexist occupational titles and some even differentiated between male general labour and female general labour. Of the 59 contracts, only 22 included a “no discrimination” clause, and 30 provided for maternity leave. A number of contracts included protective or disciplinary clauses directed at women workers. In general, most contracts were considered to show “no awareness” of women's issues. The best contracts were considered to be those of the New Brunswick Teachers' Federation, two nurses' union contracts and one in a glasses frames factory; the worst were found at two fish packing plants and among maintenance staff at the University of New Brunswick. In general, it is concluded: “The evidence from collective agreements in New Brunswick does not suggest significant gains for women in unions.” The article concludes by discussing some of the practical problems that arise in attempting to improve the position of women in the labour movement and pointing out some of the significant neglected issues such as the role of child care, part-time work, and the sexual division of labour in the home and the workplace.

• MCFARLAND, Joan, “Changing Modes of Social Control in a New Brunswick Fish Packing Town”, Studies in Political Economy, no 4 (Fall 1980), pp. 99-113

  A scholarly analysis of work and social relations in a well-known (but unidentified) New Brunswick fish packing town, based on the author's observations and research while working in the fish plant there in 1979. Many of the traditional ways of maintaining management control and workers' dependence were still in effect during the 1970s. Attempts to form a union were defeated: those involved in the effort were dismissed by the company and evicted from the company-owned houses which make up the town. Subsequently, however, the company established an Employee Committee to deal with grievances and negotiate with the company; this substitute for a union has gained some advantages in wages and conditions for the employees without compromising company control. The use of piece-work rates among the women fish packers, encouraged by bonuses and contests for the fastest packers, has also permitted the company to maintain a combination of fear and gratitude among the workers. There have, however, been signs of worker resistance in the town. There have been spontaneous walkouts by the fish packers in protest against compulsory overtime, and it appears that Acadian workers, who live outside the traditional territory of the company town, have a greater feeling of independence. Since the plant was taken over by a large Canadian food conglomerate in 1966, some of the traditional methods of social control and paternalism are being abandoned. The author predicts that this may undermine the company's efforts to maintain “a docile and hardworking labour force”: “All indications are toward increasing worker awareness and militancy, not the opposite, and it would seem that the company's new plans will serve to exacerbate these tendencies” .

• MCFARLAND, Joan, “Hartt and Soul”, New Maritimes, vol. 4, no 3 (November 1985), pp. 4-5

  An inside look at a strike at the Hartt shoe factory in Fredericton in August and September 1985. A Fredericton landmark, the shoe factory has operated since 1898, and since the 1960s it has been run by a British-based company. There are more than 100 workers in the factory, and they are members of the United Food and Commercial Workers. Most of the workers on piece-work are women, and it was the women workers who provided the leadership in the strike. There was also strong support from other union locals. The article provides a glimpse of the human faces behind a labour relations story.

• MCKAY, Ian, “Strikes in the Maritimes, 1901-1914”, Acadiensis, vol. 13, no 1 (Fall 1983), pp. 3-46

  An analysis of strikes helps us “begin to understand the human implications of economic change”. Workers in the Maritimes fought no less than 411 strikes from 1901 to 1914, at least 200 of these were in New Brunswick. Saint John, with 144 strikes, led the region in the number of strikes but, moulders in Sackville, pulp workers in St. George, labourers in Fredericton and fishermen in Charlotte County also numbered in the working-class protests found almost everywhere in the region during these years. These protests reflected the changes that Maritime workers felt in the labour market and at their workplace. In the first phase of rapid industrial growth following the National Policy of 1879, locally controlled secondary manufacturing industries sprang up in centres dispersed throughout the region. After the 1890s, an economic revolution based on coal and steel unified the Maritime region. A railway system and economic consolidation under larger employers now based outside the region, brought Maritime communities in closer association with each other and with the new metropolis of Montreal. Traditional barriers between regional and local labour markets were demolished. Some workers could take advantage of this free labour market by drawing upon new ideas and standards for wages and work found elsewhere, or migrating to more favourable employment, but employers could now draw on large labour pools in and outside of the region for competition for local workers and for strikebreakers. Changes also occurred in the workplace as employers sought increased productivity through greater managerial discipline. A high number of strikes were attempts by workers for job control: to limit management control of hiring and dismissing employees; to alter the nature of work supervision and to resist the intensified work schedules and speed-ups of new production techniques. In contrast to other areas of Canada, the most active group in these strikes were labourers, and a high proportion of strikes were waged by non-unionized workers. This strike movement was contained by the state through forceable intervention in strikes and by labour laws which not only failed to protect workers but also removed direct power from workers. For the working-class of the Maritimes, there was not only “defeat” but also an “awakening” to “more coherent class and regional traditions.” This important article offers a strong analytical framework for the history of working people in New Brunswick during this period and a wealth of new information on workers and their strikes in numerous New Brunswick communities.

• MCKAY, Ian, “The Maritime CCF: Reflections on a Tradition”, New Maritimes, vol. 2, no 10 (July-August 1984), pp. 4-9

  An account of the rise and fall of the Cooperative Commonwealth Federation in the Maritimes. Of the three Maritime provines, New Brunswick was the first to establish a branch of the CCF. This took place at a meeting in Moncton in June 1933 which was sponsored by the New Brunswick Federation of Labour. The movement did not win wide support, however, until the 1940s. In 1944 there were 87 CCF clubs in the province. Some clubs established community halls and lending libraries. Coal miners from the Minto local 7409, United Mine Workers of America, sent delegates to CCF meetings. Members supported the regional party newspaper Maritime Commonwealth and later New Brunswick's own True Democracy. Despite intensive efforts, the party failed to elect any members federally or provincially, and the CCF went into decline in the 1950s, to be replaced in 1962 by the New Democratic Party. In New Brunswick, as nationally, CCF members faced victimization and wild accusations and, at the height of the party's popularity in the 1940s “a right-wing propaganda offensive of enormous proportions.” However, McKay also suggests that the CCF may have suffered because “it did not know what to do with all the people who had flocked to the CCF banner” - “an effort to devote more resources to the work of education and less to mainstream political work... might have saved some of the base the CCF had so quickly acquired and was so quickly to lose.”

• MUNGALL, Constance, “Pattern-Breakers of New Brunswick”, Châtelaine, vol. 7, no 7 (July 1977), pp. 32

  A short biographical sketch of Mathilda Blanchard, union organizer and community activist in Caraquet, New Brunswick. At the time of this article, Mathilda Blanchard was the New Brunswick business agent for the Halifax-based Canadian Seafood and Allied Workers' Union whcih represented 10 locals and 3,250 members in New Brunswick. Mathilda Blanchard's early ambition to become a lawyer was blocked by the fact that local French Catholic Colleges did not accept women and lack of money prevented her from gaining this education in Quebec. Instead, Blanchard “settled” for a hairdressing course, later supporting her three children as a hairdresser in Caraquet while at the same time carrying on “her real work of serving the community.” In 1977, Mathilda Blanchard had just lost a long and bitter battle over union certification at Cirtex, a Japanese-owned textile mill backed financially by the provincial and federal governments.

• NAEGELE, Kasper D., “Picture of a Maritime Mill Town”, Public Affairs, vol. 11, no 1 (1947), pp. 11-15

  A sociologist's observations on the social structure and rhythms of community life in Marysville - here called Katetown - made during the summer of 1947. More than a suburb of Fredericton - here called Smithtown - this is a separate community surrounded by woods, farms and vegetable gardens. This is a “dependent community”, centred around the large cotton mill, which employed 616 workers at ths time, 260 women and 356 men. The workers live in company houses and buy their food from the company store. Although the mill “controls” the town, this is also a “workers' community”, which sees itself to some extent independent of the mill. The balance is not static and has been affected recently by the establishment of a union at the mill and the passing of mill-ownership to outside control. In a questionnaire distributed to students in grades seven and eight at the local school, it was discovered that 90 per cent of the students wanted to go beyond grade eight in their education and more than half expected to move away in the next ten years. Only one student planned to work in the mill permanently. The author observes that the social structure of the town represents an uneasy balance between “old fashioned industrial paternalism and Maritime individualism” .

• NELLES, H.V. et C. ARMSTRONG, “The Great Fight for Clean Government”, Urban History Review, no 2 (1976), pp. 50-66

  A scholarly study of the important role played by organized labour and working people in campaigns from 1890 to 1920 to “clean up” municipal governments in a number of Canadian cities. In Saint John, the Trades and Labor Council (TLC) was a prominent supporter of a successful reform movement in 1912 for a commission form of city government. Commission government, with its provisions for referendum, recall and the removal of property qualifications from municipal officeholders, allowed the TLC to act more effectively on behalf of working people. One example of such action took place in September 1918 when Saint John policemen were locked out by the city for attempting to form a union. The TLC mobilized public support to remove from office two city commissioners opposed to the policy union and elect in their place candidates sympahetic to labour. Dismissed police officers were then reinstated and their union recognized by the city council.

• NICHOLSON, J.W.A., “Maritime Labor Irritation”, Canadian Forum, vol. 21 (August 1941), pp. 143-145

  Of 51 strikes reported in Canada in the months of February, March and April 1941, 20 strikes were in the Maritimes in 13 communities ranging from northern New Brunswick to Cape Breton. The strikes are the result of the friction in the region between union movements and because workers see the war effort is increasing the disadvantages they suffer in comparison to Central Canada.

• NKEMBE, Théophile, “Unionization of Librarians at the Université de Moncton”, Atlantic Provinces Library Association Bulletin, no 42 (August 1978), pp. 5-6

  Librarians at the Université de Moncton organized for better working conditions and the right to academic status. This is a brief summary of the events leading up to the certification of the Association des bibliothecaires et des professeurs de l'Université de Moncton in 1976.

• NOWLAN, Alden, “Welfare Money Returns to Source”, Atlantic Advocate, vol. 62 (August 1972), pp. 19-20

  Nowlan argues that society would benefit if people on welfare received more money as long as they spent it in a short period. The payments made to the person do not usually last long. There is no room for savings. The money spent often goes to huge supermarket chains which return the monies to Central Canada. “While the welfare recipient is regarded by his contemporaries with either pity or contempt, the rent-gouging landlord is accepted as a pillar of the community.” The poor have no choice, they must pay more for their goods because they cannot buy in bulk. They have to pay more because they have less. Alden Nowlan leaves the reader with the impression that the “freeloaders” of this society are not the people on welfare.

• NOWLAN, Michael O., “New Brunswick Profile: Getting the Best Bite at Baie Ste-Anne”, Atlantic Advocate, vol. 71 (March 1981), pp. 74-75

  In 1938 four Baie Ste-Anne fishermen, with the encouragement of Moses Coady, formed a Co-op Club in order to market their fish co-operatively. Wright Gibbs, one of these fishermen, recalls the early days of the Co-op in the village. The Co-op has continued to operate to the present day.

• O'DONNELL, Al, “The Town That Refused to Die”, Atlantic Advocate, vol. 48 (September 1957), pp. 47-49

  The people of Marysville struggle to save their town after its only industry, a textile mill, is closed without warning by Canadian Cottons in 1954. As Canadian Cottons owned most of the houses in the community, townspeople suddenly faced the necessity of purchasing these homes from the company. While the mill reopened in 1957, the economic uncertainty caused villagers to reflect back to the days when Alexander “Boss” Gibson was alive and Marysville had enjoyed “prosperity and contentment.” Gibson, who built and owned this company town, had been “good to his people”, providing them with work at his grist mill, lumber mill, and cotton mill, as well as building houses and a church and offering cheap food and credit at his company store.

• PIERCE, Dianne, “Community Profile: Sussex”, Atlantic Advocate, vol. 70 (June 1980), pp. 44-45

  Sussex was a quiet dairy town until a few years ago when potash mines were opened by the Potash Company of America and Denison Mines. This is a cursory discussion of the recent changes in the community: economic progress, but also fears over pollution, shortages in housing and the wage competition for farm labourers.

• POIRIER, Donald, “Le droit au travail au Nouveau-Brunswick”, Égalité, no 5 (printemps 1982), pp. 15-38

• POND, Bonny, “Fishermen Land ‘Big Catch’, Packers Quote Prices for First Time”, The Plain Dealer (October 1977), pp. 7

  Less than a year after its formation, the Maritime Fishermen's Union, New Brunswick section, has some 900 members despite the refusal of the government to pass legislation allowing certification the union. Paul Chiasson, president of Local 10, credits his union and its boycott of Associated Fisheries Ltd. with prompting fish packers to state their prices before the opening of the lobster season for the first time. Paul Chiasson also supports union organization during his winter work as a member of the United Association of Pipefitters and Plumbers, Local 512.

• POND, T.M., “Lumber Camp Singers”, Atlantic Advocate, vol. 64 (August 1974), pp. 22

  The lumberjack had very few comforts in the woods. A good cook was a must to keep him going and a good camp singer was quite a bonus if a camp operator could secure him. The life of a woodsman was harsh. In early September the loggers went out to their camps. There was a long procession of men, horses and materials. Once the camp was established the tree cutting would start. For the first few weeks aching muscles were the norm and Troup Oil and Sloan's Lineament were in great demand to relieve the aches and pains. After a few weeks a camp social life would appear. Once supper was finished the men would swap stories but the camp singer would hold the most honoured place. Most of them could not read music. Their songs dealt with bravery - there were even sea songs but it was the songs of the lumberwoods and the river drives which were the camp singer's specialty. The singers never stood but remained seated. Pond has vivid memories of his first log drive down the Miramichi where the best singers got together at a big “jamboree” type meeting on the river bank.

• POND, T.M., “Scowmen of the Restigouche”, Atlantic Advocate, vol. 65 (June 1975), pp. 14-17

  Before the 1940s, almost all of the supplies and equipment needed in New Brunswick lumber camps were carried by horse-drawn scows or barges on the province's rivers. A former timber cruiser and fisherman recalls the skills and courage of the scowmen of the Restigouche River.

• POND, Tom, “The White Water Men”, Atlantic Advocate, vol. 66 (March 1976), pp. 24-26

  Tom Pond remembers the spring log drives on the Miramichi River and the bravado of the white water men, or log jam breakers, who faced danger daily at their work. Some description of camp life along the river drive is also included.

• PRÉFONTAINE, Marielle, “La femme et le travail ménager”, Égalité, vol. 3, no 10 (automne 1983), pp. 133-137

• PRIDE, Fleetwood, “Fleetwood Pride 1864-1960: The Autobiography of a Maine Woodsman [edited by Edward D. Ives and David C. Smith]”, Northeast Folklore, vol. 9 (1967), pp. 60

  Born near Fredericton Junction, New Brunswick, Fleetwood Pride went to work on the Glazier Boom on the Saint John River at the age of nine, soon after moving on to the Maine woods in 1880. Through the rest of his life, Pride continued to work in the lumber woods of Maine and New Brunswick and on the river drives of the Miramichi, Saint John, Penobscot, Kennebec, Androscoggin and Connecticut rivers. This is his story of his life as a woodsman, along with the transcripts of two interviews by Edward Ives which are also concerned with Pride's life in the woods. Pride's skill as a story-teller is apparent in his recollections of these days when he “worked shoulder to shoulder with men who were men” .

• PUDDINGTON, B.A., “The History of Medicine and Surgery in Grand Falls”, Collections of the New Brunswick Historical Society, no 17 (1961), pp. 52-53

  The growth of medical and surgical facilities is seen in terms of local economic activity. Construction of the National Transcontinental Railway up until 1912, and later in the 1920s the construction of Grand Falls Power, brought a large influx of workers to the area. This necessitated larger hospital facilities to deal with the numerous cases of emergency surgery caused by accidents at the construction sites. A permanent hospital was finally constructed during 1926-27. A list of doctors who worked in Grand Falls up to 1960 is given.

• ROBICHAUD, Yvette, “Le moulin à Côté”, La Revue d'histoire de la Société historique Nicolas-Denys, vol. 4, no 1 (janvier-avril 1976), pp. 29-35

• ROUSSEAU, John, “Black's Harbour”, Mysterious East, no 18 (1971), pp. 3-6

  Rousseau describes the social and economic conditions of workers employed by Connors Brothers in Black's Harbour, Beaver Harbour and Black Bay. Since these communities have been built on company land they are not legally incorporated and the company maintains a strict hold on the people who live for the most part in company housing. The company's stranglehold on the community is proudly portrayed in a publicity booklet which states: “Connors Bros. owns practically the entire town of Black's Harbour, with a hotel, department store, hospital, garage, theatre, community hall, library, restaurant, and skating rink...” The Acadian workers, who live in French Village outside the company's grasp, are the most independent but they too have been intimidated by the company when it placed, temporarily, a barrier across the company-owned road leading to French Village. Lacking a union, the workers have been paid low wages and have suffered the indignity of being laid off while students were hired in their place at lower rates. (The students were given permission to leave school by the company's representative on the school board). The company also hired hundreds of women on a piece-work part-time basis. Numerous attempts to unionize the workers have been thwarted by the company. In 1971, the Canadian Food and Allied Workers Union were attempting to organize the workers, holding their meetings outside of the towns. They were poorly attended because the company would delay the docking of trawlers until the time the meetings began, at which time it was necessary for a large number of workers to be available to unload, process and pack the catch. The psychology of fear and intimidation by the company made all but the Acadian women, whose husbands worked elsewhere, wary of signing up with the union.

• ROY, Richard et Francois VAILLANCOURT, “Les différences dans le niveau de revenu des francophones et anglophones au Nouveau-Brunswick, 1971”, Revue de l'Université de Moncton, vol. 12, no 1 (1979), pp. 83-97

• SAINT-CYR, Jean, “Le mouvement syndical en Acadie aboutira-t-il?”, Possibles, vol. 5, no 1 (1980), pp. 57-62

• SCLANDERS, Ian, “Candy Unlimited”, Maclean's, vol. 68 (December 1955), pp. 20-22 [32]

  The 450 employees at Ganong's confectionery in Saint Stephen are skilled workers. Candymaking is an art. A sugarman, boiling hard candy, cannot depend on his thermometer. He has to judge when the brew is cooked by how the bubbles break on the surface. Ganong's is one of the last big confectionery concerns to cling to hand-dipping chocolates - a skill which a woman (indeed they are all women) does not become proficient at for two years. An experienced dipper made, in 1955, $50 to $60 a week. An apprentice ruins almost $1000 worth of chocolate while she is learning. Ganong's, the only big candy maker still owned by a family in 1955, is trying to phase out hand-dipping in favour of mechanization which has replaced most hand operations in the factory. This growing firm, which hires an eighth of the Saint Stephen population, was created in the 19th century in response to the National Policy. The same family has held the reins ever since its beginning.

• SEAGER, Allen, “Minto, New Brunswick: A Study in Canadian Class Relations Between the Wars”, Labour/Le Travailleur, no 5 (Spring 1980), pp. 81-132

  The Grand Lake coalfield, in and around Minto, has the only major coal deposits between Nova Scotia and Western Canada. Railway companies and pulp and paper mills turned here for energy in the early 20th century. Skilled mineworkers, especially from Belgium and the British Isles, were attracted, creating an ethnically diverse work force. In the thin Minto seams most of the miners worked in places about 22 inches high, on their knees, sitting, flat on their backs, often in cold and water. Housing conditions were primitive. Despite the hazards of mining, there were only two doctors and no hospital. Again and again - in 1916, 1918, 1919, 1921, 1926 and 1934 - the Minto miners went on strike in efforts to equalize the balance of power in the industry; all these attempts at unionism failed. Local 7409 of the United Mine Workers of America was chartered in February 1937, but neither the companies nor the government would recognize the union. In October the ‘big strike’ was on: 1,000 workers at 11 mines went on strike. With support from the UMW and sympathizers in Fredericton, and by living off the land and poaching in the woods, they stayed out till the snow began to fly in December. The strike failed, but it highlighted the workers' problems very dramatically for the whole province. In 1938 the provincial government introduced its Labour and Industrial Relations Act, which marked one step towards recognition of the rights of organized labour. Also, in 1939 the local union president, Joseph Vandenbroeck, was offered the position as the province's first mines inspector. The author suggests that “although class conflict was central to the experience of the community”, the history of the Minto miners must also be explained in terms of working-class “assumptions about the benevolence of the state and the responsiveness of the political authorities towards popular grievances.” The article includes photographs, and tables presenting data on coal production, employment and the ethnic and religious composition of the area.

• SLADER, E.M., “From the Victorian Era to the Space Age”, Collections of the New Brunswick Historical Society, no 21 (1973)

  This is a book-length volume of recollections by Lt.-Col. E.M. Slader, former police chief of Saint John. This includes memories of his work as a young man at a dry goods store (pp. 25-6), a detailed account, including a photograph, of the July 1914 street railway strike and riot (pp. 45-8), and of the subsequent dispute in 1921 over the introduction of one-man street cars (pp. 137-8). He also discusses the unemployed workers' relief strike of the 1930s and “the bloodless battle of Union Square” (pp. 183-5).

• SPICER, Stanley, “Heber Richardson, The Master Builder of Deer Island, New Brunswick”, Atlantic Advocate, vol. 50 (May 1960), pp. 66 [69]

  A small family business continues in the Maritime tradition of building fine quality boats despite the changes of the modern era.

• STREET, Robert A., “Tactics and Strategies in the Maritime Telephone Strike”, Canadian Personnel and Industrial Relations Journal, vol. 23 (October 1976), pp. 12-18

  This is a case study of strikes at the New Brunswick Telephone Company and the Maritime Telephone and Telegraph Company (Nova Scotia) in 1974 and 1975 respectively. The workers at NB Tel were first organized in 1945 by the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) and divided into three separate bargaining units. For 29 years there had been no strikes or work stoppages, and in 1974 two of the bargaining units had accepted and signed new contracts. The third, representing 432 members of Local 1148 IBEW, Traffic Department, refused to endorse the settlement. They went on strike, receiving the support of organized labour across the province, as well as the support of 85 per cent of the other unionized workers at the company who promised not to cross the picket lines. Major construction sites across the province were brought to a halt. The initial pressure on the company was quickly relieved. Legal action against the union resulted in two injunctions, one of which set a new precedent in labour relations in New Brunswick. The courts ruled it was illegal for the workers in the two non-striking units of the IBEW at NBTel to refuse to cross picket lines even if they were in the same union since they had already signed working agreements. The final settlement is described as “a suitable compromise” between the company and the union.

• THIBODEAU, Martial, “Lamèque Fishermen: Their Own Boss”, New Brunswick (June 1976), pp. 23-24

  In 1937, acting on the results of a government survey on the fisheries, fishermen on five small islands, grouped in northeastern New Brunswick, made an informal agreement among themselves. They would exploit only one species of fish each, in order to better survive commercially. They merged in 1942 to form the Island Fishermen's Cooperative Association Ltd. - L'association cooperative des pêcheurs de l'lle Limitée. Modernization in the post-war period enabled them to successfully compete with other fish companies in the area. In 1961 the cooperative bought the properties of Robin Jones, the company that had maintained a commercial empire in the region since the 18th century. It had operated on the barter system with the fishermen, keeping them always in debt to the company. In 1976, with assets of $4.8 million, the cooperative employed 450 workers and serviced 225 fishermen.

• THOMPSON, Ethel, “When Clams Were King”, Atlantic Advocate, vol. 68 (October 1977), pp. 48-50

  Brown Brothers Company Limited Canners and Packers was a thriving processing plant in Little Lepreau, New Brunswick from 1890 to 1924. This is a brief history of the clam cannery which employed as many as 30 clam shuckers a day and provided a local market for many more clam diggers in the area.

• THOMPSON, James, “Despite Rural Revolution: Our Mainstay - Men on the Farm”, Atlantic Advocate, vol. 58 (November 1967), pp. 59-60 [62]

  Because of the technological changes some small farmers have been unable to adapt to the new ways. The productivity of farms has increased at a much higher rate than that of any other sector of the community thanks to that “two-edged sword of mechanization.” The need to mechanize also means having the necessary capital to invest. Because of these high costs farmers have been forced to abandon the land, especially after the Second World War. According to the author, it is not that the low-mechanized farm cannot support a family but it is the fact that our society has changed and now people want more. Television and other modern appliances are “necessary” . Small farmers should be preserved, not because they produce a lot - they don't - but because they represent a way of life that should not be allowed to die.

• TOMKINSON, Grace, “My Two Worlds”, Dalhousie Review, vol. 38 (Spring 1958), pp. 65-76

  Grace Tomkinson recalls her life in rural New Brunswick and reflects on the continuity of pioneer traditions and physical surroundings that lasted into the post-Second World War period. Growing up at the turn of the century, she recalls the day-to-day activities that changed according to the seasons; refilling straw ticks in the spring; attending school on Examination Day when trustees asked students a few questions to satisfy themselves that the teacher had done a good job; going to the County Fair which was an informal, neighbourly gathering; and anticipating the dangers and drama of winters with storms that marooned farms for days until the men in the district were able to “break” the roads. The houses remained the same as they were a century before. New furnishings could not be obtained by trading butter, eggs or wool. She includes a description of pioneer remedies, and some examples of obsolete speech, folklore and superstition. She concludes that people were never inclined to look nostalgically on any period as the good old days. “We were still living in those days”.

• WATSON, Andrew, “Campbellton-Dalhousie: Where Small is Beautiful and Nature is Next Door”, Atlantic Advocate, vol. 70 (May 1980), pp. 28-30

  A sketch of the industrial employers of the Campbellton-Dalhousie area which points out the importance of employment in the pulp and paper industry and in government services.

• WHALEN, J.M. et W.A. OPPEN, “Poor for Sale”, Atlantic Advocate, vol. 67 (September 1976), pp. 50-51

  In late 19th-century New Brunswick, destitute men, women and children might obtain temporary public assistance by living in an almshouse or work house. A poorhouse, however, was not constructed in Kings County until 1898. Before that time, orphaned children, unemployed men, widowed women and any other community residents who could not provide for themselves were sold at public auction to the lowest bidder in order to pay for their keep. This is the story of the crusade against pauper auctions in Sussex by an immigrant to the community, George Francis Train. Train - a citizen of the United States, millionaire, supporter of feminism, women's suffrage and communism - led the opposition to pauper auctions first as an employee of the Weekly Record and after being fired from that newspaper, in his own newsletter. Largely as a result of his persistent efforts, this practice was discontinued.

Book Chapters

• ABEL, Allen, “Old-time Songs and Bess”, in Allen J. ABEL, But I Loved it Plenty Well (Don Mills, 1983), pp. 198-200

  From handling a work-horse in the New Brunswick woods to riding Secretariat in the Kentucky Derby, a brief sketch of Ron Turcotte by the Globe and Mail sports-writer. The disabled former jockey recalls the hard work and good times in the logging camps where he worked as a boy before he took the bus to Toronto planning to become a carpenter: “When I got here, all the carpenters were on strike. So I went to the racetrack”.

• DAVIS, Bruce and Bruce BURRON, “Stevedore Steve”, in Singin' About Us (Toronto, 1976), pp. 101-114

  A short introduction to the music of Saint John's Stevedore Steve. He was born in Saint John, where his father worked on the docks. He grew up listening to country music, and had his first gig in a waterfront bar. His first album was “Stevedore Steve Sings Songs of the Stevedore” and his second was “Hard Working Men”. He has written hundreds of songs, several of which are reproduced here. The best known are “East Coast Way of Life”, “The Log Train”, “Minto Miners”, “I’m a Truckdriver”, “Song of the Stevedore” and “This Old Man”: This old Man / He worked the mines / Worked for half of his lifetime / The silicosis ruined his lungs / Now he can’t even walk but the mine still runs.

• DAVIS, Nanciellen, “Women's Work and Worth in an Acadian Maritime Village”, in Naomi BLACK and Ann Baker COTTRELL, Women and World Change: Equity Issues in Development (Beverly Hills, 1981), pp. 97-118

  A sociological study of the effects of “development and modernization” on the position of women in a small fishing community on Lameque Island. About 60 per cent of the work force are employed in fishing and fish-processing; the men are the fishermen and the women make up 90 per cent of the work force in the fish plants. Outside the fishing season, there is high unemployment, incomes in 1961 were only 37 per cent of the national average. The industrialization and mechanization of the fishery since the 1940s has transformed the local economy. The separation of “domestic” and “public” spheres has been reinforced by the modern fishery, particularly thorough the establishment of large fish plants and the growth of offshore fishing. Farming has virtually disappeared, and the household is no longer an income-producing economic unit depending on the labour of both men and women. In pay and in the kinds of work available to them, women have not benefited as much as men from recent development strategies. Domestic labour no longer brings women the same status it had in the past. The author finds that development has helped erode the status of women and suggests that government policy should aim to increase the number and quality of jobs for women: “development need not negatively affect the status of women; alternative strategies can be formulated that are good for women, and, not surprisingly, good for the developing region”.

• MCGUINTY, Janet, “Lumbering in Fundy National Park”, in Ronald LABELLE, Papers from the 2nd Atlantic Oral History Conference (Moncton, 1981), pp. 67-70

  A short report on oral history research undertaken by a Parks Canada researcher in Albert County. One woodsman recalled: “It was a hard life, but a good life. The lumber camps were isolated, the work was strenuous, but it had its rewards. The men worked outdoors in all kinds of weather and they soon became tough and physically fit. They prided themselves on their skill and speed in felling trees. There was a rough and tumble camaraderie among them, born of hard work and close company” . In some small, family-run camps, women shared in the work, driving horses and loading the sleds. Some of the woodsmen's vocabulary is described: a tree might be “boxy”, “glassy” or “withy”. Work customs are also reported: it was bad luck, for instance, to leave your axe embedded in a tree stump overnight. Songs and stories, stepdancing and clogdancing, and games of skill and daring were part of the social life of the camp in the evening. The cook was the most important member of the crew, and the diet included salted pork, meat and fish, beans, potatoes, breads and strong tea. Wages were low. Prior to 1915 the men were paid once a year at the end of the season in July and would often end up owing money to the company store.

• TRUEMAN, Stuart, “The Girls Didn't Wait for Women's Lib”, in Stuart TRUEMAN, The Fascinating World of New Brunswick (Toronto, 1973), pp. 173-178

  A short account of the Madawaska Weavers “an epic of the Canadian handicraft industry” . The Weavers were established by two sisters, Fernande and Rolande Gervais, of St. Leonard. Beginning in their father's clothing store in 1939, they produced traditional woven goods, such as woollen ties, scarves, skirts and sweaters, and eventually reached a national and international market. Besides employing the traditional technology and skills of the pre-industrial era, the weavers also fell back on the putting-out system associated with the early textile trade. Some of the 55 women employees work in the shop in St. Leonard, but looms are also placed in homes throughout the surrounding countryside, thus enabling mothers to keep up their domestic chores while also participating in “the largest of Atlantic Provinces home-craft enterprises” .