Drumheller Coal Strike (1919)
Sat May 24, 1919
Image: Drumheller strikers, 1919 [libcom.org]
On this day in 1919, under the banner of the One Big Union (OBU), approximately 6,500 miners in Alberta, Canada walked off the job during a dispute over wages, the cost of living allowance, and working conditions. The strike took place in the context of federal repression of labor movements; a few years earlier, Canada had banned the similar Industrial Workers of the World (IWW).
Accordingly, the striking workers faced violent repression from both the government and the coal operators. After the walk-out continued more than a month, coal operators received permission from the Northwest Mounted Police to hire "special constables" - in practice unemployed World War I veterans who were paid $10 a day, plied with free liquor, and armed with brass knuckles and crowbars - to break up the strike.
Striking workers were attacked in their homes, and workers who refused to act as scabs were driven 65-km out of town, beaten, and left there. Strikers responded by forming self-defense militias that deterred constables form attacking them. The labor action was finally broken after the federal government declared the OBU illegal and two strike leaders were beaten, tied to telephone poles, and tarred and feathered in August of that year.
Despite the immediate defeat, the mere threat of militant industrial action allowed coal miners in Alberta to achieve massive gains: the miners' day rate rose from $5.70 to $7.50 between 1919 and 1920 and, even after the strike had collapsed, and the rate remained well above inflation for a few years. These gains were eroded by 1924-25, when salaries were reduced back to the pre-strike levels.
- Date: 1919-05-24
- Learn More: libcom.org, briarpatchmagazine.com.
- Tags: #Labor, #IWW.
- Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org