20th century Canada conflict -Wooshin Cho-

  1. 1913 Vancouver Island War
  2. Vancouver Island Coal Strike began on 16 Sept 1912 when miners at Cumberland made a holiday to protest the firing of Oscar Mottishaw. Canadian Collieries, recent buyer of the Dunsmuir Mines, locked them out and hired Chinese and recruits from Britain and the US as strikebreakers.
  3. China, U.S.A, England
  4. By spring 1913, 3500 miners from Nanaimo, Extension, S Wellington and Ladysmith were off work, the United Mine Workers of America providing leadership and strike pay.
  5. Gas explosions had killed hundreds of people.
  6. After the war, while the rest of N America witnessed a huge expansion in the activity of organized labor, there was none  on Vancouver whatsoever I. Union recognition did not come until 1938, 6 weeks after the largest mine on the Island had shut down forever.
  7. Withdrawal of strike pay in the summer of 1914 and the beginning of WWI ended the confrontation. By then the mines were running at almost pre-strike capacity using newly hired labor.