Ethnicity and Class Conflict at Maillardville/Fraser Mills: The Strike of 1931

During the Depression Canadian workers faced a series of assaults on their wages and working conditions. Threatened by shrinking markets, Canadian employers moved to reduce labour costs. When the Canadian Western Lumber Company at Fraser Mills, B.C., attempted to follow the pattern being set throughout the Canadian economy, the millworkers went out on strike. Lasting for two and half months, the labour protest by the millworkers and their families ended in success. The success of the 1931 strike stands in sharp contrat to the generally abysmal performance of organized labour during the thirties. The strength of this particular protest was derived from two totally unrelated factors. The strike was led by the militant Lumber Workers' Industrial Union, an affiliate of the Workers' Unity League. During the thirtiees the Workers' Unity League was one of the most dynamic labour organizations in Canada. The real strength of the protest, however, lay in features to the community. The worker community of Maillardville/Fraser Mills was remarkably stable and socially cohesive. This was largely due to the existence of a persistant, tightly organized community of French-Canadian workers. The workforce at Fraser Mills had a well-defined associational network which not only faciliated organization prior to the strike but also ensured its success once the strike was underway. This study of the Fraser Mills strike of 1931 analyzes the relationship between labour protest and the community from which it emerged.

Publisher: Simon Fraser University