Joseph Oram, 1868-1911
The steelworkers’ monument lists 11 names for the year of 1911. That year remains one of the worst in the plant’s history for the number of workplace deaths. [1] It was on the evening of 24 April 1911 that 43-year-old Joseph Oram earned his place among the other names on the monument. He had just finished his shift at the steel plant, around 6 o’clock in the evening, and was making his way towards the gates. The plant was always noisy, and Oram’s mind was perhaps on his wife and two children back in Sydney Mines. As he decided to cross the tracks behind the blooming mill, he did not hear the engine rumbling towards him. [2] It knocked him onto the tracks, before passing over his right arm and right leg. Both were severed from his body, sending him immediately into shock. The local doctor approved Oram’s removal to Brooklands Hospital in Sydney after a cursory examination. He passed away two hours later, missing an arm and a leg and suffering from the effects of blood loss and shock. [3]
The Sydney steel plant in the early 1910s, like plants across Canada, suffered from a high turnover rate among workers. This became much more pronounced with the declaration of war in 1914; the increased availability of work, lack of immigrants from Eastern Europe, and lost manpower due to enlistment resulted in labour shortages at Disco and in other industries. The situation allowed labour organizers the opportunity to build support. By the middle of the war, workers and labour groups had become more confident, and unionism could be discussed more freely. [4] In the face of this renewed strength of labour, and also as a result of pressure applied by employers, a number of provincial governments implemented workmen’s compensation laws in the 1910s.
The year 1917 witnessed the growth of trade unionism at the Sydney steel plant, when a number of workers associated themselves with the Amalgamated Association of Iron, Steel, and Tin Workers (AAISTW). This was originally a craft union limited to skilled workers, but by the end of the decade the AAISTW was developing a wider appeal. [6] All of these factors, and especially the increased popularity and strength of the labour movement in industrial Cape Breton following the successes of the coal miners in achieving recognition of the UMWA, influenced workers and their families at the Sydney steel plant and set the stage for class struggle there during the 1920s. In Sydney, these national sentiments erupted in 1923, with the explosive struggle between steelworkers and Disco over union recognition.
Footnotes
[1] Two other years, 1902 and 1919, also list 11 deaths. Three years, 1913, 1916, and 1917, list more than 11 deaths.
[2] The blooming mill was where steel ingots were mechanically manipulated into smaller sets of rolls that could then be turned into rails or billets. This was one of the most mechanized and technologically advanced areas in a steel plant during the early 20th century. Heron, Working in Steel, 47.
[3] Sydney Daily Post, 25 April 1911; Historical Vital Statistics, “Deaths – Joseph Oram,” Book 3, no. 2825, 1911.
[4] Craig Heron and Myer Siemiatycki, “The Great War, the State, and Working-Class Canada,” The Workers’ Revolt in Canada, 1917-1925, ed. Craig Heron (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1998), 19.
[5] Alvin Finkel, Social Practice and Policy in Canada: A History (Waterloo: Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 2006), 82.
[6] Heron, Working in Steel, 131.
The Sydney steel plant in the early 1910s, like plants across Canada, suffered from a high turnover rate among workers. This became much more pronounced with the declaration of war in 1914; the increased availability of work, lack of immigrants from Eastern Europe, and lost manpower due to enlistment resulted in labour shortages at Disco and in other industries. The situation allowed labour organizers the opportunity to build support. By the middle of the war, workers and labour groups had become more confident, and unionism could be discussed more freely. [4] In the face of this renewed strength of labour, and also as a result of pressure applied by employers, a number of provincial governments implemented workmen’s compensation laws in the 1910s.
The year 1917 witnessed the growth of trade unionism at the Sydney steel plant, when a number of workers associated themselves with the Amalgamated Association of Iron, Steel, and Tin Workers (AAISTW). This was originally a craft union limited to skilled workers, but by the end of the decade the AAISTW was developing a wider appeal. [6] All of these factors, and especially the increased popularity and strength of the labour movement in industrial Cape Breton following the successes of the coal miners in achieving recognition of the UMWA, influenced workers and their families at the Sydney steel plant and set the stage for class struggle there during the 1920s. In Sydney, these national sentiments erupted in 1923, with the explosive struggle between steelworkers and Disco over union recognition.
Footnotes
[1] Two other years, 1902 and 1919, also list 11 deaths. Three years, 1913, 1916, and 1917, list more than 11 deaths.
[2] The blooming mill was where steel ingots were mechanically manipulated into smaller sets of rolls that could then be turned into rails or billets. This was one of the most mechanized and technologically advanced areas in a steel plant during the early 20th century. Heron, Working in Steel, 47.
[3] Sydney Daily Post, 25 April 1911; Historical Vital Statistics, “Deaths – Joseph Oram,” Book 3, no. 2825, 1911.
[4] Craig Heron and Myer Siemiatycki, “The Great War, the State, and Working-Class Canada,” The Workers’ Revolt in Canada, 1917-1925, ed. Craig Heron (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1998), 19.
[5] Alvin Finkel, Social Practice and Policy in Canada: A History (Waterloo: Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 2006), 82.
[6] Heron, Working in Steel, 131.