sydney labour monument
The importance of workers in general, and not only those involved with the steel industry, to the historical memory of Sydney is reinforced by a monument in the city’s downtown devoted to local workers. In August 1985, the City of Sydney celebrated a “Salute to Labor Week.” This celebratory week was organized to coincide with the city’s bicentennial and culminated with the dedication of a labour landmark and small memorial park on Bentinck Street in downtown Sydney. The bi-centennial celebrations are interesting because, although these were not specifically labour celebrations, the importance of the industrial past was nonetheless included and highlighted.
The monument, a grey granite block, contains an inscription commemorating the city’s tradition of labour and an image of two working people. The memorial reads:
Sydney Memorial Labour Park. Erected in recognition of the working men and women of Sydney who played such a vital role in the founding and growth of our city. This park was developed by the Sydney Bicentennial Labour Committee and Dedicated August 17th, 1985.
At the dedication, Gerard Docquier, the National Director of the United Steelworkers of America, called the park “a memorial to the men and women who have built not only a city but a region that has established the industrial structure of Canada as we know it today.” [1]
This labour landmark commemorates the value of unionism and workers’ organizations in Sydney throughout the 20th century. The decision to erect this monument during the city’s bicentennial also has symbolic value; it cements the stories and experiences of workers and their families into the community identity of the City of Sydney. This coincided with the emergence, during the 1980s, of a number of distinct narratives regarding the industrial past of the steel plant in Sydney. Many of the environmental and public health problems that resulted from a century of steelmaking were becoming known, which in some ways threatened the established collective narrative of the steel plant as the necessary economic backbone for the community and its citizens. This labour monument represented a re-affirmation of the importance of industry, and steelmaking, for the community. In recognizing the contributions of “the working men and women” of Sydney, this monument was able to incorporate many different public memories, or narratives of the industrial past, into the community’s collective memory. Also, this is one of the few labour landmarks in industrial Cape Breton that explicitly refers to the experiences of women as workers. For these reasons, the memorial remains valuable today despite the loss of the steel industry in Sydney and the decline of the coal industry throughout industrial Cape Breton. In 2008, the monument was moved from its original location on Bentinck Street to the newly renovated Wentworth Park in another area of the city’s downtown.
Footnotes
[1] Cape Breton Post, 19 August 1985; included at the ceremony were a number of people who had been active in the growth of local trade unions, including the veteran local labour leader George MacEachern.
The monument, a grey granite block, contains an inscription commemorating the city’s tradition of labour and an image of two working people. The memorial reads:
Sydney Memorial Labour Park. Erected in recognition of the working men and women of Sydney who played such a vital role in the founding and growth of our city. This park was developed by the Sydney Bicentennial Labour Committee and Dedicated August 17th, 1985.
At the dedication, Gerard Docquier, the National Director of the United Steelworkers of America, called the park “a memorial to the men and women who have built not only a city but a region that has established the industrial structure of Canada as we know it today.” [1]
This labour landmark commemorates the value of unionism and workers’ organizations in Sydney throughout the 20th century. The decision to erect this monument during the city’s bicentennial also has symbolic value; it cements the stories and experiences of workers and their families into the community identity of the City of Sydney. This coincided with the emergence, during the 1980s, of a number of distinct narratives regarding the industrial past of the steel plant in Sydney. Many of the environmental and public health problems that resulted from a century of steelmaking were becoming known, which in some ways threatened the established collective narrative of the steel plant as the necessary economic backbone for the community and its citizens. This labour monument represented a re-affirmation of the importance of industry, and steelmaking, for the community. In recognizing the contributions of “the working men and women” of Sydney, this monument was able to incorporate many different public memories, or narratives of the industrial past, into the community’s collective memory. Also, this is one of the few labour landmarks in industrial Cape Breton that explicitly refers to the experiences of women as workers. For these reasons, the memorial remains valuable today despite the loss of the steel industry in Sydney and the decline of the coal industry throughout industrial Cape Breton. In 2008, the monument was moved from its original location on Bentinck Street to the newly renovated Wentworth Park in another area of the city’s downtown.
Footnotes
[1] Cape Breton Post, 19 August 1985; included at the ceremony were a number of people who had been active in the growth of local trade unions, including the veteran local labour leader George MacEachern.