Introduction

The Onset

The Chinese Strikebreakers

Imported Strikebreakers

Traitors

The Fallout

"Traitors"

Not all the Vancouver Island miners decided to join the UMWA and its strike. Some felt they could not afford to leave work. Others who had joined the protest earlier gave up, seeing the cause of union recognition as futile. In each case, strikers saw these persons as traitors.

Violence

Before August 1913, the UMWA had persuaded strikers to limit their protests to peaceful demonstrations, but tensions between strikers and the BC Provincial Police were growing. The special police, it seemed, served more to irritate the protestors than to protect the strikebreakers. A confrontation between a mounted policeman and an unarmed protestor had sparked a small riot in Cumberland in July, but the opposing groups backed off afterward.¹⁷

"Nanaimo. Okalla Troop of the BC Mounted Police, 1913" BCARS A-03138

The last straw came on August 11, when the Western Fuel Company reopened its No. 1 mine in Nanaimo using strikers it had persuaded to return to work. Protestors threw stones at the new strikebreakers and fireboss as they returned from work, and jeered at the special police and coal company officials. Unresolved, the conflict spread to South Wellington, Ladysmith and Extension.¹⁸

In the ensuing riots, hundreds of strikebreakers’ and company officials’ homes were looted and several  burned. Strikers particularly targeted Chinese workers’ homes, but they also raided those belonging to white strikebreakers and managers. Mine equipment and buildings were also vandalized and destroyed.¹⁹

"Extension. Burned coal cars and pit-head building during the strike, 1913"
BCARS D-03313

"Extension. Chinese miner's home looted during the strike, 1913" BCARS D-03308

"Extension. Mine Manager Cunningham's burned home during the strike, 1913" BCARS D-03316

The angry mobs also went after the strikebreakers themselves. Some of the strikebreakers took refuge in the woods or in other people’s homes. Others fought the strikers with whatever weapons they could find. Still others promised not to return to work if the strikers would let them go.²⁰

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