Chapter 10
The Coopers' Strike

...We made a living when there wasn't too many of us. But merchants don't care about our lives. The want cheap barrels. Outport men make barrels cheaper. Wood for their hoops and staves grows by their doors. Then handy men in town make slack barrels. They aren't trained like union men. We often had to take their work apart and redo it...

He thought how the union had lost its bite. When it started in 1892 it did some good. It raised pay from $1.30 to $1.50 a day. But by 1904 things had changed. It didn't matter what the wage was if there was no work. In his breast pocket he kept a bit of paper.

It was a letter in the Evening Telegram. It was signed A COOPER'S SON. Nobody knew who had written it. Each cooper thought it might have been his own son. William was no different. His son John worked in Sydney mines. Driven out of Newfoundland altogether. Maybe John had written the letter. William knew he wasn't the only cooper who had cut it out and saved it. This is what it said:

Mr. Editor,

The working man is not a slave. All he wants is fair play. Not to be treated like a machine you just wind up.

We are three hundred working men. We aren't afraid of work. We just wanted the right to feed and clothe ourselves and our families.

No matter how hard we worked, we couldn't earn enough to feed and clothe ourselves. Now we don't even have work.

We can not school our children or give them a chance not to be slaves like us. That is what we coopers face today. Modern slavery.

What are we looking for? Work. Not more pay. Just employment.

If you don't think I'm right, listen to this. Today one of the big cooperages made an offer to a merchant who exports a lot of fish. He offered a steady supply of good union barrels at no rise in price. The fish merchant said no. What more proof do you need that union men are acting fair?

Signed, A COOPER'S SON.