Conclusion

It was a long time before conditions and wages improved in the logging woods. In the 1930s the loggers found it difficult to organize because they were spread out all over the province. When they had strikes they usually failed. Sometimes workers in one part of the island would not even know that their fellow workers had gone on strike somewhere else. Commission of Government also made it difficult to have much public debate about logging issues. People had no elected politicians to turn to. And St. John's was very far away from the logging woods.¹⁵

In 1959, there was the biggest and longest logging strike of them all. The International Woodworkers of America (IWA) came to Newfoundland to organize the loggers. The premier at the time, Joey Smallwood, did not want them in Newfoundland. The strike was very emotional and often violent. A policeman was killed. In the end, the loggers and the IWA lost.

In the 1960s more logging unions were formed. Little by little conditions improved. Now loggers in Newfoundland are treated much better. Most of them can even afford a "few simple luxuries." And, in the end, that isn't too much to ask.