Operations

How the System Worked

Both the A.N.D. Co. and the I.P.P. Co. used contractors to run their logging camps. This meant the companies did not deal with their woods workers directly. The contractors hired the loggers and set up the logging camps. The contractors made sure the cut wood was delivered to the mill. It was also the contractors' job to look after the men.

Each season the companies gave the contractors a set sum of money to run the camps. The contractors had to pay all the costs of the logging operations with this money. It is important to note that the contractors' own wages also came out of this money. The contractors also had to buy all of their supplies from the company stores. Food, saw blades, medicine--everything came from the companies at company-set prices. It is easy to see that the contractors would want to run the logging operations as cheaply as possible if they wanted to make a profit. This system very often led to poor working conditions for the loggers.

The Woods Workers

Newfoundlanders who worked in the woods did many different jobs. The "Cutters" cut the wood and piled it into "cords." Experienced cutters with a good stand of timber could cut about 1.25 cords in a 10 hour day. After the pulpwood was cut and piled near the road by the cutter, "Teamsters" hauled the wood by horse drawn sled to the bank of a stream or pond. The "Loaders" helped the teamster pile the wood on the sled. In the spring the "Drivers" directed the wood down the river or stream and cleared any "log jams"—places where the stream became blocked. There were also cooks who prepared food for the men. "Cookees" helped the cooks.

Sometimes the cutters had to walk an hour or more to get to the area they had been given to cut. This area was called a "chance." The loggers called it this because they never knew how much good wood would be on it. There was a chance that they would make money. There was an equal chance that they would make little or nothing.

All of these jobs were long and hard. The work day began before the sun rose and only ended when the sun went down. In the 1930s there were no chain saws or ATVs. Cooks had no refrigerators. Cutters used handsaws or bucksaws. Teamsters used one or two horses and sleds to get the wood over snow and ice to the water. The work was backbreaking. In the summer the men had to put up with heat and flies. In the winter there was deep snow and biting cold. The drivers often spent all of their work day soaking wet. Their work was also dangerous. There is a Newfoundland folk song about the work of a driver. The song is called "The River Driver's Lament." Here are two stanzas from the song: