Union Zindabad! — South Asian Canadian Labour History in British Columbia

protection. If they joined
the union, they could be
blacklisted, he told the large
crowd—yet join the union
they did. 12
The New Westminster
Labour Council passed
a motion that “the vermin-infested
and unsanitary
bunkhouses located in and
on the property owned by
Canadian Western Lumber
Company and rented and
occupied by Orientals and
Hindus be abolished.” 13
After 9 weeks on strike,
the union ultimately
accepted an offer by the
company—which did not address all of the
union’s demands. The Secretary of the Lumber
Workers Union summed up these workers achievements
in a letter to the Vancouver Sun. “Instead of
the Oriental scabbing on the White man, which
has always been the bogey man that the lumber
bosses have held over the head of the lumber
workers, they have seen Japanese, Chinese and
Hindus stand solid with Frenchmen, Swedes and
practically every nationality under the sun.” 14
Sikh Millworker at Fraser Mills, n.d.
Coquitlam Heritage Society, City of Coquitlam Archives, MH.2011.3.21.
After the strike, organizers such as Harold
Pritchett were blacklisted from employment and
struggled to find work through the rest of the
Great Depression. Union recognition was a “line
in the sand” which industrial employers would not
concede until the 1940s, when the federal government
finally passed legislation requiring employers
to recognize and bargain with unions and unions
were required to use grievance procedures instead
of striking.
12 Rod Mickleburgh, host, “The 1931 Fraser Mills Strike” (podcast episode). On the Line: Stories of BC Workers, BC Labour
Heritage Centre: October 5, 2020.
13 Mickleburgh, “The 1931 Fraser Mills Strike” (podcast episode).
14 M. Palmgren, “Workers’ Demands”, letter to editor, The Vancouver Sun, November 26, 1931, 6.
42 | UNION ZINDABAD! South Asian Canadian Labour History in British Columbia