Many stampeders who came to the Klondike too late to stake their own claims went to work for mine owners. It wasn't long before several labour disputes erupted at mines along the creeks.
In November 1899, 100 men working for Messrs. Chute and Wills dropped their shovels and quit. One of the strikers, O.A. Staner, told the Klondike Nugget that the men's contract specified that no wages would be paid until clean-up in the spring and that the owner could fire workers at any time without cause.
In 1901, some Grand Forks miners organized the Yukon Federation of Labor.
