Nova Scotia Steel and Coal Company Workers, circa 1895.
The Nova Scotia Steel and Coal Company (NSSC) evolved from a small foundry established in Pictou County in the 1870s. A large infusion of capital from Halifax entrepreneurs during the 1880s expanded capacity until it could produce, by 1900, half of Canada's total steel output. Modern techniques for primary and finished steel production quickly allowed it to capture regional and national markets. Almost half of the NSSC workers posed here in the machine shop at the Trenton plant were recent immigrants from the United States or Britain. The remainder, mostly younger men, were from Nova Scotia. Managers almost always came from outside the region.
Blast furnaces and rolling mills featuring round-the-clock, closely coordinated production required a work force disciplined to technologies that bypassed traditional skills. Various levels of management impeded craft solidarity in large mills where old-fashioned crafts unions were overwhelmed by the power of these larger corporations. The new reality required "industrial unions" to bridge the gaps between various trades and bargain for all workers. Such unions were almost impossible to organize when the huge work force of thousands of men was so heterogeneous.
Courtesy: Beaton Institute, University College of Cape Breton
