Coming off the Day Shift at Robb's, Amherst, Nova Scotia.
Robb Enterprises is a prime example of successful adaptation to the opportunities offered by railroad and tariff protection. Like Nova Scotia Steel, it started out as a small blacksmith shop, evolved into an iron foundry and then into this diversified factory built in 1904. A wide range of equipment was fabricated at this plant employing several hundred men and boys of varying skill levels.
With Robb's plant at its centre, Amherst joined Moncton as one of the most diversified industrial towns of the region. "Busy Amherst," as it liked to be called, had a very active trades council and a sophisticated labour movement. When its unions supported a general strike for several weeks in the spring of 1919 to protest widespread wage cuts and lay offs, it marked a moment of solidarity that was difficult to match. Unfortunately, the labour leadership developed through that experience was largely lost in the ensuing collapse of Amherst's industrial core.
