Labour Heroes
N 49° 08.789 W 102° 48.726
13U E 659553 N 5446044
Very interesting history on labour for the Bienfait area coal mines.
Waymark Code: WMTP2C
Location: Saskatchewan, Canada
Date Posted: 12/20/2016
Views: 2
As the board reads:
Labour Heroes
This plaque marks the final resting spot of three brave trade union activists who lost their lives during the Estevan Coal Strike of 1931.
On September 7 of that year all of the more 600 coal miners employed at the twenty-two underground mines in the Souris coal fields went out on strike.
The miners, members of the Mine Workers Union of Canada, were protesting unsafe working conditions, starvation wages, squalid housing and the monopoly of company stores
While taking part in a strikers' parade through the streets of Estevan on September 29, 1931, Julian Gryshko, Peter Markunas and Nick Nargan were shot and killed.
A week later the mine owners agreed to settle the dispute and make improvments in working conditions and rates of pay.
On the 65 anniversary of the Estevan Coal Strike, the delegates at the Saskatchewan Federal of Labour convention unanimously voted to place this marker as a tribute to the fighting spirit of the 1931 strikers, and the courage of the three miners who gave their lives to better the lot of other workers.
This plaque was unveiled May 10, 1997 by Amelia Budris, widow of Peter Markunas.
Present at the ceremony were veterans of the 1931 strike, including miners who were blacklisted for ten years following the Estevan Coal Strike.
Marker type: Board on post
Marker placement date: Not listed
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