Coleman then and now
This post has been retired and a new version can be found here: Coleman Miners’ Hospital 100 Years Apart.
They’re saying…
“OTBPwC&C is a brilliant concept. Thank you for enriching our lives with so many engaging and entertaining posts. Five stars all the way.” Erin Bay.
Random awesomeness…
The Sidewalks of 10th Ave S Cranbrook.
Nelson and Fort Sheppard in Under a Minute.
Riding the Rails in SW Saskatchewan – Part One and Riding the Rails in SW Saskatchewan – Part Two.
If you wish more information on what’s seen here, don’t hesitate to: contact us!
Date of Adventure: 2012.
Location(s): Coleman, Alberta.
Okay we had over thirty comments about the UMWA. Most of them were critical of that organization, but a few weren’t. In any case, all of them either were so grossly off topic or had so much foul language in them that I refuse to post them here.
Woah……There have been (as of 5pm mst) fifteen comments on this post, which I will keep unpublished for now. There are a lot of nasty words flying around and for those I choose to publish I’ll have to heavily edit them and remove the expletives. This will take some time. Plus I’ll delete those which stray off topic, which is a lot of them. FYI – most are anti UMW but some are pro. Discussing the good and bad of the union is actually taking us a little off course here.
While the building was a union hall, the main subject is the building itself and not the union. Although admittedly I am guilty of discussing the union too.
Chris “BIGDoer”
I am from West Virginia. In other words the holy land of coal mining and coal mining unions. In the early 70s I used to work in middle management at the United Mine Workers and I can confirm they treated their Canadian locals as unwanted step-children. They milked those chapters good, but as it’s been said, they did nothing in return. I always fumed when I saw the big wigs who would occasionally and reluctantly visit the Canadian locals. They would be driving new Cadillacs, all nice and shiny, while the members were nursing old rusty junkers and eating bologna sandwiches. Upper management would rub it in their faces good.
I was glad to get out of that organization. It was like being on the Sapranos. Dirty deals, open corruption, extortion, heavy-handedness, violence and perhaps even murder.
The word “useless” defined in the dictionary:
use·less [yoos-lis]
adjective
1. of no use; not serving the purpose or any purpose; unavailing or futile: It is useless to reason with him.
2. without useful qualities; of no practical good: a useless person; a useless gadget.
3. the United Mine Workers of America.
Origin: 1585–95; use + -less
Related forms
use·less·ly, adverb
use·less·ness, noun
Wow, I guess I opened up a can of worms here!
To say the UMWoA was/is corrupt is a huge massive gross understatement. Myself and my “brothers” as they called us feed the union’s coffers for years and not once did they stand up to our employers when there was an issue. Not once. It filled us with the warm and fuzzies knowing our hard earned cash was being used to support the US operation, those self serving *******!. Rarely did upper management show up in our little backwater, but when they did they openly admitted they could care less about the Canadian chapters. The said we were gravy, pure profit, plain and simple. Good riddance to them!
I was a member of the Sparwood branch.
You know I’ve heard this time and time again. One trait I have noticed when talking to UMW members, they often fly into a near rage when discussing their “union” and the very subject could cause even a priest to spew out a whole slew of expletives and four letter words. In fact I’ve heard so many swears when speaking to others of the organization that it would make even a trucker blush (which I was once – so I’ve heard it all)!