Thesis (Ph.D.)--Memorial University of Newfoundland, 2002. / Restricted until May 2003. Bibliography: leaves [458]-478.

Thesis (M.A.)--Slippery Rock University, 2001. / Title from title screen (viewed April 16, 2002). Last updated Apr. 2002.

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The Dominion government appointed a Royal Commission in April 1903 to investigate the causes of strikes that began in February between the Canadian Pacific Railway Company and the United Brotherhood of Railway Employees at Vancouver and the Wellington Colliery Company and the Western Federation of Miners at Extension and Cumberland on Vancouver Island. The Boyal Commissioners were instructed to report whether in their opinion these and other American unions should have their activities in Canada curtailed. After a month of hearings the Commissioners reported that the United Brotherhood and the Western Federation were undesirable unions for Canadian workingmen to join. The Commissioners concluded that both unions had conspired to bring about strikes in the Wellington Colliery mines. The Nanaimo Miners' Union, Local 177 of the Western Federation, was accused by the Commissioners of assisting in the conspiracy to tie up the coal mines in the adjacent towns. As the Canadian Pacific Railway Company depended in part on the Wellington mines for steam coal for its trains at Vancouver, it was apparent that the unions concerned tried to break the strike for recognition between the railway company and the union in favour of the union. The Commissioners also reported that these American unions were spreading revolutionary socialism in British Columbia. The main result of this political action, concluded the Commissioners, was to instil in workingmen a belief in the inevitability of class conflict between themselves and their employers. The transportation and mining industries of the province were in danger of having their businesses seriously disrupted if these foreign unions remained in Canada. The Commissioners stated that a few socialists in Vancouver, Nanaimo, Extension and Cumberland were responsible for encouraging these radical unions to organize the workers. The question as to whether the Western Federation actually caused the strikes on the island has never been seriously explored. Historians have been divided on the question and on their assessment of the validity of the Commissioners' Report. The official hearings disclosed that James Dunsmuir, the president and owner of Wellington Collieries, locked out his miners once they had formed unions. The Commissioners argued that the conspiracy plan depended on the predictable reaction of Dunsmuir to the formation of unions in his mines. In the past he had never permitted unions to exist for long in his mines before he dismissed the union leaders. It has never been satisfactorily demonstrated whether the miners joined the Western Federation for reasons of their own and then struck for union recognition or whether they were, as the Commissioners alleged, tricked into the Federation only to find themselves locked out. The Commissioners admitted in the Report that Wellington Collieries and other large employers of labour bore some responsibility for the fact that working men organized unions in order to protect themselves from the arbitrary and unjust treatment they often received from managers and foremen. Although the Commissioners stated that shorter hours and higher wages would make workingmen more content, they did not report that grievances over working conditions and wages were the real reasons why the miners joined the Western Federation. Yet the official hearings of 1903 contained ample evidence that the strikes at Extension and Cumberland occurred for reasons that lay primarily within and not outside the coalfield. The Commissioners misinterpreted the reasons why the miners joined the Western Federation because their attention was directed solely to the issue of the advance of American unions into Canada. An analysis of the official evidence of the Commission reveals that the miners formed unions at Wellington Collieries in 1903 in order to resolve problems that had become traditional sources of dispute on the coalfield. The traditional problems that embittered relations between miners and companies were geological, social and economic in character. The faulted condition of the coal seams made mining both difficult and dangerous. Since 1871 Wellington miners had organized unions to fight for improvements in safety and working conditions underground. However, the increased employment of illiterate and inexperienced Oriental workers increased the dangers of mining to all concerned. Miners demanded the exclusion of Oriental workers from the mines for another important reason than the question of safety. Oriental workers competed for the jobs of mine labourers and were often used in place of white miners during strikes. During strikes in 1877, in 1883 and in 1903 Chinese workers kept the mines running while white miners were locked out. In contrast to the Wellington mines, unions emerged at the Nanaimo mines and working conditions steadily improved after 1883. A miners' union grievance committee was established in the mines by 1883. An eight hour day, oriental exclusion and union recognition were in effect in the Nanaimo mines by 1891. Attempts by union leaders from Nanaimo in the years 1890 to 1901 failed in their purpose of organizing the Dunsmuir mines. When the Nanaimo miners joined the Western Federation of Miners in 1902 in order to improve their weak bargaining power, miners in the adjacent Dunsmuir mines saw their opportunity to join the Federation. With the financial and moral support of a large union behind them the Dunsmuir miners demanded union recognition as the first step in their plan to negotiate improvements in wages and working conditions. / Arts, Faculty of / History, Department of / Graduate

Bibliography: pages 368-396. / This thesis examines how Lesotho came to depend on the export of its men to South African mines; what the experiences of these men were; and how all this impacted on Basotho society during the years between c.1890 and 1940. The thesis is divided into three parts. Part I focuses on the context and dynamics of labour migration and recruitment in Lesotho during the late 1880s to the late 1930s. This Part lays the basis for subsequent sections by showing which sections of Basotho opted for labour migrancy; and why it was men and not women who, initially at least, became migrants. In discussing the decline of the Basotho economy in the 1920s and 1930s, this section also shows how this was characterised not only by dependence on migrants' earnings, but also by the orientation to and concentration of Basotho labour on the Witwatersrand gold mines. Part II discusses various themes relating to life and conditions on the mines and in the compounds during the period up to c.1940. While specific note is taken of the African miners' death and accident rate, most attention is devoted to the various ways which Basotho miners developed for dealing with the sickness, death and destitution befalling their compatriots in the compounds and on the mines. Conversion to Christianity was an important part of some miners experience, as church forums and the bible could be used for recreational purposes, while literacy classes imparted many with essential skills which could lead to promotion on the mine. But competition for promotion and favours, as well as conflicting survival strategies, often resulted in violent conflict among African miners. Although some scholars have mistakenly attributed such conflict to ethnic factors alone, this thesis argues for an approach which is simultaneously historically and materially grounded. Part III, by using the case of infectious and occupational diseases, and prostitution and commercial beer-brewing, traces and analyses the impact of the migrant labour system on Lesotho. The thesis shows how the spread to Lesotho of such diseases as syphilis and tuberculosis was directly linked to contact with South African towns and mining centres through wage labour. Beer canteens and brothels emerged and flourished in colonial Lesotho not only because of the decline of the country's economy and the breakdown of Basotho social structures, but also because these establishments serviced the migrant labour traffic itself. The significance of this study lies in two areas. Historiographically, this study seeks to contribute to migrant labour studies in Lesotho in particular and Southern Africa in general. Its approach stands between economism which attributes the causes of labour migrancy solely to economic factors, and those paradigms which privilege ideas and culture over material factors. There is a dialectical interplay between material factors and ideas, although the former ultimately determines the latter. Secondly, the significance of this study lies in the fact that many of the issues raised, especially those in Part III, continue to pose serious problems for Basotho people and their government to this day. Knowing something about the origins and history of these problems may contribute to finding lasting solutions. This study, therefore, is about Lesotho, Basotho, and the mines.

Fifty-one male coal miners between 18 and 65 years old (78% underground and 22% surface miners) completed a self-administered questionnaire. Population and food pattern characteristics were described. Food frequencies were used to obtain a food score which was a weighted average of the frequency of use each month for each food item as determined by the characteristics. Cluster analysis on the food scores were used to identify foods as core, secondary or peripheral foods. Core foods were foods consumed at least ten times in a 28 day period. The food frequencies were used to calculate an estimated daily dietary score for nine nutrients. These scores were compared with the U.S. Dietary Guidelines. Thirty-two percent of the miners had worked in the mines longer than 15 years, 80% had a family history of coal mining, 50% were between the ages of 18 and 35, 52% worked the eight a.m. to four p.m. shift, and 63% had an 11-12 grade education. Eating three times a day was the most frequent eating pattern. When food choices during non-work times were compared to choices when working, the kind and amount of food differed. Time of meals also differed. Analyses of variance indicated that the food scores were significantly different at the .05 level for the type of mining and for income levels; foods scores for education levels, work hours and age characteristics were significantly different at the 0.1 level. As a group, the miners had a high fat, sodium and protein intake, a medium total carbohydrate intake with a low fiber intake. In order for the miners to meet the U.S. Dietary Guidelines, nutrition educators may need to focus educational programs on the guidelines emphasizing a dietary increase in starch and fiber, a decrease in refined carbohydrate, a decrease in total fat, cholesterol, saturated fat and sodium. / Master of Science

Thesis (Ph. D.)--West Virginia University, 2006. / Title from document title page. Document formatted into pages; contains vii, 246 p. : map. Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references (p. 237-246).

M.A. / This dissertation examines the fear that surrounds death as a consequence of AIDS. It focuses on the relationship that exists between two kinds of deaths, namely the ‘good death’ and the ‘wild death’. The aim of this dissertation is two-fold. It specifically investigates the existence of a ‘good death’, posing the question whether dying ‘wildly’ is necessarily inhumane or unnatural. Secondly, it seeks to emphasise the fact that the stigma surrounding AIDS increases the fears of dying and death. In this dissertation, investigation is confined to workers on the Impala Platinum Mines on the western limb of the bushveld complex, near the towns of Phokeng and Rustenburg in South Africa’s North West Province. The dissertation focuses on mineworkers, among whom – as a consequence of an excessive use of prostitution, single sex hostels, strenuous working conditions, and a lack of knowledge – there is a high level of HIV infection. The dissertation consists of two critical parts. The first aims at understanding the ideas of the fears of dying and death, with a specific focus on the theory of good and wild death, while the second analyses these fears in relation to HIV-positive miners. My methods of data collection, analysis and interpretation were ethnographic, providing a description of death and AIDS in concrete circumstances, rather than an abstract and hypothetical analysis of the phenomenon of dying and death. Information was acquired from 25 selected HIV-positive mine respondents during the period November 2002 to March 2003. This dissertation deals with a topic on which little has been written in relation to AIDS sufferers in South Africa. Its objectives are to clarify the meaning of a ‘good death’ by drawing on the South African approach of a ‘good death’ and to also examine what would be required in trying to help people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHAs) to achieve this ‘good death’. / Prof. P. Alexander Dr. Ria Smit

The core question of this thesis is why working time in South African gold mining has been so stable and addresses the significance of this fact. The working or labour time of miners and mineworkers is shown to have been remarkably stable for a century since 1911. By construing the length of the migrant labour contract as a measure of labour time, which systematically lengthens over the same period until it aligns with the annual rhythm of industrial working time, the evidence is provided for the argument that labour time constitutes the hitherto unrecognised foundation for the exploitation of mine labour in the South African gold mines. The phenomena - and importance for value-creation - of both relatively long, stable industrial working hours and the ever-longer migrant labour contracts over a century, are explained in terms of the value labour power creates in the mining labour process, as well as how the sheer expenditure of extended periods of labour time create the necessary skills mining requires. The fortunes of the platinum mining sector largely follow suit. Whereas the revisionist literature focused on the acquisition of a mine labour supply, this thesis argues that the retention of mine labour, by way of extending, intensifying and sustaining labour time in mining production, completes our understanding of its exploitation. It does so by employing a value-theoretic analysis which reveals the genesis of value creation in productive social class-based relationships. It shows how a series of qualitative, socially constructive effects, intra-working class occupational differentiation for example, emanate from the very expenditure of labour time underground when measured as a quantitative amount of labour time. It is argued that the substantive study of labour time has been surprisingly ignored in Marxist theory within which it plays a central role in the labour theory of value. A range of research methodologies have been employed to make this case. An ethnographic participant observation research method was aimed at articulating an agent-sensitive approach. The candidate lived in the hostel compounds and worked underground with mining personnel and has been both subject to the working time regimes on the mines as well as having actively participated, via various forms of research, in dealing with restructuring and changing working time schedules. The thesis goes on to show in close empirical detail, informed by actual experience and adopting a triangulated research methodology, how working time arrangements within which labour time is expended, remains immured in complexity. Why capital and labour, for instance, adopt competing stances regarding the restructuring of working time arrangements is explained. I conclude that workers’ production demands need to be taken seriously when working time is restructured in mining.

Rationale/Objective: Excess lung cancer risks associated with exposure to inhaled radon decay products among uranium miners has well been established. Although ingestion is also a potentially important route of exposure, the relationship between ingested radon decay products and gastrointestinal cancer risks are not well examined. The objective of this study is to determine the relationship between exposure to radon decay products and the incidence and mortality of gastrointestinal (esophagus, stomach, and colorectal) cancer among men employed as uranium miners in Ontario. Secondly, to determine whether the duration of exposure (dose rate), years since last exposure and age at first exposure modify these associations. Methods: A cohort of miners who had ever worked in an Ontario uranium mine between 1954 and 1996 was created using the Mining Master File and the National Dose Registry. Cumulative radon exposures measured in Working Level Months (WLM) were previously estimated for each miner. Cancer diagnoses (1964-2004) and cancer deaths (1954-2004) occurring in Ontario were determined by probabilistic record linkage with the Ontario Cancer Registry. To calculate person-years at risk, non-cancer deaths were also ascertained from the Ontario mortality file for the period between 1954 and 2004. Poisson regression methods for grouped data were used to estimate the relative risks (RR) and 95% Confidence Intervals (CI) by exposure level. Results/Conclusions: The final cohort consisted of 28,273 Ontario uranium miners. By the end of 2004, 34 miners had been diagnosed with esophageal cancer, 86 with stomach cancer, and 359 with colorectal cancer. There were 40 deaths due to esophageal cancer, 69 from stomach cancer, and 176 from colorectal cancer. When comparing the highest cumulative exposure category (>40 WLM) to the referent group (0 WLM), significant increases in both stomach (RRIncidence= 2.30, 95% CI;1.02-5.17 and RRMortality=2.90, 95% CI;1.11-7.63) and colorectal cancers (RRIncidence =1.56, 95% CI;1.07-2.27 and RRMortality =1.74, 95% CI;1.01-2.99) after adjusting for age at risk and period effects. However, no relationships were observed for esophageal cancer. Suggestive evidence of modifying effects of these associations by duration of employment (dose rate) and years since last exposure for colorectal cancer was also observed.