McDonald pointed to the Nova Scotia Power generating station in Point Aconi right next to the Prince mine where he works. Cape Breton coal miners, with a long and proud history of labor struggles in this country, are demanding the last operating coal mine remain open.

The closure of the mine and inadequate severance package offered by the company led a number of miners, members of the United Miners Workers of America (UMWA), to occupy the mine and wage a hunger strike in early January. A two-week wildcat strike involving hundreds of other miners soon spread to other sites.

Cape Breton Development Corp. (Devco) is a government-owned Crown corporation. It operates the Prince mine, the last coal mine here. The federal government in Ottawa announced last year it would get out of coal mining in Cape Breton and sell off Devco's assets, potentially tossing more than 1,700 people out of work.

One of the potential buyers, the Oxbow Corp., has made no assurances that it would keep 500 jobs in the industry, which the federal government had said there was the potential to keep, according to Steve Drake of the UMWA.

Last December Devco closed the last remaining mine in New Waterford, where coal has been mined since 1830.

The official jobless rate on the island has increased to 19.3 percent, as compared to the Canadian average of 6.8 percent.

Many of the miners say Oxbow will not keep the mine open since it can supply Nova Scotia Power more cheaply by shipping in coal from its other mines in the United States and Latin America.

The five-year contract Nova Scotia Power had with Devco to supply coal expired in December. The power company is presently buying most of the coal it needs internationally since Devco closed its Phelan mine that same month.

Devco claims it cannot compete in the international market with its coal and will have to shut down the Prince mine if no buyers are found.

This picture doesn't go over well with most Cape Bretoners, let alone coal miners. Bill Durdle, a retired coal miner in New Waterford whose house is a stones throw away from the North Atlantic, said the company claims that sloppy work by the miners caused a series of roof falls in the Phelan mine. In fact, he pointed out, the problem was caused by Devco flooding the Lingan mine situated right above it.

Durdle, who is from a long line of coal miners and started working in the mines when he was 15 years old, said that when the mine is closed the only remaining industries in the area are lobster fishing and tourism, both seasonal employment. "Soon there will be only retired workers and those on social assistance in this area," he said.

In a new twist on who is to blame for this, the Cape Breton Post and the Chronicle-Herald report one company that stands to profit from the mine closings is Canada Steamship Lines. It is owned in trust by Canada's finance minister Paul Martin, and does business with Oxbow Minerals, a division of Oxbow Corp.

According to the Herald, "Canada Steamship Lines...has a million-tonne contract this year to deliver foreign coal to Nova Scotia Power. Some industry experts peg the value of the contract at about $4 million."

The mine occupation and strike were ended when the unions and the federal government agreed to form a "joint restructuring committee" to look into the workers' demands. If no agreement is reached, it will then go to arbitration.

Just prior to this arrangement the government mobilized 185 Royal Canadian Mounted Police, some brought in from outside, as a show of force in response to the strike.

Few of the miners think that the fight is over. At the very least they want Devco to agree to a retirement plan for all those employed by the company. The present plan leaves out many workers, some with 20 to 25 years with the company.

Tony Di Felice from Toronto and Peter Duck from Vancouver are members of the United Food and Commercial Workers Union.  
 
 
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