ABSTRACT
In the 1880s, St John's dock labour was fragmented and disorganised. Dockers worked beside fish handlers, barrowmen and packers, the traditional waterside labour associated with the fish trade. The labour historiography of Newfoundland has highlighted fishermen, seafarers and outport labourers; economic historians have concentrated on the fisheries and the truck system. In St John's, the dockers were a male labour force whose social norms were rooted in a culture of masculinity that valued independence, self-reliance and physical strength. In the early twentieth century, however, the dynamic expansion of industry in neighbouring Maritime Canada created a regional labour market for labourers; coupled with an improvement in the local economy, these factors resulted in a shortage of labourers throughout the colony. Although accounts of the city's port workers rarely distinguished categories of labourers employed on the docks, it is evident that there was job stratification, based on task, skill and seniority.
