Interview with Neil Fraser

Q. How many hours a day did you work in the mine?

A. Eight hours.

Q. What type of work did you have?

A. What I had to do was work in the coal face and machinery.

Q. How many different types of work did you do?

A. Well, I loaded coal, I cut coal, and I was a shot fire.

Q. Could you tell me some experiences you had for example how much you were paid… etc?

A. We weren't paid by the hour; we were paid contract, so much a ton.

Q. Did you have any overtime?

A. No.

Q. What time did you get off at night?

A. Well, if you went out in the morning you'd be finished at two or three o'clock.

Q. What time did you go in the morning?

A. Well, sometimes we'd go at four o'clock in the morning… maybe you'd be up at twelve o'clock… whenever you were through.

Q. Any different accidents that you witnessed?

A. I've seen quite a few different accidents. I know quite a few that got killed and some that got hurt.

Q. Did anybody get hurt by falling rock?

A. Oh year… lots got hurt that way.

Q. Do you know any names of your bosses?

A. Yes, Richard Quigley, he was the underground manager. Alex Joe MacDonald, he was an oven man. John F. MacDonald, underground manager.

Q. How many men to your shift?

A. It would be different depending on what mine you were in. Sometimes there was more working than other times. I suppose on average they'd be forty.

Q. Could you name the different types of equipment that you had?

A. There were air machines at that time and jack hammers for drilling the coal. The air machine was for cutting the coal.

Q. Did you have to clear out kind of far when they were blasting?

A. Oh yea, you'd have to go to the end of the cable to be safe.

Q. Did you like your job?

A. Yes, I liked mine. The best job I ever worked at. I worked the number one mine. It was located where the German's store is now… no, I'm sorry across the road from the German's store. Then I worked at number 5. I also worked in number 2 mine. I worked out in Alberta mines too. I worked in New Waterford mine.

Q. Where did they sell the coal?

A. They were shipping the coal away from here. Some of the coal was sold in the area. The government took over the mines at that time, so the government controlled that.

Q. What happened if you were laid off?

A. Well, you'd just have to go on unemployment. If there were jobs available at other mines, you'd go there.

Q. Were you a farmer at that time?

A. Yeah.

Q. How old were you then?

A. When I bought this farm I was working at #5 at that time. I was thirty.

Q. How long ago were the mines shut down?

A. The last mine I worked in was in Port Hood… that was closed 12 - 14 years ago.

Q. Did they make a lot of profit from the mines at Inverness?

A. No.

Q. Were you scared the first time you went down the mines?

A. Well, yes. You'd be a little nervous at first going down. But you'd get used to it.

Q. Would you take a lunch with you?

A. Oh, you'd have to take a lunch and a can of water because you'd get nothing down in the mine.

Q. When was lunch break?

A. there was no lunch break. You'd eat when you got a chance.

Q. What kind of equipment did you have?

A. I wore a hardhat and a battery with a light attached to put on the hard hat. If you were shot firing, you'd carry a glennie, for you know, for testing gas. You couldn't tell if there was gas.

Q. Could you smoke down there?

A. No, you couldn't smoke because of the possibility of gas, so we chewed tobacco.