Identity area
Type of entity
Corporate body
Authorized form of name
Provincial Workmen's Association, Pioneer Lodge No. 1
Parallel form(s) of name
Standardized form(s) of name according to other rules
Other form(s) of name
Identifiers for corporate bodies
Description area
Dates of existence
1879-1918
History
The Provincial Miners Association was formed on 29 August 1879 by coal miners in Springhill, Nova Scotia, to protect the interests of miners and other colliery workers. They adopted a constitution on 1 September 1879 and established Pioneer Lodge No. 1 in Springhill. The association was incorporated as the Provincial Workmen's Association in 1881 with a mandate to improve the living and working conditions of miners through political activism, lobbying and strikes, when necessary. The first Cape Breton lodges were organized that same year, by the association's secretary and agent Robert Drummond, including Drummond Lodge (South Mines), Equity (Caledonia), and Island and Unity Lodges (Bridgeport). By 1917 the PWA and United Mine Workers of Nova Scotia had merged to form the Amalgamated Mine Workers of Nova Scotia. In 1918 the remaining lodges of the Provincial Workmen's Association were dissolved.