Nothing wrong with emotion

I read both articles last week commemorating the fall of the Cape Breton Development corporation. The first by Steve Drake the second by Adrian White.

It was the second article by Mr. White that compelled me to write this letter, specifically when he referred to Steve as an emotional former UMWA president.

I am going to tell you a bit of my emotional history with Devco.

My father, the late Leo Evans, worked on the railway. He started on the Sydney & Louisbourg railway and ended his career with Devco.

I can vividly remember my dad taking me with him to work many times. I was treated like royalty by all the railway men. Think about this. I was very young boy, but they would let me drive the locomotive sometimes for an entire shift. Emotional, you say — I was over the moon.

My dad was also a union activist. I can remember the day in the early 1980s when a Devco security car arrived at my house. My dad had been fired. Without getting into details, what I can remember was the gentleman who was delivering the letter was emotional. He didn’t want to deliver the message. He was so emotional I can remember he and dad sat in the backyard for a long time. (Years later, Dad told me he was Second World War veteran.) Yes emotions ran high for all. Eventually, nearly a year later, and after an arbitration hearing, dad returned to work. He had been fired without cause.

Now fast-forward to that fateful night in 1999 the federal minister responsible made the announcement that Devco was to be privatized. I was working for Seaboard Transport (owned by then Devco president Joe Shannon) hauling coal from Prince Mine to the Victoria Junction coal preparation plant. I just pulled onto the road for the wash plant. I stopped to listen to the news on the radio. Was I emotional? I sure was. I cried. I knew my days were numbered on the job along with everyone else involved in the industry. Our island’s history was about to change.

Another occasion where emotions ran high was after Devco closed. There was a surplus in the pension fund. The government said it was theirs but a group of retirees, my dad included, fought for that surplus and won. I can still hear the emotion in one lady’s voice after the news that the surplus would be distributed. She could now afford to keep her house, a former company house. She was a widow.

So, yes, Mr. White, people do get emotional especially when it comes to making an honest living and wanting to raise a family on our island.

In closing, I still get emotional nearly every day when I read the obituaries and another worker from Devco has passed. A person who helped build our island and country.

Oh yeah, one more thing: unions and their members helped build our country. I’ve never met a union member yet that was responsible for the closing of any business. Never ever forget that. And when Davis Day comes this year, I will be there. I might even get a little emotional. In fact, I know I will. John Evans South Bar