Searching for steelworkers
Dominion Steelworkers Mutual Benefits Society issuing refunds to members
One of the longest-lasting remnants of Sydney’s steelmaking past will soon vanish.
The Dominion Steelworkers Mutual Benefits Society was formed by employees in 1906 to help sick and injured steelworkers and their families back in the days before the company or government provided insurance and compensation.
Now, after outlasting the mill itself by nearly 20 years, the association is emptying its bank account and issuing final cheques to all of its remaining members.
President Lorne MacKinnon said the society’s board and members officially voted to cease operations on July 1, 2017. At the time, there was approximately $72,000 left in the fund, which was accrued by deducting about $6.50 from monthly pensions.
While they’ve since refunded most of the money to its remaining 360 members, about 100 people are still unaccounted for and are entitled to about $200 each.
“Unfortunately, what had happened is that a number of steelworkers over the years had changed address, or maybe moved away with family members after they retired, and it became very difficult to locate everybody,” said MacKinnon. “What we’re nervous about is that we will have some that we won’t be able to get a hold of, and of course we don’t like to see that happen.”
In an effort to reach out to those people, the society ran an ad in the Cape Breton Post. In it, any member who has changed their address in the last 12 years is asked to phone 902-564-8352 and leave their name, address, postal code and phone number before Aug. 31.
MacKinnon, who began working in the mill’s mechanical department in 1971 and stayed at the plant until its closure, said steelworkers weren’t required to join the Dominion Steelworkers Mutual Benefits Society.
Unions, labour laws and the advent of employment insurance saw the society’s ranks slowly dwindle, and eventually workers referred to the payment as the “small benefit,” he said.
“It was just something that the steelworkers themselves kept going, and should something unfortunate happen to them, or their wives — their wives were covered as well — it was a small benefit to them in a time of need, and that’s really what it was all about.”
However, when it was first set up, the money was a financial lifeline for steelworkers and their families.
“In its day it was like the unemployment insurance, it was like a mortuary benefit that they couldn’t get or didn’t have,” he said. “So it was critical back in its day — and it remained all through the years.”