Robert Drummond

Robert Drummond

Robert Drummond, labour leader (b at Greenock, Scot 9 Oct 1840; d at New Glasgow, NS 26 Dec 1925). Drummond helped organize one of Canada's first coal miners' unions, the Provincial Workmen's Association of Nova Scotia, in 1879 and was its grand secretary 1879-98. Appointed to the NS Legislative Council by Prem W.S. FIELDING in 1891, he advised the government on the coal trade until retiring in 1924. He founded, edited and published the PWA's Trades Journal. Under Drummond, the union grew to include some 2000 members and fought several strikes. He increasingly emphasized lobbying for legislative reform, for example, the arbitration bill that became law in 1889. He resigned in 1898 after the American Knights of Labor raided PWA locals and the union was almost destroyed. Drummond then began publishing the Maritime Mining Record. He also wrote Minerals and Mining, Nova Scotia (1918).