Upon arrival in Canada, many Sikhs found work in British Columbia’s sawmills. One of the jobs they were typically hired for was the green chain. It was one of the last stops in production of lumber after debarking, sawing, and edging. This heavy, still green, lumber was sent to a 300 foot long platform edged with chains that conveyed the wood. This was the green chain. Sikh labourers spent long days sorting these planks into piles, according to size. From there it could be put in the dry kilns, or loaded onto wagons and ships.The work was all done by hand. For their labour, they were paid significantly less than white workers.
“You sort of understood that there was a level at which you could function, beyond that it was out of your reach. […] The best jobs, the engineers and people who were the bosses at the mills, went to the Europeans.”
Dedar Sihota, Becoming Canadians.
“Hazara Singh Garcha, who arrived in about 1927, had his Master of Science degree in agriculture in Eastern Canada, and he pulled lumber like we did in the mill. At that time no Hindustani could get a job even if he was a doctor, lawyer, or engineer. So it didn’t matter if you were educated or not, if you were Hindustani you would be working on the greenchain.”
SIKHS, FRASER MILLS AND MILLSIDE
Fraser Mills employed South Asians (primarily Sikhs), Chinese, Japanese, and First Nations people. Most of these people lived in what was called “Oriental Town” on the Mill property, which was divided into the Japanese, Chinese, and “Hindu” sections. These men lived in bunkhouses that held between 30 and 50 men and had several cook houses where they employed their own cooks and contributed to the needed supplies. When several men worked together, they formed “dining clubs,” and at Fraser Mills, circa 1920s, each man gave three dollars a month to the cook, making his wages approximately $60 a month.
Very few of these men had their families with them. Instead, they worked long hours to save up enough money to send home. Small amounts of money were small fortunes in India at the time.
