Grade 7 Social Studies

1. Grade 7 Social Studies Chapter 12 Definitions and Terms

2. Resource Industry • An industry based on extracting resources from the earth/ocean. • Examples: Mining, fishing and logging. • Primary sector jobs are based in this industry.

3. Strikes • When workers get together and refuse to do any work until the employer takes their grievances seriously.

4. Grievances • A complaint against something considered unfair or unjust, usually working conditions or wages.

5. Labour unions • An organization of workers that protects its members’ rights by taking action on issues such as wages and working conditions. • Examples in NL: NLTA, NAPE, CUPE.

6. Pit • A slang word for coal mine.

7. Cobber • A mine worker whose job it is to sort useful ore from rock.

8. Trap/Trapper • Doors in mines that had to be kept closed most of the time to keep in/out dangerous gases. • Trappers opened and closed these doors when coal carts approached.

9. Workplace Safety Laws • Laws in place that make sure employers have a safe environment for people to work in.

10. Safety Inspectors • People whose job it is to make sure employers are following all of the workplace safety laws.

11. Shanty/Bunkhouse • Place where loggers lived while working at a log camp.

12. Room and Board • A place to sleep (room) and the necessities of life such as food (board).

13. Fallers • Forestry workers who cut down the trees, sawed limbs off fallen trees and shaped timber.

14. Skidders • Forestry workers who pulled logs to the roads using horses or oxen.

15. Teamsters • Forestry workers who brought logs from the roads to the river using horses or oxen.

16. Company Towns • Towns set up for people and families who worked for a company. • The company often owned everything in the town and families would have to leave if nobody was working at the company anymore.

17. Company Store • Stores set up by companies that would ‘lend’ its workers items from the store until payday when it would deduct that amount from workers’ wages.

18. Merchants • People who invested their money to set up a fish selling business. • Merchants often owned stores that operated in the same way as company stores.

19. Fishers • People who worked on boats owned by merchants.

20. Independent Fishers • People who fished on their own using their own boats and equipment.

21. Truck System • When fishers bought all household and fishing equipment from their merchant on credit with the amount deducted from their earnings during the fishing season.