The Company and the Combination: Collective Bargaining at the River’s Edge

The Company and the Combination: Collective Bargaining at the River’s Edge

“Leve! Leve! Et puis…hurrah!”! (Get up!, Get up! And then…hurrah!) This was the call that roused the Hudson’s Bay Company’s Saskatchewan Brigade from their brief slumber, usually around 3am. It was another grueling day of pulling oars and carrying bales for the Badgers, or “Braroes” (for so the Saskatchewan Brigade called themselves), over portage. The furs they carried were traded for at Forts like Edmonton and rowed down the rivers to the Bay,…