a —

a EES Se ee Se, SS SO

50 YEARS AGo—________—_

their own. The example set by the ILA was
for the Canadian dockers a glimpse of what
could be. The grim memories of their crush-
ing defeat in the strike of 1923 and the years
of company unionism since strengthened
their resolve.

Tonically, it was the ILA which had led

the 1923 strike and lost. It ended in ruin

for the 1,007 ILA members as 625 were
blacklisted — never to work the waterfront
in B.C. again.

In 1924, the employers established a
Company union known as the Vancouver
and District Waterfront Workers Associa-
tion (VDWWA). For 10 long years the
VDDWA was but a shell of an organization
doing little or nothing for its members. A
1930 dues book of the company union obli-
Sated each member “to be faithful to
employers.” Wages in 1931 were 83¢ per
hour for dock work and 87¢ per hour for
ship work.

As the scourge of the great Depression
Swept Canada, 75 people gathered in
Toronto in early 1930, Unknown to B.C.
longshoremen, this meeting was of great
Significance to their future. It was the
inaugural conference of the Workers’ Unity
League (WUL). Established and led by the
Communist Party of Canada, the WUL
was their answer to the crisis of the depres-
sion and their alternative to the business
unionism of the AFL-TLC and the ACCL.

Although the VDWWA never formally
affiliated to the WUL it was not too long
before it came under the leadership of the
“red trade union centre.” Shortly after the
formation of the WUL, a decision was
made, in conjunction with the Communist
Party, to transform the VDWWA into a
militant, fighting organization.

Patient, consistent work bore results.
Communist Party members on the water-
front set to work organizing rank and file
groups. A left wing newsletter called the
Heavy Lift appeared on the docks.

The WUL program called for the amal-
gamation of the four separate groups of
longshoremen in Vancouver into a single
union structure. By 1933 this was achieved.
A communist, Oscar Salonen, was elected
business agent.

In October of 1934 the VDWWA suf-
fered a setback. Intimidated into signing a
three-year agreement with the Shipping
Federation, the new contract accepted a cut
in pay — back to the 1923 level. Union
membership was to be frozen at 940 and no
new members were to be allowed without
the permission of the employers.

The election of a new leadership headed
by Ivan Emery, George Brown and W. Mit-
chell was the expression of the men’s dis-
satisfaction and militant spirit that had been
developed.

The new leadership’s first task — as
Emery said, “to raise our organization out
of the status of an employer-dominated
union” — was energetically undertaken.
By the end of 1934, the Longshoremen and
Water Transport Workers (LWTW) of
Canada had been formed, a federation
which united dockers, seamen, loggers and

other maritime workers. Emery became its
president.

Faced with the terms of a regressive col-
lective agreement the new leadership pro-
jected a program of job action to win
concessions not in the agreement. Hand in
hand with job action was a program to
organize the unorganized. Together with
the Seafarers’ Industrial Union, the Grain
Handlers Union andthe Log Export
Workers Union, the LWTW was made into
a powerful federation encompassing a
majority of maritime workers.

“Communists,” screamed McGeer, the
Shipping Federation and the Citizens’
League. Full page ads in the Vancouver Sun
offered phoney charts of the Communist
chain of command, from Moscow to the
Canadian Communist Party, to the Workers’
Unity League and finally to the VDWWA
and the LWTW.

Communists they were and the role of the
Communist Party was decisivie in the dra-
matic shift to the left that so alarmed the
bosses. Ivan Emery and George Brown
were members of the Party’s provincial
committee. Oscar Salonen, Alex Will and a
host of other leaders and activists were
party members. In spite of the many mis-
takes to be made history would find a spe-
cial place for these men who rose to the
needs of their time. ;

By January, 1935 they too had completed
the first phase of their plan. A strong and
militant union had been created.

The job action program was put into
effect. In January the union requested that
the Shipping Federation turn the dispatch
hall over to the union. The answer was no.
The union asked for an increase in member-
ship. Again, no. On Mar. 12 the union noti-
fied the employers that they had accepted 13
new members. Apr. 29, the union declared a
one-hour work stoppage in solidarity with
Relief Camp workers and two days later, on
May Day, declared a full day’s holiday to
participate in the mass rally at Stanley Park.
On May 27 the union informed the compan-
ies that they would be taking over the dis-
patching regardless. of the wishes of the
Shipping Federation.

The matter was coming to a head. The
Shipping Federation bided its time while it
prepared the surprise attack. Skilfully, they
chose Powell River, small and remote, to lay
the trap. Only 51 casuals were involved in
the dispute at Powell River — locked out
when they attempted to organize. The smug
Shipping Federation uttered not a word
when Vancouver longshoremen refused to
unload hot cargo from Powell River on two
occasions, May 18 and again May 22.

When the SS Anten, carrying scab news-
print from Powell River, docked in Van-
couver on June 13, the men once again
refused to touch it. The next morning 27
scabs were boated from English Bay to Pier
A. As they arrived at the dock, 150 RCMP
officers arrived by land. Two hours later, at
1 p.m. the Shipping Federation repudiated

the agreement. The strike was on.

Hall’s plan went into operation. A com-
pany union had already been granted a
charter by the provincial government in
Victoria. The CPR provided two ferries; the
Princess Patricia and the Empress of Japan,
as floating hotels for scabs, removing the
fear of crossing picketlines. The infamous
Citizens Committee lent their offices as a
hiring hall for scabs. McGeer carried out his
end of the deal, hired 150 extra policemen,
and stationed them along the waterfront.

In the wake of Ballantyne and the arrest
of Emery the mayor and the media
pounded away with warnings of commu-
nism. The strike itself, according to McGeer
was “straight communist activity.” Emery,
Brown and Salonen were singled out in the
hate campaign.

The slander became so intense that a spe-
cial issue of the strike bulletin, released on
June 14, devoted itself to the defence of the
union leaders.

The B.C. Workers’ News was prompted
to editorialize in its issue of June 28, 1935 in
an item titled “Reds and the Unions”: “The
claims that the unions are controlled by the
Communists is-as false as it is vicious.
Communists would not control unions even
if they were a majority, which they are not.”

As the weeks wore on the unions went to
the defensive. The B.C. Workers’ News and
the Commonwealth — whose editor Bill
Pritchard, toured Vancouver Island with
George Brown — were not a match for the
big business media.

nable to control entry on to the
U docks, the scab force grew. They

were imported from as far away as
Saskatoon, many of them desperate people
caught up in the misery of the depression.
The Shipping Federation claimed 650 scabs
working on June 28, but the B.C. Workers’
News challenged the statement, saying less
than 200 were working.

The strike was about to enter the fourth
month when negotiations finally began. But
the employers stalled, knowing that yet
another ace would be dealt to their
hand — the Davis Inquiry. :

Justice H. Davis was appointed by the
federal department of labor to make a
“probe” into the waterfront strike. The
inquiry was to make a report with no bind-
ing powers — it was in effect a gimmick to
help manipulate public opinion. Davis’
report, filed and made public in October of
1935, was astoundingly pro-employer. It
made no mention of the violence at Ballan-
tyne and condemned the unions for “breach
of contract.” According to Davis, the lock-
out had never happened.

The Davis report completed the array of
forces behind the Shipping Federation’s
plan. United with the employers were the
police, McGeer and city council, the pro-
vincial government and now the federal
government.

The 1935 longshoremen’s strike

Five months the strike had battled on in
October of 1935. A report in the B.C.
Workers’ News of Oct. 18 outlined the dil-
uted demands of the union. They asked
merely for one hiring hall, recognition of the
VDWWA as the sole union and for no
discrimination. The Shipping Federation
refused.

he long road to disaster ended six

k weeks later on Dec. 6. A statement

released that day declared their inten-

tion to “officially end the strike on Monday,

Dec. 8 at 8 1.m.” It was lost. The only con-

dition granted was recognition of the
union of the men’s choice.

Company unions and splinter groups
were quickly formed. Division once again
prevailed among longshoremen. Many
were blacklisted and would never work
again. Others would find their way back to
work only after the Second World War. It
would be 23 years before longshoremen
would be united in one union.

The Shipping Federation could be pleased.
Twice in 15 years they had smashed organ-
ized labor. But this time the lessons were
learned. It would never happen again.

Even today the lessons of 1935 produce a
lively debate. Reformists are quick to point
to the supposed sanctity of legality and the
collective agreement. The mistake, they say,
was to violate the contract of 1934. But even
then union men regarded legality as a tacti-
cal question. And was it not the bosses who
\chose illegality and for added measure the
crime of Ballantyne Pier?

Was it a mistake to allow the conflict to
begin at Powell River where the issue was
small and affecting few? Certainly it was the
employers who chose the time and place.

The balance of class force was definitely
weighted against the longshoremen. If there
was a mistake, it was to fight the enemy on
its terms,

There is evidence to indicate that a set-
tlement could have been reached much ear-
lier, which while not a victory would have
included some favorable terms. Perhaps the
greatest lesson is the need for a sober and
accurate assessment of what can be won.

In retrospect it is easy to criticize. But let’s
not throw the considerations of 50 years of
hindsight onto the backs of the fighters of
1935. The strike was lost but ideas were
won. The militancy that grew from a small
company union has continued to this day.

_ Viewed in the militancy of their days they

were and remain heroes.

Ballantyne Pier still reaches out into the
port of Vancouver. The old dirt road is
gone, but the tracks still parallel Alexander
St. The heritage of the men and women of
today’s International Longshoremen’s and
Warehousemen’s Union is etched in blood
along that waterfront. It will not be forgotten.

ee ee

PACIFIC TRIBUNE, MAY 1, 1985 e 17