ot

Ae

e One of the places where Brother Smithies is organizing is out on the golf
course. His handicap is 8 strokes per round.

Retired organizer keeps interest

alive in union affairs and golf

Organizing is the life blood of our
union. Those union members who
work as organizers are on the front
lines, bringing new people in the
union. For over 20 years John
Smithies travelled all over Western
Canada and other parts of the country
to help convince people to join the
IWA.

Brother Smithies, who retired at the
end of last year, is recognized as one
of the IWA’s most successful organiz-
ers who won the respect and confi-
dence of thousands of workers who
were searching for representation.

Today the 62 year old is still active
in labour to an extent and is keeping
his interest alive in union affairs. Only
four months after retiring, the B.C.
Ferry Workers’ Union hired John on a
part time basis to reorganize workers
against a raid.

For about five months Brother
Smithies was back at it again, doing
what he had done many times before.

Now that the raid situation has sub-
sided, John is taking it easy and get-
ting in as much golf as he can. In fact
his handicap on the golf course is now
about 8 strokes per round.

Born in Elnora, Alberta, a small
farm town about 30 miles southeast of
Red Deer, Smithies lived and worked
on a farm for the first 17 years of his
life. He dropped out of school in
Grade 10.

At age 17 he headed for British
Columbia where his uncle got him a
job in the Timberland sawmill in New
Westminster. After two years at
Timberland, Smithies then moved into
the cedar shingle industry. He worked
as a Shingle sawyer from ages 19 - 42.

Smithies worked 10 years at the
CanFor mill in Marpole, 7 years at
Acme Shingle, and also did time at the
MacMillan Bloedel Red Band Mill and
Huntting-Merritt mills along the
Fraser River.

Even though he became a leading
activist in the shingle mills in later
years, John got involved in the IWA
from the start.

“J didn’t know much about the
union, but I knew I wanted the union,”
says Smithies.

He became active on the plant com-
mittee in his second year in the
sawmill and stayed active throughout
the years in the shake and shingle

industry.

“J thought the union was the great-
est thing in the world in those days,”
says Smithies. “It was even stronger in
the shingle mills than it was in the
sawmills and plywood plants.”

In’ those days workers would
wholeheartedly support their fellow
workers with militant action.

For instance if a worker was fired, a
walk off would be staged.

“We walked off and wouldn't go
back until they reinstated the guy,”
says Smithies. “There was no argu-
ment.”

In 1971 a dispute hit the B.C. shin-
gle mills as workers struck for a
shorter work day. Two plants (MB’s
Red Band Mill and Huntting-Merritt)
took the employers on in a bitter dis-
pute.

MB was getting out of the shingle
industry altogether, which made the
strike situation impossible for victory.
Huntting-Merritt kept its mill down
for 4 years and refused to negotiate.

In 1972 he worked on a job search
committee which helped displaced
MB strikers get work in other plants.
When that ran out he moved to Pitt
Meadows and went back to work as a
shingle sawyer for about 6 months
before he was hired as an organizer at
the IWA’s Regional Council No. 1.

At age 42 he had been involved in a
number of small organizing cam-
paigns in Local 1-217 and 1-357 and
now had a chance to organize on a
larger scale.

In his first year John was sent back
home to Alberta, where he spent the
next four years organizing all over the
province. He worked mainly by him-
self in such places as Slave Lake,
Hines Creek, Grande Prairie, High
Level, Hinton, Fort McLeod and other
forest industry towns.

In the four year period Smithies,
later joined by organizer Gil Johnson,
brought in over 2,500 new members to
Local 1-207.

He says that the Alberta govern-
ment was not as anti-labour as it is
nowadays. Anti-labour legislation
eventually changed the organizing cli-
mate for the worst in Alberta in the
mid 70’s. Legislative barriers also
make it tougher for B.C. organizers
too. From 1973 - 76 the union could
organize with automatic certification
procedures, but that was changed by
the Bill Bennett government in 1976.

In 1981 Brother Smithies was hired
as director of IWA Regional Council
No. 1 and retained that position until
his retirement 10 years later.

In that decade Smithies says “we
organized good numbers but it was
nothing compared to what we lost.”

Technological change hit the indus-
try in the late 70's, early 80’s and over
15,000 IWA members lost their jobs in
B.C. alone.

Smithies estimates that today there
are over 10,000 workers that need to
be organizing in the lumber and sec-
ondary manufacturing sector alone,
and that’s just in B.C. He says the
organizing climate is still bad but that
it may change with a friendly NDP
government which can crack down
hard on employer interference during
certification campaigns.

“Workers should have the right to
join a union. That decision should be
their’s alone and they should be treat-
ed properly after they join a union,”
says Smithies. “Most working people
know they need protection and that
unions are the only ones out their
who will provide it.”

“There's a lot of B.S. out there and
there’s truth,” he adds. “The truth is
that we need unions.”

Smithies says that the IWA, in addi-
tion to organizing the non-union for-
est industry sector, should continue to

diversify itself outside of the major
industry.

“Times cl and things change.
We should be looking at bringing in
other groups to join the IWA,” he says.

He sees large potential in secondary
and service sectors that may or may
not be related to the forest industry.
Many laid off ex-IWA people are po-
tential contacts in those work places.

Brother Smithies says that any new
member should be educated on how
the union operates and what it really
stands for.

He reflects on the benefits he has
received over the years: “We worked
as a group and not as individuals - we
worked as a union first of all. The
rules of the union applied above and
before anything else.”

“The employers are never going to
throw their hands up and say they are
going to give working people what
they deserve,” says Smithies. “We've
benefitted over the years only
because we fought as a strong union.”

Today Brother Smithies is kicking
back a bit more. He will still be avail-
able to help unions out if the right sit-
uation arises. Old activists don't die
hard they just go away and wait a
while.

John resides in Burnaby, B.C. with
his wife Evelyn. They have two chil-
dren, Jeff and Deborah.

e Ev has been using his handyman skills on some renovation jobs. He’s enjoying
retirement with his wife Frieda.

Brother Ev Flannery remains
active during his retirement

For nearly 20 years, Evert (Ev)
Flannery laboured away quietly for
IWA members, helping to get the
membership the best deal possible
in sawmills and plywood plants. As
a staff member of former Western
Regional Council No. 1 and the
IWA-CANADA, Brother Flannery
travelled many miles across B.C.
and Western Canada to help work-
ers get a better shake.

Since December of last year Ev
has been enjoying retirement along
with his wife Frieda and has been
keeping himself fairly active as a
handyman around their house and
around the homes of relatives. Ev’s
always had a knack for carpentry
work, and now at age 60 can devote
more time to it.

For the better part of 39 years,
Brother Flannery was an active
IWA member who dedicated his life
to working people.

Ev was born in 1931 at Rosetown,
Saskatchewan, a small community
southwest of Saskatoon. He grew up
in the Depression and still has
memories of living on relief food

supplies.

His family moved to New
Westminster in 1946 where his
father was employed as a painter,
paper hanger and decorator. Ev quit
school in Grade 10 and jobbed it
around quite a bit.

He started work at Royal City
Cannery moved to Westminster
Paper briefly, and then briefly
worked at Fraser Mills where he
helped out on a dryer installation.

In early 1950 Ev got his first IWA
job at Bloedel, Stewart and Welchs’
Camps North of Campbell River
were he worked setting chokers in a
bush operation.

In the Fall of 1952 he got a job at
J.R. Murray’s Vancouver veneer
plant, which eventually becomes
known as Weldwood Ash Street
Division, He also worker on ware-
housing jobs, drove taxi and held a
job at a steel plant until hiring on
at Canadian Collieries plywood

lant in 1957 which eventually

came Weldwood T-Ply division.

Continued on next page

easel
14/LUMBERWORKER/OCTOBER, 1992