History of the I.W.A.

Continued from previous page

Fraser Mills, was elected as Local President in
1932, then stripped of office by William
Green, A.F. of L. President because of his radi-
ealism.°”

The selection of Pritchett marked two im-
portant developments in the history of B.C.
forest industry unions. First, he was the first
President from the mill side, and second, it
was a move from away from the Scandinavian
immigrants that had been so prominent in the
union’s early days. These developments
marked a shift in Party policy, intended to
soften its image as an organization of “for-
eigners,” and to reduce the influence of lead-
ers of ethnic groups, especially Finns and
Ukrainians. We will deal in the next issue with
some of the consequences of this policy.

At the same time, Lumberworkers in North-
ern Ontario also joined the “Lumber and
Saw,” forming Local Union #2786, with Carl
Palmgren, former National Secretary of the
L.W.1.U., brother of B.C. leader Martin Palm-
gren, as first president. And in the U.S. North-
west, the Trade Union Unity League and its
communist-led forest industry affiliate, the
National Lumber Workers’ Union, were offi-
cially disbanded.

The merger worked in Northern Ontario,
and points east, at least in the sense that a
functioning, essentially independent lumber
workers’ organization went on much as it had,
largely ignored by the carpenters.

But it definitely did not work on the West
Coast. On May 6th of 1935, a strike was called
by Lumberworker leadership, and widely sup-
ported by the membership. Three days later,
an estimated 30,000 woodworkers were out,
about half of the work force in the Douglas
Fir region of the U.S. Northwest. But carpen-
ter official Abe Muir, sent out by headquarters
to deal with the strike (and, presumably, to
wrest control from the old leadership in the
process), ignored the bargaining committee
and signed a very unpopular agreement. Re-
sentment grew.

t the 1936 Carpenter’s convention in

Florida, the 16 Lumberworker dele-

gates were present only as “fraternal

delegates,” without vote. Frank
Duffy, the Carpenter’s general secretary,
added insult to injury by saying “they were
non-beneficial members. They were only in
the convention on probation.”“

Harold and the other leading Communists
tried mightily to keep the “United Front” to-
gether, but to no avail. B.C. organizers like
Emie Dalskog were not keen on thé merger.
“..To tell you the truth, I didn’t feel to good
about it. However, they must know what they
were doing....I wasn’t in a position to argue
about the thing.” In the U.S. Pacific North-
west, resistance was even stronger. Al Har-
tung, President of the Columbia River District
Council (later to be International President)
had been a “Wobbly,” and was deeply resent-
ful of Carpenter domination.“?

In the first issue of “The Timber Worker”
(Oct 11, 1935) which became the I.W.A.’s in-
ternational newspaper, Lumber and Saw local
2639's President E. Wieland proposed the slo-
gan “No Craft Unions in the Lumber Industry.
Wieland had first worked in small mill in Col-
orado, and learned about unionism from the
Western Federation of Miners. He had played
a leading role in the region's forest industry
labour since 1914, when he was vice-presi-
dent of the old International Union of Timber-
workers. He was an implacable foe of “Craft
and conservative unionism. :

Making it an even harder sell was that it
was all happening in the intense excitement
of the establishment of the Congress of Indus-

trial Organizations. The Coalminers John L.

Lewis, the driving force behind the Cro.

launched a very exciting campaign to orga-

nize mass industries, on an industrial basis by

“slowly and grimly walking up the aisle of the

1935 A.F of L. Convention, and punching car-
_ penter’s Bill Hutchinson in the jaw. ;
But the real drama was taking place in the
“sit-down” strikes in large industrial plants. In
_ 1936, rubber workers occupied their plants.

March of 1937, 200,000 U.S. workers in 247

LUMBER. WORKERS’
INDUSTRIAL UNION
OF CANADA POLICIES

For the organization of all lumber-
workers throughout Canada into a
militant industrial union centralized
through the Workers’ Unity League.

For the organization of the un-
organized on a program of economic
struggle based upon the camp and
mill.

For Non-Contributory State Un-
employment Insurance.

For united action with all workers’
organizations and trade unions in
the common cause of labor, for Trade
Union Unity in Canada.

Against wage cuts and arbitration, |
for unity of the employed and un-
employed workers against War and
Fascism, against the capitalist offen-
sive.

a

“WORKERS OF THE WORLD,
UNITE!”

LWA. Archives

LUMBER WORKERS’
INDUSTRIAL UNION
of CANADA

AFFILIATED WITH THE WORKERS’
UNITY LEAGUE

initia Seb [@BY
Transferred from...

Issued by. Q z
nr

Org

CARD No. YO.7.

Signed in 1934 by Arne Johnson, the first leader of the B.C. Lumberworkers, is the membership and dues
stamp book of Stewart “Curly” Houston, an early union activist.

different plants engaged in these strikes. The
United Auto Worker’s membership grew from
30,000 to 400,000 from January to December
of 1937.c® And by 1987, the C.I.O. claimed
four million members. Who could resist such
a campaign?

Pacific Coast locals of the Woodworkers,
determined to hang on the industrial form of
organization, and to bargain much more mili-
tantly than Carpenter Officials would allow,
created the “Federation of Woodworkers,” to
carry on the struggle against the A.F. of L..
Harold Pritchett was elected President at the
first convention in September of 1936, and re-
elected at the second in February of the fol-
lowing year.

So by the time of the Federation’s July,
1937, held in Tacoma Washington, the issue
was settled. A membership referendum had
been held. The results: for affiliation with the
C.L.O., 16,754 for affiliation, 5,306 against. In
B.C., the results were even more dramatic;
1220 to 46 for the C.I.O. At the convention,
the membership’s decision was ratified by a
delegate vote of 360 to 71. At first, they were
going to call the new organization the “Inter-
national Wood Workers of America,” but
someone pointed out that the initials would
be “I.W.W.,” and after fifteen years of bitter
struggle between “Red” and “Wobbly,” that
would not do. So they made one word of
“Woodworkers,” and thus gave birth to the
LW.A.

Ihe new organization held its first Con-

stitutional Convention in Portland,

Oregon, Dec. 3rd to 8th, just as U.S.

lumber markets were collapsing. Dele-
gates from 107 Local unions in B.C., the U.S.
Northwest and Midwest, claiming 100,000
members, attended. They spoke of the bitter
struggles with the A.F of L., especially around
the Columbia River District Council, which
bore the brunt of craft union anger. The Car-
penters had installed bogus organizations be-
hind legal picket lines. The fledgling union
had to employ two lawyers to represent it in
constant hearings before the U.S. National
Labour Relations Board.

A delegate explained “for 115 days we have
had to fight one of the hardest battles a
labour organization has ever had to fight. We
could whip the A.Fof L. with one hand, we
could win against the employers with our eco-
nomic strength, but we have no weapons to
fight those foes aided by the local and state
authorities and extended behind the wall of a
wrecked and declining economy.”

Two Washington State locals had advanced
$10,000, and the C.I.0. had provided $27,500,
to tide the new organization over the very dif-
ficult birth pains. Harold Pritchett and Al Har-
tung ran for President. Harold won, becoming
the first Canadian to hold the Presidency of

an International Union.

We have in our records minutes of a August
13th, 1937 meeting of the B.C. union. The last
line is “Moved and Seconded that Local 2783
of the Lumber and Sawmill Workers Union
adjourn forever. Carried.”“

And that is how it came to be that forest
workers in Canada, who had worked well to-
gether well for twenty years, failed to do so
for the next half century.

Next Issue: Blubber Bay Strike, The
Long, Cold March In Northern Ontario,
War Or Peace?, First Contracts, And The

References =

() Cochran, Bert, “Labour and Communism:
The Conflict that Shaped American
Unions’. Princeton University Press, 1977,
pp. 82 - 88.

(2) Magnuson, Bruce, “The Untold Story of
Ontario’s Bushworkers.” Progress Books.
Toronto, 1990. p.6.

(8) Radforth, Ian, “Bushworkers and Bosses:
Logging in Northern Ontario, 1900 - 1980.”
University of Toronto Press. 1987., pp. 127
to 132.

(4) Magnuson, p. 9.

(6) Radforth, p. 129.

(6) Magnuson, p. 14.

(7) Radforth, p. 121.

(8) Union Bulletins, LW.A. Canada Archives.

(9) Letter from Arne Johnson to Myrtle
Bergren, I.W.A. CANADA Archives.

(10) I.W.A. CANADA Archives.

(11) Minutes of the B.C. Loggers’ Association,
U.B.C. Library. Special Collections.

(12) Notes of Myrtle Bergren’s interview of
Arne Johnson, I.W.A. CANADA Archives

(13) Strike Bulletins #60, 63 and 70. I.W.A.
CANADA Archives.

(14) Interview of Erie Dalskog, I.W.A. CANA-
DA Archives.

(15) Interview of Harold Pritchett, I.W.A.
CANADA Archives.

(16) Lembcke, Jerry and Tattum, William “One
Union in Wood.” Harbour Publishing Co.,
Madeira Park, B.C., 1984. pp 30 - 40. See
also “Captives in Wood,” Union leaflet,
I.W.A. Archives, and “The Timberworker,”
official publication of, first, Local 2639,
United Brotherhood of Carpenters and
Joiners, then of International Woodwork-
ers of America. 1935 and 1936 issues.
LW.A. CANADA Archives.

(17) Interview of Ernie Dalskog, I.W.A.
Archives.

(8) “Heritage of struggle.” U.A.W. Leaflet.
1.W.A. CANADA archives.

(19) “A History of the I.W.A. Conventions and
International Officers.” Published by
1.W.A. International Office, Portland Ore-
gon, in 1975. I.W.A. CANADA Archives.
Also see “The Timberworker” and Lumber-
worker,” 1936 and 1937 issues. I.W.A.
CANADA Archives. History of the Interna-
tional Woodworkers of America, published
in the 1970's by the International Office.

LUMBERWORKER/MARCH, 1996/15