HISTORY OF THE I.W.A.

Article by Clay Perry

PART VI

Struggles for the C.C.F,
the B.C. industry wide
strike of 1946, and
progress in north Ontario

n B.C., after the victorious Queen Char-
lotte Island strike and the first “Coast
Master” agreement, the I.W.A. was firmly
established. From a low of 2-300 just after
the Blubber Bay strike, the membership
reached 15,000 by 1944, and 20,000 early
in 1946.

This very rapid growth, and the respect
that the membership had for the union - especially
in logging - made control of the organization a
greater and greater prize, and the struggle more in-
tense.

There had always been strong opposition to
Communist leadership of the union in the U.S.
John L. Lewis was determined to rid the move-
ment of the Communists that he had welcomed to
assist in founding it, and he was fortified by a pow-
erful array, from “Trotskyites” to the entire “right
wing.” His C.I.0. organizers worked closely with
Columbia River District's Helming and Hartung to
ensure that their control of the International,
achieved after Harold Pritchett’s expulsion from
the U.S., was solidified.

InB.C., similiar opposition began to grow, from
the Canadian Congress of Labour, from the C.C.F.,
whose National Secretary, David Lewis, retained
bitter memories of Communists from his child-
hood in Poland, and from two centers of opposi-
tion within the union, the New Westminster local
and the Ladysmith sub-local.

The intense struggle for control of the Canadian
LW.A., one of the largest and most strategically lo-
cated mass-based organizations in the country,
with effective local organizations established or
developing in communities across B.C., was a part
of a larger scene; a bitter, nation-wide fight be-
tween the C.C.F and the Canadian Communist Par-
ty for the support of Canada’s working class. The
Communists had a very strong organization of dis-
ciplined activists. In April of 1944, the R.C.M.P es-
timated B.C. membership at 22,000 in 62
branches.” But they had not won the loyalty of
“the broad masses”; ordinary, non-political work-
ing class people who were turning in increasing
numbers to the C.C.F.

At first they sought to overcome this by apply-
ing for “affiliation” with the C.C.F., both directly as
a political organization, and through affiliating the
organizations they controlled, like the I.W.A. But
the C.C.F. rebuffed these efforts. David Lewis, and
other stalwarts like Grant McNeil who had been
through bruising encounters with the tightly disci-
plined C.P.ers, were understandably convinced
that through affiliation, they would sooner or later
become a mere appendage, controlled by a Com-
munist caucus.

On the other hand, the C.C.F. knew that hostile
Communist leadership of the province's large in-
dustrial unions (1.W.A., Mine-Mill, the Boilermak-
ers) would frustrate them at the polls in the indus-
trial seats that they had to win to become a force.

The Communists next tried to “leap-frog” the

C.C.F., to occupy the political ground just to the ©

left of the Liberals, and perhaps even share power
with them. They became remarkably moderate.
Bruce Magnuson, the Communists’ leading figure
in the Northern Ontario forest industry, who had
just served two years in an internment camp for
his political affiliation, called for “greater coopera-
tion among all classes...for the more prosperous
development of Canada.” In July of 1943, Tim
Buck called for “a coalition of progressive Liberals
and labour representatives...candidates of the
Wjeren ey)

The C.C.F.’s Harold Winch denounced that
proposition as “a gross betrayal of the working-
class movement of the Dominion.” Harold Pritch-
ett (and Bruce Magnuson in Northern Ontario)

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FINAL, HOME EDITION

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4 walk’ gut of Western Cana da Lustber-Compapy's Fraser Miljiklorg

Lofts Kind In the British
this morniag, was duplicated scores of UUmes throughout thé'province ax the IWA called its strike. |

JAM FEARED IN VANCOUVER

IWA Warns Loggers

37,000 Lumber
Workers Strike

Industry Throughout B.C, Paralyzed; |
Pearson Declares Ticup Illegal

Thirty-seven thousand loggers and woodworkers
[struck at 11 o'clock this morning, paralysis ¥
Columbia's $147,000,000 forest products
“The walkout Involves about 20,000 members
national: Woodworkers of Atserica (CIO) ard 17.000 non-|
union workers.
Labor MintsterjGeorgs Pearson, after talking with fod
ett ay hy. ad edt government |
intervention n theafsskels proposed—at least within the next
24 hours

Not ‘Out of Touch’

‘The Later Minister branded yesterday, Dax recommended to)
federal Labor "Mister He] ©

ste
lying, back
|. | iniser ha ‘saa been
itn he operators.
"Doth sides are il adam
ae Pearson. a8,

a the IWA sitike.

Lumber War.

thecdspate go to coneiation
‘erstally ‘conelation preset
ote ae Bot condatieg wae & MoPPet.

1800 Projects Halt

‘The de la cant. ‘The chips are|preadent of TWA from Pordand}
down. At 11 e'dock the entire|end Mr. Pritchett, for the wast
industry will be shut down,” ME-tait down and attempt to meget
[ote ‘2 belllement of wages and

ic

Front page of Vancouver Sun featured famous I.W.A. strike which began at 11:00 a.m., May 15, 1946.

sold an immense quantity of war bonds to forest
workers wherever he went, and was understand-
ably proud of the Liberal Government's recogni-
tion of that achievement.

In a 1945 federal bye-election in Ontario’s North
Grey riding, created by McKenzie-King to get his
nominee for Defence Minister General Mc-
Naughton into the House of Commons, the C.C.F.
nominated Air Vice Marshall A. Earle Godfrey, and
the C.C.L.’s Political Action Committee endorsed
him. An incensed Harold Pritchett threatened to
withdraw the I-W.A. from any participation in the
P.A.C. “The nomination of the C.C.F. (of Godfrey)
against an outstanding anti-Fascist fighter, Gener-
al McNaughton is, to say the least, regrettable and
disasterous.”

That is the larger context of the struggle, which
at the union level was over who would be a dele-
gate or plant chair, or district officer. Behind the
scenes, it was over who would govern the country.
It was also, of course, a struggle between capital-
ism and communism over control of the province's
leading industry, its work force, and the communi-
ties that relied upon it.

At Fraser Mills, a group calling itself the “Old-
timers,” kept up a constant b: e of criticism of
the district leadership. They issued leaflets
(which, L.W.A. district leaders noted, were very si-
miliar to those of the company), denouncing
Pritchett as the leader of “the gang of wreckers
that had pulled the 1931 strike.” They expressed
their confidence that Fraser Mills superintendent
Mackin would “not let them down and make them
join the I.W.A.” °?

A more formidable effort was being launched
there by Stuart Alsbury, George Mitchell and Rae
Eddie, and in the Vancouver local by Lloyd
Whalen, who denied any association with the “Old-
timers,” but vigorously contested every possible
election, every policy and action of the District Of
ficers.

At Ladysmith, a faller named John Ulinder took

the lead, tirelessly campaigning against “red” con-
trol of the union, and for support of the C.C.F. On
November 2, 1944, he wrote a letter inviting Bill
Kierstad to a meetimg at the Malaspina Hotel in
Nanaimo, to discuss “a progress report and plan
for further action” to “clean house in the I.W.A.”
The letter promised “some expense money,” and
attendence of “a number of Vancouver support-
ers.” At the meeting were Ulinder, Kierstad, Lloyd
Whalen (another interesting figure who had start-
ed as a Communist, working hard in early efforts
to organize mills, then moved to the Trotskyists
and from there to the C.C.F., where he led that
party’s trade union club, and became president of
the Vancouver Local after the 1948 split), Tom
Barnett, who was soon to run as a candidate for
the C.C.F., Fred Oakalvic, who provided the Dis-
trict Leadership with a full report of the proceed-
ings, and “Shaky” Robertson, a steelworker then
employed by the C.C.L.

George Grafton, a leading figure in the Duncan
Local, filed charges against Ulinder for “efforts to
undermine the union.” The District held an investi-
gation, found him guilty as charged, and suspend-
ed his membership. Ulinder appealed at the inter-
national level, and was reinstated.

At this time, a concerted organizing drive was
pursued in the interior of British Columbia. A
charter for the Cranbrook Local (405) was issued
in September of 1944. The first agreements were
reached in Kamloops and Princeton (5), but there
was activity in Kelowna and Prince George as
well. Matters came to a head when the C.1.0.- ap-
pointed director of the L.W.A. organizing drive,
George Brown, fired B.C. organizers Hjalmar
Bergren, Frank MacDonald and Mike Freylinger,
replacing them with fervant anti-communists Mike
Sekora, Nick Kaptey and Ralph New to conduct
that crucial expansion of the union.

These new organizers immediately joined the

Continued on next page

18/LUMBERWORKER/DECEMBER, 1996