HISTORY OF THE I.W.A.

I.W.A. splits as Communists form new union

Article by Clay Perry
PART Vil

In 1947, U.S. law prohibits
red leadership, causing
tumultuous division

within the union

elegates at the quarterly
meeting of the B.C. District
of the IW. of A. meeting in
the fall of 1948 carried by a
vote of 74 to 12, a fateful

resolution:
“THEREFORE BE IT
RESOLVED: That this
duly constituted quarterly meeting of
the B.C. District Council of the Interna-
tional Woodworkers, C.1.0., assembled
ee Vancouver on October 3, 1948, here-
ry:
(1) Declares the disaffiliation and the
severance of all connections between
said District Council and the Interna-
tional Woodworkers of America, CIO,
as of the time of the passing of this res-

olution.

(2) Declares that hereafter the said
District Council shall be known as the
Woodworkers Industrial Union of Cana-
da, with such constitution and by-laws
as may be adopted later at this meet-
ing.

%3) Authorizes, sanctions and
approves the immediate transfer of
funds, property and assets of the said
District Council to the Woodworkers’
Industrial Union of Canada.

(4) Urges the immediate disaffiliation

‘of all local unions of the IWA in B.C.
from the IWA - CIO.
(5) Urges the immediate transfer of
all locals and sub-locals into the Wood-
workers’ Industrial Union of Canada.
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED: That

we call upon each and every woodwork-
er in B.C. to throw his or her full sup-
port into strengthening our union for
the struggles that lie ahead. Drive out
the splitters and disrupters! Defend the
Union! Build the Union!” ”

Two and a half years later, in May of .

1951, the International Officers of the Unit-
ed Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners
obtained an Ontario Supreme Court injunc-
tion that forbade Communist Bruce Magnu-
son and eight other officers from carrying
on as leaders of the Lumber and Sawmill
Workers, then affiliated with the Carpen-
ters;

These two events brought to an end the
dominant position Communists had held in
Canadian forest industry unionism since
1921. But whereas the abrupt change in
Northern Ontario was completely forced
upon the leadership there, in B.C., the
Labour Progressive (Communist) Party was
the immediate cause of the climactic events.

In the years immediately after World War
II, the position of the I.W.A.’s old Commu-
nist leadership in B.C. seemed to be strong.
The 1946 strike had consolidated a remark-
able period of organizing, adding about
10,000 new members for a total of 37,000,
concentrated on the Coast, especially in log-
ging, but with rapid gains developing in saw
and plywood mills and in the Interior.

The result was a pattern-breaking wage
increase of fifteen cents per hour (counting
category increases, an average of about
22%), vacation improvements and a modi-
fied form of union security. The forty hour
week, though not fully achieved with the
Sloan report settlement, was the de facto
practice; loggers simply refused to work the
extra four hours, defying arbitration rules,
and company and government threats, so
that formal acceptance of it in the 1947
negotiations was a foregone conclusion.

The B.C. “white block” was growing, but
apparently kept under control everywhere
except in the New Westminster and Vancou-

Shunaman expected to contest and lose the
next election for secretary-treasurer of the
big Vancouver Local 217, * the “red” block
managed to elect its slate for the 1949 Inter-
national and never-held District conven-
tions.”

Harold Pritchett’s capacity as a speaker,
negotiator and leader was generally acknowl-
edged, even by some of his most dedicated
opponents. Nobody on the “white” side could
come close to matching him.

But opposition to Communism in North
America was growing very rapidly. B.C.
newspapers were running a series of lurid
articles about communists in the province’s
unions, the most hysterical of which were
by newly arrived columnist Jack Webster.

Private investigators, presumably recruit-
ed by major forest industry companies or
associations, attempted to recruit infor-
mants and anti-red activists. John Squire,
soon to be an active white-bloc participant,
was approached and vigorously refused. The
author’s cousin, Clyde Perry, declined a sim-
ilar offer in the woods of Eastern Manitoba
and Northern Ontario

The Lumber Worker of April 21st, 1947,
ran a sensational story about efforts of
Thomas Noble, chief personnel officer of
Bloedel, Stewart and Welch trying to recruit
and bribe a young I.W.A. member, Don McAl-
lister. Photos of Noble apparently offerin;
money to McAllister, together with detaile:
sworn affidavits, accompanied the story.

n the U.S., the Taft Hartley Bill became

law in the U.S. in June of 1947. It

required the leaders of any union that

wanted to avail itself of National Labour
Relations Board services, which included
being certified as a bargaining agent for
workers, to declare that they were not Com-
munists.

The C.I.0. mounted strong opposition to
the bill, declaring it “the most vicious anti-
labour enactment in existence.” John L.
Lewis called it “the first ugly, savage thrust
of fascism in America,”

The United Steelworkers of America nego-

Continued on next page

——— = ee

¢ Photo taken in January of 1948 has leadership of I.W.A. District No. 1 in front row, at 11th annual convention before split in October of that year.

10/LUMBERWORKER/JULY 1997

LWA, Archives