History of the I.W.A.

Continued from page twenty-eight

wages and conditions in major mills near larger
centres were comparable to those at the Coast,
bur ranged from worse to terrible in the smaller,
more isolated mills and camps. A Canal Flats
operation demanded fumigation to destroy bed-
page: that vuere ee more phe one shower per
forty men, tha e bunkhouses be properl:
yentilated, and so on. gee

In his lively history of the Prince George
local, Ken Bernsolm describes a meeting of
July 28th, in which those attending demanded
a reduction in their work week from 56 to 48
hours, better roads, and the “removal from the
International Constitution of the clause barring
members of the Communist Party from being
members of the union.” The indefatigable Ernie
Dalskog was presumably in attendance.

By 1953, the Local had about 1500 members,
but that included most of the big mills that pro-
duced about 90% of the region’s lumber. That
seemed to be a sufficient basis for an effective
strike. They demanded an increase of eighteen
cents an hour, the “union shop,” and more paid
holidays. The Northern Interior Lumberman’s
Association, despite the increases won by the
Coast membership earlier that year, offered
only an extension of the existing contract. A
Conciliation board proposed a six per cent
increase, the same as had been won on the
Coast, and a form of union security. The union
Beranted management refused. A strike was
called in Prince George on September 28th, and
in the Southern Interior Locals on October
23rd. Many of the Northern leaders resented
the “delay,” and that was to play a role many
years later.”

A local with few experienced leaders, that
had just gone through the divisiveness of “the
Bere had to lead a newly organized member-
ship through an extended strike, against a uni-
versally hostile media and in tough winter
weather. It is a credit to the membership and
leaders involved that they held out as long as
they did.

The Northern strike ended on January 6th,
1954, on terms proposed by Justice Arthur
Lord; a five and a half cent hourly increase, and
a “maintenance of membership” clause. They
had been out twice as long as the Coast mem-
bership, in far more difficult conditions, and
were forced to return for less, and to accept
three-year contracts. Their strike had fre-
quently been violent, and always bitter. Bern-

Solm notes that after the strike, the local’s
membership was down to 800, and that it
“would take years to rebuild the union” in the
region.

Throughout the following decade, the gap
between B.C. Coast and Interior wage rates
grew steadily, and that process set the stage for
the long Interior strike “for parity” of 1967.

Negotiations on the Coast of B.C. went
smoothly until 1958. The left wing of the union,
was still in disarray from the aftermath of the
1948 split, and the abortive attempt to estal
lish a “break-away” union. In the 1957 negoti:
tions, a settlement was reached at the last
minute, following the intervention of B.C Pre-
mier Bennett. It provided a base increase of
seven and a half per cent, a full union shop, (a
benefit for which the union had struggled for
many years), and sixteen other important con-
tract improvements.

But 1958 was to prove very different, and
usher in a new period in which Syd Thompson
provided increasingly effective opposition, not
only to the then Vancouver Local’s President
Lloyd Whalen, and to District President Joe
Morris. As noted in an earlier article, Syd had
been a very active member of the Communist

arty up to 1949, then still Alberta organizer.

is own account is that he left the party at that
time, moved to B.C., and was never again a
member. Maurice Rush, on the other hand,
remembers Syd asking him and Alf Dewhurst
(a leading Communist forest worker) where he
could get a job in which he “could be of most
use to labour and the party.”””

In any event, Syd got a job at Western Ply-
woods, later to become Weldwood Kent, and
was soon a job steward, then plant chairman
The 1958 settlement was to provide the oppor-
tunity to run against Lloyd Whalen for the

residency of what was then the union’s largest
a 1, with a membership of 6000. Syd was cer-

al,
tainly not by that time a member of the Com-

munist the Party though Tom Clarke, a key
supporter, was a leader of the wood fraction of
the party. ‘The left wing must surely have wel-
comed the decision to run against Whalen. _
Lloyd Whalen had a long history in the ap
and a colourful political past. In the 1930's, he
had been a communist, and had worked on an

Fa (= 4 E 7

° Standing at a meeting held to combat racism in the 1950’s was District One research director Joe
Miyazawa. Sitting to his left is Al Pollard, conductor of Local 1-217 and member of the B.C. Federa-
tion of Labour’s anti-racism committee.

early attempt to organize Fraser Mills. During
the war, he emerged as.a Trotskyite, and later
as secretary of the C.C.F. labour group. He was
one of the most able and dedicated foes of the
District officers.

When the 1958 negotiations were opened in
March, the economy was at the low point of a
recession. The union was seeking a 10% across-
the-board increase, upward revision of trades-
men’s rates, and a “no-contracting-out” clause.
The employers responded with a proposal for
cuts, and a demand that the union incorporate
itself under the societies act, so that it could be
more readily sued for damages. The union
applied for conciliation. The Board, chaired by
U.B.C. Forestry Dean G.S. Allen, following “the
principle of recommending changes only when
the evidence in favour of such change is over-
whelming,” recommended no increase in wages.

The negotiating committee, armed with a
strike vote of only 65% (and many operations
voting against strike), felt it had no choice but
to apply “for further conciliation.” Justice Gor-
don Sloan was again brought into the picture
as a Royal Commissioner. He issued his report
early in August, proposing some contract
improvements, but no increase. The union’s
negotiation committee, arguing that it was
plainly spelled out for the I.W.A. that a strike
in the whole Coast lumber industry would be
an economic disaster of such proportions that
(government) interventions could be expected...
any gains to be secured would not justify a long
and bitter strike,” recommended acceptance,
and the membership accepted that recommen-
dation with a “decisive majority.”"”

But such protracted and disappointing nego-
tiations provide fertile ground for any opposi-
tion candidates, and Syd launched a very effec-
tive campaign against Whalen, branding him a
part of the “nickel leadership,” that had pro-
duced such unsatisfactory results. Whalen
responded by referring to Thompson’s “red”
past, and suggesting that to elect him would be
to return the union to the control of the Labour
Progressive (Communist) Party. That brought
Harold Pritchett back into the fray. For the
first time, he conceded that “While the desire
for a Canadian union for Canadian workers
was correct, the (1948) decision to secede and
transfer the union’s assets to the new organiza-
tion was premature and incorrect.

But he went on to cite Labour Gazette figures
to show that in 1948, the I.W.A. “was at the top
of the list in wage gains won. But we are now
at the bottom.” Thompson publicly disassoci-
ated himself from Pritchett’s intervention, and
declared in a letter to International President
Al Hartung, “My supporters and I strongly
resent any suggestion that Harold Pritchett is
master-minding or pulling the strings in this
election. No one is going to take that honour
away from me and my supporters.”

Syd was elected. He now led the union’s
largest local. From that position, and fortified
with the Presidency of the Vancouver Labour
Council, he harassed “Nickel Joe” Morris and
his successor Jack Moore mercilessly, and not
infrequently took on the B.C. Federation of
Labour and the C.L.C. as well, for the following
fifteen years. ‘

The existence of that powerful opposition was
probably a major factor in the lengthy Coast

VANCOUVER JOINT
LABOR COMMITTE

07 i
cious ware |

strike of 1959. The negotiating committee, and
especially Joe Morris, could not afford not to be
militant. The membership, encouraged by a
reviving economy and forest industry, provided
a 90% strike vote. After a seventy day strike,
the union won a twenty cent hourly increase,
with an additional ten cents for tradesmen, and

the beginnings of the “plywood evaluation
plan.”

Next Article: the I.W.A.’s Courageous effort
to Organize and fight for Newfoundland loggers
and the violent 1963 Strike in Kapuskasing.

FOOTNOTES

(1) See, for example: Abella, Irving, “Nation-
alism, Communism and Canadian
Labour.” University of Toronto Press,
Toronto, 1973; and Cochran, B., “Labor
and Communism.” Princeton University
Press, Princeton, N.J., 1977.

(2) Radforth, Ian, “Bushworkers and Bosses:
Logging in Northern Ontario, 1900 -
1980,” University of Toronto Press,
Toronto, 1987;‘and Magnuson, Bruce,
“The Untold Story of Ontario’s Bush-
workers, a Political Memoir.” Penguin
Books, Toronto, 1990; and Interview of
Fred Miron by Clay Perry, Dec. 11, 1997.

(8) International Woodworker, Issues of
November. and December, 1948. I.W.A.
CANADA Archives.

(4) In retrospect, it is striking that the very
sudden and total change in the largest of
B.C.’s unions was accomplished with so
little violence.

(5) Lembcke, Jerry and Tattum, William,
“One Union in Wood: A Political History
of the International Woodworkers of
America.” Harbour Publishing, Madeira
Park, B.C., 1984. :

(6) Proceedings, Twelfth Annual Conven-
tion, B.C. District No. 1, International
Woodworkers of America, C.1.0., C.C.L.,
Vancouver, B.C., Jan. 15-16, 1949, p.57.

(7) B.C. Lumber Worker, 1952 and 1953.
L.W.A. Canada Archives

(8) Bernsolm, Ken. “Slabs, Scabs and Skid-
ders, A History of the I.W.A. in the Cen-
tral Interior.” Published by Local 1-424,
LW.A. Prince George, B.C.

(9) B.C. Lumber Worker. 1945 issues. I.W.A.
CANADA Archives.

(10) Interview of Maurice Rush by Clay Perry,
‘April, 1997.

(11) B.C. Lumber Worker. Issues of April to
August, 1958.

(12) Thompson to Hartung, Dec. 11, 1958.
and campaign leaflets, 1958. 1.W.A.
CANADA Archives.

UBC Special Coll

LUMBERWORKER/DECEMBER 1997/29