History of the I.W.A.

Continued from page twenty-six

cial labour department authorities, and encoun-
tered at least as much employer interference,
as their brothers on the West Coast had.

But unlike B.C., Northern Ontario bushwork-
ers retained their camp-level organization and
leadership. Complete files and records, collec-
tive agreements and modest bank accounts
were available for the continued operation of
the union. Just as important, capable, dedi-
cated organizers Lothar Bode, Andre Wellsby
and Tulio Mior were appointed soon after the
trusteeship. Mior, who had spent many years
as a bushworker, was to become president of
the Thunder Bay local in 1957, and hold that
post until succeeded by Fred Miron in 1982.

Despite the turmoil at the top level of the
Lumber and Saw, the union was able to func-
tion smoothly throughout the fifties, negotia-
tion contracts that were generally satisfactory
to the bushworkers, and increasing member-
apnea less than 2,000 in 1951 to over 16,000
in 1957.

UBC Special Collections

¢ Local 1-80 business agent Tony Poje was
jailed for contempt of court and was elected
local president while in the brig.

Circumstances faced by the I.W.A. in British
Columbia were very different. The departing
communist leadership took with them member-
ship and negotiating records, funds, and, in
some cases, even furniture. The International
arranged temporary funding (much of it from
the U.A.W., which was involved in a similar
struggle between communist and non-commu--
nist factions), and hurriedly appointed a tempo-
rary slate of officers; Stewart Alsbury (New
Westminster) as President, Lloyd Whalen
(Vancouver) as 1st Vice-President, John Squire
(Alberni) as 2nd, Gordon McEntee (Courtenay)
as 3rd, Mike Sekora (Vancouver) as Secretary-
Treasurer and W.S. Lynch, Neil Shaw and Joe
Morris as Trustees. Also employed were a num-
ber of business agents, including Tom McKen-
zie, Fred Feiber, Frank Howard, Tom Bradley.
and Andy Smith.

This inexperienced set of officers and staff,
without records, faced a difficult situation,
while fending off the rival “Woodworkers Indus-
trial Union of Canada,” they had to conduct
negotiations, arrange for a convention early in
1949, and deal with two very difficult issues;
union political action, especially their relation-
ship to the C.C.F., which had been endorsed by
the Canadian Congress of Labour, and a strike
at Iron River on the east coast of Vancouver
Island.

In November of 1948 two fallers from a
MacMillan camp at Iron River were fired, Als-
bury as appointed District President attempted
to deal with the matter by negotiations, but
W.U.L.C. forces, very strong in the camp, orga-
nized a “wild-cat,” immediately declared illegal
by the Labour Relations Board. The one hun-
dred man crew was completely shut down. __

From the perspective of the W.I.U.C., the sit-
uation Beaantan' an opportunity to take control
of an operation where they were very strong,
and perhaps use that as a lever to retain at
least most of the old logging jurisdiction, and
into the bargain, showing themselves to be mil-
itant and their opponents to be “in bed with the
bosses.”

The new I.W.A. officers believed that, no
matter how they might otherwise look at the
“negotiate or wildcat?” question, they had to
wrest control of the situation form their rivals.
It would be intolerable for them to represent

only sawmills that
depended for their log
supply on W.1.U.C.-con-
trolled logging camps,
and in any event, they
had to show that they
were in control. So Als-
bury, Whalen and
Bradley attempted to
lead the twenty-five log-
gers willing to work
across the W.I.U.C.
picket line. A brawl
ensured, in which Als-
bury suffered broken
ribs. “”

The “White Bloc”
countered by assem-
bling a very large force
of counter-picketers,
many, reputedly, from
Washington and Ore-
gon States, to get will-
ing loggers to work.
(The W.I.U.C. also ||
brought “reinforce-
ments” in from some
distance). Five Iron
River pickets were
charged with the
“assault” on Alsbury.
The W.I.U.C. main-
tained the ever-dimin-
ishing picket line until
April of 1949, but the
issue was to be settled,
not at picket lines, but
in membership votes in
favour of maintaining
the I.W.A., and by court
and Labour Relations
Board rulings. The
W.U.L.C. received only |
nine certifications. Rec-

ognizing the failure of ° Northern

their attempt to estab- engine. Photo taken near Marathon in 1952.

lish a rival, indepen-
dent union, in their second convention in April
of 1949, they called for “re-uniting” of wood-
workers’ ranks.

But the new I.W.A. officers faced a more last-
ing and vexing internal problem. Many of the
most active early White Bloc activists, espe-
cially from the New Westminster local, were
opposed to any political affiliation,(some, per-
haps, because of an incli-

port of the C.C.F. and urged that “we support
any candidate, financially and morally, regard-
less of political party, who will support labor,”
revealed the schizophrenic attitude of the
union, and fundamental attitudes of many of
its prominent leaders. Lloyd Whalen, then
President of the big Vancouver Local 217, led
the pro-C.C.F. side, though declaring himself
not a member of the

nation to the Liberals,
which they knew would
not fly with union
activists), and certainly
one of the most effective
messages that they car-
ried to camps and mills
was against “politics in
the union.”

But, especially in the
later stages of the devel-

party. Joe Morris was

In the 1950s, woodworkers’ Preiinsn’ on the ne
unions made major gains
on wages and working
conditions in British
Columbia and Ontario.

should, as good trade
unionists, realize the
necessity of keeping
political action out of
our union. We, as work-
ers, know our place in
society. We are work-
ers. We realize it.”®.

opment of opposition to
the communist leadership, C.C.F. activists
became more prominent, and their expectation,
bolstered by the Canadian Congress of Labour
endorsation, was that the union would vigor-
ously support the C.C.F..

The matter was debated at length in the
I.W.A.’s January 1949 convention. A curious
resolution that both endorsed the C.C.L.’s sup-

Morris was soon to
change his mind on this issue, at least as
regards support of the C.C.F. It is an irony of
which he was probably never aware that he
himself was not content with “a worker’s place
in society.”

Joe Morris replaced Alsbury in 1953, ina
closely-fought election, and remained in that

Continued on page twenty-eight

; ey
° Typical bunkhouse in the 1940s shows central heater and clothes drying near beds. The Lumber
and Sawmill Workers’ Union demanded changes to camp conditions.

LUMBERWORKER/DECEMBER 1997/27