Fred Miron

Continued from page twenty-seven
were killed and eight men were
injured by gun fire during a long
and bitter strike against Spruce
Falls Power and Paper in Kapuskas-
ing.

Fred was a member of the negoti-
ating committee of the two LSWU
locals, which was seeking a 40 hour
week, when those events took place.

“A lot of people thought it was
just a bunch of farmers who opened
fire on the strikers, who were out to
tip over wood piles that were headed
to the mill,” he said. “But in reality
the scab wood was brought in by a
large co-op that had been taken over
by a bunch of crooks in Montreal.”

That and other strikes endured
by LSWU members were few, but
bitter.

“When the LSWU went on strike,
it was for survival and the very exis-
tence of the union was at stake.”

Local 2698 struck against con-
tracting out at Boise Cascade opera-
tions in Kenora and Fort Frances,
Ontario. The company wanted all of
their equipment to be taken over by
owner operators who would pay
their own capital costs, expenses,
fuel and do their own maintenance.

“It was a bitter strike where the
company tried to bust the union,”
said Brother Miron. “We knew from
experience that a 5 day work week
would turn into a 7 day work week
with long days.”

The members at Fort Frances
wildcatted starting in July of 1978
to stop the company from going to
owner-operators, three months
before their contract expired.

The Ontario Labour Relations
Boards ruled against the strike and
then a court order ruled that strik-
ers had to pay fines of $25 per day
for every day on the picket line. The
courts then ruled that workers’ bank
accounts could be seized.

In October, the Kenora crew went
out and a bitter strike followed.
Over 200 Ontario Provincial Police
were involved in helping scabs go to
work. Picket lines incidences saw
Brother Miron, Brother Wilf McIn-
tyre (who succeed Miron as presi-
dent of Local 2693 and is now I.W.A.
CANADA’s national fifth vice presi-
dent) and others thrown into jail.

The union lost the strike due to
the company’s and police’s strike-
breaking tactics.

“The strike served its purpose
because it stopped other companies
from trying the same thing,” said
Miron. “They all backed off because
we told them at the bargaining table
that they would be facing similar
strike actions.

“Every one of our members at
Boise Cascade knew during the
strike that they were taking the
brunt for our whole union.”

POLITICAL AWARENESS DEVELOPED

When he started working asa
union member Fred wasn’t that
politically aware of what went on
behind the scenes. Growing up ina
household where his father was a
logging contractor and a life-long
Liberal, he didn’t have a background
in trade unionism,

“I remember the first modern-
style camp I went to, there was a
camp bullcook who spoke to me
about the CCF (the Cooperative
Commonwealth Federation, which
was the predecessor of the NDP),”
said Fred. “This guy made sense to
me so I joined the CCF in 1959.”

During one federal election, vari-
ous candidates came to speak to the
membership at a camp where Fred
started working. Those were the
Cold War years and the camp mem-
bership was very conservative.

Fred heard a candidate of the
Communist Party speak for the
workers’ support.

“J didn’t really know much about
the party or what it stood for but
what he was saying made sense to

° The National Executive Board held a reception for Fred, pictured here with partner Marilyn Miller on his left.

me so I voted for him,” said Fred.

Then all hell broke loose.

“TI remember them saying they'll
figure out who the Commie was in
this camp. They talked about finger
printing the ballots to find out who,”
said Fred, who was intimidated at
the time.

As time went on he began to meet
more leftists within the ranks of the
LSWU.

“The union was largely formed by
European communists in the 1930’s
and 1940’s, so there were a lot of
members that were active right up
until the 1960’s and later,” he said.
“Some camps had over half their
membership in the party.”

In fact until the mid-1970’s, mem-
bership cards of the United Broth-
erhood of Carpenters and Joiners
had a declaration on them that the
worker had to declare that he/she
was not a communist or in agree-
ment with the communist philoso-
phy.

“T didn’t think that they should
ask that question here in Canada
and I resented it,” he added. Both
Miron and Tulio Mior, who was pres-
ident of Local 2693 from 1958-1983,
refused to fill in that part of the
membership application when they
signed up new members.

“I always considered myself as a
socialist and had some sympathies
for the programs of the (Commu-
nist) party — I thought they had
some good ideas.”

Fred later became part of an
“Action Caucus” at Ontario Federa-
tion of Labour Conventions, which
included former I.W.A. Region Two
president Jean Marie Bedard, and
other union members from such
organizations as the United
Autoworkers and the International
Brotherhood of Electrical Workers.

The person who had one of the
largest influences on Fred was Tulio
Mior, who he succeeded in 1983. He
remained friends with Brother Mior
until his death in 1991.

“Tulio was a great man and a real
role model for me and many, many
others,” reflected Fred. “He never
forgot where he came from and where
his roots were.”

“He always said to keep the mem-
bership in the forefront and to have
faith in them. I have always remem-
bered that.” :

Under Mior’s leadership major
gains were made for the member-

ship in the 1960’s and 1970’s in term
of wages and benefits.

FOUR TERMS AS I.W.A. NATIONAL V.P.

When former national fourth vice
Bill Pointon retired in 1990, Brother
Miron ascended in the union to
become fifth national vice president.
He moved from Thunder Bay to the
union’s national office in Weston,
Ontario.

At that time, Bob Rae’s New
Democrats were newly elected as a
majority government in the province.

“We were ecstatic at the time,”
said Miron. “I couldn’t believe that
we were now the government — a
majority one at that. All of us had
tears in our eyes to have worked so
long to see our party come to power.”

“We knew that the NDP was in
for a rough ride, but we didn’t know
how rough it would eventually get.
The (Canada - U.S.) free trade agree-
ment was just put into place and
tens of thousands of jobs were being
lost as plant after plant relocated to
the United States or American multi-
nationals would simply shut down
their branch plants in Canada.”

The Rae government did a lot of
good things for unions, said Miron,
including anti-scab laws, automatic
certification procedures, first con-
tract arbitration and better protec-
tions for workers in areas of health
and safety.

From 1991-95, before the Conser-
vative government of Mike Harris
came to power, the I.W.A.organized
between 500-700 members per year
in the province.

“The anti-union legislation
brought in by the Harris govern-
ment in 1995 has probably cost our
union between 1,500 - 2,000 new
members,” estimates Miron. “Since
1995 we have lost vote after vote
due to employer interference.”

During the Rae years, Miron

layed a key role in helping formu-

ate a new Ontario Forest Indus-
tries Association Forest Practices
Code, which was introduced in Feb-
ruary of 1993. He sat on an inde-
pendent task force appointed the
previous year and pushed the
I.W.A.’s policy throughout the
process.

The code recognized government
legislation, forest guidelines and
operations manuals.

“I saw to it that there was whis-

tle-blower protection added to the
code to protect our members who
would could report environmental
violations,” he said. “It was a major
step forward in the early 1990's.”

In 1998, following the retirement
of national officers Fernie Viala and
Roger Stanyer, Miron became the
union’s national second vice presi-
dent.

Miron started a process to get the
union more active in the Ontario
Federation of Labour. He arranged
payment of per capita to the OFL by
individual local unions. Together
locals began to send up to 15 dele-
gates to OFL conventions.

By arranging to have staff mem-
bers and local union officers on vari-
ous committees the I.W.A’s name
has become better known.

In 1995 Brother McIntyre become
an executive officer in the OFL,
with widespread endorsement from
other union affiliates. The union
became even more active within the
NDP, despite all of the divisions
that happened in the labour move-
ment during the Rae years.

LOOKING TOWARDS THE FUTURE

Brother Miron said that Ontario,
Quebec and the Maritimes offer
huge potential to the I.W.A. and he
is a full supporter of the union’s
organizing and growth strategy.

“I think that the I.W.A. has no
where to go but forward and up,” he
said. “I think that the organizing
program we have now will work,
and the I.W.A. will become a house-
hold word in Ontario and the east.”

“The I.W.A. is a great union that
will grow although I see a lot a dark
clouds ahead for unions. Unions are
going to start eating each other for
members.”

‘a He cautioned about growing too
ig.

“At one time in the Carpenters we
had 900,000 members (it now has
about 300,000) and it just became a
huge bureaucracy,” he said.

In January, Fred plans to move
back to Thunder Bay where his heart
lies, so he can enjoy the outdoors
once again,

He intends to retire fully, at least
for the first year.

“J will always remain a trade
unionist and promote our union
in whatever capacity I can,” he con-
cluded.

SR
28/LUMBERWORKER/DECEMBER, 1998