~~

IWA ARCHIVES

= Erni Knott, seen here in
‘48, passed away in Dec.

Founding IWA member was

part of a pioneer generation
He was one of the last-known
survivors of a generation of IWA
pioneers who formed our union
in 1937. Erni Knott, faller, rig-
ging man, equipment operator,
blacksmith and jack-of-all
trades, died on December 22,
2003. Born in Nanaimo in 1919,
Erni was a founding member of
IWA-CIO Local 1-85 where he
carried union card No. 173.
Organizer Ernie Dalskog signed
Brother Knott up when he was
working on a float camp on
Stirling Arm (Sproat Lake Camp
3) near Port Alberni. In late ‘37
and ‘38 he moved to the
Franklin River Camp B where he
worked on the first power saws.
In the Port Alberni local, he met
and became friends with many
IWA pioneers including Dalskog,
Alf Dewhurst, Mark Mosher, Jim
Saxby and others. He was a
member of the CCF at the time.
Ernie witnessed the changes in
technology, from horse logging
to A-frame logging, to the start
of truck logging on wooden rails
and roads, to the early steam
skidders. He served in the RCAF
as an airplane mechanic from
1942 to the end of WWII. He
returned to work in the Albernis
and took part in the monumen-
tal IWA strike of 1946, which
saw the union get a substantial
wage increase for those times
and establish the 40 hour week.
In 1947, as an active member of
the Communist Party, he moved
to Nanaimo and became an offi-
cer of IWA-CIO Local 1-80. As
the Cold War raged, an all-out
attack on the red-led IWA mem-
+| bership in Canada ensued. Erni
joined the breakaway
Woodworkers Industrial Union
of Canada for its founding con-
vention in October of 1948. As
disaster befell the WIUC, he and
others were banned from hold-
ing IWA membership. Twenty-
five years later, in 1973, Local 1-
118 reinstated Brother Knott
with full rights. Tempered by the
extreme poverty of the Great
Depression and the struggle for
democracy in B.C., Erni was a
life-long rebel. He was an early
environmental activist, peace
activist and humanitarian. Erni
remained active in community
affairs and political action right
up until his final days. A large
wake was held in the Metchosin
Community Hall on January 11
where family, friends and com-
munity paid their honours to a
remarkable British Columbian.

IWA LOCAL 1-85 ARCHIVES

= During the LWIU’s monumental 1934 strike, workers walked in ‘snake
line’ formation to draw attention to their strike on Vancouver Island.

Strike in ‘34 was watershed for LWIU

IWA’s predecessor organization
walked out against Bloedel,

Stewart and Welch in big battle

When you look at the dust cover of
our history book, The IWA in Canada:
the Life and Times of an Industrial
Union, you'll see workers marching
side by side in “snake line” formation.
That classic snapshot, part of Port
Alberni Local 1-85’s archive collection,
shows striking members of the
Lumber Workers Industrial Union of
Canada marching in Port Alberni on
their way towards Great Central Lake,
to shut down logging operations sev-
enty years ago this spring.

The LWIU was the vanguard orga-
nization for woodworkers during the
Great Depression, uniting loggers
and millworkers in Ontario and B.C.
By December of 1933, key LWIU
organizers — men including Ame
Johnson, Hjalmar Bergren, Erick
Graff, George Jensen and Ted

Gunerud, led a meeting to call for a
50 per cent wage hike, recognition of
camp committees, overtime and
Sundays off for fallers at Bloedel,
Stewart and Welch operations. On
January 26, 1934 the B.C. Loggers
Association took action to fire 40 fall-
ers for supporting the union. The
next day a huge strike began.

Mass picket camps were set up in
Campbell River, Bowser and Port
Alberni. In the Campbell River area,
the camp swelled to over 500 workers
and supporters. The strike spread as
over 2,500 men in 20 camps walked
out in support of the LWIU.
Meanwhile Bloedel, Stewart and
Welch used scabs to reopen a camp
in Great Central Lake, near Port
Alberni. LWIU members marched
through Port Alberni (see photo
above) in “snake line” formation,
before dispersing into the bush to
hike towards Great Central Lake, in
order to scare the scabs off. Word got

out that the union was on the move.
After detecting that the company had
a multitude of police protecting the
scabs, backed up by a pair of machine
guns, the trek was called off. The
Department of Labour intervened,
ruling there should be limited wage
increases that paid higher skilled
workers more. The LWIU rejected it,
defending industrial unionism which
was fighting for the betterment of all
classes of workers. The employers
rejected the brokered deal and the
strike came to an end on May 6, 1934
as strikers drifted back to work.

A minor wage increase took place.
The strike was more a success in that
it mobilized thousands of workers for
the first time and further developed a
militant leadership for future strug-
gles. In B.C., the strike drew attention
from Harrison Lake, to the Cowichan
Valley, to Campbell River, to the
Queen Charlottes, as the union grew
by 3,000 members.

However, the union continued to
experience many difficulties. Many
strikers were fired after returning to
work. Three weeks after the strike
ended, three workers and four
LWIUC field organizers were force-
ably removed Elk River Timber Camp
8, near Campbell River, by special
police dressed in work clothes. The
B.C. Lumber Worker ran an article
claiming that the superintendent
instituted “a reign of terror in which
men are being fired for so much as
swearing at a scab.” Camp 8, said
one, “resembles more a ‘concentra-
tion camp’ in Nazi Germany than a
logging camp in British Columbia.”

LWIU members would continue to
fight black listing and other forms of dis-
ctimination. They would set up a sawmill
departmentin the union to help struggles
in the entire industry. They would assist
the formation of Ladies Auxiliaries and a
central strike fund.

By the end of May, 1934 the LWIU was
nearly $1,600 in debt. Its officers and
organizers continued to work for little
more than ocassional meals and lodging.

Federal labour law of
1944 granted bargaining
rights to seek the peace

THEY SOUGHT PEACE during war
times 60 years ago. In February of 1944,
the federal Liberal government of
William Lyon MacKenzie King passed
the famed Privy Council Order 1003, a
new Labour Code which said that, under
the National Labour Board, when work-
ers democratically decided to join a
union, there had to be compulsory col-
lective bargaining. As workers were
pushed harder, wartime industrialists
grew richer, while labour unrest grew.
With the June, 1944 invasion of
Western Europe by Allied forces around
the comer, the Liberals passed PC 1003
to assure basic war industries, such as
wood, metalworks, construction, trans-
portation, communications and public
service utilities remained uninterrupted.
Soon the B.C. government would shelve
provincial labour laws in favour of PC
1003. The International Woodworkers

NATIONAL ARCHIVES OF CANADA

= Labour unrest and the rise of the
CCF forced PM MacKenzie King to
grant bargaining rights to unions.

of America-CIO would immediately
gain between 3 - 4,000 members under
the legislation which eliminated a three
month wait for union membership after
a majority had signed cards. The time
from certification to the start of negotia-

tions was dropped to 10 days from 21.
The Board promised fair labour repre-
sentation on its 8 member tribunal,
there was a clearer definition of unfair
labour practices, and simplified concilia-
tion procedures. PC 1003 also allowed
unions to elect or appoint officers as bar-
gaining representatives.

The IWA and the rest of the labour
movement were four square behind the
war effort. In British Columbia, the
largest Labour Day on record saw record
crowds of participants march under a
“Worker-Warrior” unity theme. The slo-
gan adopted was “For Victory in the War
- Security in Peace.”

The federal government had already-
commissioned an IWA Hiring Hall to
scour the Vancouver inner-city for men
to send to the lumber camps. The irony
was apparent. The union agreed to par-
ticipate in the hiring hall scheme if lum-
ber operators did away with a blacklist,
that had existed for over a generation.

For many, PC 1003 was a Canadian
version of the Wagner Act, introduced by
President Roosevelt nine years earlier.

18 | THE ALLIED WORKER MARCH 2004