Fonds RBSC-ARC-1779 - International Woodworkers of America-Canada Research Collection fonds

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International Woodworkers of America-Canada Research Collection fonds

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  • Textual record

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Fonds

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RBSC-ARC-1779

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Physical description

1.5 metres of textual records.

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Name of creator

(1937-)

Administrative history

For years following the Great Depression, lumber workers in the heavily wooded west coast had experienced severe pay-cuts, poor working conditions, and unemployment. Loggers in British Columbia successfully organized enough workers at Fraser Mills to hold a strike in 1931 under the title of the Lumber Workers Industrial Union (LWIU). Shifting political orientations led the LWIU to disband and its members to join the American Federation of Labour and the Trade and Labour Congress of Canada (AFL-TLC). They joined as a sub-section of the Carpenters’ Union and, there were treated as ‘second-class’ members, without the right to vote in the union. In 1936 woodworkers on the west coast met to form the Federation of Woodworkers to protest their treatment within the AFL. In 1937, the Federation voted to affiliate with the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) and form their own autonomous union, the International Woodworkers of America (IWA). Harold Pritchett became the first president of the IWA, although some in the union opposed his affiliation with the Communist Party of Canada (CPC).

After its formation in 1937, the IWA worked to gain legislative support for union bargaining rights. A strike held at Blubber Bay in 1938 resulted in police violence against workers, and several unionists were jailed. After a year of strike efforts, the union called off the strike. Its resources and membership were both depleted as a result. The next few years brought about World War Two and with it an extreme increase in the need for resources and the labour to provide them. Legislation in Canada shifted towards providing rights for labour organizers, and the IWA’s membership increased, as they successfully bargained for shorter work-weeks, higher pay, and better living conditions in logging camps. As the war came to a close the union was challenged based on its leadership’s communist affiliations.

The cold-war which followed World War Two coincided with increased clashing between union members over political ideology. Union activities continued despite these internal rifts, and in 1946 the B. C. District Council 1 of the IWA won a 40 hour work week and wage increase for over 30,000 employees in the province. But by the late 1940s increased state surveillance and fear of communist activities plagued the Union leadership. The so-called anti-communist ‘white bloc’ accused ‘red’ union members of embezzling funds, and while external audits revealed no evidence for this, anti-communist members of the union utilized ‘The Voice of the IWA’ newspaper and radio-show to propagate this rhetoric. In 1948 some members from this ‘red bloc’, including former president Harold Pritchett, formed the separate Woodworkers Industrial Union of Canada (WIUC). WIUC failed to organize a majority of woodworkers and by 1951 was dissolved, with the WIUC executive recommending its members return to the IWA.

The IWA turned to a social democratic leadership and continued bargaining for wage improvements for their members. They worked in Ontario, Newfoundland, and Saskatchewan, as well as continuing to grow in the interior of British Columbia. By the 1970s the IWA in region 1, British Columbia, represented over 40,000 members, and in region 2, eastern Canada over 10,000 workers. The IWA successfully negotiated employer funded pension plans, health and welfare plans and increased wages for all workers.

The late 1970s and early 1980s resulted in an economic recession in Canada and members of the IWA suffered job-lay offs as lumber and wood processing companies were forced to close their doors. As inflation rose, the union fought for wage increases and job security with mixed success. These issues continued into the 1990s, which saw IWA members impacted by the Canada-US Free-trade deal. The unions’ constituents were also impacted by land-use deals, and changes in technology.

Throughout all of these dynamic factors, the IWA in Canada persisted in advocating for the rights of woodworkers. They were committed to overcoming racial divides amongst workers, organizing white, Japanese, Chinese, and Indigenous workers together to face the common goal of better working conditions and wages. There was also a strong female presence in the union in the form of the IWA Women’s Auxiliary chapters. In the late 1980s, the international union split in two, and the officially separate Canadian union, which formed in 1987, was simply called IWA Canada. In 1994 delegates voted to rename the Canadian chapter the Industrial, Wood, and Allied Workers of Canada (IWA Canada). In 2004 the executive of the IWA voted to merge with the United Steel Workers (USW) and became the “Wood Council” district of the USW. The union continues to function under this title today.

Custodial history

Scope and content

The fonds consists of records collected by Clay Perry related to the International Woodworkers of America – Canada (IWA). It primarily consists of records generated by the union in the course of its operation, records created by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, who gathered surveillance on the IWA-Canada and its predecessors for several years, as well as research material collected and created by Perry himself, including transcripts of interviews, news clippings, scrapbooks, and pamphlets and booklets on unions in British Columbia.
The fonds is comprised of the following series: Union records series; Legal records and police files series; and Research materials series.

The Union records series contains records related to the main functions of the IWA, the WIUC, and IWA local chapters, including Local 1-357, of which Perry was a member. These functions included: financial administration, executive elections, producing literature and newsletters, strike activities, and correspondence. Record types include constitutions and by-laws of the union, conference materials, minutes of meetings, press releases, informational pamphlets, correspondence, bulletins and newsletters, news clippings, and executive reports.

The Legal records series contains records related to the IWA’s legal activities, including court disputes over negotiations, strikes, and employee and bargaining rights. It also contains records generated by the RCMP in gathering information on the IWA. Record types include court records, appeals, depositions, legal acts, and police reports on union activity.

The Research materials series comprises materials collected or created by Perry in his research of the history of the union. The series contains news-clippings and scrapbooks related to the IWA and the labour movement in Canada, research notes, transcripts of interviews and oral histories given by union members, publications related to the IWA, the labour movement, and communism, and theses of labour scholars on the IWA.

Notes area

Physical condition

Files are generally in good condition.

Immediate source of acquisition

All records have been acquired from Clay Perry.

Arrangement

The physical order in which records were received has been maintained; original order has been re-constituted intellectually.

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Terms governing use, reproduction, and publication

Some records in the fonds are still protected under copyright. Permission to reproduce copyrighted materials must be obtained from the copyright holder(s).

Finding aids

Finding aid available in this database.

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No further accruals are expected.

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Dates of creation, revision and deletion

The fonds was arranged, processed, and described by Claire Williams in December 2017.

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Sources

Information derived from the following sources:
-Records within the fonds
-The IWA in Canada : The Life and Times of an Industrial Union: http://www.worldcat.org/title/iwa-in-canada-the-life-and-times-of-an-industrial-union/oclc/47624098
-United Steel Workers web page: History of the Wood Council: https://www.usw.ca/districts/wood
-University of Washington Seattle Civil Rights and Labour History Project: Harold Pritchett: Communism & the International Woodworkers of America http://depts.washington.edu/civilr/Harold_Pritchett.htm

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