About this Collection
The International Woodworkers of America was established in 1937 to represent the interests of thousands of workers in the lumber industry of the Pacific Northwest.
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 organized in Ontario, Newfoundland, and Saskatchewan, as well as continuing to grow in the interior of British Columbia. By the 1970's 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.
Image source: MacMillan Bloedel Limited fonds. 1964. University of British Columbia. Library.
Archival Collections
- International Woodworkers of America-Canada Research Collection fondsThe 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.
- Amalgamated Society of Carpenters and Joiners, Vancouver First Branch fondsThe Amalgamated Society of Carpenters and Joiners organized a local chapter in Vancouver in 1889. After a two-month strike in 1889, some of the chapter's members split from the union, eventually forming a group that in 1890 became Local 617 of the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners.The fonds consists of 2 cm of textual records ranging in dates from 1889 to 1893, and includes minutes of meetings of the Vancouver First Branch of the Amalgamated Society of Carpenters and Joiners.
- Angus MacPhee CollectionAngus MacPhee enjoyed a long period of union activity, mainly in the Prince Rupert area prior to the formation of the Pulp and Paper Workers of Canada in 1963. He served as first Vice-President of the national organization from 1964 to 1967 and Secretary-Treasurer from 1968 to 1969. The organization changed its name to the Pulp, Paper and Woodworkers of Canada in 1971 and he became the business agent and national board member for Local No. 4. MacPhee served as national president from 1977 to 1982.
- Arne Johnson fondsArne Johnson (Jonassen) was born in Kingsberg, Norway, in 1896 and emigrated to Canada in ca. 1911-12. He began farming in Saskatchewan and moved to Nixon Camp near Chase, B.C., to become a logger. Johnson became a leading figure in B.C. Coast loggers' organizations by 1928 and was a major figure in the loggers' strike of 1934. During his work career, he was a member of the One Big Union-British Columbia Loggers' Union, Lumber Workers Industrial Union of Canada, Lumber and Sawmill Workers Union, United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America, International Woodworkers of America and the Woodworkers Industrial Union of Canada. He left union organizing to return to fall at various logging camps from 1936 until his retirement. During his career, his residences included Vancouver, Sointula, and Port McNeill. The fonds consists of documents relating to his career in logging, including membership cards in various union organizations; correspondence with Myrtle Bergren relating to her book, Tough Timber, on the history of the loggers of British Columbia; union correspondence, and minutes of some union meetings including a meeting of October 3, 1948 in which a motion was passed to disaffiliate the membership from the International Woodworkers of America (IWA) and form the Woodworkers Industrial Union of Canada.
- Harold Pritchett fondsHarold Pritchett was born in Birmingham, England and arrived in Port Moody, B.C. in 1912. He began working at the Thurston-Flavelle Mill in 1919 and gradually became involved in union activities. By 1931, he was Chairman of the Fraser Mills Strike Committee and President of the Shingle Weavers Union in 1933. He was elected president of the Independent Federation of Woodworkers in 1936; then with the affiliation of the Federation of Woodworkers to the Congress of Industrial Organizations, he was elected founding president. Pritchett resigned from activities in the United States in 1940 and became President of District Council No.1 (IWA) for British Columbia. Following a split in the Union, Pritchett helped organize the short-lived Woodworkers Industrial Union. The fonds consists of a scrapbook (1936-1939); clippings, printed material; correspondence (1970s); financial statements of B.C. District, IWA (1945-1947); ribbons and buttons for IWA and Labour Progressive Party conventions (1944-1948); subject files pertaining to his legal status while travelling in the United States (1936-1938); 31 prints of loggers' funerals and membership cards. The fonds also includes correspondence (1945-ca.1980), subject files, photographs (1940s), memorabilia (1936-1940) and membership books.
- International Woodworkers of America, Western Canadian Regional Council No. 1 fondsThe fonds consists of financial records, minutes, correspondence, legal documents, departmental files, broadcast transcripts, proceedings, convention reports, agreements, printed material and copies of the newspaper, British Columbia Lumber Worker. Also included in the fonds is the B. C. Lumber Worker Photograph Collection (1940-1982) which consists of images used in various publications to reflect the activities of the union.
- International Woodworkers of America. District Council No.1 fondsThe fonds consists of minutes, photographs, printed material, and correspondence relating mainly to union organization in the forest products industry (1931-1952), including the Lumber Workers' Industrial Union, Lumber and Saw Mill Workers Union, International Woodworkers of America, and Woodworkers Industrial Union of Canada, as well as to the activities of Harold Pritchett, whose correspondence up to 1979 is also included. There are, in addition, reports of convention, materials concerning wages and conditions in logging camps, a poster, and subject files on various strikes including those at Fraser Mills and Blubber Bay (1933-1944).
- Lumber Inspectors' Union. I.W.A. Local 1-288The Lumber Inspectors' Union fonds' consists of records necessary for the union to carry out its everyday operations, such as office files, minutes, financial records, correspondence etc. It also includes papers directly relating to the position of the financial secretary. Record types include correspondence, minutes of meetings, agreements, booklets, policies, reports, constitutions, information on other unions, booklets, financial and operating statements, ledgers, particulars on union members, manuals, arbitration cases, and reference material. The bulk of the records fall in the active period of the Union, which was between 1945 and 1980 ; a few records dealing with winding up the Union were also created in 1981 . The fonds has nine series: Operational files ; Minute books ; Financial records ; Financial ledgers ; Application, dues payment, and transfer records ; Arbitration cases reference files ; Register of attendance at meetings ; General information binder; and General reference material. The fonds also contains the Financial Secretary's sous-fonds, which has five series
- Northwest District Council of Carpenters fondsThe Northwest District Council of Carpenters was established in 1971 from Locals of the Carpenters in Kitimat and Prince Rupert and one Local of the Piledrivers and Bridgemen. The history of Local 1735 dated back to 1909 when Local 1735 was first chartered by the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America. The fonds contains 8.7 metres of textual records and consists of minute books for Carpenters' Locals 1735 (1922-1977) and 1081 (1953-1972) and the Piledrivers' Local 1549 (1944-1954). The fonds also includes correspondence, subject files, collective agreements and financial records from the union offices in Prince Rupert and Kitimat/Terrace.
UBC Theses and Dissertations
Browse theses and dissertations by UBC students related to the IWA in UBC Open Collections.
Supplementary Material
The IWA in Canada by Call Number: HD6528.L92 I92 2000ISBN: 0921586809Publication Date: 2000-01-01The IWA, while closely linked to BC, has played a crucial role in nearly every province in Canada, from the Queen Charlotte Islands to Grand Falls, Newfoundland. The IWA in Canada is a definitive history of the union that follows its progress and setbacks throughout the past century. Its predecessors, the Industrial Workers of the World, the One Big Union, and the Lumber Workers' Industrial Union are examined, as are the historical tensions between craft and industrial unionism, the drive to organize the "timber beasts", and the pioneering role of communist activists. Today, the legendary militancy of IWA members is being brought to bear on the legalistic negotiations, environmental movements, and evolutions in governmental forest policy that continue to pose challenges. Generously illustrated with historical and present'day photographs, and enriched by numerous interviews with founding unionists, The IWA In Canada also features capsule histories of each local. In'depth analysis of specific issues and events such as the mysterious death of Viljo Rosval and Jon Voutilainen, the fight for relief in the Great Depression and the Loggers' Navy can be found in sidebars that enhance the text throughout.
One Union in Wood by Call Number: HD6515.W6 L45 1984ISBN: 092008043XPublication Date: 1983-01-01This outspoken, thoroughly documented study covers the development of one of North America's most important industrial unions from its beginnings to the present. Personalities, issues, and conflicts are analysed with meticulous care."The two authors of this book, Wm. Tattam and Dr. Jerry Lembcke are to be congratulated for a job well done. They have spent years of patient work, research, hundreds of interviews and many miles of travel to produce a true and factual picture of woodworkers' struggles to organize a strong union."-Harold Pritchett, Founding President of the I.W.A.
Capital and Labour in the British Columbia Forest Industry, 1934-74 by Call Number: HD9764.C33 B752 2006ISBN: 9780774813075Publication Date: 2006-12-06The history of British Columbia's economy in the twentieth century is inextricably bound to the development of the forest industry. In this comprehensive study, Gordon Hak approaches the forest industry from the perspectives of workers and employers, examining the two institutions that structured the relationship during the Fordist era: the companies and the unions. He relates daily routines of production and profit-making to broader forces of unionism, business ideology, ecological protest, technological change, and corporate concentration. The struggle of the small-business sector to survive in the face of corporate growth, the history of the industry on the Coast and in the Interior, the transformations in capital-labour relations during the period, government forest policy, and the forest industry's encounter with the emerging environmental movement are all considered in this eloquent analysis.
Open Collections
Search for photographs of workers and lumber history in one of the following resources held by UBC Open Collections.
MacMillan Bloedel Limited fonds
Image source: [Unknown]. (1947). Aerial view of forests at Nanaimo South Fork [P]. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.14288/1.0350260