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| Bill Tieleman with Jack Munro at launch of No BC STV in March 2009 Jack Munro, Rest in Peace Brother |
Monday November 18, 2013
"They
hurt you at home and they hit you at school/ They hate you if you're clever and
they despise a fool/ Till you're so crazy you can't follow their rules"
- John
Lennon, Working Class Hero
Jack
Munro was a true working class hero.
I
really didn't think so at first -- not as a young left-winger bitterly
disappointed that British Columbia's Solidarity movement had
backed away from a general strike in 1983 against unfair Social Credit legislation
attacking unions, renters, women, teachers and students.
Munro,
then IWA-Canada union president, went to premier Bill Bennett's Kelowna home on
behalf of the B.C. Federation of Labour to sign a deal ending the
confrontation. Like many, I held him responsible for giving in and giving up.
But
back then I didn't know Jack. And he wasn't yet my friend.
Last
Friday, Jack Munro passed away at 82, after battling cancer.
He
leaves behind a rich legacy of fighting for working people throughout his
career, and tireless efforts to preserve B.C.'s labour history, too.
Classic
Munro
Munro
was literally larger than life -- six-foot-five and 265 pounds, with hands so
big they were described as large as "hams," a huge, booming voice and
a fondness for swearing regularly and impressively.
Born
into poverty, his father died of tuberculosis when Munro was just 11, and his
destitute mother was forced to move the family to a relief farm in the
Depression.
He left
high school in Grade 10 to work, a tough life that many others would never
overcome. But Munro did, and found his calling in the labour movement, becoming
a welder and millwright in a forest industry that was incredibly deadly for
workers.
He
eventually rose to become president of the International Woodworkers of America
union in Canada in 1973.
To
understand how tough it was to be a union activist in the 1950s and '60s,
consider this story I heard Munro tell at his retirement dinner in 1992.
"One
day, Syd Thompson and I went at night to knock at the door of a guy we wanted
to join the IWA in a plant we were organizing. The guy opened the door with a
loaded shotgun pointed at us and said: 'You've got three seconds to get off my
property before I shoot you both.' We ran like hell and when we were down the
road, Syd asked if I was scared. Scared? Syd, you couldn't drive a hatpin up my
asshole with a fucking sledgehammer!"
It
brought down the house. Classic Munro!
Vilified
by some
Today's
union members often forget how tough it was to be a labour activist in those
days, facing constant threats from employers, police, the courts and even
hostile workers.
Munro's
life truly was about protecting workers and their unions.
That's
why I later understood his reasons for ending the Solidarity job action before
it became a general strike. Munro knew that the Social Credit government would
win the fight eventually and then take revenge on unions in the worst possible
ways -- which would hurt workers, not union leaders, the most, and for years to
come.
The
decision by union leaders to send Munro to Kelowna to negotiate with Bennett
was unanimous -- as Allan Garr's book Tough Guy outlines: "They also knew
that the [Solidarity] coalition would accuse them of selling out the community
groups when the deal went down and figured Munro could take the heat."
Munro
was vilified by many, even attacked in a poem by Tom Wayman, and lost his seat
as a vice-president of the B.C. Federation of Labour in a convention vote that
followed.
But he
persevered, and anyone who doubted his union credentials was persuaded in 1986
when he led the IWA on the most expensive strike the province ever saw -- an
18-week shutdown over contracting out union jobs that cost the forest industry
an estimated $2.5 billion.
The
same year, Munro took the Canadian section out of the U.S.-based IWA, becoming
IWA-Canada. He stepped out of the presidency in 1992 and -- again
controversially -- became chair of the B.C. Forest Alliance, an industry-funded
group defending logging practices against rising environmental protests.
Not
only a labour hero
I first
met Munro in 1992 when I started work at the B.C. Federation of Labour as
research director and then communications director and assistant to president
Ken Georgetti.
Contrary
to my first impressions formed in the Solidarity days, Munro was far from the
self-described "old-style, loud-mouthed trade union leader who pops off at
the drop of a hat." He was thoughtful, smart, dedicated and to my
surprise, quite humble.
One of
his constant topics was the need for the New Democratic Party and public sector
unions to recognize the importance of resource extraction industries to British
Columbia's economy -- forestry, mining, oil and gas.
Without
the jobs, taxes and revenues they produced, Munro pointed out, B.C. would
simply not be able to afford the social programs the province needed, nor the
public sector wages its unionized workers expected.
Munro's
opinion never changed on that, and it remains highly relevant today, perhaps
leading to the B.C. NDP's surprise election defeat this year after it changed
direction mid-campaign to oppose the Kinder Morgan pipeline expansion.
He also
never limited himself to labour issues.
In
2005, veteran former government deputy minister Bob Plecas and I approached
Munro with a request: would he join us and others in publicly opposing the
Single Transferable Vote (STV) electoral system?
TV had
been proposed by the B.C. Citizens
Assembly, a brainchild of former B.C. Liberal premier Gordon
Campbell, to replace the current first-past-the-post system.
I
explained to Munro the problems we believed STV would cause if implemented, the
chaos it would create by using multi-member constituencies of up to six MLAs
instead of each riding having its own MLA, and that it was only used nationally
by Malta and Ireland.
Munro
looked at me in amazement and said: "Bill, that's just fucking
goofy!" And so he joined NO BC STV,
winning us credibility with both union members who knew Jack's past, and others
who simply admired the no-nonsense, gruff style of Munro.
If
Munro said STV was a bad idea, well goddamn it, it must be! He fit right in with
NO BC STV, an eclectic group of prominent British Columbians that bridged the
usual political divide of the province.
The
group included former NDP cabinet ministers Anita Hagen and Anne Edwards, and
ex-Social Credit ministers Bud Smith and Bruce Strachan, as well as two members
of the Citizens' Assembly. We also convinced former premiers Bill Bennett and
Dave Barrett to oppose STV, the first time they had publicly agreed on any
major political issue.
A
personal highlight for me was introducing Munro to Andrea Reimer, then-Green
Party Vancouver School Board trustee and now Vancouver city councillor -- two
people about as far apart as I could imagine in B.C.
Watching
them exchange business cards and chat, I realized that this big tent coalition
might be enough to stop the STV steamroller. And it did, just barely in 2005,
when the pro-STV forces got 58 per cent of the vote in favour but fell short of
the 60 per cent needed.
A
last, great passion
Munro's
last great passion was to promote the Labour Heritage Centre,
dedicated to publicizing B.C.'s rich labour history.
Munro
served as chair of the Labour Heritage Centre, which in 2010 completed its
first project -- a series of
educational panels on labour history both inside and on the exterior
of the Vancouver Convention Centre.
One of
the panels is about the On-to-Ottawa
Trek, a protest sparked by unemployed workers that started in
Vancouver and ended in Regina. The RCMP stopped 1,000 striking relief camp
workers from continuing to the nation's capital.
 |
| On To Ottawa Trek plaque outside Vancouver Convention Centre |
Colourful,
controversial, charismatic: Jack Munro was all those things and more, but he
would want most to be remembered for sticking up for the working person,
fighting for union rights and demanding labour be respected by those in power.
"If
I had to sum up what it is I've tried to accomplish, it is to make trade unions
an accepted part of society," Munro wrote in his 1988 autobiography, Union
Jack.
Jack Munro:
Well done, brother.
NOTE: This is a special column written for The Tyee. My 24 Hours Vancouver column today - Tuesday - is also about Jack Munro but a very different and shorter version.
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8 comments:
I had a lot of admiration for Jack Munro. While he was fully of bluster and bombast for his peanut gallery, in reality he was a pragmatist who knew that it's better to back down and fight another day if need be.
He also understood the need for a robust economy, which is lost on many NDPers. This is ironic to say the the least, since the NDP has now become a party that only truly represents government employees.
Munro was also correct in 1983. His real mistake was letting it go as far as it did. Like it or not, unions can't make public policy if and NDP government is not in power. That has only happened three times since 1871.
When the Tumbler Ridge coal deal was completed Jack & Dave celebrated(at a private party) with chamagne.
Was that because it was a good deal for BC or was ir was a good deal for Jack & Dave??
Solidarity was working until somebody blinked.
In the end it just turned out to be a release of a lot of hot air, a waste of a lot of people's time and in the end, just plain embarrassing.
The fight was about justice and respect and those two things should never be considered a public policy alternative.
And the statement that unions can't make public policy is nonsense.
I fear the leaders of organized labor in this province lost a golden opportunity in 1983.
Yes he did some good for the IWA parity with the coast agreement, but for the most part a lame duck.
Pension plan is terrible compared to there counter parts in the pulp unions who fought for better pension plan and won. As For solidarity he was a embarrassing like the other com-mentor said. We are as the working class, still suffering today from his Kelowna accord.
Solidarity got away from itself. It ended up being a runaway cause, and was stupidly managed by those who just wanted to cater to anything The Leftwing wackos wanted. It was run by Art Kube, not Jack Munro.
Almost every special interest group on the left wanted a card with Solidarity on it which pointed out the "problems they wanted to rise up against".
Even Stan Perksy the left wing book writer got in on it with his Solidarity Times.
The NDP was nowhere to be seen at that time. They were too busy hiding
As a former logger and IWA member, I have a degree of respect and liking for Jack. However, I felt he copped out with Mini-Wac and worse yet helped preside over the eventual death of the IWA as being relevant, though he certainly wasn't to blame.
For a while I was affiliated with the Coast Loggers Local, which cover the North Coast, Northern (or maybe more) Vancouver Island and what is now Haida Gwaii. Later I was with the Interior/Kootenay local and they were complete wimps. Most logging was done by non-union contractors (who paid well for production) and the few unionized loggers had no voice being drown out by (gasp) mill-workers whose interests were very different than those of us who worked in the bush.
yes, Jack Munro and Syd Thomson certainly were a pair. They don't make guys like that anymore.
The meeting in Kelowna simply was a way for the unions to save themselves. It was a war which could not be won. The government would have enacted leg. and that would not only have been the end of unions but a lot of other social entities. Jack Munro did the only thing he could have. It was all well and good for everyone else to go ya, ya, ya solidarity but it was the unions and its members who did most of the organizing and funding.
The 60th birthday dinner for Jack's nearest and dearest was a classic, as were the stories about him and his career and that spotted owl.
He was not perfect, but he cared about people and social justice. He was a good friend. Anyhow a guy who loved roses can't be all bad.
May he rest in peace.
Memorial for the great Jack Munro is 2 pm today - Saturday January 4 - at the Vancouver Convention Centre, West Building – 301-305 Summit Rooms, 1055 Canada Place.
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