Roger Crowther Interview: CAIMAW Leader & Peace Activist

Roger Crowther was brought up in a working-class mining family in Hedley and Hope. His father was active in his union and in the community, which helped to inspire Roger’s activism. In 1972, working at the Bethlehem Copper Mine in Ashcroft, Roger organized the workers into the first Canadian Association of Industrial and Mechanical Workers (CAIMAW) mining local. Roger served as secretary-treasurer of his local union, on the national executive board of CAIMAW and in 1976 became a national representative responsible for negotiating and servicing truck and auto workplaces in the lower mainland.

In 1980, Roger led the seven-and-a-half-month strike at the Canadian Kenworth truck plant in Burnaby where the 350 union members, nearly all of whom were men, fought for pay equity for seven women data processing workers who had been recently organized by the union.

Roger helped to organize service sector workers, including the McDonald’s workers in Squamish which became the first certified union local at a McDonald’s in North America. He was very active in the fight against free trade in 1987-1988. Roger played a significant role in getting members of the labour and environmental movements together to establish dialogue. He supported the merger with the Canadian Auto Workers in 1991.

Throughout his career he has had a strong commitment to his family, and shares stories of his wife taking their children to attend picket lines since they were small. Roger has a lifelong commitment to worker rights and social justice that carries on today in the fight for peace.