International Woodworkers of America (IWA) and United Steelworkers (USW) Collection Index

• Sixteen oral history interviews, eleven about the IWA and five about the USW and Mine-Mill, all with transcripts
• Videos on Jack Munro, logging safety, the IWA’s Asian-Canadian organizers, and asbestos, and five podcast episodes on IWA and Mine-Mill history
• The IWA’s newspaper, the Lumber Worker, from 1938 to 2006, and two Mine-Mill newspapers from the 1940s and 1950s
• A plaque and booklet on IWA organizer Howard Webb, and a Steelworkers booklet on workplace safety
• Classroom lesson plans that pair well with this material

• To find a person, use the table in “Interviews by person.”
• To see everything that isn’t an interview, go to “Articles, videos and historical materials.”
• To follow a subject such as the 1986 strike, logging safety, or the Mine-Mill merger, use “Browse by selected topics,” which gathers the interviews and other material on each one.
• Teachers can start with “Using this material in the classroom.”

Sixteen people are interviewed about the IWA, the USW and Mine-Mill, listed alphabetically by surname in two tables. Mine-Mill interviews sit with the USW because that union merged into the Steelworkers. Three of the interviews (Grant MacNeil, Barney McGuire and Les Walker) are 1960s audio recordings made for the BC Federation of Labour’s book No Power Greater. Every interview has a transcript; Les Walker’s is partial.

Interviews about the IWA

Interviews about the USW and Mine-Mill

One article, five podcast episodes, six videos, three historical newspapers, a plaque and two booklets sit alongside the interviews. IWA material comes first, then USW and Mine-Mill.

Each topic lists the interviews first, then related articles, videos and other material. Topics run across both unions.

• Founding the IWA and early lumber unions: Interviews with Grant MacNeil, Syd Thompson and Dave Pritchett, a longshoreman whose grandfather Harold Pritchett was the IWA’s first Canadian president. Also the video Clay Perry’s Logbook.
• Organizing across ethnic divides: The article Uniting Workers Across Ethnic Divides, the podcasts Ep. 8 with the same title, and Ep. 22 on Darshan Singh Sangha, and the video Breaking Barriers.
• Women and families in the IWA: Interview with Sheila Pither, on the IWA Ladies’ Auxiliary. Also Podcast Ep. 8, which covers the 1945 Ladies’ Auxiliary parade float.
• Jack Munro and IWA leadership: Interviews with Neil Menard, whom Munro recruited as vice-president in 1976, Lyle Pona, Syd Thompson and Ken Georgetti, who recalls Munro backing his BC Federation of Labour candidacy. Also the videos Jack Munro, Labour Leader and Jack Munro Memorial Video, 2014, and Podcast Ep. 34 on Syd Thompson.
• Logging and workplace safety: Interviews with Sy Pederson, Neil Menard and Bill Routley, who campaigned against a chemical discharge at his mill. Also the videos Al Lundgren’s Legacy in Logging Safety and Asbestos: The Silent Killer, and the booklet Hell’s History.
• The 1986 contracting-out strike: Interviews with Bill Routley, Sy Pederson, Frank Everitt and Sandra Banister.
• Mine-Mill, Trail and the move into the Steelworkers: Interviews with Les Walker, Barney McGuire, Vince Ready, Art Kube (Part 1) and Ken Georgetti. Also the podcast Smelter Wars and the Mine-Mill newspapers The Commentator and BC District Union News.
• Rival unions and breakaways: Interviews with Sucha Deepak, on Pulp, Paper and Woodworkers of Canada (PPWC) raids on IWA mills, Stan Shewaga, who led a PPWC drive at a Kitimat Steelworkers local, Peter Burton, whose Canadian Association of Smelter and Allied Workers replaced the Steelworkers at Alcan Kitimat, John Bowman, on CAIMAW’s clashes with the Steelworkers, and Lyle Pona, who recommended merging two Ontario lumber locals into the IWA instead of raiding them.
• From IWA to IWA-Canada to the Steelworkers: Interview with Lyle Pona on the 1987 split from the International, and with Frank Everitt and Bill Routley on the 2004 merger. Also the Charles Howard Webb plaque, labelled “United Steelworkers (IWA) Local 1-424”.
• Politics and Operation Solidarity (1983): Interviews with Grant MacNeil, a CCF MP and MLA, Bill Routley, an MLA, and Art Kube (Part 2), who describes the 1983 settlement in which Jack Munro was a central figure. Also the Operation Solidarity key topic page.
• Labour law, arbitration and mediation: Interviews with Sandra Banister and Vince Ready.
• Union newspapers and archives: The IWA’s BC and Western Canadian Lumber Worker, 1938 to 2006, and the podcast The Union Archive that Almost Didn’t Make It, on rescuing the IWA’s records.

Three existing lesson plans pair well with the material above.

© BC Labour Heritage Centre. All rights reserved. The interviews, transcripts and summaries in this collection may be used for research. For any other use, including publication, broadcast or commercial use, please contact us.

Transcripts have been edited with a "clean verbatim" style. If you are quoting an interview, please check the passage against the recording.

To cite an interview: [Interviewee], interview by [Interviewer(s)], [date], Oral History Collection, BC Labour Heritage Centre, [URL of the interview page].

Example: Sy Pederson, interview by Phil Legg, January 22, 2024, Oral History Collection, BC Labour Heritage Centre, https://www.labourheritagecentre.ca/collection/sy-pederson-interview-fighting-for-safe-work-in-the-logging-industry/.