Stan Shewaga Interview: Negotiations, Strikes, and Canadian Union Independence

Stan Shewaga was born in St. Boniface and grew up in the north end of Winnipeg. After working in Louisiana for a while, he joined the American Army in the fifties, when he was about 17. After he left the army, he hitch hiked throughout Canada and ended up working in logging in B.C., where he learned to be a rigger. He received his journeyman ironworker ticket while working at the pulp mill in Port Alberni. After that, he started working at Harmac, the pulp mill in Nanaimo, B.C., where he got his millwright’s ticket.

In the sixties, Stan was initially involved with the International Brotherhood of Pulp, Sulphite, and Paper Mill Workers at Harmac, a union he became disillusioned with because he thought it was undemocratic. He then became active in the campaign for Harmac workers to become a local of the independent Pulp, Paper and Woodworkers Union of Canada (PPWC). They were successful in 1967. Stan served several terms as president and vice-president of the union until his retirement in 1996.

In this interview, Stan talks about his experiences in forming Local 8 of the PPWC, in labour negotiations and strikes, and relationships with other unions and labour organizations. He shares his views on a wide range of topics including internationalism and international unions, independent Canadian unions, union democracy, union structures, limits on the terms of office for elected union officials, pork choppers, raiding, and organizing the unorganized.