Union Zindabad! — South Asian Canadian Labour History in British Columbia

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International
Woodworkers of
America (IWA)
W
orld War II was a turning point for
labour in Canada.
Governments saw the need to avoid the
class turmoil sparked by World War I and
political expedience required reform. Labour’s
decades long demand for federal unemployment
insurance was realized in 1940. Universal family
allowances were introduced in 1944. And at long
last, after seventy years of struggle, the fight for
compulsory recognition of unions and collective
bargaining was finally won, first in British
Columbia and then across Canada. 1
In 1943, amendments to BC’s flawed
Industrial Conciliation and Arbitration Act gave
the government authority to recognize unions
and force employers to bargain.
At the start of World War II, the dominant
union for lumber workers in BC was the
International Woodworkers of America (IWA),
but a disastrous strike in 1938 drained the IWA’s
resources. The Union’s membership numbered
just a few hundred. It had no contracts in place
and the future seemed bleak.
As a means to revive the union, the IWA
leadership embraced new organizing strategies to
encourage membership and involvement from
South Asians, and other ethnicities. The fight
against fascism created a wartime labour shortage,
and the willingness of government to concede
union recognition meant organizing took off.
South Asian Canadians, reluctant to join the war
1 Mickleburgh, On the Line, 106.
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