Collection search - [Defend Mine Mill Meeting]

Record information – Brief

1

[Defend Mine Mill Meeting]

Item number (ISN):

15630

Hierarchical level:

Item (Accession level)

Date:

1962-02-11

Item number (ISN):

15630

Type of material:

Sound recordings

Found in:

Archives / Film, Video and Sound

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Record information – Details

Fonds/collection:

LEHTO, Dave

Accession:

1983-0350

Media:

Sound

Production date:

1962-02-11

Production company:

David Sulo Lehto

Description:

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Live recording by Mr. D. Lehto of a Defend Mine Mill meeting held in Azilda prior to the vote between Mine Mill and Inco at the end of February 1962. The meeting involved Mine Mill members in the outlying areas of Azilda, Larchwood and Blezard Valley/Val Caron all of which had their own Defend Mine Mill organizing committees. Guest speakers were Nelson Lamontagne, President Local 523 United Electical Workers in Welland, Ontario; Ken Smith, Mine Mill National President; and main speaker Madeleine Parent, Canadian Textile Workers Union. Introductions were made by the chairman of the meeting, Nels Thibault, Mine Mill legislative director. Nelson Lamontagne's address to the meeting, in French and then in English, includes short labour history of Welland, Ontario: Central Europeans brought over to work on the improvements to the Welland Canal in the 1930's were forced to go on relief when the improvements were completed; organization of a successful Relief Strike; refusal of Steelworkers to organize Welland in 1940-42 because of its reputation as a "red"/"communist" area; organization of most plants in Welland by the United Electrical Workers. Lamontagne gives the history of the Steelworkers in Welland: raids; record of Steelworkers at United Steel, Standard Steel, and Atlas Steel re wages and payoffs to bosses. He speaks of the importance of the defeat of the Steel raid to an effective Canadian trade union movement. Ken Smith, in his address to the meeting, refers to recent statements attacking Mine Mill made by Prime Minister John Diefenbaker, U.S. Secretary of Labour Goldberg, the U.S. government State Department, and the RCMP. Smith indicates that their unprecedented interest in Sudbury is not in the cause of democracy but because they want the kinds of unions where they can make deals at the top and that red-baiting is a false issue. He points out the limited role of the president in the Mine Mill Constitution compared to the Steelworker's~Constitution. Appeal of Steel to younger union members. He talks about Mine Mill's issue of bonds for the defence campaign: Local 598 withholding per capita payments to the National Union; Local 598 dues not being used to fight the Steel raid; campaign costs. Address to meeting by Madeleine Parent in French, then in English. She comments upon the long tradition of support by Mine Mill Local 598 for the Canadian Textile Workers union and the failure of the rich AFL-CIO unions to fight for the working classes. Parent discusses the pioneering work done by Canadian union in organizing in Canada; international unions; Canadian autonomy. She responds to the personal attacks made against her in a recent Steelworkers' leaflet making allegations concerning her personal life; charge that she is a member of the Communist Party; similar charge by Quebec Premier Maurice Duplessis during the LaChute strike of women workers in 1947; her denial. She comments on Steel's attitude towards women in the labour force and wives of workers; the history of strikes in the Canadian Textile Workers union from 1942-52: conditions in the textile industry, the issues of women working night shift and of child labour. She refutes Steel charges that she and Kent Rowley, President of the union, were ejected from the leadership by the membership during the cotton mill strike of 1952: role of Lloyd Klennert, Secretary-Treasurer of the AFL textile union, in firing Parent and Rowley and signing a contract behind the workers' backs; role of Quebec Premier Duplessis and the police; subsequent exposé of Klennert by the U.S. Senate Rackets Committee for embezzelment of union funds and accepting money from textile companies. Parent points out the achievements of the Canadian Textile Workers union in mills in Canada compared to the wages and conditions in mills under the AFL-CIO. She responds to Steel's charges re her trip to China and discusses Kent Rowley's internment in a Petawawa concentration~camp during the war because of his opposition to conscription and his involvement in the labour movement. She discusses the role of the Canadian Labour Congress and its president, Claude Jodoin, in the Steel raid: conditions in the cotton mills in Jodoin's own International Ladies' Garment Workers Union; pretense by Jodoin and the CLC that they represent all workers in Canada when 68% of workers are not organized and a further 350,000, including Mine Mill and the Canadian Confederation of Trade Unions in Quebec, are excluded from CLC affiliation; collusion of CLC with the cotton companies. Announcements by Nels Thibault on the organization of Defend Mine Mill committees before the vote on 27 February - 1 March. Question period. <128mn>

Language:

English / Français

Detailed holdings information:

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Vault ISN:

91434

Format:

VIDEO

Location number:

C06174

Number of items:

1

Kind of sound:

SOF

Duration:

120:10

Status:

MASTER

Vault ISN:

91438

Format:

SOUND

Location number:

1983-0350/43

Number of items:

1

Kind of sound:

R/R

Technical description:

POLY

Duration:

130:50

Made from:

DEPOSIT

Status:

ORIG

Vault ISN:

91547

Format:

VIDEO

Location number:

C06175

Number of items:

1

Kind of sound:

SOF

Duration:

121:45

Status:

MASTER

Vault ISN:

1105888

Format:

SOUND

Location number:

15630-1983-0350-43.WAV

Number of items:

1

Kind of sound:

BWF

Duration:

134:07

Made from:

1983-0350/43

Status:

MASTER
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Open

Restrictions on consultation:

No Restrictions / Pas de restrictions

Reproduction access:

With written permission of Copyright Owner / Avec la permission écrite du détenteur des droits d'auteur

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Date modified:: 2024-07-24