Fonds documents the Canadian Office of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAMAW). The fonds documents: Local Lodges and District Lodge files; abandoned organizing campaigns and disbanded lodges; subject files (specific industries and firms, and general topics); correspondence of Harold E. Thayer; education, public relations, publicity, and political action; other labour organizations; charters of locals and ephemera (vol. 120 to 127); and minute books of Lodge 122 and Lodge 103 (microfilm reel M-7776).
The fonds also consists of the records of the IAMAW Montreal office, including subject files (general topics, specific industries and firms) and files of local lodges. Fonds also includes photographs documenting the IAMAW and eight union lapel buttons.
International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers : The first Canadian local of the International Association of Machinists (IAM) was established at Stratford, Ont. in 1890, two years after the foundation of the IAM in Atlanta, USA. With a membership initially composed largely of railroad machinists, the IAM in Canada grew rapidly during the boom in railroad construction prior to the First World War and by 1919 was the country's largest union. The IAM played an important part in the 1919 Winnipeg General Strike, which was precipitated by a walkout of machinists at Dominion Bridge.
During the 1930s, the union experienced a serious decrease in membership. A recovery after the Second World War was marked by a change in the composition of the union; a steep decline in railroad membership was offset by increase in membership of aircraft workers, who became the predominant group in the IAM. In 1965, the union became the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAMAW). By this time, there were some 40,000 Canadian members, organized in 161 local lodges and 5 district lodges.
The IAM was active in the Trades and Labour Congress of Canada (TLC) from 1895, and subsequently became an affiliate of the Canadian Labour Congress (CLC). Machinist lodges participated in the foundation of the New Democratic Party (NDP) in 1961, and in 1963, the IAM established the Canadian Machinists Political League to coordinate the union's political and educational program. As of 2017, there were 40,000 IAMAW members in Canada organised in 65 locals.
