The passing of long-time forestry workers’ leader Jack Munro is a reminder that union leaders of his stature and influence are largely a thing of the past.
Munro was a labor leader grounded in political reality, who knew where the path lay towards a deal that served the members of the International Woodworkers Association, which he headed for many years.
But his influence transcended the IWA (arguably one of the most powerful private sector unions in B.C.’s history) and reached not only into the entire provincial labor movement, but also in its relationship with the government of the day.
No episode revealed Munro’s power like the Solidarity crisis of 1983, which emerged from the Social Credit government’s punishing restraint budget of that year. With the province teetering on the brink of a general strike, Munro (backed by other labor leaders) decided enough was enough and that it was time to end the escalating protests against the government.
The government wanted a way out as well, but the only labor leader it would talk to was Munro, who flew to Premier Bill Bennett’s Kelowna home and brokered a deal to end the crisis.
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He was denounced in many quarters on the “left” for his actions but he dismissed that as simply irrelevant noise from social activists he largely despised. Why should I let these people take my folks off their jobs and hurt their families? was Munro’s response.
Munro was not particularly left-wing, and was in fact a conservative labor leader who viewed maintaining a well-paying, unionized job of paramount importance. The social or environmental protest movements left him cold (can you imagine where he would fit into today’s NDP?)
Gruff, profane, witty and tough, Munro was a colourful character who dominated the labor and political scene like few other people. His appearances on the Jack Webster morning show on BCTV (now Global) were the stuff of legend.
I interviewed Munro many times as a Vancouver Sun reporter, and always found him accessible, forthright, funny and insightful. To use his quotes I had to delete many, many profanities (sometimes every third word or so), but that’s just the way Munro talked!
The union he led for so long is no more, and the industry in which he played such a pivotal role has been back on its heels for some time now. The private sector labor movement he championed is a shell of its former self. The public sector unions are now more powerful, a development that greatly disappointed Munro I’m sure.
The world has changed significantly since Munro’s hey day, and shows little sign of returning to those times. In some ways, that’s too bad because leaders of Munro’s stature don’t come around nearly enough.
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