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The Local Labour Council Throughout The Years

In 1960, however, the united voice of all organized labour was heard politically for the first time in a very long period. The C.C.F. and the Canadian Labour Congress had come together to form a broadly based "People Party" which would be acceptable to not only workers and farmers but small businessmen, teachers and people in many other professions. A by-election was held in Peterborough and Peterborough trade unionists flocked to work for the election of the then comparatively unknown "New Party" candidate. The candidate's name was Walter Pitman and in Peterborough at least his name is a popular and respected household word. He is far from being unknown to the rest of Canada.

Mr. Pitman was elected with a pleasing majority. The joy was to be short-lived however because he was defeated in the next general election.

Mr. Pitman has not sunk into oblivion however. He has become one of the people who have become the leaders of the social democratic movement in Canada. He also served a term in the Provincial Legislature. He has always identified with organized labour. After serving for several years as Dean at Trent University he is now leaving our community to become the President of Ryerson College. It is an honour for many of us in the labour community to have known and worked with him.

A long cherished dream of the Peterborough labour movement came into being on May 13th, 1968. The Peterborough Labour Centre was officially opened.

Efforts to construct a hall for organized labour in Peterborough in recent memory go back to January 9th, 1951, in the Peterborough and District Labour Council, C.C.L., and about the same time in the Peterborough Trades and Labour Council.

Plans for a building as far as the Peterborough and District Labour Council, C. L.C., is concerned go back to 1956. At that time a 3% assessment on affiliated unions grew to about $9,000 in ten years and formed the financial basis for construction of a building that would serve as a central meeting place for all labour unions in the city.

This was not the first effort in this direction but it was the first successful effort. In the period from 1920, the Allied Labour Council of Peterborough and District, the Peterborough and District Labour Council, C.C.L., and the Peterborough Trades and Labour Council, T.L.C., all exercised their best efforts towards achieving a permanent home for organized labour, but the best that could be achieved was rented quarters.

The original Board of Directors consisted of Gerry Reeds, Bill Mulders, Jack Narhgang, Gus Siegel, Roy Hadwyn, Stan McCormick, Gordon Reynolds, Walter Pollard, Jim Fairs and Dick Martin.

The Members of the Board at the time the Centre officially opened were Dick Martin, Eric May, Don Caban, Gordon Snape Jr., Charles Lester, Jack Benstead, Doug Lloyd, John Dunsford, Robert White and Les McDougal.

The main speaker at the opening banquet was David Archer, President of the Ontario Federation of Labour. Greetings and good wishes were given by Mr. Hugh Faulkner, M.P. for this riding; Mr. Walter Pitman, M.L.A.; Mr. T. H. B. Symons, President and Vice Chancellor of Trent University, and Mr. David Sutherland, President of Sir Sandford Fleming College.

Peterborough became the centre for a controversy over the use of injunctions in labour disputes that shook and disturbed labour-management relations throughout the country. Organized labour has always been opposed to the use of ex parte injunctions in labour disputes. Peterborough provided the battleground. Not the first or last but certainly one of the more prominent ones.

The Textile Workers of America organized Tilco Plastics located at the corner of Parkhill Road and Park Street in Peterborough and proceeded to negotiate a contract.

After a lengthy period of negotiation and exhausting the conciliation procedure provided by the Ontario Department of Labour the plant was struck on December 7th, 1965.

In an appearance before the Peterborough Labour Council to acquaint them with the situation, Mr. Vic Skurjat, the union representative who had been doing the negotiating for the union, had this to say: "The former union which tried to obtain a contract, the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America, failed in its attempts because of the union-busting tactics employed by Harold Pammet, personnel manager of the plant."