Shortly after the strike of 1967, I fell very ill with something which had been bothering me periodically for a year or more. From time to time, I would develop a high fever, start sweating profoundly, and my stomach and digestive system would rumble. There was no apparent explanation for it. I went to the hospital emergency room many times and my own doctor ran all kinds of tests and analyses and everything came back negative. He was convinced it was all in my head but it was very real to me.
It was a bad time to be sick. I had scheduled the start of construction on my first house on a lot I had bought from the Robert Home Smith Company. Robert Home Smith had been a major figure in Toronto’s early history, from 1900 to about 1935. He had acquired some 3,000 acres of land in South Etobicoke, much of which he developed, selling lovely English-style homes to new immigrants from the United Kingdom. “A little bit of England in Canada,” the advertising materials offered. My lot was on Allanhurst Drive south of Eglinton at Royal York Road. The morning they started the excavation, a hot August day, I was in bed shivering. Anxious about my first house, I asked Rita to go and see if they had started the job.
She came back crying. When I asked what was wrong she said she was overcome with emotion at seeing our house started. At that time, we were renting a small apartment and we were desperate to move up. That was it. I could not resist the temptation to go see for myself so I put on a heavy winter coat and asked her to drive me over. I knew I had to get better and be strong to go on with the next chapter of our lives together and, of course, to continue my work in building a union.
I do not remember all the circumstances but one day I went to see a Dr. McCrae in Forest Hill about my illness. After examining me, he said I was suffering from a virus infection and that there was no medicine to fight it. He knew this because he himself had experienced a similar condition. He also said that my immune system would be the only thing to fight the virus and he put me on a strict diet combined with a periodic shot of vitamins.
Doc McRae was no ordinary doctor. He had fought with the British Commandos in World War II and had participated in the raid to kill Marshal Erwin Rommel. He was one of the three commandos to escape and he later fought in Italy and came to know the Italians. He developed an appreciation for our culture and he often kept me in his study telling me his war stories. I survived that bout of illness and, as the good doctor predicted, my immune system overcame the virus after another year or so. Just like that, one morning I woke up and felt stronger so I celebrated with a whole bottle of wine and felt fine. The day before, just a few drops of wine would have made me sick. Strange how the body works.
Throughout 1968, we kept on organizing, providing services to our members and expanding our work jurisdictions to the 3,000-members mark. That same year, Zanini, the man who had fired me to hire a relative in 1960, was discharged from prison after serving a two-year sentence for break and enter. He always claimed to be innocent. His friend, Charlie Irvine, convinced Gus Simone of the Lathers Union Local 562 to hire Zanini to organize the residential concrete forming industry because there had been a boom in rental high-rise construction for several years.
The speed, ease, and economic efficiency with which these rental towers rose was due in part to a young Italian immigrant from the Abruzzi region, Nick Di Lorenzo, who with his two brothers, John and Fred, founded Di Lorenzo Construction, a concrete forming company and one of the biggest construction trade employers in Canada. Concrete forming is the process of taking “wet” concrete and pouring it into a mould or “form.” The form is usually made from wood and creates a space for the concrete to flow into and then cure. You can make a form for paving a road just as you can make a form to create a wall or an apartment building. The Di Lorenzos hired Italian immigrants literally off the dock in Halifax or Montreal as they arrived, and put them to work making and filling forms.
The brothers introduced the so-called flying form concept to Toronto construction. A flying form is a mould which can be easily taken apart after the concrete sets and moved quickly to the next position for the next pour. It literally “flies” up the side of the building. The brothers also introduced the composite crew which greatly increased efficiencies and allowed a contractor to use tradesmen on the site to do whatever task was necessary. A carpenter would do labourers’ work and vice versa. Rod installation was performed by employees of the forming contractor rather than by the rod man of the steel companies. This has an advantage in productivity because the forming contractor could schedule his own work rather than wait for the steel company installers. Composite crews were a no-no in commercial concrete forming construction because in that sector each union was responsible for its own work area and protective of its jurisdiction. The Di Lorenzos, however, were doing non-union residential work. Their company’s efficiencies allowed it to become the main contractor in the residential concrete forming sector in Ontario, employing at one point more than 1,500 workers. Not bad for three unskilled Italian immigrants.
Prior to 1968, the Carpenters, the Iron Workers, the Cement Masons, the Operating Engineers, and Labourers Local 506 had joined to create the Council of Concrete Forming Unions in an effort to organize companies such as Di Lorenzo. They were only modestly successful. Di Lorenzo was able to work non-union contracts because the company operated a number of subsidiaries and as soon as one was organized he would shut it down and start another. As noted earlier, the Ontario government intervened and amended the Ontario Labour Relations Act, Section 10.4, to make it more difficult for an employer to escape from certified union representation of its employees. Still, after some effort the Council of Concrete Forming Unions represented a small minority of the residential construction industry.
Against this background, Irvine, Zanini, and Simone, representing the Lathers Union, made a grand entrance. They pushed aside the Council of Concrete Forming Unions and offered contractors in the sector one union which meant no jurisdictional disputes and acceptance of the composite crew, together with very favourable wages and working conditions. In a short time, their collective agreement was signed by most residential concrete forming contractors. There was one problem, however. The big International Unions of carpenters, iron workers and labourers would not accept that their jurisdiction could be usurped by the smallest of them, the lathers. At that time, the Lathers International Union represented only 10,000 members in all of North America and Simone’s local alone comprised about 15 per cent of that total. The big internationals, representing hundreds of thousands of workers, applied pressure through the Building and Construction Trades Department of the AFL-CIO in Washington to have the Lathers give up the concrete forming in Toronto. It was quite a fight and it got ugly at times.
While this was all brewing, I had become the business manager of Local 183. This change happened suddenly. One day in the spring of 1969, Gallagher called me in and said: “I am quitting the office of business manager and want to be president of the local.” After this big surprise he added another: “I want you to be the manager.”
“Me? Are you sure?”
“Yes,” he replied.
“Why not Reilly?” I asked. Reilly was ten years older than me. I was twenty-eight at the time.
“I don’t trust him,” said Gallagher.
I did not appreciate Gallagher’s statement. Reilly was like an older brother to me and I respected and admired him. Gerry, however, was a good judge of character, and in the end he would be proven right.
My new position did not much change my daily routine. At that time, I was the secretary treasurer, which can be a cozy office job but not the way I did it. I spent my time doing what was in the best interests of our members: organizing, providing services to them on and off the job, negotiating—responsibilities that usually fell within the business manager’s position. Gallagher, as it turned out, gave me his title but nothing more. He continued to enjoy the same salary and benefits as before and, I should add, our respect, until he died around Labour Day in 1976.
Reilly moved on to become the business manager of a new Ontario organization set up by the Labourers International to coordinate the activities of the province’s Labourers locals.
Knowing that the big international unions were opposed to the lathers’ role in the concrete forming industry, I approached Gus Simone in my new capacity as business manager of Local 183. I knew him well. I suggested he join our local. It made sense because we were surpassing the 3,000-members mark. Our local was respected by our International for our organizing skills and we represented more than labourers. We had added carpenters and cement finishers in the heavy construction sector. We were better suited than the lathers to represent the concrete forming sector and I knew they could not hold out much longer due to the pressure from the top. Simone was interested in my proposal. I called our International in Washington and told them of my understanding with Simone. They were very interested, and in the spring of 1969, a meeting was held in Chicago, attended by, among others, Peter Fosco, general president of our International; Sol Maso, general president of the Lathers International; Bob Connerton, our general counsel in Washington; Ray Koskie, our lawyer in Toronto; Nick Di Lorenzo, Gus Simone, myself, and a few others.
It was decided at that meeting that the lathers would formally renounce the right to represent the concrete forming workers in Toronto. Local 183 would hire Simone’s three representatives, including Zanini, guaranteeing them jobs. Every worker would sign up with us so we could make an application for certification with the Ministry of Labour for each forming company. Local 183 also committed itself to representing all of the construction trades as requested by the employers who wanted to deal with only one trade union. With everyone in agreement, Simone told me that he would send Zanini to our office to start with us two days later. Two days went by and I waited for Zanini in vain. I called him.
“Bruno, why aren’t you in our office?” I asked.
“Why should I be there?”
“You mean Simone did not tell you anything?”
“I don’t know anything at all!” he said.
It was then that I understood a game was being played. The following Sunday, Simone held the last meeting of his members working in the concrete forming industry and announced that he would no longer represent them. Irvine and Zanini also participated in the assembly. Irvine climbed up onstage and thundered: “This week in Chicago they sold you off like cattle.” Chicago was famous at the time for its slaughterhouses. It was a clear invitation for the members to break away from the International and become an autonomous Canadian trade union. “Go Canadian, boys,” they shouted, and a new union was formed with Zanini at its head. Contractors were offered a new contract granting them favourable terms at the expense of the workers. I conveyed everything to our lawyer in Washington, Bob Connerton, who was surprised by Irvine’s power. It was incredible to think that a vice-president of an International would think that he could go rogue without personal repercussions.
Obviously, the creation of an independent Canadian union was a threat to all the internationals and their affiliated locals on this side of the border. The Toronto Building and Construction Trades Council, representing a large number of affiliated locals of the international unions, held a series of special meetings to discuss the problem and how to fight back against the new Canadian organization. Meetings were also held with the apartment builders but these went nowhere. The builders’ position was simple: this was none of their business; it was a dispute between unions. The Building and Construction Trades Council, led by two great unionists, Alex Main and Clive Ballantine, decided its best option was to close down all building sites where the new Canadian union members were working.
This was not easy. The locals represented by the Trades Council did not have a strong presence at most apartment construction sites because most of the contractors were non-union. They needed the full support of the Teamsters Union to halt concrete deliveries to the sites. Without concrete, everything in construction grinds to a halt. The Teamsters International sent a special representative from Chicago, Tony Capone, to help the Trades Council with its plan. Tony was an elderly gentleman, tall, bald, with a short neck. He was a distant relative of the famous Al, but a good man.
The strike started in the third week of August 1969, and it was a bitter one, with frequent confrontations on the job sites by the opposing unions. Both Alex and Clive worked tirelessly. Alex emphasized time and time again that the council would not tolerate this independent union. I worked closely with him, and a few times he came after-hours to my house to develop strategy. That was my introduction to the realities of the high-rise residential sector.
Sadly, one evening during the strike, I went home, parked my car in the garage, and went into the house to see Rita and our first baby, a son, Mark, who had been born July 4 that year. As I looked out the window, I noticed a car with four robust-looking men parked in front of my driveway. My first instinct was to protect my family so I got my hunting gun, loaded it, and called a police officer from the labour squad. At that time a special joint forces unit consisting of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, Ontario Provincial Police, and what was then the Metro Toronto Police Force had been formed to deal with the violence and numerous acts of vandalism in the construction industry.
Two police cruises arrived at my residence. The car with the four strangers sped away just before the officers pulled up and found me at the front door with my gun. The officers grabbed my weapon and unloaded it, and asked me a few questions. I was so ramped up on my own adrenaline that when they gave me the gun back, I reloaded as they watched. They left without saying anything.
Both the builders and the concrete companies went to the Ontario Labour Relations Board with a cease-and-desist motion. The board declared the strike illegal and issued a back-to-work order. It is a serious offence with severe repercussions to ignore such an order. The Trades Council held a special meeting at which the Teamsters International representative said he had no alternative but to order his concrete drivers back to work. It was a complete defeat. We had made the mistake of using the Irvine-Zanini method, working outside the law.
We licked our wounds and decided on a new strategy to fight the new Canadian union. I joined the Council of Concrete Forming Unions and moved it into the Local 183 office. With encouragement from our International, we beefed it up with full-time organizers and began to compete with the new union the legal way.