In the fall of 1990 Chester De Toni asked me to help rescue a Bricklayer’s Union known as the Independent Bricklayer Union Local 1. Chester was a friend of the local president, John Meiorin and, in that organization, president was the top position. The Independent Bricklayers Union Local 1 was the former Local 40 of the Bricklayers International Union. Sometime in the late 1960s, it had broken away from the International and formed its own organization. It represented close to 2,000 bricklayers and labourers.
In many ways, the bricklayers were in a perfect position to organize any trade or sector of the construction industry. Being independent, they did not have to pay the monthly per capita to an international union, which in some cases can be onerous. They could also make their own decisions without fear of being contradicted by the parent organization. They nevertheless limited their activities to the trade they represented. The shortcomings of their independent position became clear in the event of a strike. They could not depend on any other trade union’s support.
When Chester came to me, the Independent Bricklayers Union Local 1 was in a legal strike position. Its agreement had expired in the spring and the economic realities in the residential industry were rapidly deteriorating to a point where a strike would have been suicidal. Ontario labour law specifies that if a labour organization does not take strike action within six months and if there is no bargaining between parties for more than six months, the union can be decertified as the bargaining agent.
I was not too anxious to get involved. There was a very bitter relationship between Meiorin, the local president, and the employers’ association with whom he had to negotiate, and I had enough problems of my own. Nonetheless, De Toni organized a lunch with Meiorin who explained his problems and blamed everything on the employers. I then met the employers who blamed everything on Meiorin for being unrealistic and inflexible. At this point, I was even more reluctant to get involved.
I met the employers’ association once again and put the basic question on the table: “What will it take to settle this dispute?”
Two of their conditions were that they only would deal with me, and that they wanted the bricklayers to become affiliated with Local 183. I consulted with Arthur A. Coia during a Florida conference and he told me, off the record: “Sure, go ahead and see what you can do.”
I met again with Meiorin who, without hesitation, said he would step back and give me full authority. He added that the survival of his union was more important than his personal role. I met once more with the employers and worked out a tentative settlement for a one-year period. There were some adjustments but overall it did not represent a step backward as originally demanded by the contractors. The one-year term was to give us room to find a more appropriate solution.
The next step was for our tentative understanding to be formalized at the negotiating table by the bricklayers and the employers. Unfortunately, the conciliation officers at the Ministry of Labour scheduled the talks on a day on which I had to travel to Edmonton for pipeline negotiations. I instructed De Toni on every detail of the tentative agreement and advised him on what moves to make during negotiations.
On my return from Edmonton late on a Friday night, De Toni called to tell me that everything had gone up in smoke. I was furious and disappointed at the same time and demanded an explanation. He said, “Meiorin and the contractors started to insult each other and scream at each other and I could not carry on.”
The following day, Saturday morning, I started to pick up the pieces. In short order I was able to get an official memorandum of settlement signed and approved by both parties along the same lines as the tentative agreement. The Independent Bricklayers Union Local 1 became part of our Local 183. Another 2,000 members were added to our ranks.
For me, it was poetry. I have already compared the building of our union to the bricklayer’s craft, laying one brick on top of the other. We built worker by worker, contractor by contractor, trade by trade to become the largest and strongest construction local of any trade union in Canada and the largest local of the Labourers International anywhere in North America.