A History of the Mine Workers' Union of Canada, 1925-1936

The Mine Workers' Union of Canada was a trade union, centred in the coal fields of the Province of Alberta, which existed between the years 1925 and 1936, and included a membership of between 2,000 and 4,900 mine workers during that period. The formation of the union came about as a result of the break-up of District 18 of the United Mine Workers of America in 1924-1925. From the onset, its leadership was composed of differing elements, from conservatives who opposed the U.M.W. of A. for nationalistic reasons, to members of the Communist Party. The M.W.U.C. was one of the founding members of the All Canadian Congress of labour in 1927, and its President, Frank Wheatley, was a Vice-President of the Congress, until his ouster from the miners' union in 1930. miners' union in 1930. Early in that year the Communists, led by Harvey Murphy, began a drive to have the M.W.U.C. disaffiliate from the A.C.C.L., and join the new revolutionary trade union central, the Workers' Unity League. They were apparently successful, for in May of 1931, the union's membership voted by a 73% margin to affiliate with the W.U.L. Later that year the Communist Party of Canada was outlawed and the M.W.U.C. itself was declared to be an "unlawful association" in the courts. Anti-communist and anti-union sentiments on the part of employers led to long and bitter strikes, the most important of which took place in the Crows' Nest Pass in 1932. Finally, after six years of intense struggle on both the industrial and political fronts, the Workers Unity League was disbanded by the Communist Party. In June of 1936, the membership of the Mine Workers' Union of Canada voted to return to the U.M.W. of A. and the union passed into history.