Canadian Congress of Labour

In 1939, the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) supporters were expelled from the TLC, due to the demands of the American Federation of Labor (AFL).[1] This split had to do with the CIO unionizing industrial trades, and the AFL organizing craft trades.[1] The expelled unions included the Steel Workers Organizing Committee, now called the United Steelworkers (USW); United Auto Workers of America, now Unifor; and the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA). They negotiated with the All-Canadian Congress of Labour and founded the Canadian Congress of Labour in 1940 to rival the TLC.[1] At its founding, it had 100,000 members, and grew to 250,000 by 1943.[1]

The Congress' founding executive included Aaron Mosher (Canadian Brotherhood of Railway Employees), Silby Barrett, Sol Spivak, and Charles Millard (Steelworkers). They were all members of the social democratic Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) political party. They were united in the belief that labour should be involved in politics.[1]

In 1981 a postage stamp, depicting Mosher flanked by two railway workers, was issued to commemorate the centenary of Mosher's birth.[2]

• Caplan, Gerarld (1973). The Dilemma of Canadian Socialism: The CCF in Ontario. Toronto: McClelland and Stewart.
• Horowitz, Gad (1968). Canadian Labour in Politics. University of Toronto Press.