Hard Lessons: The Mine Mill Union in the Canadian Labour Movement

Ron Verzuh is the Canadian Union of Public Employees’ senior
communications officer.

Hard Lessons is based on the proceedings of the May 1993 centennial
conference of Mine Mill, one of the most innovative trade unions in
Canadian labour history. The best chapters are those that stick to the
subject at hand, whether by featuring the reminiscences of some Mine
Mill oldtimers, by reviewing Mine Mill’s origins in the Western
Federation of Miners, or by profiling Locals 598 and 902 in Sudbury,
where 14,000 workers once formed one of the biggest local unions in
Canada. Unfortunately, these are all-too-frequent forays into areas that
are only tangentially associated with Mine Mill, from the Canadian Auto
Workers Union and labour law to technological change and union culture.
In short, Hard Lessons tries to be too many things to too many people.
The lack of an index is also regrettable.