|
 In
1992, Don Holder led the CPU into a historic merger
with the Communications Workers of Canada and the Energy
and Chemical Workers Union to form the Communications,
Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada. He gave strong
leadership to the new union until his retirement in
1995.
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Don Holder
By JAMIE SWIFT
Wednesday, May 15, 2002 - Print
Edition, Page A24
Labourer, labour leader. Born Nov.
21, 1935, in Thorold, Ont. Died Dec. 18, 2001, in Burlington,
Ont., of a brain tumour, aged 66.
Like many parents, Don Holder was fond
of telling his sons how hard it had been back in the
Old Days. About how he had to walk to school when the
snow was up to the top of the phone poles. About how
he went extra early to light the fire that kept the
schoolroom warm. It became a running gag.
But for Holder, the second youngest
of seven children, it was only partly a joke. His father
had drowned in a hunting accident when Don was 2. He
always felt the need to help somebody, so he quit school
at 13 to help his family. Inexperienced workers living
along the Welland Canal could choose from lots of jobs.
The flour, cotton and paper mills needed hands. Or they
could report to the docks, where Don often unloaded
cod boats. The work was always heavy, often dangerous.
As a young teenager he cycled to Niagara
Falls to watch Marilyn Monroe in front of the cameras,
filming Niagara. But his cycling days came to an end
when his leg was smashed by a piece of pulpwood outside
one of the mills. A serious bone infection called osteomyelitis
set in. Two years in hospital and several operations
later, Don found himself back as a labourer, manning
a cutting machine in the finishing room at Provincial
Paper.
It was here that he met Irene Coplen,
who worked counting paper. And it was here that he became
active in the American union that represented the mill
workers. Don's life path was set. He and Irene married
in 1957. They started a family and by the time Randy
and Richard were both in school, Don had been asked
to go on the road as an organizer and servicing representative
for the International Brotherhood of Pulp, Sulphite
and Papermill Workers. He persuaded Irene to move, but
only as far as Burlington, outside Hamilton.
He blossomed. As a leader, Don was
a natural. Despite his tendency to mangle the English
language (union friends often chuckled about "Holderisms"),
he had a way of persuading others by dint of sheer enthusiasm.
Don had something that can't be taught. "He could
talk and people would listen," said Irene. "He
always seemed to know what to do in a crisis."
He was a sparkplug in persuading Canada's
pulp mill workers to break away from the International
union. They formed the Canadian Paperworkers Union in
1974 and Don soon became its Ontario leader and eventually
its national president. By the late 1980s he watched
consolidation sweep through the forest industry and
concluded that workers needed bigger unions.
It was his energy and inspiration that
produced the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers.
Persuading three independent unions to merge in 1992
was a master-stroke. The new union grouped 140,000 workers
in paper mills and oil rigs, journalists and telephone
operators. Don Holder was its first president.
Although he was a tough negotiator
who knew when to throw his weight around, Don didn't
fit the crude stereotype of the "union boss."
Indeed, he was a sensitive boss, a considerate employer
who encouraged the staff -- particularly women -- to
leave the office when family needs arose.
Diane Knez, hired by Don when he was
Ontario leader of the Paperworkers, noticed that he
believed everybody should have an equal opportunity
and be given the lots of time to learn if they had difficulty
understanding anything. "He didn't just talk about
issues, he did it. He lived by his principles."
Don abandoned his frenetic jet-plane
life at 59, having promised Irene he would retire early.
He refocused his energy on his grandchildren, Bradley
and Zachary. He would organize outings, jumping up with
"Let's drive down to Thorold!" He had already
learned of the illness that would kill him when he made
one of his final trips to the Niagara peninsula.
Jamie Swift was a friend of Don Holder
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Beginning
as a shop steward, he rose to become local president, and later
became a full time organizer for the union in 1967. He served for
13 years as a servicing representative and in 1980 he was elected
to lead the Ontario region of the Canadian Paperworkers Union and
in