SMELTER WARS

A new history documents the wartime battle to build a union in Trail

Ron Verzuh

Trail, British Columbia, home of one of the world’s largest lead and zinc smelters, was the location of a historic union-organizing drive by a small band of determined trade unionists during the Second World War. The book Smelter Wars tells the story of how those unionists overcame the smelter owner, a company union, an anti-union church, and daily newspaper to form Local 480 of the International Union of Mine, Mill and Smelter Workers (Mine-Mill). This is not a new story in the rough and tumble labour history of the Pacific Northwest, but it has an unusual twist. With all the violent tales of union-employer confrontations in the western United States, the story told in Smelter Wars stands out because it was relatively devoid of physical violence. There was plenty of…

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British Columbia History (Digital) - 1 Issue, 56.1 Spring 2023

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