Abstract
Lynn Williams broke new ground in 1983 when he became the first Canadian to lead the 1.2-million-member United Steelworkers. Now he shares his journey in a memoir brimming with insider details about what it is like to be a top union official with a lifelong commitment to organizing the unorganized.
From his earliest days in the labor movement, starting in 1947 with a job on the organizing drive of the Eaton department store in Toronto, until his retirement in 1994, Williams worked as union educator, organizer, campaigner, and free trade fighter. It was a long trek for the son of a Methodist preacher from Ontario who had once considered entering the ministry himself.
Instead, Williams chose the picket sign over the pulpit and eventually guided the steel ship through one of the most difficult decades since founding president Philip Murray’s day. From the mid-1980s, the Steelworkers, and labor in general, faced corporate structural readjustments, leading to mass layoffs; free trade, creating the “race to the bottom”; and massive downturns in the economy.
Given this volatile period, no doubt there are some well-buried skeletons in the Steelworkers closet. While Williams disinters some of the old bones and revisits some old battles, for some readers there may be too few bones exposed. For example, there could have been much more behind-the-scenes glimpses of the left-leaning Ed Sadlowski’s challenge to the Steelworkers leadership in the 1970s. The same could be said of Williams’s retelling of the infamous northern Ontario raids on Mine-Mill. He touches on both, but much more space is devoted to praising fellow staff members, past union directors, and mentors than to a more critical examination of events. That said, Williams never shies away from admitting when a campaign failed, and he does an admirable job of explaining why.
Memoirs do not have to be exposés, of course, but they do need to feed reader curiosity by revealing some insider knowledge. Williams’s sections on the internal strategies and debates regarding organizing campaigns, electoral battles, and disagreements on issues are all informative. But in the main, his memoir does not reveal any trade union secrets. That is not its strength.
Rather, this is the story of a life committed to trade unionism and to social democratic politics in Canada and the United States. As part of an “old boy” network of union leaders, Williams shares the campaign war stories, peppering them with humor and some insightful afterthoughts. He also offers readers a unique window into the running of an international union. Williams knew it all intimately, and he makes a sincere effort to portray it accurately.
Perhaps the main flaw of this remembrance is what it leaves out. For example, there is too little about the impact of the Steelworkers’ anticommunist role during the Cold War. Williams did not join the union staff until the mid-1950s, but sections of the book cover this period, and regrettably, he gives it short shrift.
Other sources have painted a different picture of the Steelworkers union in those years. The recently deceased historian David Montgomery and Steelworkers in America author David Brody, for example, saw that history in a more critical light. So might Jack Metzgar, the author of a memorable reminiscence about his father’s experience during the 1959 U.S. Steel strike.
This is not to dismiss Williams’s memoir, for he expresses a true dedication to unionism and a belief in its ability to bring about social justice and economic equality. As he states, “I believe more than ever that nothing would bring more fundamental improvement to the mess our North American society is in” (p. 265). One Day Longer serves as one guide out of that mess. There is grave need for others.
Labor educators will find One Day Longer full of examples of how union education programs work and can succeed. Williams was a true believer in such programs throughout his career, and he made good use of them in his many campaigns. “Education programs have a noble history in the United Steelworkers,” he writes, noting the “enormous relevance” of political education (p. 165).