Former CLC president Dennis McDermott dies

Dennis McDermott, president of the Canadian Labour Congress from 1978 through 1986, died Thursday, February 20 following a period of illness.

McDermott rose to the leadership of Canada’s two-million member national labour body after spending 10 years as the Canadian director for the United Auto Workers, now the Canadian Auto Workers.

"Dennis McDermott’s career was a model of effective trade union leadership," Ken Georgetti, the current CLC president, said in a news release.

"He moved the labour movement forward on so many fronts. All his actions were grounded in bread and butter issues, yet he will be remembered for advancing human rights issues, labour’s political action and outreach to workers and their unions around the world."

Under McDermott, the UAW became one of the leading forces in Canada supporting such pivotal labour issues as the struggle of Cesar Chavez and the United Farmworkers.

He is also remembered for his role in organizing one of the largest public demonstrations in Canadian history, a rally of 100,000 people to protest Canadian economic policies. The demonstration was held Nov. 21, 1981 on Parliament Hill in Ottawa.

McDermott was instrumental in the foundation of the Commonwealth Trade Union Council and he was a member of the executive board of the Inter-American Regional Organization of Workers.

He was also an active participant in the affairs of the 60-million member International Confederation of Free Trade Unions, where he served as vice-president. McDermott also served as a member of the Canadian Civil Liberties Association.

Always outspoken and independent, McDermott angered some in the trade union movement after he stepped down as CLC president by accepting an appointment from then Tory Prime Minister Brian Mulroney as Canadian ambassador to Ireland.

McDermott caught the eye of both the Liberals and Conservatives during the dying days of the Pierre Trudeau’s time in office by musing publicly that a change from the Liberals to Conservatives might not be all that bad because the Tories were "stupid, but not slime."

The rift between McDermott and the Trudeau administration over wage and price controls was so deep that he cut off all consultation with government.

As a result he was criticized by some for not fighting more directly to have labour rights enshrined more strongly in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms when the landmark constitutional bill was adopted during Trudeau’s final term of office.

Yet he remained a champion or workers’ rights to the end. After he returned to Canada from Ireland, he often spoke out publicly on behalf of labour and other progressive causes.

The family has requested that donations in memory of Dennis McDermott be made out to the Canadian Auto Workers Social Justice Fund, 205 Placer Court, Toronto, ON, M2H 3H9.