Relief Camp Workers Union

The men asked for help from the labour movement and the Workers Unity League (WUL), a left wing trade union centre led by Communists, came to the rescue. It helped the relief camp workers organize a conference in Kamloops, B.C. in July, 1933, where the Relief Camp Workers Union (RCWU) was launched.

It's aims included:

Win union wages

Organize all relief camp workers into a "militant union" and to lead struggles for higher living standards, relying on the strike weapon to achieve its aims.

Campaign for social insurance programs such as compensation for sickness and disability and non contributory unemployment insurance

Support "International proletarian solidarity" against "capitalist exploitation."

Gain recognition of the union and its committees by the authorities and the right to hold meetings in the camps.

It came out strongly against military control of the work camps.

All of these demands were consistently turned down by the Department of National Defence. The union was banned in the camps and any man found carrying a union card or union literature was immediately fired and blacklisted. Many were jailed.

next...Strike!