Charles Millard

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Charles Hibbert (Charlie) Millard (August 25, 1896 - November 24, 1978) was a Canadian trade union activist and politician. Millard became an autoworker after his small business failed as a result of the Great Depression[1]. Employed by General Motors in Oshawa, Ontario, Millard was involved in the organizing auto workers in the 1930s and was elected the first president of the new United Auto Workers local 222 in Oshawa leading his union out on strike in 1937 after GM refused to recognize the union. The 18 day long strike was successful and Millard's local obtained the first contract in Canada between an automobile manufacturer and its workers[2]. Millard was elected the first Canadian director of the United Auto Workers, was a full time organizer for the CIO and was also elected to the provincial executive of the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation in Ontario. Millard was active in championing the CCF within the union against the Communist Party of Canada, and was viewed as some as a divisive force[3]. In 1939, he was defeated in his bid for re-election as the CAW's Canadian director by George Burt who was the candidate of the "Unity Caucus" composed of Communists, left-wing CCFers and other militants who viewed Millard as right-wing. CIO president John L. Lewis appointed Millard secretary of the CIO in Canada and then as the first head of the Steel Workers Organizing Committee in Canada (SWOC) became the United Steel Workers of America[4] in 1942 with Millard as Canadian director[5] and was active in purging Communists from the SWOC[6]. Millard was also an executive member of the Canadian Congress of Labour and played a role in establishing the United Packinghouse Workers in Canada[7].

Millard was initially critical of World War II resulting in his being put in jail and the Canadian offices of the CIO being raided by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.[8]

Millard stepped down as Canadian director in 1947[9] but resumed the post in the 1950s.

In the mid-1950s, Millard played a role in negotiating the merger of the Canadian Congress of Labour (CCL) with the rival Trades and Labour Congress of Canada becoming vice-president of the new body, the Canadian Labour Congress, at its founding in 1956. In the late 1950s he was also director of organizing for the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions in Brussels, Belgium.[10]

He served in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario as a CCF Member of Provincial Parliament for the Toronto area riding of York West from 1943 to 1945 and again from 1948 to 1951[11] and was also the party's vice president through much of the 1940s.[12] In the early 1960s, he supported the creation of the New Democratic Party as a party with formal affiliation with the Canadian Labour Congress. He was a candidate for the federal CCF in the 1953 federal election and for the federal NDP in the 1962 and 1963 federal elections but failed in his bid to become a Member of Parliament in the House of Commons.[13].

A Christian Socialist, Millard was involved with the United Church of Canada and the Religious Labor Foundation[14]

Preceded by none

Canadian Director of the United Auto Workers 1937-1939

Succeeded by George Burt