Don Montgomery (1920-2001)

Steelworker pioneer and Labour Movement VIP, Don Montgomery, died July 22 in Toronto. Montgomery had been a Steelworker for more than 60 of his 81 years, much of it as Toronto Area Supervisor, Metro Toronto Labour Council President and later Canadian Labour Congress Secretary-Treasurer.

Don Montgomery was born June 8, 1920, in Canora, Saskatchewan, but spent much of his youth in Hamilton, Ontario. At age 20, he was the youngest person ever appointed to the staff of the Steelworkers Organizing Committee, predecessor of the United Steelworkers of America.

For 10 years beginning in 1943, he toured Eastern Ontario on a variety of organizing drives. Showing an early interest in the union as a community force, he encouraged the newly-organized Steel locals to become the nucleus of district labour councils.

Transferred to Toronto in 1953, Montgomery was soon appointed Steelworkers’ Area Supervisor for the Toronto-Barrie area, a position he retained until his election as secretary-treasurer of the Canadian Labour Congress in 1974. He retired from that position in 1984.

In 1953, he was also elected secretary-treasurer of the Toronto and Lakeshore Labour Council and was re-elected to the same position on the merged Labour Council of Metropolitan Toronto until 1964, when he was elected president. He was regularly re-elected president until his election to his post with the CLC.

Don Montgomery was an activist of the highest order. The union was a way of life from which he never truly retired. During his 10-year tenure as president of the labour council, Montgomery devoted much of his time to the community. He was a member of the board of directors of the Social Planning Council of Metro Toronto; sat on the governing board of the United Appeal; served as a member of the Advisory Vocational Committee for the Borough of York board of Education; was an active member of the John Howard Society; served on the board of directors of Riverdale Hospital; served as labour spokesman on the board of governors of the North York General Hospital; and was founding member of the Zoological Society responsible for the Metro Toronto Zoo.

Montgomery was also a founding member of the Labour Council Development Foundation, a coordinating body for co-op housing in Toronto; a member of the board of directors of the National Institute for Social Assistance, which helped newly-arrived immigrant workers; and he was the chief architect of the Labour Council’s political action program that helped elect a majority of progressive candidates to City Council in 1972.

In 2000, Don Montgomery was presented with the Steelworkers’ Union Pioneer Award.