18 - Sunday, March 11,

LOVE HIM OR
LOATHE HiM,
JACK MUNRO
iS ONE H--L
OF A GUY

NE OF the first things
you notice about West
Vancouver's Jack Munro
is his size.

His 265-lb., 6°4°° frame is
enough to rattle the confidence of
even the most cocky adversary.

But don’t let those dimensions
fool you: the International
Woodworkers of America chief
isnt really an ogre. He's like a
giant Douglas fir, but his bark is
worse than his bite.

Asked if he thinks of himself as a
teddy or grizzly bear, Munro snaps
back, ‘I'm a teddy bear with a
grizzly hide.”

Munro's candid style, however,
has earned him the reputation of a
rough, loud-mouthed bully.

Add a voice that has been
described as loud, rumbling and
overpowering — ‘‘It is said that
when Jack Munro whispers in his
IWA-Canada Pender Street of-
fice...the pictures rattle on the
walls of forest industry executives
a few blocks over,"’ Toronto writer
Jane O'Hara writes in Munro's re-
cent autobiography Union Jack —
and you have a picture of a fero-
cious Titan.

But this same man who has
given management hell for more
than 20 years has been described
as having “the soul of a priest.”’

A different image of Munro
emerges when you discover that
he spent his first paycheque on an
electric washing machine for his
mother during the height of the
Depression.

Today, just short of his 59th bir-
thday, Munro has no immediate
plans of stepping down as head of
this country’s largest union. But
that’s not to say he hasn’t thought
about it.

“What the hell, you get stale if
you stay around too long,” he
says. ‘‘Sometimes | worry that |
have stayed too long.”’

Whether he has depends on
whom you talk to.

But most would agree that in the
17 years that Munro has set up
camp in the [WA-Canada office he
has come to be both liked and
trusted by industry moguls and
politicians alike.

He has also won the respect of
his own membership.

NEW SHi

of Latin American!

1433 Lonsdale Ave.

1990 - North Shore News

2 INFLUENCE

photo Mike Wakefield

JACK MUNRO, longtime IWA-Canada president, is B.C.’s most powerful labor voice. Fighting hard-nosed industrial busses and shrewd politi-
cians is part and parcel of fack Munro’s job.

One thing can be said about
Munro: he’s never been afraid to
say what’s on his mind.

He uses profanities like some
people use salt.

“| don’t know why | swear so
damn much,” he says.

In his line of work, Munro has
had to be tough. He’s steered his
union through times of industrial
instability, labor unrest and falling
timber prices.

And Munro has made more than
his fair share of tough decisions: in
1983, finding himself face to face
with then-premier Bill Bennett in
the cold surroundings of Bennett's
living room, Munro struck a deal
that averted a general strike that
threatened to shut down the entire
province.

Munro was willing to break rank
with other unions if it meant sav-
ing the jobs of his workers.

To Munro, making decisions
about and continuing strikes have

Folk Art. 7

pe a

N.Van. 980-7655

always been his most difficult.

“It's really hard, you know,
because people are really suffering
and they believe in you and so
you have to produce for them.
You gotta do the right thing.”

in 1966, doing the nght thing
meant chasing down the provin-
cial NDP nomination in Nelson-
Creston, which Munro fost.

Although the West Vancouver
resident has never seriously con-
sidered running again, he admits
to being tempted to re-enter the
public fray — especially when the
name of West Vancouver's current
mayor is mentioned.

One of Munro’s biggest frustra-
tions is that B.C. unions are

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“tol- t

erated because we're here, but
we're not really accepted as being
a legitimate part of society.”

The toughest time of his life:
when his 13-year-old son Scotty
was killed in an automobile acci-
dent,

“Christ,’’ he
downcast and
doesn't get any
that.”

His personal life p-obably won't
get much tougher than that. But
Munro’s job isn’t getting any easier
either.

He’s currently involved in a
number of bitter disputes, and, in
what may be his biggest challenge
today, Munro is working hard to

says, looking
somber, ‘‘it
tougher than

win back public confidence in
IWA-Canada.

With massive public opposition
to the handling of B.C.'s forests,
Munro believes industry must
learn to operate more efficiently
and with more concern for the
forests if it hopes to win back
public respect.

And Munro is quick to point out
that he is one of a dying breed in
the labor movement. The Munro
mould of a bellicose, street-smart
leader is quickly being made ob-
solete by university-educated,
legal-minded union operatives
who look good in three-piece
suits.

— Evelyn jacob.

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