Eulogy for Ed

Thanks, Don, for the wonderful job you’ve done in speaking on behalf of your family. And I also want to thank you for the kindness you’ve shown to Cynthia as she’s weathered this storm. It’s greatly appreciated by all his union friends. 

You spoke well about Ed’s family and how much he was loved and admired by all of you. But Ed had another family – the labour movement – and particularly the Communication Workers of Canada – CWC. Those of us who knew and loved Ed – and many of us are here today – knew him as a staunch trade unionist, a social democrat, a fierce fighter for social justice and a wonderful friend.

As most of you know, Ed was born in Port Aux Basques, Nfld in 1940 and raised in Sydney, NS.  Though he left the east coast in the late 50’s – the east coast has never left Ed.  If you got him excited (not a difficult task) you’d hear the east coast in his voice – if not in his choice of language. He was always proud of his east coast heritage and did extensive work on his family’s genealogy. 

Ed began working over half a century ago, and he was a social democrat for most of his working life.  Although he ran as a candidate for the NDP and managed a number of election campaigns, he’s probably best-known for burning his NDP membership card to protest what he saw as policy moves to the right – on at least two occasions.

For almost all of his working life Ed was a member and an activist in a series of unions – including the Machinists union, the Textile Workers, and the Communications Workers. He served as a staff representative in education in the latter two, and as Vice-President for the Communications Workers Ontario Region – where he endeared himself to the members. He particularly endeared himself to Cynthia,  who was a steward in Local 42 here in Hamilton and who shared his belief and  his activism in the union movement.  Cynthia shared and enriched Ed’s life for decades and was a tower of strength for Ed in his final days.  

Although he had a direct, informal, sometimes fiery, but always friendly nature, Ed was also a scholar and an author.  He received a BA in Political Science from the University of Waterloo – a degree he earned while working full-time.  Ed was one of the best-versed scholars of Canadian labour history in the country. In 1976 he published his first book – “An Illustrated History of Canadian Labour from 1800 -1974”. The book is packed with the history of our movement in Ed’s prose with rare historical photographs.  I think it should be updated and I think it should be mandatory reading for every high school student in Canada. Ed also wrote histories of the IBEW and the Carpenters’ Union. 

I first met Ed when we were both working in the OFL headquarters in Toronto. We’d have coffee or lunch together and solve the problems of the world. Would you believe – some of those problems are still with us!

Our friendship blossomed when Ed convinced me to join him and a priest to pray over bunches of boycotted California grapes in a Dominion store fifty years ago. He kindled my dedication to social justice by that act. When I was assigned later that year to organize a plane-load of Canadians to attend the United Farmworkers’ convention in Fresno and help organize votes for the UFW, Ed signed on. After joining the great Cesar Chavez on a march in rural California, we participated together in lengthy teach-ins where we learned the Spanish words for such things as lettuce, strawberries and artichokes. As Ed was on limited or no expenses, I invited him to share my $8.000 a night motel room in the Motel 6 in Salinas. Ed then worked on a farmworkers’ newsletter in Salinas, while I organized farmworkers in Watsonville, not far away. Reminiscing years later, we agreed that these were among the most inspiring periods of our lives. 

In the middle of his working life Ed was seconded to work in Edmonton on the strike against Gainers, a meat packing firm owned by the infamous Tory strike-breaker Peter Pocklington. It was during this strike that Ed coined the phrase that appeared on buttons sold across Canada – “Gainers makes wieners with scabs”. Who could eat a Gainers hotdog after seeing that slogan! 

When the Communications Workers of Canada was looking for an education rep, I encouraged Ed to apply, then advocated for his hiring. 

Ed had a distinguished career with the CWC where he serviced local unions throughout Ontario and developed and conducted union courses in many provinces. He endeared himself to all who knew him and he taught many hundreds of union members about union life and principles and about our collective responsibility to others less fortunate than ourselves. 

When Ed was chosen to serve as CWC’s Ontario Vice-President, he soon decided that management was not for him, and he left to establish Solidarity Consulting, where he taught union courses and served as the labour representative on arbitration boards. Since his passing, several arbitrators have lauded Ed’s work in helping them to learn the ropes of arbitration. 

No-one will forget Ed’s passionate hatred for right-wingers – specifically the Tories. One of my least fond memories is being asked to edit his thousand-page treatise on the evils of the Conservatives. I have always felt guilty for not doing an adequate job of editing, but I take some pride in distributing it widely to the media and to various NDP contacts. It was a tremendous work and I hope that it will be preserved along with the many documents that Ed accumulated in recent years. It’s my hope that they’ll join the many documents that he donated to the archives at the Labour Studies branch of MacMaster.

Ed and I shared so many memories that were the building blocks of our friendship, and I’ll forever cherish that friendship.

Ed was many things to many people. He touched the lives of everyone he met. To me he was a loyal friend whose memory will live in my heart forever. Two days before he left us, I wrote Ed a letter to tell him how much I valued his friendship and admired his many great qualities. He left us before receiving that letter, but in my heart I know that he understood how much our friendship meant to me. May he rest in peace.