Michael Solski
Encyclopedia
Michael Solski was a union leader, politician and author in the Canadian
province of Ontario
. He was president of the International Union of Mine, Mill, and Smelter Workers (Mine Mill) Local 598 from 1952 to 1959, at a time when 598 was the largest single union local in Canada. He later served as the mayor
of Coniston (1962–1972) and of Nickel Centre
(1973–1978). At the end of his career, he was the target of a failed assassination
attempt.
family in Coniston and was raised in the community. In 1935, he began working at local Inco smelter that also employed his father and grandfather. From 1942 to 1944, he was chair of the Coniston Plant Union Organizing Committee that led to affiliation with Mine Mill. He was elected as a Coniston town councillor in 1945 and served until 1948.
's Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) Trade Union Committee in the 1940s, and so became involved in a bitter dispute with party leaders over allegations of communist domination in Mine Mill. This dispute took place against the backdrop of a rivalry between Mine Mill and the United Steelworkers of America for control of Local 598. The Steelworkers leadership was close aligned with that of the CCF in this period, and provincial Steelworkers leader Charles Millard
was a very close ally of CCF organizer David Lewis
. Ted Jolliffe
, who was the provincial party's leader in the 1940s, later remarked that the rivalry between Mine Mill and Steel, and not accusations of communist infiltration, was at the centre of the party dispute.
Solski left the CCF after Robert Carlin
, the local Member of Provincial Parliament (MPP) and a Mine Mill stalwart, was denied renomination in the buildup to the 1948 provincial election
. Carlin ran as an independent CCF candidate, and Solksi was put in charge of his campaign headquarters. The CCF ran an official candidate, resulting in a vote split and the election of a Progressive Conservative
. Solski remained a bitter opponent of the CCF and of David Lewis in the years that followed. (Despite their political alliance, Solski also disliked Carlin on a personal level. In the 1980s, he described Carlin as a "figurehead" union organizer who "never negotiated a goddammed contract in his life.")
In September 1958, Local 598 conducted its first ever strike at Inco. Just before the strike, Solski held direct talks with Ontario premier
Leslie Frost
in a bid for a negotiated settlement. The job action was resolved in December, following negotiations with provincial labour minister Charles Daley.
Solski was defeated in his 1959 bid for re-election by Donald Gillis, amid a local backlash against the union's left-leaning leadership. Gillis was backed by the Steelworkers and favoured affiliation with the Canadian Labour Congress
. He accused Solski of mishandling the union's funds, a charge that Solski angrily denied.
Solski returned to an executive position with Mine Mill in 1960, after winning election as leader of its newly formed eastern district, which covered Ontario and Manitoba
. He was a frequent rival to Gillis in this period, and at least one meeting of Local 598 ended in violence between the rival camps. Several years later, it was revealed that Inco had hired former Nazis to disrupt union activities.
The Steelworkers won the right to represent Inco workers in 1962, and Solski reluctantly joined the rival union. He did not return to a position of leadership.
Throughout his time in office, Solski was often regarded as an ally of Mine Mill's national and international leaders, many of whom were in fact communists. He consistently denied accusations that he was himself a communist or that he was dominated by the party. Cameron Smith wrote in the 1980s that Local 598 was never under communist control and was large enough to act on its own accord, without recourse to the union's national or international leaders. In the 1980s, Solski said, "I was the president of the largest local in Canada [...] I could tell the international president to go to hell if I wanted to."
in the 1967 provincial election
, finishing third against New Democrat Party (NDP) candidate Elie Martel
in Sudbury East
. Solski's radical labour past was used against him in this election, when NDP Member of Provincial Parliament (MPP) Ken Bryden referred to him as a "Commie" during a legislative debate. In later years, Solski became a prominent local organizer for the Liberal Party of Canada
.
Solski helped bring about Coniston's amalgamation into the new municipality of Nickel Centre in 1972, after Inco shut down the community's factory. He was elected as Nickel Centre's first mayor, and also became first vice-chair of the Regional Municipality of Sudbury. Re-elected as mayor in 1974 and 1976, he lost to Garry Lacey in 1978.
Solski was shot by a disgruntled ratepayer on November 15, 1978, while attending his final council meeting. He eventually recovered, but suffered partial paralysis in one arm for the rest of his life. His shooter was found not guilty of attempted murder by reason of insanity.
Solski died of heart failure in 1999. At the time of his death, he was a member of the Coniston Hydro Electric Commission and the Sudbury Municipal Restructuring Association. The latter group lobbied for the restructuring of Sudbury into a single, one-tier government, a cause that Solski had long supported. He was also active with the Canada-Cuba
Friendship Committee. In his last published editorial, Solski criticized the spending practices of Sudbury's municipal government and called on the provincial government to intervene.
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
province of Ontario
Ontario
Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....
. He was president of the International Union of Mine, Mill, and Smelter Workers (Mine Mill) Local 598 from 1952 to 1959, at a time when 598 was the largest single union local in Canada. He later served as the mayor
Mayor
In many countries, a Mayor is the highest ranking officer in the municipal government of a town or a large urban city....
of Coniston (1962–1972) and of Nickel Centre
Nickel Centre, Ontario
Nickel Centre was a town in Ontario, Canada, which existed from 1973 to 2000.It was created as part of the Regional Municipality of Sudbury. On January 1, 2001, the town and the Regional Municipality were dissolved and amalgamated into the city of Greater Sudbury...
(1973–1978). At the end of his career, he was the target of a failed assassination
Assassination
To carry out an assassination is "to murder by a sudden and/or secret attack, often for political reasons." Alternatively, assassination may be defined as "the act of deliberately killing someone, especially a public figure, usually for hire or for political reasons."An assassination may be...
attempt.
Early life and union activism
Solski was born to a working classWorking class
Working class is a term used in the social sciences and in ordinary conversation to describe those employed in lower tier jobs , often extending to those in unemployment or otherwise possessing below-average incomes...
family in Coniston and was raised in the community. In 1935, he began working at local Inco smelter that also employed his father and grandfather. From 1942 to 1944, he was chair of the Coniston Plant Union Organizing Committee that led to affiliation with Mine Mill. He was elected as a Coniston town councillor in 1945 and served until 1948.
Break with the CCF
Solksi was a member of SudburySudbury (electoral district)
Sudbury is a federal electoral district in Ontario, Canada, that has been represented in the Canadian House of Commons since 1949.Its population in 2001 was 89,443. The district is one of two serving the city of Greater Sudbury, Ontario....
's Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) Trade Union Committee in the 1940s, and so became involved in a bitter dispute with party leaders over allegations of communist domination in Mine Mill. This dispute took place against the backdrop of a rivalry between Mine Mill and the United Steelworkers of America for control of Local 598. The Steelworkers leadership was close aligned with that of the CCF in this period, and provincial Steelworkers leader Charles Millard
Charles Millard
Charles Hibbert Millard was a Canadian trade union activist and politician.-Early life:He was born in St...
was a very close ally of CCF organizer David Lewis
David Lewis (politician)
David Lewis, CC was a Russian-born Canadian labour lawyer and social democratic politician. He was national secretary of the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation from 1936 to 1950, and one of the key architects of the New Democratic Party in 1961...
. Ted Jolliffe
Ted Jolliffe
Edward Bigelow "Ted" Jolliffe, QC was a Canadian social democratic politician and lawyer from Ontario. He was the first leader of the Ontario section of the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation and leader of the Official Opposition in the Ontario Legislature during the 1940s and 1950s...
, who was the provincial party's leader in the 1940s, later remarked that the rivalry between Mine Mill and Steel, and not accusations of communist infiltration, was at the centre of the party dispute.
Solski left the CCF after Robert Carlin
Robert Carlin
Robert Carlin was a Canadian labour union organizer and politician, who represented the electoral district of Sudbury in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario from 1943 to 1948. He was a member of the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation .Born in Buckingham, Quebec, Carlin moved to Cobalt in 1916...
, the local Member of Provincial Parliament (MPP) and a Mine Mill stalwart, was denied renomination in the buildup to the 1948 provincial election
Ontario general election, 1948
The Ontario general election of 1948 was held on June 7, 1948, to elect the 90 members of the 23rd Legislative Assembly of Ontario of the Province of Ontario, Canada....
. Carlin ran as an independent CCF candidate, and Solksi was put in charge of his campaign headquarters. The CCF ran an official candidate, resulting in a vote split and the election of a Progressive Conservative
Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario
The Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario , is a right-of-centre political party in Ontario, Canada. The party was known for many years as "Ontario's natural governing party." It has ruled the province for 80 of the years since Confederation, including an uninterrupted run from 1943 to 1985...
. Solski remained a bitter opponent of the CCF and of David Lewis in the years that followed. (Despite their political alliance, Solski also disliked Carlin on a personal level. In the 1980s, he described Carlin as a "figurehead" union organizer who "never negotiated a goddammed contract in his life.")
Local 598 leader
Solski became Local 598's vice-president in 1949 and was elected its president in 1952. Mine Mill's rivalry with the Steelworkers continued in full force during this period, and Solski had to contend with attempted raids of his membership.In September 1958, Local 598 conducted its first ever strike at Inco. Just before the strike, Solski held direct talks with Ontario premier
Premier of Ontario
The Premier of Ontario is the first Minister of the Crown for the Canadian province of Ontario. The Premier is appointed as the province's head of government by the Lieutenant Governor of Ontario, and presides over the Executive council, or Cabinet. The Executive Council Act The Premier of Ontario...
Leslie Frost
Leslie Frost
Leslie Miscampbell Frost, was a politician in Ontario, Canada, who served as the 16th Premier from May 4, 1949 to November 8, 1961. Due to his lengthy tenure, he gained the nickname "Old Man Ontario".-Early years:...
in a bid for a negotiated settlement. The job action was resolved in December, following negotiations with provincial labour minister Charles Daley.
Solski was defeated in his 1959 bid for re-election by Donald Gillis, amid a local backlash against the union's left-leaning leadership. Gillis was backed by the Steelworkers and favoured affiliation with the Canadian Labour Congress
Canadian Labour Congress
The Canadian Labour Congress, or CLC is a national trade union centre, the central labour body in English Canada to which most Canadian labour unions are affiliated.- Formation :...
. He accused Solski of mishandling the union's funds, a charge that Solski angrily denied.
Solski returned to an executive position with Mine Mill in 1960, after winning election as leader of its newly formed eastern district, which covered Ontario and Manitoba
Manitoba
Manitoba is a Canadian prairie province with an area of . The province has over 110,000 lakes and has a largely continental climate because of its flat topography. Agriculture, mostly concentrated in the fertile southern and western parts of the province, is vital to the province's economy; other...
. He was a frequent rival to Gillis in this period, and at least one meeting of Local 598 ended in violence between the rival camps. Several years later, it was revealed that Inco had hired former Nazis to disrupt union activities.
The Steelworkers won the right to represent Inco workers in 1962, and Solski reluctantly joined the rival union. He did not return to a position of leadership.
Throughout his time in office, Solski was often regarded as an ally of Mine Mill's national and international leaders, many of whom were in fact communists. He consistently denied accusations that he was himself a communist or that he was dominated by the party. Cameron Smith wrote in the 1980s that Local 598 was never under communist control and was large enough to act on its own accord, without recourse to the union's national or international leaders. In the 1980s, Solski said, "I was the president of the largest local in Canada [...] I could tell the international president to go to hell if I wanted to."
Politics
Solski was elected as the mayor of Coniston in 1962 and was re-elected three times. He also ran as a candidate of the Ontario Liberal PartyOntario Liberal Party
The Ontario Liberal Party is a provincial political party in the province of Ontario, Canada. It has formed the Government of Ontario since the provincial election of 2003. The party is ideologically aligned with the Liberal Party of Canada but the two parties are organizationally independent and...
in the 1967 provincial election
Ontario general election, 1967
The Ontario general election of 1967 was held on October 17, 1967, to elect the 117 members of the 28th Legislative Assembly of Ontario of the Province of Ontario, Canada....
, finishing third against New Democrat Party (NDP) candidate Elie Martel
Elie Martel
Elie Walter Martel is a former politician in Ontario, Canada. He served in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario from 1967 to 1987, as a member of the New Democratic Party .-Personal life:...
in Sudbury East
Sudbury East
Sudbury East was a provincial electoral riding in the Canadian province of Ontario, that was represented in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario from 1967 to 1999. It served the easternmost portion of the former city of Sudbury, the eastern portion of the Regional Municipality of Sudbury, and...
. Solski's radical labour past was used against him in this election, when NDP Member of Provincial Parliament (MPP) Ken Bryden referred to him as a "Commie" during a legislative debate. In later years, Solski became a prominent local organizer for the Liberal Party of Canada
Liberal Party of Canada
The Liberal Party of Canada , colloquially known as the Grits, is the oldest federally registered party in Canada. In the conventional political spectrum, the party sits between the centre and the centre-left. Historically the Liberal Party has positioned itself to the left of the Conservative...
.
Solski helped bring about Coniston's amalgamation into the new municipality of Nickel Centre in 1972, after Inco shut down the community's factory. He was elected as Nickel Centre's first mayor, and also became first vice-chair of the Regional Municipality of Sudbury. Re-elected as mayor in 1974 and 1976, he lost to Garry Lacey in 1978.
Solski was shot by a disgruntled ratepayer on November 15, 1978, while attending his final council meeting. He eventually recovered, but suffered partial paralysis in one arm for the rest of his life. His shooter was found not guilty of attempted murder by reason of insanity.
Later years
Solski chaired a group that published a pictorial work entitled The Coniston Story in 1983. The following year, he co-authored a book entitled Mine Mill: The History of the International Union of Mine, Mill and Smelter Workers in Canada since 1895.Solski died of heart failure in 1999. At the time of his death, he was a member of the Coniston Hydro Electric Commission and the Sudbury Municipal Restructuring Association. The latter group lobbied for the restructuring of Sudbury into a single, one-tier government, a cause that Solski had long supported. He was also active with the Canada-Cuba
Cuba
The Republic of Cuba is an island nation in the Caribbean. The nation of Cuba consists of the main island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city...
Friendship Committee. In his last published editorial, Solski criticized the spending practices of Sudbury's municipal government and called on the provincial government to intervene.