All-Canadian Congress of Labour

All-Canadian Congress of Labour

This national trade union federation was formed in 1926 as a rival to the Trades and Labor Congress, which was dominated by Canadian affiliates of American craft unions. It was headed by A.R. Mosher, president of the Canadian Brotherhood of Railway Employees, the largest organization within the 40 000-member ACCL, which also included the remnants of the One Big Union as well as several communist-controlled unions such as the Mine Workers' Union of Canada. The ACCL denounced American interference in Canadian union affairs and pledged to organize Canadian-controlled unions of industrial workers and to reject the elitist craft form of organization favoured by the TLC. But it made little headway in this regard. In 1929 the communist unions abandoned the ACCL to form the Workers' Unity League, and in 1940, the ACCL itself disbanded by merging with the fledgling CI0 unions - all of which had American affiliations - to form the Canadian Congress of Labor.