Article

Alphonsus Gregory Duggan

Published Online January 24, 2008

Last Edited December 15, 2013

Alphonsus Gregory Duggan, labour leader (b at Holyrood, Nfld 21 Sept 1884; d at Grand Falls, Nfld 26 July 1970). In 1913 Duggan helped organize Local 63 of the International Pulp, Sulphite and Papermill Workers Union and became its first president.

Duggan, Alphonsus Gregory

Alphonsus Gregory Duggan, labour leader (b at Holyrood, Nfld 21 Sept 1884; d at Grand Falls, Nfld 26 July 1970). In 1913 Duggan helped organize Local 63 of the International Pulp, Sulphite and Papermill Workers Union and became its first president. He believed that social justice for the working class could best be achieved by means of one Newfoundland body for all unions. He organized the Newfoundland Trades and Labor Council in 1937, becoming its first president. In 1939 the council became the Newfoundland Federation of Labor, and Duggan became president emeritus. That same year King George VI made him a Member of the British Empire. Duggan was also active in the Grand Falls co-operative movement and was the first president of the Newfoundland Co-operative Union (1950).