Editing Newfoundland and Labrador (section)

==== 1959 Woodworkers' strike ====
In 1959, a strike led by the International Woodworkers of America (IWA) that resulted the "most bitter labour dispute in Newfoundland's history."<ref>Gwynn, Richard (199),.''Smallwood: The Unlikely Revolutionary.'' Toronto: McClelland and Stewart.</ref> Smallwood, although he had himself been an organizer in the lumber industry, feared that the strike would shut down what had become the province's largest employer. His government introduced emergency legislation that immediately decertified the IWA, prohibited secondary picketing, and made unions liable for illegal acts committed on their behalf.<ref name=":8" />

The [[International Labour Organization]], [[Canadian Labour Congress]], and the [[Newfoundland and Labrador Federation of Labour|Newfoundland Federation of Labour]] condemned the legislation, and Canadian Prime Minister [[John Diefenbaker]] refused to provide the province with additional police to enforce the legislation. But running out of food and money, the loggers eventually abandoned the strike, joined Smallwood's newly created Newfoundland Brotherhood of Wood Workers, and negotiated a settlement with the logging companies, ending the strike and effectively undermining the IWA.<ref name=":8"/>