Bob White, R.I.P.

Bob White, the founding President of the Canadian Auto Workers and later President of the Canadian Labour Congress, passed away on February 19th at the age of 81.

During my NDP days I would see him from time to time. I didn't know him particularly well although I do remember talking with him at length during Stanley Knowles' wake 20 years ago. He was a friendly, approachable fellow. He didn't have much formal education, but was self-taught and had a way with people.

White became a trade unionist in his teens and put himself on the map in the mid-1980's when he successfully disaffiliated from the United Auto Workers. The UAW was and is a big union and splitting from it was no small doing. Above all else, White never lost sight of his commitment to working people because he always was of the working class.