August 18, 1934 – February 6, 2025
(Editor’s note: Thanks to the Alberta Labour History Institute for the original post on Dave Werlin, which can be found here https://albertalabourhistory.org/dave-werlin-a-life-in-workers-struggles )
A lifetime in pursuit of social justice for working people, peace, and socialism is a fine thing. Dave Werlin lived that life with enthusiasm and pride. He had endless faith in the capacity of the working class to change the world for the better and relished the many forms such struggles took. His dedication, energy, wit, humour, and firm principles will be missed.
Dave was a stalwart life-long trade unionist, who saw the labour movement as the best place to participate in the struggle for an egalitarian, democratic, socialist society.
Dave was, above all, a labour activist. He was proud of his trade union participation and activism first in CUPE Local 37 (Calgary outside workers) and ATU Local 583 (transit drivers) in Calgary in the 1950s, and then in his home local, CUPE 1004 representing Vancouver outside workers. He was secretary/ business agent for Local 1004 where he was later given a life membership. At CUPE regional and national conventions and at both the BC Federation of Labour and Canadian Labour Congress he honed his political analysis, organizing, and speaking skills as part of the left action caucuses who educated and mobilized around socialist projects.
Dave was elected as CUPE’s BC Regional Vice-President and sat on the union’s national executive board. In 1979 he was hired as CUPE National Representative working out of Calgary. In 1983 he ran for and was elected President of the Alberta Federation of Labour.
As President of the Alberta Federation of Labour, Dave launched many progressive programs, including mobilizing unions and the unemployed during the 1980s recession by creating unemployment action centres, instituting affirmative action for the AFL Executive Council, participating in the farm gate defence movement, and creating the Solidarity Alberta movement.
Nowhere was this more evident than during the 1986 strike wave in Alberta as workers at the Alberta Liquor Control Board, Zeidler’s plywood factories, Suncor, and the Gainers and Fletchers meat packing plants in Edmonton and Red Deer walked out against concessions.
After his time at the AFL, Dave went back to work as a CUPE representative and eventually served as the union’s Alberta Regional Director from 1992 to his retirement on April 1, 1998. Dave’s efforts were key in bringing education support workers with Local 3550 into the CUPE fold.
Dave was an active member of the Friends of Medicare, Public Interest Alberta, chaired the City of Edmonton Taxi Commission, and served on the Employment Insurance (EI) Board of Referees in both BC and Alberta. He was instrumental in launching the Alberta Labour History Institute, and served as its President from its founding in 1999 through 2013.
On a personal level, Dave was married three times. First to Marlene Rayton in 1957, with whom he had three children, Deborah, Douglas (deceased), and Sherry. After his first marriage ended, he married CUPE activist and local President Maureen Nuttal in 1980. The two of them moved to Alberta together until they separated in 1995. Dave then married his current partner Karen Macdonald, a union and social justice activist, in 1998 and became stepfather to her two children, Lisa and Andy. They remained happily together until Dave’s death.
His was a principled life, dedicated to struggle and equality. We all eventually fade from living memory, but Dave Werlin was a true working-class leader of whose kind we desperately need more today. Farewell to a friend and comrade.
For those who would like to commemorate Dave’s life, please consider making a donation in his name to the CUPE 3550 strike fund at:
https://www.gofundme.com/f/cupe-local-3550-edmonton-public-schools-support-staff
