Fred Dowling

Fred Dowling (1902–1982) was a Canadian trade unionist who is best known for leading the effort to organize meatpacking workers in Canada during the late 1930s and early 1940s. He was a founding leader of the United Packinghouse Workers of America (UPWA), and served the union as international vice-president and Canadian director for nearly 30 years.

Early life

Dowling was born and raised in Toronto where, as a young man, he excelled in semi-pro baseball. After a stint with the Canadian National Railways in 1935, he went to Chicago where, in a job with Armour and Company, he made his first contact with the meat packing industry.

The conditions in the packinghouses were so abysmal that Dowling would say, looking back, he "learned what it's like to work in hell".

Living through the Great Depression, Dowling's conscience was aroused by the experience, and he became active in the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF), and the CCF Youth Movement in particular. He also served as the labour editor for the CCF newspaper, The New Commonwealth.

Dowling's contributions to the labour and social democracy movement was also recognized by Ontario Premier Bob Rae, who named a Toronto co-operative housing complex in the food worker's honour. The Fred Dowling Co-Op offers a democratic approach to housing that provides a mix of market and subsidized residential units in the Davenport area of Toronto.