This morning (May 26) the working people of Niagara Region (Ontario) lost one of their most outstanding militants and leaders. Ed Gould was an active trade unionist and leader for nearly three decades dating back to 1990 when he was a Skilled Trades Shop Committeeperson and member of the CAW – GM Master Bargaining Committee. Over the following two decades Ed was a major figure in the local labour movement, including at the St. Catharines & District Labour
Council. Ed was its President in 1998 at the time of the St. Catharines Day of Action/General Strike, putting him at the forefront of that mass mobilization. Ed went on to become the Chair of the Unifor Niagara Skilled Trades Council, member of the CAW Local 199 Executive Board and a Health and Safety Rep for several years. Very few people in the labour movement are as committed to advancing the interests of the working class as was Ed Gould. Stalwart activists and leaders like him are few and far between. Ed stood out by courageously opposing contract concessions in the auto industry. * Ed passed away after a long battle with cancer of the blood. He was wearing his St. Catharines Day of Action t-shirt. His departure is a real loss for us all. Mourn for the dead and fight for the living.
— Bruce Allen, past vice-president of the Niagara Regional Labour Council.
* (Ed Gould was a member of the NDP Socialist Caucus and a cherished friend of Socialist Action. – BW)