John Joseph Kee Pearson

John Joseph Kee (Jack) Pearson was born on October 3, 1901 in Clarlougheske, (Irontown), Town of Donegal, Donegal, Ireland, and died February 8, 1974 in Grimsby, Ontario.

He emigrated from the farm district of Donegal to the industrial regions of southern Ontario in 1921. He married Mary Elizabeth White around 1922. She was born March 15, 1897 in Belfast, Ireland, and died Oct. 15, 1993. They were married in Toronto, ON in a ceremony that was kept secret because he was, like many Irish immigrants, applying for a position on the Toronto police force, and they only hired single men. Vision problems kept him off the force, and they re-settled in Hamilton, Ontario, where he went to work in the locomotive round house at the Steel Company of Canada, Hilton Works.

Bothered by the abuse of immigrant workers,he became active in the secret movement to bring the trade union to Stelco, and was appointed to the first Works Council which was the company’s attempt at co-opting the labour movement.

When World War II started, he was too old for active duty, but lied about his age to join the Royal Canadian Navy. He sailed in the North Atlantic Convoy on the HMCS Wentworth, and the HMCS Port Hope. Eventually, he became an Engine Room Artificer. After WWII, he returned to Stelco, and with his leadership training in the RCN, he was promoted to management in the locomotive round house.

This ended his involvement in the trade union, but his sympathies remained with the immigrant worker, and he became a charter member of the Stelco Credit Union in an effort to give the workers an alternative to the big banks.