Born in 1912, Cyril Strong went to work at the Hotel Newfoundland in 1928. When the hotel workers organized in 1942, he began his career as a trade unionist. After serving on the executives of his local union, of the St. John's Trades and Labor COuncil, and of the Newfoundland Federation of Labour, he became the Newfoundland organizer for the Anerican Federation of Labor in 1948. As Federation organizer, he travelled the province from coast to coast helping Newfoundland workers form unions. After the creation of the Canadian Labour Congress in 1956, Strong became a CLC representative. Thus, he was the dramatic events of the 1959-1960 IWA organizing drive and loggers strike from the inside, a story which he recounts here.

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