Burt worked as an apprentice plumber before getting a job on the General Motors assembly line in Oshawa, Ontario in 1929.
Millard was an anti-Communist and attempted to purge Communists and leftists from the union and promote the social democratic Co-operative Commonwealth Federation.
A "unity caucus" of Communists, left wing CCFers and militants ran Burt as their candidate against Millard in 1939.
Burt was elected Canadian director of the UAW and would remain in that position for almost thirty years.
Burt was arrested once in 1940 for allegedly interfering with war production when he participated in a picket across the street from Windsor's Chrysler plant.