Born in Montreal, Rowley became a labour activist as a young man.
[1] In 1943, he was hired by the United Textile Workers of America, for whom he was Canadian director.
He was dismissed by the UTWA as part of a crackdown on leftist union officers in the early 1950s.
Unhappy with the labour establishment and its close relationship with conservative unions based in the United States, Rowley and fellow organizer Madeleine Parent founded the Confederation of Canadian Unions in 1969.
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