Canadian Railroads > Big merger , Canadian Auto Workers to become Unifor

The Canadian Auto Workers union and the Chemical, Energy and Paperworkers union have completed plans to merge later this summer to become Unifor.

The CAW was originally the Canadian Division of the United Auto Workers union but split from the US union over plans to shut down all the Chrysler plants in Canada in the 1980's.

In the 1990's, the Canadian Brotherhood of Railway,Transportation & General Workers Union merged with CAW, resulting that CAW came to represent bus and transit operators, CN clerical staff and Via on board and maintenance staff, and Air Canada and other airline cabin crew and counter staff. The CBRT also represented many workers in the hotel and hospitality trades.

CAW also won representational elections to represent aircraft maintenance workers following a long standing confrontation between the US International Association of Aerospace workers and CAIMAW, a Canadian competitor. CAW's full title includes the International Association title.

The Brotherhood of Railway Carmen in Canada merged with CAW.

The CAW won run off representational elections to represent railway shop workers replacing the traditional US based shopcraft unions.

The CAW ended up being Canada's largest union with a very diverse membership. Auto workers are still slightly in the majority.

CEP was created in 1992 with the merger of a variety of chemical plant and oil field unions with unions representing utility company workers and those employed by electrical power generating facilities.

Also merged were the several Canadian and US unions which represented workers in the pulp and paper industry.

CEP diversified by seeking to represent a variety of public media staff, notably largely replacing NABET in the TV industry, and the printers and typesetters unions in the print media. CAW and CEP competed for media representation in the film industry.

CEP especially sought to organise many classes of workers in a variety of workplaces, even stepping into the domains of the public sector in healthcare and public administration.

As an act of solidarity, the Presidents of both CAW and CEP announced their resignations this weekend so that a new president could be selected at the founding UNIFOR convention later this year.

Unifor will be the largest railway union in Canada, sharing represntation with the Teamsters, USWA (Steelworkers) and the IBEW (electrical workers). Notably, none of the old railroad brotherhoods have survived the union merger/takeover trend of the last three decades.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/11/13 18:30 by eminence_grise.

Thanks for that interesting background. The struggle between craft unions and mass unions continues into the 21st century. It defined the late 1800s, defined the conflict between the AF of L and the CIO in the 1930s, and may finally be at a conclusion.

As an act of solidarity, the Presidents of both CAW and CEP announced their resignations this weekend so that a new president could be selected at the founding UNIFOR convention later this year.
THIS single act is why this particular merger of unions will succeed, where other ones fail or stumble along...I approve of these presidents giving up their jobs (and they're really good jobs, if you like politicking and lawyering stuff) so that there will be no "hard feelings" over whose president got elected and who got Veep...
In the early 2000's, the BLE and UTU sought merger. It only made sense to combine the unions representing the people left in the cab...However, egos got in the way, and in the end, the membership voted against it. Now, the Teamsters Rail Conference represents the Canadian locomotive engineers and the BLET in the US...the UTU merged into the sheet metal union, and apparently has had no good things come from it--and the two sides bitterly argue and fight amongst themselves (mostly) while the carriers walk away grinning every time contracts roll around.
A house divided will not stand.

The Screen Actors Guild, SAG, recently merged with the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, AFTRA, to become a single entity. (You'll see the new SAG-AFTRA One Union 'bug' next time you stay for the full credits of any major U.S. theatrical film.)

For years -- decades, actually -- merger was discussed and rejected, with supposedly incompatible pension funding mechanisms being a sticking point. But finally, the notion prevailed that fighting for the separation of individual crafts, while being an undeniably proud tradition, bore little value when compared to solidarity in the face of the massive deconstruction and reinvention of the job environment.

This move in Canada seems, on this reading at least, to be well-considered and well-executed. I hope it works to the benefit of fair labor representation. We need more good models for effective and efficient solidarity.

~ BZ

Notch16 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> The Screen Actors Guild, SAG, recently merged with
> the American Federation of Television and Radio
> Artists, AFTRA, to become a single entity. (You'll
> see the new SAG-AFTRA One Union 'bug' next time
> you stay for the full credits of any major U.S.
> theatrical film.)
>
> For years -- decades, actually -- merger was
> discussed and rejected, with supposedly
> incompatible pension funding mechanisms being a
> sticking point. But finally, the notion prevailed
> that fighting for the separation of individual
> crafts, while being an undeniably proud tradition,
> bore little value when compared to solidarity in
> the face of the massive deconstruction and
> reinvention of the job environment.
>
> This move in Canada seems, on this reading at
> least, to be well-considered and well-executed. I
> hope it works to the benefit of fair labor
> representation. We need more good models for
> effective and efficient solidarity.
>
> ~ BZ

The UAW has always stood for progression through the ranks. Your ability to move up to better paying, higher skills etc positions wasn't limited by the craft in which you started your career. That was a major stumbling point between the AF of L and the CIO in the 1930s.

I doubt that the railroad workers of the 1870s - 1900s etc could have successfully stood their ground with mass unions in place of the craft unions that actually happened back then.

I wonder if the union(s) learned anything by losing the EMD plant in Canada and the GE plant in Pa. to Right to Work states in the USA??

Common sense would strongly suggest that they had, but I have my doubts??

Ross Rowland

co614 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I wonder if the union(s) learned anything by
> losing the EMD plant in Canada and the GE plant in
> Pa. to Right to Work states in the USA??
>
> Common sense would strongly suggest that they
> had, but I have my doubts??
>
> Ross Rowland

There is an unpleasant truth about how the Canadian Auto Workers came about. Bob White was the UAW representative for most of the Chrysler plants in Windsor ON. Chrysler was in severe trouble in the years before Lee Iaccoca turned it around, and plants would have to close for the corporation to survive. All the Chrysler workers got to vote on which plants would close, and the US UAW members voted to shut the Canadian plants rather than share the closures between workers in the two countries.
Windsor is just across the river from Detroit. The various US UAW representatives at a meeting in Detroit felt they could not go against the memberships wishes in this matter.

The CAW was formed at that meeting, and very shortly thereafter workers at the Ford and General Motors plants in Canada voted to join the CAW also. Strangely enough, there are still UAW Locals in Canada where the whole issue of closing Canadian plants in favour of US plants didn't come up.

The unpleasant truth is that US corporations and US unions have more loyalty to US citizens than to Canadian workers, although some would argue that corporate loyalty to the workforce has been undermined by cheaper wages in Mexico and Asia.

There are many vacant factories in southern Ontario where branches of large US companies were closed in favour of the main plants in the US.

As a 16 year CEP member, I offer a correction. The C in CEP stands for communications, rather than chemical. This merger has been in the works for some time. I remember this being discussed at meetings 6 yrs. ago.

A good example of why Canadian governments and workers now have laws on the books which will restrict foreign ownership of "key assets" like potash, certain oil properties, probably the Canadian Pacific and Canadian National railways, etc.