Workers in Canada are set for a big boost. Two of Canada's largest unions unite this Labour Day weekend to create Unifor, the biggest private sector union in Canadian history.
More than 300,000 members of the Canadian Auto Workers union and the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers union, employed in more than 20 major economic sectors, will form the new union. In the Lower Mainland alone, there will be about 17,000 Unifor members and many more across the province, employed in transportation, media, manufacturing, hospitality, forestry and more.
A founding principle of our new union is that what we wish for ourselves we wish for everyone. And it's not just a catchy slogan either. We're putting it into practice from the onset.
Unifor will have a new way to involve workers who don't usually benefit from the protection and strength of a union. With new and unique 'community chapters,' Unifor will adapt its traditional union organizing efforts to the challenges and realities of modern workplaces. The increase of precarious work where more and more people must accept part-time, temporary, contract and seasonal employment, tells us that there really is no other way to reach out to new economy's workers.
Through community chapters, groups of workers from diverse workplaces and sources of employment will be able to join the union and tackle any issue that is important to them, be it workplace safety or economic justice. This way, we can extend the benefits of membership in a labour union to more people, many who would not have come in contact with a union before - while creating a new tool of collective action to build our communities, our union and our power as working people.
Even as we work to extend the traditional definition of union membership, Unifor will devote unprecedented resources to supporting workers fighting for formal union protection. We'll be allocating 10 per cent of the dues Unifor will collect to organizing efforts - or $10 million a year, an increase for both founding unions.
It's the most ambitious and wellresourced organizing strategy in the history of the Canadian labour movement. It will most certainly make a difference in the support workers are provided when they want to join a union.
The truth is that organizing new members into bargaining units takes more than financial resources. It's about adapting to a world where corporations span the globe and have entire departments designed to thwart efforts by their workers to join a union.
To counter employer interference in organizing, Unifor will build an internal structure based on strategic campaigns and orienting the work of the union to the goals of working people. By building coalitions with community groups, mobilizing existing members and taking on major campaigns on corporate targets, Unifor will build power in all that it does.
In recent years, private sector union density in Canada has declined precipitously. It's half of its peak in the late 1970s, with less than 14 per cent of those employed by private corporations benefiting from a collective agreement. The creation of Unifor sends a clear message that unions are ready to reverse this trend and do what is necessary to take on employers and governments who would prefer to see us disappear.
Strong unions have been at the core of movements that have won public health care, pensions, unemployment insurance, childcare, workers compensation, pay equity, health and safety legislation, shorter work weeks, and just about every progressive social service.
As legislation and cherished social programs that benefit ordinary Canadians come under attack by ideologies of greed and corporations that demand ever more profit, a revitalized labour movement is exactly what is needed.
Ken Lewenza is the national president of the Canadian Auto Workers union and Dave Coles is the national president of the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada.
