Canadian Auto Workers

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Canadian Auto Workers
Image:Caw logo.gif
National Automobile, Aerospace, Transportation and General Workers Union of Canada
Founded 1985
Members 265,000
Country Canada
Affiliation CLC
Key people Buzz Hargrove (Pres.)
Office location Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Website www.caw.ca

The Canadian Auto Workers (CAW; formally the National Automobile, Aerospace, Transportation and General Workers Union of Canada) is one of Canada's largest and highest profile trade unions. While rooted in Ontario's large auto plants of Windsor, Brampton, Oakville, St. Catharines and Oshawa, the CAW has in recent years expanded and now incorporates workers in industries from fisheries to air travel.

The current president of the CAW is Buzz Hargrove, however he has announced his intention to retire in September, 2008. The CAW executive board has scheduled a special union convention to elect a replacement for Hargrove on September 6, 2008, and also endorsed current CAW Local 444 president Ken Lewenza for that role. Lewenza is currently running unopposed. [1]

Contents

[edit] History

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The CAW began as the Canadian Region of the United Auto Workers (UAW).

The UAW was founded in August 1935, and the Canadian Region of the UAW was established in 1937 at General Motors's Oshawa, Ontario plant after a contentious and violent strike. CAW unionized the Ford Motor Company in 1945 after the a major strike which established the right of Canadian labor union members to dues checkoff. Before 1979, the Canadian Region was largely seen to follow in the contractual footsteps of the larger US-UAW, and despite growing differences, continued under the auspice of the UAW until 1985.[citation needed]

The reasons for the CAW split from the UAW are complicated. Holmes and Rusonik (1990) contend that although the Canadian labour movement has been seen as traditionally more militant than its American counterpart, it was in fact the uneven geographical development of both management and labour led the Canadian auto-workers to develop a distinctly different set of collective bargaining objectives, which placed them in a far stronger bargaining position as compared to the UAW in the U.S., and, ultimately, brought about the events that led directly to the Split.

Two of the main forces demanding the restructuring of management and Labour during this time were the rise of Japan as a major automotive force, and the general recession of the world economy in the late 70's and early 80's. Aided by the Auto Pact and the weakening Canadian dollar in relation to the United States dollar, a geographic difference developed which provided some relief to the Canadian auto-worker.

By December 1984, significant differences in the value of negotiated contracts, and divergent union objectives had set the stage for the creation of the CAW, a process documented in the Genie Award winning film, Final Offer. In 1984, the Canadian section of the UAW, under the leadership of Bob White and his assistants Buzz Hargrove and Bob Nickerson, broke from the UAW because the American union was seen as giving away too much in the way of concessions during collective bargaining. Additionally, the UAW had been lobbying the U.S. Congress to force the transfer of auto production from Canada to the U.S. and the Canadian branch felt there was a lack of a representative voice during UAW's conventions. By 1985 the split from the American union was complete and Bob White was acclaimed as the first President of the CAW. He went on to serve 3 terms as president.[citation needed]

After separation, the CAW began to grow quickly in size and stature. It merged with a number of smaller unions to double in size and become the largest private sector union in the country. Most notable were the mergers with the Fishermen, Food, and Allied Workers and the Canadian Brotherhood of Railway Transport and General Workers. The CAW also voiced strong opposition to the then-federal government of Prime Minister Brian Mulroney and such policies as the Goods and Services Tax and free trade. Under White and Hargrove, the CAW has moved toward the European model of social unionism and away from American business unionism.[citation needed]

In the case Fullowka et al v. Royal Oak Ventures Inc, held in the aftermath of an 18 month strike at Royal Oak Mines in Yellowknife, the CAW was held responsible for 22% of damages. The judge found that the union breached its duty of care by doing nothing to stop illegal acts during the strike, paying fines and legal fees for striking miners, providing a person to assist the miners' union who prolonged the strike, and failing to bargain in good faith. The court ruled that the cumulative effect of these breaches of the duty of care were found to have materially contributed to Roger Warren's bombing of the mine, which killed nine strikebreaking workers. Warren, a union member who had been fired from Royal Oak, testified that he was only capable of the bombing because strike-breakers had been "dehumanized" by the union and was sentenced to life in prison. Furthermore, CAW members Al Shearing and Tim Bettger were sentenced to two and a half and three years in prison, respectively. Both were convicted of painting anti-scab graffiti and setting an explosion in a ventilation shaft on June 29, 1992. Bettger was sentenced to an additional six months in prison for blowing a hole in a television satellite dish Sept. 1 of that year. (The unioned miners were part of the Canadian Association of Smelter and Allied Workers union (CASAW) Local 4 at the time of the strike, and merged into the CAW on May 1994.) [1]

In 2000, the CAW was expelled from the Canadian Labour Congress when several union locals left the SEIU and joined the CAW, prompting accusations of union raiding. A settlement was reached a year later that allowed the CAW to rejoin the national labour federation but relations with other unions such as the Canadian Union of Public Employees, the United Steel Workers of America and SEIU remain strained and the CAW remains outside of the Ontario Federation of Labour.

The CAW's relationship with other unions has also been strained due to its different political direction. The CAW is strongly left leaning and it has traditionally been a strong supporter of the New Democratic Party (NDP) and the Bloc Québécois (Bloc). However, under current leader Buzz Hargrove, it began lending its support to the Liberal Party of Canada in ridings which the NDP were unlikely to win in the recent federal elections.

The CAW has attempted several times, all unsuccessful, to organize Toyota Motor Manufacturing Canada.[2] TMMC Assistant General Manager and spokesman Greig Mordue stated "Our team members will decide whether or not a union best reflects their interest... At this point in time, we don't think they have anything to gain from a union", and described the defeat of the union drive saying "Our team members have recognized that a third party represents a complication they don't need." [3] Despite this, however, the CAW supported Mordue as the Liberal candidate in the 2006 federal election instead of endorsing the NDP's Zoe Kunschner.[4] Mordue attempted to take credit for bringing the new plant to Woodstock, but lost to Conservative incumbent Dave MacKenzie.[5]

The 2004 federal election saw the governing Liberals lose power, despite CAW support. Afterwards, the Ontario NDP voted to expel Hargrove for supporting the Liberals, which automatically suspended his membership in the federal party. The CAW retaliated by severing all union ties with the NDP, a move formalized at the CAW's 2006 convention.

[edit] CAW leaders

Canadian Directors of the UAW

Presidents of the Canadian Auto Workers

[edit] Major CAW employers

[edit] Major auto

[edit] Independent auto parts

[edit] Aerospace

[edit] Specialty vehicles

[edit] Shipbuilding

[edit] Electrical and electronics

[edit] General manufacturing

[edit] Air transportation

[edit] Railways

[edit] Marine transportation

[edit] Other transportation

[edit] Fisheries

  • East Coast fish harvesters – FFAW/CAW
  • East Coast fish plant workers – FFAW/CAW
  • West Coast fish harvesters and fish plant workers (UFAWU)
  • Great Lakes fish harvesters and fish plant workers – Local 444

[edit] Mining and smelting

[edit] Hospitality and gaming

[edit] Retail and wholesale trade

[edit] Health care

[edit] General services

[edit] Related Subjects

[edit] Films

CAW President Bob White plays a major role in the 1985 documentary film: Final Offer by Sturla Gunnarsson & Robert Collision. It follows the 1984 contract negotiations with General Motors that saw the CAW's birth, and split with the UAW. It's an interesting look at life on the shop floor of a car factory, along with the art of business negotiation.

[edit] Donation to the University of Windsor

The CAW Local 200 donated over $4 million towards the renovation of the University of Windsor's student union building, which was renamed the CAW Student Centre in 1991 as recognition of the gift.

[edit] References

  1. ^ Giant Mine decision affects labour and employers across Canada Law - Calgary and Edmonton, Alberta, Yellowknife McLennan Ross Law Firm
  2. ^ CAW aims for Toyota - Autonet.ca
  3. ^ babble: CAW sellout Stanford backs Toyota Liberal
  4. ^ Election 2006
  5. ^ Toyota angle didn't help Oxford's Mordue | The Record.com

[edit] External links

Organized Labour portal
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadian_Auto_Workers"
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