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The Windsor Star
July 4, 2012
The Canadian Auto Workers union and the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada have taken a "critical step" toward the merger of two of the country's largest private sector labour organizations.
The joint committee responsible for drafting a final proposal has come up with a report on the merged union's governance and financial structure - a document to be submitted for approval next week to the respective national executive boards, Peter Kennedy, committee co-chair, said Tuesday. "This is just the first critical step in the process, and we are recommending that we take the next steps in terms of creating a new union."
Once the report is approved at separate CAW and CEP executive board meetings July 10, the joint committee will draft a constitution for the merged union, he said. The final report will be presented to delegates attending the CAW constitutional and Detroit Three collective bargaining convention in Toronto Aug. 20 to 24, Kennedy said. The CEP will hold a convention on the merger in October.
If ratified by both conventions, the CEP and CAW will hold a founding convention in 2013, he added.
Union officials have said a merger is needed to strengthen labour's influence and relevance in Canada. "It's fundamental for not only our organization, but the labour movement generally," said Kennedy. "We've had 30 years of a neo-Liberal and neo-Conservative agenda. We've seen, in that period, wages stagnating, workers and their organizations under attack from all corners, and as much as the labour movement has been about challenging the status quo, internally we haven't been very good at challenging our own status quo. We're at a crossroads."
A consolidation between CAW and CEP would create a union representing about 325,000 workers.
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