Historic union convention gets underway Sunday – CEP delegates to vote on creating Canada’s largest private sector union

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October 10, 2012

QUEBEC CITY – More than 1,500 delegates and observers will gather in Quebec City, Oct. 14-17 for the national convention of the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada.

CEP, one of Canada’s largest unions, will confront challenges that workers face in this weakened economy, but also the challenges that labour unions in general face. In that context, delegates will debate resolutions calling for collective bargaining and political action as well as one calling for CEP to form a new union with the CAW.

The vote on the new union is the second of two. CAW delegates voted unanimously in favour of the new union proposal at its convention, Aug.22nd in Toronto. CEP delegates will vote on the proposal Monday, Oct. 15th *

Other convention highlights include speeches from:

  • Dave Coles, CEP President, Sunday, Oct. 14th, 10 am
  • Jyrki Raina, General Secretary, IndustriALL Global Union, Monday, Oct. 15th, 2:10 pm
  • Thomas Mulcair, Leader of the Official Opposition, Tuesday, Oct. 16th, 9:15 am
  • Three representatives from the Quebec students’ movement (Mouvement carré rouge , Wednesday, Oct. 17th, 1:30 pm.

Members of the media are welcome to attend and register and at Room 201A of the Centre des Congrès, 1000 boul. René-Levesque E.

More information on the CEP convention, including the full agenda, can be found at cep.ca/convention2012. Parts of the convention will be live streamed.

CEP is the largest union in several key sectors of the Canadian economy, including , including forestry, energy, telecommunications and media. The union’s 120,000 members work at a wide variety of jobs in hundreds of different workplaces across the country.

*The advisory for a news conference to be held following the new union vote will be released later this week.