Unifor is a Canadian general trade union founded in 2013 as a merger of the

Canadian Auto Workers The National Automobile, Aerospace, Transportation and General Workers Union of Canada, commonly known as the Canadian Auto Workers (CAW), was one of Canada's largest labour unions. In 2013, it merged with the Communications, Energy and Paperwork ...

(CAW) and Communications, Energy and Paperworkers unions. It consists of 310,000 workers, and associate members in industries including manufacturing, media, aviation, forestry and fishing, making it the largest private sector union in Canada. In January 2018, the union left the

Canadian Labour Congress The Canadian Labour Congress, or CLC ( or ), is a national trade union centre, the central labour body in Canada to which most Canadian trade union, labour unions are affiliated. History Formation The CLC was founded on April 23, 1956, thro ...

, Canada's

national trade union centre Organizers within trade unions have sought to increase the bargaining power of workers in regards to collective bargaining by acting in collaboration with other trade unions. Multi-union organizing can take place on an informal basis, or on a ...

, to become independent. The union elected

Jerry Dias Jerome P. Dias Jr. (born October 10, 1958) is a Canadian trade unionist who was elected the first national president of Unifor in August 2013 at the union’s founding convention following the merger between the Canadian Auto Workers and the Co ...

, a former union leader at de Havilland's facility in

Downsview Downsview is a neighbourhood in the north end of Toronto, Ontario, Canada, located in the district of North York. The area takes its name from the Downs View farm established around 1842 near the present-day intersection of Keele Street and Wils ...

, as its first president on August 31, 2013. He announced his retirement on March 12, 2022, for health reasons.

Split from the Canadian Labour Congress

On January 16, 2018, the National Executive Board of Unifor decided unanimously to discontinue affiliation with the

(CLC) and become independent. In a notice posted on their website, they stated their reasons for the split were due to CLC and its affiliates lack of action and will in addressing alleged aggressive and undemocratic tactics of US-based unions towards Canadian locals. The CLC accused Unifor of leaving the congress in order to engage in "

raiding Raiding may refer to: * The present participle of the verb Raid (disambiguation), which itself has several meanings * Raid (military) * Raid (video games), a group of video game players who join forces * Raiding, Austria, a town in Austria * Party ...

" (soliciting members of another union) following an announcement that

UNITE HERE UNITE HERE is a labor union in the United States and Canada with roughly 300,000 active members. The union's members work predominantly in the hotel, food service, laundry, warehouse, and casino gaming industries. The union was formed in 2004 b ...

Local 75 in Toronto would leave UNITE HERE and join Unifor. CAW, one of Unifor's predecessors, had previously been expelled from the CLC in 1998 due to accusations of raiding.

Local 1285

Unifor Local 1285 (previously Canadian Auto Workers Local 1285) is a merged local that represents automotive workers in Brampton, Canada. It is the biggest private sector union local in Brampton. Unifor appeared on the Canadian broadcast of

Super Bowl LIII Super Bowl LIII was an American football game played to determine the champion of the National Football League (NFL) for the 2018 season. The American Football Conference (AFC) champion New England Patriots defeated the National Football Confe ...

in February 2019 to air an advertisement opposing

General Motors General Motors Company (GM) is an American Multinational corporation, multinational Automotive industry, automotive manufacturing company headquartered in Detroit, Michigan, United States. The company is most known for owning and manufacturing f ...

' decision to shut the

Oshawa Car Assembly Oshawa Assembly (also known simply as ''GM Oshawa'') is an automobile assembly plant in Oshawa, Ontario, Canada, owned and operated by General Motors Canada. Vehicles were primarily produced for the US, Canadian, and Mexican markets, as well a ...

factory. Unifor received a letter from General Motors (GM) Canada two days before the game. The letter told Unifor to stop airing the commercial and to discontinue an online advertisement on

boycotting A boycott is an act of nonviolent, voluntary abstention from a product, person, organisation, or country as an expression of protest. It is usually for moral, social, political, or environmental reasons. The purpose of a boycott is to inflict s ...

Mexican-manufactured GM vehicles, stating that this was an attempt to tarnish GM's reputation along with their own. Despite these requests, the campaign ran as planned, with Unifor intended to continue airing it at subsequent significant events.

Saskatchewan Crown corporations

Most of Saskatchewan's Provincial

Crown corporations Crown corporation () is the term used in Canada for organizations that are structured like private companies, but are directly and wholly owned by the government. Crown corporations have a long-standing presence in the country, and have a sign ...

employ Unifor members. * Local 1-S represents workers at

SaskTel Saskatchewan Telecommunications Holding Corporation, operating as SaskTel, is a Telecommunications in Canada, Canadian Crown corporations of Canada, crown-owned telecommunications firm based in the province of Saskatchewan. Owned by the provinci ...

, Directwest, and SecurTek and is based in Regina. * Local 2-S represents workers at SaskTel and is based in

Saskatoon Saskatoon () is the largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Saskatchewan. It straddles a bend in the South Saskatchewan River in the central region of the province. It is located along the Trans-Canada Hig ...

. * Local 649 represents workers at

SaskPower Saskatchewan Power Corporation, trade name, operating as SaskPower, is the principal electric utility in Saskatchewan, Canada. Established in 1929 by the Saskatchewan#Government and politics, provincial government, it serves more than 550,000 cu ...

and

SaskEnergy SaskEnergy Incorporated is a Crown corporation of the Saskatchewan government, responsible for delivering and selling natural gas to residential, commercial, and industrial customers in the province of Saskatchewan, Canada. The company owns 70,00 ...

. * Local 820 represents workers at

SaskWater Saskatchewan Water Corporation, operating as SaskWater, is a Crown corporation owned by the Government of Saskatchewan and supplies water, wastewater and related services to municipalities, industries and farms. In turn, municipalities supply wa ...

and the Water Security Agency. On September 30, 2019, approximately 5,000 Unifor members from all of the above locals began a work-to-rule campaign after failing to negotiate new contracts with the provincial government. By October 4, the job action had escalated into a strike, as all of those workers walked off the job and began picketing, with the exception of those workers working essential roles such as 911 operators, power outage dispatchers, and

natural gas leak A methane leak is a significant natural gas leak. The term is used for a class of methane emissions, which can come from an industrial facility or pipeline. Satellite data enables the identification of super-emitter events (synonymous with ultra ...

responders.

References

External links

* {{Authority control International Metalworkers' Federation International Transport Workers' Federation General unions Trade unions in Canada International Federation of Journalists Trade unions established in 2013 2013 establishments in Ontario Organizations based in Toronto