Neil Reimer (July 3, 1921 – March 29, 2011) was an activist, trade unionist and politician in Canada. Reimer attended the

University of Saskatchewan The University of Saskatchewan (U of S, or USask) is a Universities in Canada, Canadian public university, public research university, founded on March 19, 1907, and located on the east side of the South Saskatchewan River in Saskatoon, Saskatch ...

, but left in 1942 at the age of 19 to work at the Consumers Co-operative Refinery in

Regina, Saskatchewan Regina ( ) is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Saskatchewan. The city is the second-largest in the province, and is a commercial centre for southern Saskatchewan. As of the 2021 Canadian census, ...

. There he joined a

Congress of Industrial Organizations The Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) was a federation of Labor unions in the United States, unions that organized workers in industrial unionism, industrial unions in the United States and Canada from 1935 to 1955. Originally created in ...

union organizing drive. In 1950, he became an organizer for the CIO's Oil Workers International Union (OWIU) and was sent to

Alberta Alberta is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province in Canada. It is a part of Western Canada and is one of the three Canadian Prairies, prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to its west, Saskatchewan to its east, t ...

to organize workers in that province's booming

petrochemical industry file:Jampilen Petrochemical Co. 02.jpg, 300px, Jampilen Petrochemical co., Asaluyeh, Iran The petrochemical industry is concerned with the production and trade of petrochemicals. A major part is constituted by the plastics industry, plastics (poly ...

.Horse sense & organizing", by Neil Reimer as told to Lorraine Endicott, ''Our Times'', February–March 2005 In 1951, Reimer became the Canadian director of the OWIU (which subsequently became the Oil, Chemical & Atomic Workers Union) and served as the national director of the union and its successors until he retired in 1982. Under his stewardship, the union grew from fewer than 1,000 members to more than 20,000 by 1961. In 1981 the union gained independence from its American parent to become the Energy and Chemical Workers Union and, in 1992, merged with two other unions to become the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada. Reimer was elected as a vice-president of the

Canadian Congress of Labour The Canadian Congress of Labour (CCL; ) was a trade union federation in Canada. Affiliated with the United States–based Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO). It was founded in 1940 and merged with Trades and Labour Congress of Canada (TLC ...

in the 1950s and remained on the executive of it and its successor, 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 ...

, until 1974. At the 1962 founding convention of the

Alberta New Democratic Party The Alberta New Democratic Party (Alberta NDP; ), is social democratic political party in Alberta, Canada. The party sits on the centre-left to left-wing of the political spectrum and is a provincial Alberta affiliate of the federal New Democra ...

, Reimer was named party president. The following January, he was elected the first leader of the Alberta NDP. The NDP's predecessor, the Alberta CCF, had lost its remaining two seats in the 1959 provincial election and received only 4% of the vote. Under Reimer's leadership, the NDP's share of the popular vote rose to 9% in the 1963 election and to nearly 16% in the 1967 election, but did not win any seats. Reimer resigned as NDP leader in 1968. Reimer remained Canadian director of the OCAW throughout the 1960s and 1970s and became national director of the Energy and Chemical Workers Union when it was formed from the OCAW in 1981. He retired from the union's leadership in 1984. He then served as the president and later as secretary treasurer of the Alberta Council on Aging.Lauren MacGillivray, "Cash crunch takes toll on seniors", ''Calgary Herald'', November 3, 2001 His daughter, Janice Rhea Reimer, served as mayor of

Edmonton Edmonton is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Alberta. It is situated on the North Saskatchewan River and is the centre of the Edmonton Metropolitan Region, which is surrounded by Central Alberta ...

from 1989 to 1995.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Reimer, Neil 1921 births 2011 deaths Leaders of the Alberta CCF/NDP Trade unionists from Alberta Canadian Labour Congress people University of Saskatchewan alumni Congress of Industrial Organizations people