Set up rival labour body, CAW head tells autoworkers

WINDSOR - There’s no chance of a reconciliation with the Canadian Labour Congress so the Canadian Auto Workers should set up a rival labour body, national president Buzz Hargrove told about 500 autoworkers Tuesday.

With streetfighting words and a near-unanimous vote, the autoworkers agreed.

Member after member slammed the Canadian Labour Congress and its July 1 decision to exile the CAW over raiding charges.

Shop-floor union leaders also professed few reservations about abandoning the established national labour movement, which they say ignores the democratic rights of workers to choose their union.

But one Niagara CAW leader fears the union doesn’t have enough support from other federations to set up a rival labour body.

“My overriding concern is that we could end up in a situation with the CAW effectively removed from the CLC and isolated and on its own in a situation where it’s in a conflict with other labour organizations,” CAW Local 199 vice-president Bruce Allen said in an interview Tuesday night.

However, Allen said he wouldn’t necessarily oppose an alternative forum to the Canadian Labour Congress.

“If an alternate labour central would be qualitatively better than the CLC, then I would probably be quite willing to support it,” he said. “But I just don’t see that in the present mix at this time.”

The escalating dispute between the CAW and the CLC is “spinning out of control,” Allen said.

“The longer it drags out and the more things develop in this direction, the harder it’s going to be to reconcile what’s going on and to prevent it from getting any worse,” he said.

Ed Gould, former president of the St. Catharines District Labour Council, said he wasn’t surprised by the strong support Windsor CAW members gave Hargrove.

The CLC is imposing too many restrictions on workers, said Gould

A four-term president of the labour council, Gould had to step down after the CLC imposed sanctions against the CAW on July 1 over raiding charges.

The CLC sanctions meant CAW members were not allowed to vote within the congress or their local council.

“I believe workers should have a choice. I think that’s important,” said Gould.

CAW Local 199 president Ron McIntosh couldn’t be reached for comment.

Any plan for an alternative national labour body will likely take form during December’s national council meeting in Toronto.

What started as a squabble over the fate of eight dissident Service Employees International Union locals who voted illegally last spring to join the CAW has blossomed into a battle over the democratic values of the national labour movement, say CAW leaders. The CLC must now overhaul its constitution to solve the schism, said Hargrove.

“Inviting us back won’t do it,” he said. “There has to be a recognition that we aren’t so insecure as a labour movement that if we open up the door everybody will leave.”

The congress, backed by most Canadian unions, maintains that the autoworkers are guilty of violating the agreed-upon CLC constitution, which already offers disgruntled workers a fair way out of their union.

The last attempt at reconciliation occurred last weekend in Calgary with former CAW president Bob White mediating, said Hargrove. Heavyweights from all three bodies – the CLC, the SEIU and the CAW – attended, but no progress was made.