Organizing Community Unions

[WillyT]

Moderator's Note: Unifor was officially formed on August 31, 2013, at a Founding Convention in Toronto, Ontario. It marked the coming together of the Canadian Auto Workers union (CAW) and the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada (CEP) - two of Canada's largest and most influential labour unions.

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It has been only a few months since Unifor was created on Labour Day weekend. As part of the key priorities adopted by members was a renewed commitment to organizing. The commitment was partly on monetary terms, with ten per cent of the union's total budget going to organizing. Interestingly, the commitment was also on principle: to adapt the union's traditional organizing ways to reach out to new groups of workers.

By "new groups of workers," the union is referring to the increasing number of people working in what can be qualified as the new working conditions in Canada: contract, freelance, part-time, low-waged and shift work, as well as unemployed people, student-workers and others who find themselves in a situation where they could not get a collective agreement, even if they would like to.

After a few months of making efforts to kick start the community chapters program, one thing is clear: there are a lot of people who do, indeed, want to join a union.

The new Unifor model of community chapters has generated much interest from within the ranks of the union as well as from the general public.

At the union's first of five regional council meetings held in Ontario earlier in December...

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More: https://portside.org/2013-12-20/organizing-community-unions

[Omaha Steve]

1. Reminds me the the (USS) Steel Workers uniting with Europe

Hasn't been long ago that happened. Anybody remember when that was?