September 20, 2000

On the Growing Split in the Canadian Labour Congress

Central Trade Union Commission
Communist Party of Canada

The apparent inability of the central leadership of the Canadian Labour Congress to find a solution to the impasse involving the SEIU and the CAW is a matter of deep concern for all trade unionists and for the whole labour movement.

In jeopardy is the continued organizational unity of the trade union movement in English-speaking Canada, within one house of labour - the Canadian Labour Congress.

While the roots of the issue are in a long-term accumulation of problems, the current controversy stems from the decision of eight Ontario locals of the SEIU to leave their international union to merge with the CAW, and a decision by an Impartial Umpire which found the CAW guilty of raiding the SEIU under the rules in the CLC Constitution.

By Labour Day, sanctions imposed by the CLC Executive Council had escalated to the third level, that is the exclusion of the CAW from all CLC labour bodies including the CLC, Provincial Federations of Labour and Labour Councils, and CLC events.

The circumstances were that in February and March of this year, eight SEIU locals in Ontario, representing 30,000 members, began the process of disaffiliating from the SEIU, to join the CAW, when they were placed under Trusteeship by their International Union. The SEIU sought a court injunction which prevented members from participating in binding membership votes to decide the issue. The vote proceeded anyway, but without the force of law, resulting in a 98.75% vote in favour of disaffiliation from the SEIU and merger with the CAW. Almost 10,000 members cast a vote.

Subsequently, the SEIU removed all staff and elected officers of the eight locals, sued several of them individually, and laid charges of raiding against the CAW.

The un-democratic "effect" of the CLC Constitution

At the same time, the SEIU launched a leafleting campaign, comparing Buzz Hargrove to Saddam Hussein, and suggesting CAW bargaining units were "at risk of being raided", and blanketed car-plants in Southern Ontario, further fueling the fires.

The CAW also continued to seek OLRB votes amongst workers in SEIU organized workplaces, with the result that, where votes have been counted, workers have voted in very high numbers to switch their bargaining agent from the SEIU to the CAW. The CAW has also become the bargaining agent for workers at NAV-Canada which is no longer a federal government employer, prompting accusations of raiding by the PSAC which is the former bargaining agent.

More than twenty unions have issued a Joint Solidarity Statement calling on CLC affiliates to block any motions at Labour Councils that refer to "democracy" or indicate any support for the CAWâs position.

Over the summer, with the imposition and escalation of the sanctions, the CAW was excluded from CLC events and its delegates to Labour Councils were also excluded by the CLC and withdrawn by the CAW.

In late August, the CAW NEB began meeting with union members to discuss the situation and to build support for their decision to explore the establishment of a new labour central in Canada, partnering the CAW with the 250,000 strong, and unaffiliated, CNTU in Quebec.

In meetings that are continuing across Canada, CAW local leaders and activists are concluding that the lack of a CLC-mediated compromise to date, means that a compromise is not possible, and therefore the CAW has no choice but to leave the CLC.

If the current situation continues to develop as it has, it seems almost certain that a full-scale raiding war – in every sense of the word, and involving many unions – is certain to follow.

The CLC Executive Council must use its mandate to impose a solution

With the passage of time, the main focus is shifting away from the issue of the CLC Constitution and the need to revisit it, in convention, to ensure that fundamental rights to democracy, sovereignty, and autonomy, are spelled out and protected, so that a stronger, more effective, and more united trade union movement can emerge.

Instead of opening up the debate about how the labour movement can best be fitted out, as it heads into a frontal struggle against neo-liberalism and the agendas of the most powerful corporations in the world, labour is spinning towards an organizational split that could end up in raiding wars with all of the associated economic and political costs.

The CLC Executive Council has the authority under the Constitution to directly charter the eight SEIU locals, and in the interests of staving off a split and of getting all of the affiliates to Convention, it should do so now. Furthermore, serious consideration should be given to calling a Convention in 2001, so that these issues can be aired, and a mass fightback plan to secure medicare, public education, affordable housing, jobs and living standards, labour and democratic rights, and much more, can be adopted and implemented.

Many affiliates would welcome such a solution. The CAW should also welcome such a solution, holding off from any precipitous action, such as the formation of a second labour central, that might jeopardize it.

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© 2000 Communist Party of Canada