The Canadian Construction Workers Union (CCWU) and Allied Construction Employees Local 1030 announced the formation of the Ontario Council of Construction Unions, a joint venture designed to organize construction workers who are not currently represented by a union.
A new council of trade unions has the single goal of organizing the unorganized in Ontario construction, say its founding stakeholders.
“The council has not been put in place to start raiding (LIUNA) Local 183, IBEW or the plumbers etc,” said Ziggy Pflanzer, president of both the newly-minted Ontario Council of Construction Unions (OCCU) and Allied Construction Employees Local 1030.
“The carpenters are not declaring war on the building trades. That’s not the purpose of this. The object of this council is to organize the unorganized.”
The Canadian Construction Workers Union (CCWU) and Allied Local 1030 recently announced the formation of the OCCU after roughly four months of groundwork to establish it. Both parties said the idea for the council was mutual and it wasn’t born through “someone knocking on each other’s doors”, said Pflanzer.
“There will always be two separate unions, but this is a joint venture of both unions who still remain independent,” said Pflanzer. “This council gives us a stronger organizing team, of course with CCWU, it helps gives us (Allied Local 1030) some jurisdiction in ICI which we never had. A lot of our contractors are in residential and want to do ICI work. With this partnership they can and it creates a composite group.”
Allied Local 1030 represents about 250 members in the residential sector and CCWU has approximately 1,800 members. Victor Ferreira, vice-president of the CCWU and financial secretary of the new council, said the council helps increase organizing opportunities.
“The whole purpose of this council is to organize the unorganized through two independent unions,” said Ferreira. “It is a council of unions, not a merger.”
Pflanzer noted that the council will appeal to unorganized builders coming into the Toronto construction landscape from Canadian cities like Vancouver or international markets such as Spain.
“When those companies are coming here, they are looking for one union to represent them and that was major purpose for this, to help organize those companies.”
The CCWU received union status in July 2009 and was primarily created through the efforts of Tony Dionisio, former Local 183 business manager. Dionisio was CCWU’s first president and has been retired for over six months now. Joel Filipe is the current CCWU president.
The Canadian Auto Workers (CAW) union made a $5 million loan over four years to the CCWU in summer of 2007 to help in its establishment. This loan was in addition to a $1 million loan the CAW made to the CCWU in February 2007, to help it get off the ground during the 90-day open season. CAW was reportedly sympathetic to the CCWU’s cause because it broke away from a U.S.-based union, just as CAW separated from the United Auto Workers. The four-year loan agreement with CAW expires this year and will not be renewed, stakeholders indicate.
The OCCU’s executive includes Luis Torres as vice president and Tony Candiano and Tony Losak as executive board members.
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