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Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION

Union wants to keep on growing

Even seeks unemployed after merger with CAW

By: Ross Marowits

Posted: 10/16/2012 1:00 AM | Comments: 0

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Ken Lewenza (CP)

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Dave Coles (CP)

THE union that will soon become the largest in Canada's private sector will seek to double its size by organizing new workplaces and opening up its ranks to non-traditional members -- including those who aren't working.

The Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada voted Monday to approve a merger with the Canadian Auto Workers, which gave its OK to the plan in August.

The new union, which has yet to settle on a name, will initially have more than 300,000 members across roughly 20 sectors of the economy, but CEP president Dave Coles said he doesn't anticipate it remaining that size very long.

"Doubling that in a very short period of time is not unreasonable and it gives different voices to the debate and to the argument," he said during a news conference in Quebec City.

The new union plans to devote 10 per cent of its revenues to organize workplaces and add new members.

It will also create a mechanism that will allow students, retirees, the unemployed and others to join.

"We are proposing that you create a union that's not just limited to people that are employed, that have certifications with employers under the law," Coles said.

"We want to have everyone in society have the right for a collective voice."

Details, including membership fees, will be worked out over the coming months by one of six committees that will toil ahead of a founding convention that will be held next summer at the earliest.

Union leaders said the new entity will try to capture the spirit of the Occupy movement and student protests that gripped Quebec last summer.

A decision about whether the union will align itself politically with the NDP will be made at the founding convention, but Coles said it will be very politically active.

CAW president Ken Lewenza said the new union will become the strong progressive voice in the country that can build a different country filled with hope for the 99 per cent instead of the wealthiest.

-- The Canadian Press

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition October 16, 2012 B4

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