About Me
The CAW is the largest private sector union in Canada. In this section of our website, we describe the CAW, our past as well as the present, in all our diversity.Our HistoryRUNAWAY PLANT FORMS STRONG LOCAL UNION Our strong and powerful union, CAW Local 27, was the result of a runaway plant known as Eaton Wilcox and Rich originally located in Windsor.They had been under contract to the UAW (United Automobile Workers) since 1943 and were part of Local 195 UAW Windsor. They moved to London in early 1950. The union contract was cancelled and wages were cut 25 to 30 cents an hour. The name of the plant was changed to Eaton Automotive.The following is a description of the subsequent events given at the tenth anniversary celebration of Local 27 by George Specht, International Representative of the UAWThe UAW Comes to LondonAlthough I had heard of the Eaton Wilcox Rich plant in Windsor closing its plant and moving to London, it came as quite a surprise when, one morning in March, 1950, our Canadian Director, George Burt, said to me, "Go back home and pack. You're going to London as soon as possible. "This sudden decision was caused by the receipt of a news clipping from the London Free Press, sent by a friend of the UAW in London. The clipping reported an Application for Certification by the Steelworkers Federal Labour Union, (APL) for the Eaton Automotive plant in London. We understood now why the management had refused to extend bargaining rights to the UAW in London. The Steelworkers Federal Union managed to sign up a majority of London workers even though they had not completed the shutdown in Windsor. It seemed like a deliberate attempt to ditch the UAW.UAW Wins VoteWe immediately filed an intervention with the Ontario Labour Board and we were successful in having their application quashed as premature. In spite of this disadvantage we were able to sign a great majority of the Eaton workers and make our own Application for Certification. We won the government-conducted ballot 97 to 26.This UAW vote was made possible by the great help given by Eaton Windsor workers who came to London; Archie Wrench, Gladys Scott, Elta ElfOrd, Roger Digou and others, as well as the great help we received from London workers who preferred the UAW such as Marjorie Wright and Dorothy Thompson.Local 27, UAW thus was born and in the 1950s grew to include 1500 workers in seven plants. After the formation of the CAW our Local membership has increased in size servicing almost 7000 workers in thirty workplaces. As you can see our Local is one of the strongest amalgamated Local Unions in Canada continuing to grow serving the membership and the community with strong and knowledgeable leadership.
