Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada
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Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada, abbreviated CEP in English and SCEP in French, was a largely
private sector The private sector is the part of the economy, sometimes referred to as the citizen sector, which is owned by private groups, usually as a means of establishment for profit or non profit, rather than being owned by the government. Employment The ...
labour union A trade union (labor union in American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers intent on "maintaining or improving the conditions of their employment", ch. I such as attaining better wages and benefits (su ...
with 150,000 members, active from 1992 to 2013. It was created in 1992 through the merger of three unions - the Canadian Paperworkers Union, the Communication and Electrical Workers of Canada and the Energy and Chemical Workers Union. See below for some other unions that were merged into the CEP. CEP/SCEP was affiliated to the Canadian Labour Congress. The communications portion of CEP consisted of workers from telecommunications (principally Bell Canada), private TV stations, newspapers, commercial print and new media (such as Internet and web design). The large media component of communications (about 20,000 members) joined CEP in 1994 when members of the Canadian wing of
NABET The National Association of Broadcast Employees and Technicians (NABET-CWA) is a labor union representing employees in television, radio, film, and media production. A division of the Communications Workers of America (CWA), NABET represents abou ...
joined as well as newspaper members from the Canadian division of the
Communications Workers of America The Communications Workers of America (CWA) is the largest communications and media labor union in the United States, representing about 700,000 members in both the private and public sectors (also in Canada and Puerto Rico). The union has 27 l ...
(CWA). In 2005 nearly all Canadian members of the American-based
Graphic Communications International Union The Graphic Communications International Union (GCIU) was a labor union representing printing workers in the United States and Canada. The union was founded on May 25, 1983, when the Graphic Arts International Union merged with the International Pr ...
(GCIU) representing newspaper press operators and commercial print workers joined CEP, though GCIU members in Quebec joined
Teamsters Canada Teamsters Canada is a Canadian trade union affiliated with the International Brotherhood of Teamsters. Although the Teamsters have been present in Canada since 1903, Teamsters Canada was only established in 1976. The organization represents 125,00 ...
. These mergers have made CEP the largest media union in Canada. In 2007, Bell Canada clerical and sales employees that belonged to the Canadian Telecommunications Employees Association (CTEA) voted to merge with the CEP, uniting all Bell Canada unionized employees under one union. The energy portion of CEP consisted mainly of Canadian workers in the oil, gas and chemical sectors, while the paperworkers portion of CEP consisted of pulp and paper workers in the Maritimes, Quebec, Ontario, Alberta and British Columbia. Membership is in flux as the
Pulp and paper industry in Canada The pulp and paper industry in Canada is one of the country's most important and profitable industries.. It is especially concentrated in Ontario and Quebec and plays an important role in many other provinces.. Leading companies The leading for ...
declines and moves offshore. That industry has seen several plant closures affecting thousands of pulp and paper workers across Canada. A Canadian Industrial Relations Board (CIRB) imposed vote at the public broadcaster
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (french: Société Radio-Canada), branded as CBC/Radio-Canada, is a Canadian public broadcaster for both radio and television. It is a federal Crown corporation that receives funding from the government. ...
(CBC) in 2003, lost 1,800 technicians and camera operators from CEP to the CBC journalists' union
Canadian Media Guild The Canadian Media Guild (CMG) is a trade union representing employees at the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (outside Quebec and New Brunswick), the Canadian Press, Thomson Reuters, Agence France-Presse, the Aboriginal Peoples Television Netw ...
(affiliated with the CWA), whose members outnumbered the CEP members at the English-language section of CBC. However, the 2005 GCIU merger as well as subsequent mergers with the Atlantic Telecommunications Workers Union and forestry workers in Quebec kept pace with membership declines in other areas. CEP was an affiliate of the International Federation of Journalists. The CEP voted in October 2012 to merge with the
Canadian Auto Workers The Canadian Auto Workers (CAW; formally the National Automobile, Aerospace, Transportation and General Workers Union of Canada) was one of Canada's largest and highest profile labour unions. In 2013, it merged with the Communications, Energy and ...
."Big Canadian Unions Vote to Merge"
''
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'', October 15, 2012. The new merged union,
Unifor Unifor is a general trade union in Canada and the largest private sector union in Canada. It was founded in 2013 as a merger of the Canadian Auto Workers (CAW) and Communications, Energy and Paperworkers unions, and consists of 310,000 workers a ...
, held its founding convention in 2013.


Canadian Union of Operating Engineers

The ''Canadian Union of Operating Engineers and General Workers'' was a trade union founded in June 1960 by
stationary engineer A stationary engineer (also called an operating engineer, power engineer or process operator) is a technically trained professional who operates, troubleshoots and oversees industrial machinery and equipment that provide and utilize energy in vari ...
s and other steam plant workers in
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, and merged with CEP in 2003. The union separated from the International Union of Operating Engineers (IUOE). This separation set an example which led to the separation of the
Canadian Auto Workers The Canadian Auto Workers (CAW; formally the National Automobile, Aerospace, Transportation and General Workers Union of Canada) was one of Canada's largest and highest profile labour unions. In 2013, it merged with the Communications, Energy and ...
(CAW) from the parent
United Auto Workers The International Union, United Automobile, Aerospace, and Agricultural Implement Workers of America, better known as the United Auto Workers (UAW), is an American labor union that represents workers in the United States (including Puerto Rico) ...
(UAW).


History

The founding members worked at The Hydro Electric Power Commission of Ontario at the R.L.
Hearn Generating Station The Richard L. Hearn Generating Station (named after Richard Lankaster Hearn) is a decommissioned electrical generating station in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The plant was originally fired by coal, but later converted to burn natural gas. The pl ...
in Toronto and the J.C. Keith Generating Station in Windsor, Ontario. Other members included a steam plant in Ajax, Ontario and steam plants at
Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the anch ...
area hospitals and the Toronto District Heating System (now
Enwave Enwave Energy Corporation is a Canadian energy company headquartered in Toronto that provides sustainable district energy solutions including heating, cooling, hot water, combined heat and power, geoexchange, energy storage, sewer heat, waste- ...
). After struggling to become an independent the small union faced a number of challenges. There were disputes with larger unions such as the IUOE, which continued to represent engineers at many workplaces in Ontario and
Canadian Union of Public Employees The Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE; french: Syndicat canadien de la fonction publique, links=no; french: SCFP, link=, label=none) is a Canadian trade union serving the public sector – although it has in recent years organized workpl ...
(CUPE). The CUOE was a founding member of the CCU,
Confederation of Canadian Unions The Confederation of Canadian Unions (CCU; french: Confédération des syndicats canadiens, link=no '' is a national trade union centre, a central labour body of independent unions in Canada. History The Council of Canadian Unions was founde ...
, started around 1968. The worst dispute occurred in 1972. The union continued to operate plants at Ontario Hydro during a strike involving the Power Workers Union (CUPE 1000). This dispute can be seen as management at Ontario Hydro using one union against another. After the strike any worker who left the CUOE to work at other Ontario Hydro plant lost his seniority. It was a long and bitter strike. Before the strike the CUOE was a strong union in Ontario Hydro power station operations, but the Power Workers Union (PWU) would emerge the ultimate winner, to represent workers in nuclear and other plants going forward. Some CUOE workers who crossed picket lines to operate stations such as,
Lakeview Generating Station The Lakeview Generating Station was an Ontario Power Generation coal-burning station located in Lakeview, a community just east of Port Credit, in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada. The former station, constructed in 1958–1962, was located just eas ...
, and other locations received management jobs at Hydro Head Office and never returned to the CUOE. It has been called "one of the most unfortunate chapters in Canadian labour history" by labour leaders what happened in 1972, events both management and the union at Ontario Hydro (OPG) would prefer to forget. For the CUOE, it was the beginning of the decline of the Canada's "engineers union". The greatest setback for the CUOE was the closing of the R.L. Hearn and J.C. Keith stations by
Ontario Hydro Ontario Hydro, established in 1906 as the Hydro-Electric Power Commission of Ontario, was a publicly owned electricity utility in the Province of Ontario. It was formed to build transmission lines to supply municipal utilities with electricity g ...
in the early 1980s. Small groups of engineers employed mainly in district heating and at hospitals tried to maintain and regain membership for the next 20 years. The
stationary engineer A stationary engineer (also called an operating engineer, power engineer or process operator) is a technically trained professional who operates, troubleshoots and oversees industrial machinery and equipment that provide and utilize energy in vari ...
s faced technological change and continued opposition from employers who feared a broader union of workers in this critical area. Larger unions in the public sector and industry often would base wage settlements and pay equity on the stationary engineer position in workplaces because if this group were to join a strike, it would be difficult to keep a facility in operation. There was also attempts by many companies and professionals to eliminate stationary engineer positions using technology and equipment like coil tube boilers. Fewer young people entered the trade in recent years, and in Ontario (2007) there are fewer than 15,000 licensed engineers. The average age was 53 and colleges in Ontario are training less than 200 people per year. One of the reasons for the current shortage of people in this field is the negative perception of skilled trades by young people and parents. With the introduction of new technologies such as computer controls, fuel cells,
cogeneration Cogeneration or combined heat and power (CHP) is the use of a heat engine or power station to generate electricity and useful heat at the same time. Cogeneration is a more efficient use of fuel or heat, because otherwise- wasted heat from elec ...
and
pollution control Pollution is the introduction of contaminants into the natural environment that cause adverse change. Pollution can take the form of any substance (solid, liquid, or gas) or energy (such as radioactivity, heat, sound, or light). Pollutants, the ...
s, engineers will play an important role in the future and the trade is still a good career choice. In September 2003 the CUOE merged with the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada (CEP) and became CEP Local 2003.


References


External links


CEP Local 87M - Composite media local, Toronto-based

CEP Toronto

CEP Local 27 - Toronto East

CEP Local 2003 - Ontario Composite, Mississauga basedCommunications, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada
– Web Archive created by the University of Toronto Libraries {{Authority control Defunct trade unions in Canada General unions International Federation of Journalists Trade unions established in 1992 Unifor 1992 establishments in Canada 2013 disestablishments in Canada Trade unions disestablished in 2013