Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada

CEP/SCEP
Full name Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada
Founded 1992
Date dissolved 2013
Merged into Unifor
Members 110,000
Affiliation CLC, IFJ
Key people Dave Coles, president
Office location Ottawa, Ontario
Country Canada
Website www.cep.ca

Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada, abbreviated CEP in English and SCEP in French, was a largely private sector labour union 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. Other unions have since merged into the CEP. CEP/SCEP is affiliated to the Canadian Labour Congress.

The communications portion of CEP consists 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 joined as well as newspaper members from the Canadian division of the Communications Workers of America (CWA). In 2005 nearly all Canadian members of the American-based Graphic Communications International Union (GCIU) representing newspaper press operators and commercial print workers joined CEP (Quebec GCIU members joined Teamsters Canada). These mergers have made CEP the largest media union in Canada.

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 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 (CBC) in 2003, lost 1,800 technicians and camera operators from CEP to the CBC journalists' union Canadian Media Guild (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 has kept pace with membership declines in other areas.

CEP is an affiliate of the International Federation of Journalists.

The CEP voted in October 2012 to merge with the Canadian Auto Workers.[1] The new merged union, Unifor, held its founding convention in 2013.

References

  1. ↑ "Big Canadian Unions Vote to Merge". Wall Street Journal, October 15, 2012.

External links