Date: 2008
Location: Edmonton
Profile: Terry Dekker served for over two decades as president of Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Local 777, now part of Unifor. His involvement with CEP began when he became an operator at Canadian Liquid Air in 1976. One year later he was secretary-treasurer of the Liquid Air bargaining unit, one of 22 bargaining units of Local 777. In 1986, he became president of his bargaining unit and in 1991 president of the overall local, a coordinating position for largely autonomous bargaining units, though some smaller bargaining units are relatively dependent on the local office. CEP is quite involved in political campaigns and in the early 1990s they conducted a tour to warn Canadians of threats to public healthcare. Dekker labels the Blackstone buy-out as “the kiss of death” for Celanese, 777’s largest bargaining unit. Dekker notes that the union arranged decent severance packages for the dismissed workers. The union created a staffed centre to help the workers find new jobs. But he laments that the older workers had difficulty getting re-established. As for Liquid Air, Dekker complains that the pension that the union fought hard to establish was being harmed by the company raising contributions without raising benefits.
Keywords: Bargaining units within a union local; Blackstone; Canadian Liquid Air; CEP Centre to find work for former Celanese workers; Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Local 777; Medicare; New Democratic Party; Operator; Pensions.
Transcript: Download PDF
See also: Alberta Federation of Labour; Celanese Edmonton: Workers’ Stories; Unifor