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Hargrove's heir-apparent expected to continue in CAW leader's footsteps |
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Written by Romina Maurino, THE CANADIAN PRESS
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Tuesday, 08 July 2008 |
CAW president Buzz Hargrove, left, speaks as CAW national president candidate Ken Lewenza looks on. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Aaron Harris
TORONTO - Buzz Hargrove's heir-apparent says he will have a hard act to follow when the long-time president of the Canadian Auto Workers retires later this year after 16 years as leader of the country's largest private-sector union.
Hargrove and other senior members of the CAW national leadership are backing Ken Lewenza, president of CAW Local 444 in Windsor, Ont., who had long been seen as the leading contender to be the next national president of the 250,000-member union.
Two other potential candidates, also close to Hargrove, bowed out Tuesday after Lewenza, 53, was chosen as the official candidate to replace 64-year-old Hargrove after a CAW convention to be held by mid-September.
Lewenza said Hargrove's departure will mark the "end of an era" but also "an opportunity for us to look at the incredible challenges we have in the many sectors that we represent."
"I'm no Buzz Hargrove - he's been an incredible leader and one I hope to follow in the same path in terms of the energy, the leadership, the ability to bring people together," Lewenza said.
Lewenza has been the union's chief negotiator at Chrysler Canada, one of three North American-based automakers where the CAW has members. It has been unable to unionize the Canadian assembly factories owned by Japan's Toyota and Honda.
Like Hargrove, Lewenza began his involvement with the CAW as a worker in Windsor, a Canadian city just across the border from the heart of the U.S. auto industry in Detroit.
"Ken will bring a rich history of experience in collective bargaining, in his social activism, his political activism, his international commitment to the underprivileged," Hargrove said at a news conference in Toronto.
"He has enormous energy - everybody works hard for the union - but I think everybody would agree nobody works harder than Ken."
Hargrove said he hadn't yet decided what he himself will do upon retirement, saying he's been approached by several people already and was open to all options, including teaching, but isn't considering running in any political race.
"I'm not going to sit in the rocking chair, I'm not going to play golf, that's not my style," Hargrove said.
"I have a lot of energy, a lot of ideas. I'll be open to suggestions. But I'll always be there in the background supporting our union."
He said he had no regrets, but that he will continue to work with General Motors to try to resolve a battle over a planned closure of the company's truck assembly plant in Oshawa, Ont., in 2009, amid sagging consumer demand for gas-guzzling trucks.
"If there's any regret at all, it will be if we can't find a solution to the GM-Oshawa thing before I leave," Hargrove said.
"I will feel bad about that, but I know I leave the union in capable hands."
Hargrove, who turns 65 next March, became the head of the country's biggest private-sector union in 1992, replacing Bob White, who led the union as it split from the U.S.-based United Auto Workers in 1985.
The Canadian union, which disagreed with the UAW's bargaining direction, negotiated some of the richest contracts for workers in Canada - helped in part by the low value of the Canadian dollar and the country's publicly funded health-care system.
Those two factors, plus high quality ratings of the Canadian plants, gave the CAW an edge over their American counterparts for many years.
However, the CAW's bargaining position in the auto sector has been undermined by a resurgent Canadian dollar - which has been trading near par with the U.S. buck for a year - combined with the weakened competitive stance of the North American automakers plus a UAW leadership willing to accept wage concessions.
Under Hargrove's leadership, the CAW expanded beyond the auto industry and now represents workers in 17 different economic sectors, including the airlines, mines and fisheries. Only about 100,000 of those - or less than half of the CAW's total membership - are in the auto sector.
The union's national executive board caucus also endorsed Peter Kennedy, assistant to retiring national secretary-treasurer Jim O'Neil, to fill that vacancy.
Hargrove assistants Hemi Mitic and Tom Collins were also candidates to replace him, but after a 12-2 vote in favour of Lewenza on Tuesday, they threw their support behind him to make the endorsement unanimous.
Observers say the union's strategy will change little under Lewenza, who shares Hargrove's hard-line style and a refusal to accept wage cuts.
"Ken Lewenza is much in the mould of Buzz Hargrove: he is quite aggressive and militant," said Anthony Faria, an auto industry specialist at the University of Windsor.
"He's very smart, very hard-working. He's a good union leader for his members. But I firmly believe that his strategy is going to be much like Buzz Hargrove's strategy: 'Get everything I can for my workers today, retain everything for my workers today and to heck with worrying about the number of CAW jobs in Canada in the future."'
Faria said he'd rather see a more conservative leader at the CAW, as well as someone more willing to compromise, citing UAW president Ron Gettelfinger's negotiation of a two-tier wage system at Big Three plants in the United States.
"Labour cost isn't the only issue, but it's one of the issues and the CAW refuses to acknowledge that, Buzz refuses to acknowledge that, Ken Lewenza seems to be exactly the same... and yet if you look at where all new investment is taking place, it's taking place in China, India, South America, Mexico - low labour-cost markets," he said.
"So how can you say labour costs have no effect on automotive assembly?"
But Hargrove dismissed those claims, saying any strike Lewenza has been involved in was one in which employers were trying to force take-always on workers.
"I'm not sure people understand militancy," he said.
"Ken follows in my footsteps and the footsteps of Bob White and other who came before us: Prepare ourselves for the worst and work like hell for the best. Try to get a deal."
Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty reacted to the news of Hargrove's retirement by thanking him for his "dedication to working people and social causes."
"His leadership positively influenced work conditions and benefits for all Ontario workers," McGuinty said.
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Last Updated ( Tuesday, 08 July 2008 )
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