17
The race to replace Buzz Hargrove as president of Canada's largest private-sector union will be a three-way battle between two of his assistants and the president of one of the largest Canadian Auto Workers locals in the country.
Ken Lewenza, president of CAW Local 444 in Windsor, Ont., made his entry into the campaign official yesterday after winning the endorsement of the presidents of union locals in Windsor and nearby Essex and Kent counties.
He joins Hemi Mitic, an assistant to Mr. Hargrove who was a key negotiator in the union's breakthrough deal with auto-parts giant Magna International Inc., and Tom Collins, a former head of the Canadian unit of the Retail Wholesale and Department Store Union, who said yesterday he will also throw his hat in the ring.
Mr. Hargrove will depart next March after 16 years at the helm of the union. He will reach the mandatory retirement age of 65 and said yesterday that he was the central force in making that a union requirement, so he must abide by it.
The 57-year-old Mr. Collins brought the retail workers union into the CAW in 1999 and has been an assistant to Mr. Hargrove with special responsibilities for the auto-parts sector, organizing and the retail sector.
Mr. Lewenza, 53, joined the union at age 16 when he started putting mufflers on Chrysler cars at the company's Windsor plant. He rose through the ranks to become president of the local in 1992. It now represents more than 10,000 workers in the city from Chrysler, auto-parts plants, the Windsor Casino and elsewhere.
“I think our union's going to experience some unprecedented challenges in the future,” Mr. Lewenza said.
Mr. Mitic, who is 57, began his career as a welder at a Lear Corp. automotive seat-making plant in Kitchener, Ont. He handled the Magna file, negotiations with mining company Falconbridge Inc., now part of Swiss-based mining giant Xstrata, and is the representative from the national CAW office in charge of the strike at the Woodbine racetrack in Toronto.
“In terms of experience and all the other attributes you need to be president, I feel I'm best positioned to do it,” Mr. Mitic said yesterday.
People who work in auto plants and parts suppliers still represent the largest single sector among the 255,000 CAW members.
But since splitting off from the United Auto Workers in 1985, the CAW has expanded into health care, the retail sector, the fishery, hospitality and gambling. It also represents thousands of workers in the railway and aerospace industries.
The election comes at a difficult time in the union's core sector. Auto makers in Canada have slashed thousands of jobs in recent years and closed several plants. The auto-parts sector, which is about 50 per cent non-union, has been hit even harder with the number of jobs dropping by about 20 per cent to 80,000 people in recent years.
The three candidates will appear before the CAW's national executive board on Tuesday to pitch their cases.
The endorsement of that body, which represents about 18 of the senior leaders of the union, is regarded as critical ahead of a larger gathering of about 800 union leaders at a special CAW council meeting that Mr. Hargrove said yesterday will be held before March.
Several union sources said yesterday Mr. Hargrove appears to favour Mr. Lewenza and actively encouraged him to run.
Mr. Hargrove said he has not decided who he will support at the national executive board meeting, but the union will be well served by whoever wins.
Mr. Lewenza said Mr. Hargrove has encouraged him on several occasions to become more active at the national level, but did not put any pressure on him to run for the president's job.
