More than We Bargained For by John Stefanini

Author:John Stefanini
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: The Sutherland House Inc.

CHAPTER 20

LOCAL 183 IN

ADOLESCENCE

Time did not stand still during the Waisberg Commission. Local 183 was busily expanding into both the high-rise and low-rise residential housing sectors. Our big break came when we succeeded in organizing companies like Cadillac Development that operated in both high-rise and low-rise projects. We expanded our collective agreement that governed their high-rise work to their low-rise townhouses, detached, and semi-detached dwellings. There was strong resistance from these big firms because they did not want to be the only house builders unionized. Most Ontario home builders were non-union at the time so we had to commit to organizing all GTA house builders to put everyone on a level playing field. It was not easy but over the years we succeeded in organizing most of the sector.

Having established a beachhead in low-rise housing, we noticed another sector that needed to be organized: house basement construction. In the 1960s, house basement construction changed from blocks to concrete forming with poured concrete. Low-rise concrete forming is different from high-rise, in terms of skill, materials, and method. In a house basement there is no steel reinforcing. It consists of assembling forms, usually four feet by eight feet, which are placed on footings to create the house walls. Then you pour concrete, letting it set. Afterwards, you dismantle the forms to use again. It is heavy, hard work, and more so back then because the forms were carried manually, often in adverse conditions such as rain or sleet, which would create mud that added to the weight.

The industry employed between eight hundred and a thousand workers, mostly Portuguese immigrants. When we started our campaign, we had a few successes but also some failures. The biggest company by far was Tru-Wall Concrete Forming, which was listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange. It alone employed more than three hundred workers. We signed up 45 per cent of Tru-Wall employees, enough for a vote, perhaps, but only if we considered the foremen to be management and excluded them from the bargaining unit. The company, of course, maintained that these were working foremen and, as such, they had to be included in the bargaining list. This was the first battle to be fought.

When a job category is in dispute, the OLRB appoints an officer to verify the function of the employee. Our strategy was to prolong the questioning of each employee in the process. There were more than forty foremen. The longer they were tied up in questioning, the more expensive it was in time for the company. Without their foremen on-site, crews were idle. I then called the company’s owner, Leonard Ursini, a sharp businessman with a great sense of humour. “Lenny,” I said, “if we carry on with these procedures, the only winners are the lawyers.” Both of us had a lawyer present during the questioning of each foreman. “Why don’t you give us voluntary recognition?” I asked. “You know we have signed a majority of your employees.”

It was a bit of a bluff. The number of employees who have joined a union is kept secret by the OLRB.

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