In
Canada, there was great opposition to the Teamsters’ merger.
Union activists fanned out across Ontario, getting members to
sign petitions opposing the merger. Among the Brewers’
locals, all but three went to the convention to vote against
joining the Teamsters. When the vote to merge succeeded because
of strong U.S. support, the Canadian locals walked out of the
convention, returned to Canada, and established
the Canadian Union of Brewery, Flour, Cereal, Soft Drink &
Distillery Workers – the Canadian Brewery Workers, for
short, since most members were in the beer industry. At the
time of the breakaway, the union had about 16,000 members across
Canada, most of them in Ontario, Quebec and British Columbia.
Workers in the oldest brewery in northern
Ontario take a break. The Soo Falls Brewing
Co. in Sault Ste. Marie opened in 1900 and
eventually became the employee-owned Northern
Breweries Ltd. This picture was taken in
1927, the year that the first Brewers' Retail
store opened in Ontario |
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In
the decade that followed, the Canadian Brewery Workers had
many ups and downs. The “ups” were a series of
excellent contracts that made beer industry workers among
the best paid in Canada. The “downs” were a string
of raids and fragmentation that saw the union’s numbers
decline. By the mid-1980’s, it was clear to the union’s
leadership that it had to merge with a larger union in order
to survive. This was especially urgent for the Brewers’
Retail workers. In 1985, the new Ontario Liberal government
had promised to start selling beer in small grocery stores
(as happens in Quebec). This would have wiped out thousands
of union jobs in the beer stores. The union also knew it would
only be a matter of time before sales extended to supermarkets
(as in most U.S. states), wiping out the remaining beer store
jobs.
In 1948, after having organized virtually
every brewery in Canada, the union began signing
up the Ontario warehouse and retail store
workers of Brewers' Retail, including truck
drivers like this one. |
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After
much internal debate and two conventions, the Canadian Brewery
Workers voted to merge with the United Food and Commercial
Workers (UFCW) in 1986. Some locals went their separate way
to other unions but all the Brewers’ Warehouse and Retail
locals stuck together in joining UFCW. The main reasons
were the UFCW’s accommodating structure and the fact
that it too was a retail-based union, though much larger.
UFCW Canada opposed the sale of beer in supermarkets and,
with the strong support of the Ontario New Democratic Party,
helped kill the idea of corner store and supermarket beer
sales, saving thousands of jobs.
In
the years following the merger, the UBWW Provincial Board
took on even more of its locals’ traditional responsibilities,
including arbitration, health and safety and education. In
early 2003, in an all-member referendum, nearly two-thirds
voted to merge all 15 locals representing The Beer Store workers
into a single province-wide local of over 6,000 members. The
new local was chartered as UFCW Local 12R24. It’s unique
name is a play on “12 or 24?”, the most common
question asked of customers by Beer Store employees.
Local
12R24 is proud to carry on the legacy of those first militant
beer industry workers of more than 100 years ago. We look
forward to making our mark on a new century.
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