TORONTO -- Hailing a 'new beginning,' the Canadian wing of the United Auto Workers approved an agreement ending its 50-year-old brotherhood with the Detroit-based UAW.
The split between the Canadian and U.S. auto unions was confirmed Monday when Canadian union delegates voted 318-1 to approve the pact reached with the Detroit leadership for transferring money and bargaining rights.
'This really is a new beginning. It really is another milestone,' Canadian auto union leader Robert White said.
The agreement included a name change for the 135,000-member Canadian union. It will be known as the National Automobile, Aerospace and Agricultural Implement Workers Union of Canada or as the Canadian Auto Workers.
The 1 million-member UAW did not want the Canadian union to use its initials.
White, 51, already elected president of the new union, said Canadians will become 'masters in our own house' when the agreement takes effect July 15.
'We can play an important role in the political life and labor life of this nation under the name of our new union, CAW,' White said.
The Canadian union represents 107 locals. One small Canadian local decided to remain with the UAW. The two groups have agreed not to raid each others' unions.
The pact, approved by the Detroit-based UAW at a convention last week in California, called for White's union to receive the Canadian equivalent of $29 million in cash and $2.5 million in real estate and mortgages.
Canadian union officials estimated the split would cost the UAW about $15 million a year in Canadian union dues. The loss of the Canadian members will leave the UAW membership at its lowest point in 25 years.
Problems between the U.S. and Canadian unions had been brewing since the late 1970s, when the first concession contracts in the auto industry were negotiated.
White decided to split the union after complaining that the UAW leadership in Detroit interfered in a 13-day strike against General Motors of Canada in late 1984.
Thousands of U.S. General Motors Corp. workers were laid off when the Canadians walked out to back demands for a contract easing concessions.
