First Unifor National President
S eptember 1, 2013
Jerry Dias was acclaimed as the first National President of Unifor by the 3,500 delegates in attendance at the Founding Convention held in Toronto over the Labour Day long weekend. Unifor is a brand new union stemming from the merger of the CAW and the CEP and immediately becomes the largest private sector union in Canada with more than 300,000 members. Dias received full support from both previous National Presidents Ken Lewenza of the former CAW and David Coles of the former CEP. Unifor Council 4000 President Barry Kennedy says that he and the leadership of National Council 4000 look forward to working with Jerry Dias in the years ahead.
Dias, the 54-year-old married father of four who grew up in the Toronto area and now lives in Milton, started his union career in 1978 as a sheet metal worker at De Havilland Aircraft Company in Downsview. He was elected shop steward, plant chairperson, and President of CAW Local 112. For 19 years he has worked in the CAW national office, most recently as the Assistant of both Ken Lewenza and former CAW National President Buzz Hargrove.
“It’s time to start making better choices. It’s time to stop reacting and time to start setting the agenda,” Dias said in a rousing keynote speech to the founding Unifor convention. Dias told the 3,500 delegates, guests and observers at the Unifor Founding Convention that joining the two unions is about much more than just getting bigger. The idea, he said, was to build a movement that will work on behalf of all Canadians toward a more equitable society.“We are a social union. We fight for better lives for workers. And in so doing, we will build a better society for all,” Dias said.
“We want a Canada that treats every person with decency, respect, and security. A Canada that values the workers who produce the wealth – rather than devaluing and sacrificing us. A Canada that builds and shares a commonwealth, that lifts standards for all of us.”
That kind of change is possible, Dias said, by working together and with other unions and progressive groups to establish Canada as a country “where young people can experience what it means to have opportunity, and where we treat our parents with the love and dignity they deserve. Where communities and jobs and sustainability trump profit and corporate rights. Where free collective bargaining is finally valued as a democratic human right that cannot be taken away by any government.”
Dias begins his first three year term as Unifor President August 31, 2013. We and the other 3000 Unifor members from coast to coast to coast wish him success.
Dias, the 54-year-old married father of four who grew up in the Toronto area and now lives in Milton, started his union career in 1978 as a sheet metal worker at De Havilland Aircraft Company in Downsview. He was elected shop steward, plant chairperson, and President of CAW Local 112. For 19 years he has worked in the CAW national office, most recently as the Assistant of both Ken Lewenza and former CAW National President Buzz Hargrove.
“It’s time to start making better choices. It’s time to stop reacting and time to start setting the agenda,” Dias said in a rousing keynote speech to the founding Unifor convention. Dias told the 3,500 delegates, guests and observers at the Unifor Founding Convention that joining the two unions is about much more than just getting bigger. The idea, he said, was to build a movement that will work on behalf of all Canadians toward a more equitable society.“We are a social union. We fight for better lives for workers. And in so doing, we will build a better society for all,” Dias said.
“We want a Canada that treats every person with decency, respect, and security. A Canada that values the workers who produce the wealth – rather than devaluing and sacrificing us. A Canada that builds and shares a commonwealth, that lifts standards for all of us.”
That kind of change is possible, Dias said, by working together and with other unions and progressive groups to establish Canada as a country “where young people can experience what it means to have opportunity, and where we treat our parents with the love and dignity they deserve. Where communities and jobs and sustainability trump profit and corporate rights. Where free collective bargaining is finally valued as a democratic human right that cannot be taken away by any government.”
Dias begins his first three year term as Unifor President August 31, 2013. We and the other 3000 Unifor members from coast to coast to coast wish him success.
