UAW poaching on CAW territory

In an interesting look at Union dynamics, accroding to The Detroit News article: UAW pushes into Canada, the UAW is trying to unionize a Honda plant in Ontario.

As the Canadian Auto Workers are already well-established in Cnaada, what is the deal with the UAW pushing onto their turf? The answer of course is members and their dues money.

Union membership in the US in the private sector is down significantly, as reported in the Detroit News the UAW’s U.S. membership ranks have fallen below 625,000 from 1.5 million in 1980. As such thwere's a need for more bodies for their dues. Canada is seeing an increase in Union membershiop, for example, once again according to the Detroit News, the CAW has more than doubled its membership to 265,000 since 1985.

So in a quest for more bodies, dues and of course the power and perks that follow them, the UAW is aggressively trying to expand in Ontario.

The problem apparently is that the Honda employees don't seem to enthused about joing any Union:

Gibson said he doesn’t believe Honda would close up shop if workers established a union. But “I don’t think we’ll see any (union) activity here,” he said.

Al Gonneau, a contract pipefitter at the plant, also predicts that status quo for Alliston. Basing his assessment on restroom graffiti, Gonneau said: “I’d say it’s 60 to 70 percent against.”