1. Buzz Hargrove and Bob White.

The Treaty of Detroit ensured a continuing role for the union in representing member interests. It marked the beginning of over two decades of unprecedented prosperity. However by the early 1980s, the North American auto industry was facing new challenges. Differences in opinion between Canadian and American leaders of the UAW over how to respond to these challenges led to the formation of an independent union of automobile workers in Canada in 1985.

While Canadian and American autoworkers adopted similar strategies in many cases, there were also important differences. For example:

• During World War II, the Canadian labour movement largely opposed the "no-strike-pledge" adopted in the United States.

  2. Local 200 Delegates at UAW convention in Ohio, 1954.

  Canadian workers argued that given the lack of Canadian labour law enabling collective bargaining, they needed to use the tight wartime labour markets to force employers to bargain with them.
• After the war, the Canadian members of the CAW showed less enthusiasm for the five year agreements being signed in Detroit.
• They were also less sympathetic to political shifts in the union that weakened more radical voices.

3. Woman with the UAW flag, 1990s.

The debates over concession bargaining in the early 1980s increased the differences between the Canadian and American leadership. They convinced Robert White, the leading Canadian figure in the union, that Canada needed its own union, that could pursue policies in the best interest of Canadian workers. While wages were front and centre in this debate, behind the scenes was the larger issue of the role of unions in society and what it meant to be a Canadian in an era of global competition.

4. Hamilton Day of Action, 1996.

After a series of initiatives to find a way for the Canadian locals to remain in the UAW, the decision was made in December of 1985 to form a new union. In September of 1986, the Canadian Auto Workers union held its founding convention.

Today the CAW is not only a voice for its members, but voice for all workers in Canada.