Birth of UNDE

The year was 1966. People were getting together - and so were unions. On 25 April, Prime Minister Pearson announced that he would soon table legislation to provide the public employee with the right to collective bargaining. Based on the results of The Report of the Preparatory Committee on Collective Bargaining in the Public Service of Canada (Heeney Committee Report), it was clear that certification of bargaining units would be on a group basis.

The Civil Service Federation (CSF) Select Committee, of which Jim Wyllie was a member, strongly objected by way of a paper to Cabinet. It countered that certification should be awarded to the association representing the majority of all public servants, which was the CSF. The plea fell on deaf ears thus necessitating an alternative approach. In November, the 120,000 members of the CSF joined with the 60,000 from the Civil Service Association of Canada (CSAC) to form the Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC).

Immediately prior to the founding of PSAC, each of the CSF associations held a short convention to merge their respective memberships with those of CSAC who were resident in their respective departments. The Union of National Defence Employees (UNDE) was created in this manner, blending the National Defence Employees Association (NDEA) with those CSAC members who worked in National Defence. The date was November 8.

The next day UNDE and the other 16 newly formed components met together and formed PSAC. NDEA and CSAC Locals on each base and station across Canada then continued the merger process at their respective sites. NDEA itself could not actually dissolve immediately because there was a constitutional requirement for it to meet again at its regular convention in 1967 to address the Building Trust.

The Union is dead; long live the Union!