Ken Lewenza is still adjusting to all the traffic in Toronto.

But the new president of the Canadian Auto Workers union, who has relocated to Canada's largest city from his hometown of Windsor, would be ecstatic to see more cars come out of assembly plants in southern Ontario - and car parts emerge from other facilities across the country.

Lewenza, who replaced the retired Buzz Hargrove in September, is the new voice of Canada's auto sector at what is likely the most troubling time in its history.

The Canadian Big Three and Detroit Three automakers (General Motors, Chrysler and Ford on their respective sides of the border), as well as politicians, are calling on him for help in saving the industry.

Brennan O'Connor, Business Edge
New CAW president Ken Lewenza checks out a DHC-8-400 jet at Bombardier's North York plant, which employs 2,900 CAW members.

But, in no uncertain terms, Lewenza is resisting. The sector is in trouble through no fault of the CAW, he says.

"This isn't a labour-cost problem," says Lewenza, noting that even Toyota, which has been the most successful auto manufacturer in the last 10 years, is laying off tens of thousands of workers and temporarily shutting down plants. "Surely to God, it's a global financial crisis and it's got nothing to do with wages and benefits."

The CAW provided multiple concessions to help the Canadian sector compete with its main rivals from Germany, Japan and the U.S. before the global financial crisis struck, he adds.

1. What are your parents' backgrounds?

"My father was a Chrysler employee. Prior to his death, he spent 30 years at Chrysler, quite a bit of that time as a workplace steward. Unfortunately, he retired after 30 years and he eventually had a stroke and passed away at age 57. So I've kind of followed my father's footsteps in terms of leadership positions, but he never ran for a position higher than steward. The longest job my mother ever had was in a catering business, because she was a mother of eight. I've got three brothers and four sisters, all of us are within a year and a half of each other. We came from a three-bedroom (home in a) working-class neighbourhood. I tell people it's almost unimaginable today that you would share a bedroom with three brothers - but we did, and we succeeded."

2. How many auto plants were in Windsor when you were growing up?

"Well, I can't tell you the exact number, but in Local 444, where I came from, the Chrysler facility had five major plants. It was the No. 1 employer when I was growing up ... Ford had a huge presence, General Motors had a huge presence and, obviously, the (parts) supply chains had a huge presence there. The community was an industrial manufacturing community. That was the economy - blue-collar work."

3. How did the industry shape your early life?

"In Windsor, everything was associated with the auto industry. When the new Firebirds and Camaros came out, they were the topics of discussion. It was cars, cars, cars."

4. What was your boyhood dream?

Ken Lewenza

"I don't know that I ever had a boyhood dream. I was maybe a little rebellious, maybe a little bit immature during my high-school days.

Maturity came pretty quick when I was 16. I just turned 17 when my girlfriend at the time had a baby. To tell you the truth, there wasn't a lot of time to be fantasizing about any dreams."

5. How did being a teenage father affect your life as a whole?

"When I look back today, I think it was a huge advantage ... My wife was a year younger than I was. Her parents, which would be my in-laws, were very supportive. My ability to enjoy my friends and go out and do things that I liked to do wasn't handcuffed, because my in-laws were very much excited about being part of my son's life. I'm sure I was nervous at the time, but you go from nervousness to being a parent. I would suggest that it was a good time in my life."

6. How did you end up working at Chrysler in 1972?

"I was working for a minimum-wage job (at a fire-prevention equipment company) for a very good guy in Windsor that gave me a job. I desperately needed a job, obviously. Then, at age 18, I got a call from my dad - and this is how it worked back in those days - that said: 'Chrysler's hiring. Why don't you walk down to the Chrysler employment office and put in an application?' That's what I did, and I was hired almost instantly."

7. How did you get involved with union leadership?

"I think everybody was a union member in Windsor. I grew up in a union culture. As a young kid, I went to membership meetings with my father. So, when I went to Chrysler, I had a pretty good understanding of the union and what the union stood for. Back in those days, it wasn't unusual that union buddies would be at the house on a regular basis. Even at a young age, you'd kind of grasp what they were talking about in terms of workplace issues. I didn't plan on following my father's career.

"But in 1975, three years after I was hired, my friend got elected steward and he offered me his alternate's position. Back in those days, if a full-time steward took a day off, you functioned as the steward. Then in 1978, I actually ran for the full-time steward's position. I was 23 when I got elected and I was elected every three years after that to multiple positions."

8. How has your life changed since you became national president?

"It's changed significantly, because I left a community that's very dear to my heart. Not just growing up there, but the CAW in Windsor and Essex County is a significant force on social issues, on political issues, on being part of the economic and social fabric of the community. What I think is much different in a smaller community is our ability to come together, even when we have differences of opinion, for the best of the community. I always enjoyed that in Windsor ... Toronto is challenging, to be honest with you. The reality is, I'm not used to the traffic. In Windsor, you can go from one end of the city to the other in 15-20 minutes at the most, or from one little town to another within 40 minutes. Toronto is obviously a little bit different in terms of the population density. But what I'm learning is, the job that I had at Local 444 is not much different than at the national level - except at the national level, you're more accountable to members in sectors of the economy throughout Canada."

9. Did you feel like you had to hit the ground running after you were acclaimed as president?

"Oh, there's no question. Buzz (Hargrove) was a progressive, challenging, controversial leader with great integrity. You don't get that reputation by not having the energy and determination, and the will to do whatever you can and put in as much effort as you can. Replacing that kind of a guy could be daunting under the best circumstances. This is the first real recession in the last two decades, and a recession that's much different than any of the past. The jobs we're losing today are most likely gone forever as a result of the manufacturing sector in decline and the incredible pressure in the auto industry, which is having a spinoff effect on all of the autoparts sector that we represent. But I think our union culture over the last 20 years has positioned us (well) because of our diversity. When we formed the CAW, we had 80,000 mostly industrial workers in our union, which was auto and aerospace concentration. Today, we have 225,000 members in gaming, in retail, in health, in fisheries, in mining. Every sector of the economy is now represented by the union. Even though we're going through some challenging times, we have the strength of staying together."

10. What do you see as the main challenges in your new role?

"Jobs. The Canadian economy.

Positioning ourselves for future investment to make sure that we secure some manufacturing in Canada. For the last decade at least, we've seen huge shrinkage in the auto industry. We've been telling government for at least 10 years that we need reciprocal trade agreements where, if people want access to our market, they've got to give us access to their market. If you don't have those kinds of reciprocal trade agreements, there goes our industrial base in Canada."

11. What role can the CAW play in assisting, or for lack of a better term, bailing out the auto industry?

"We can play an increasingly important role. First of all, I don't use the term bailout. I see it as an investment. We predicted that market forces - as a result of transplant vehicles from Japan and Korea and other manufacturers coming into the North American market - would eventually impact the Detroit Three. We argued in Canada during the Auto Pact days in 1968 that the only agreement you could have, really, with trading nations that manufacture automobiles is: 'If you sell 'em (here), you have to build 'em (in Canada).' Companies like Toyota and Honda came to North America on that kind of a premise ... But 30 percent of the vehicles that are sold in Canada are still built offshore whereas, in total, less than five percent of the vehicles that we build in the United States and Canada are sold offshore.

"So there's still this disparity in terms of reciprocal trade agreements. When the global financial crisis hit, it really undermined the turnaround plans of the Detroit Three, because they were restructuring. We worked with the Detroit Three. We protested against job losses. But at the end of the day, the market forces substantiated the companies' downsizing, and we worked with the employers to restructure. We provided enhanced retirement benefits. We allowed junior people to sever their employment to go to other occupations. We did everything we could to minimize the pain. On top of that, we recognized that productivity in our workplaces - and I'm talking 10 years ago - wasn't leading the industry.

So we focused our attention on working with the companies to improve productivity. Today, all of our Canadian plants are at the top, if not the best, in their categories ... When we talk to the government, we say that we're doing the things that are important in terms of turning the industry around, but you've got to help us on this reciprocal trade stuff."

12. Would the CAW consider using some of its pension fund or other money to assist the Big Three automakers?

"We don't control our pension fund. Our pension funds in the Detroit Three are totally controlled by the corporations. There's funding regulations in Canada. As a result of this financial crisis, we've indicated to government that we would work with the employers and regulatory bodies around pension-funding requirements to give the companies more time to fully fund the programs and spread it out, instead of over three years, maybe five years, six year or seven years. We told government we were supportive of that, providing there was a guarantee that our pensions were protected."

13. What's your position on wage rollbacks?

"We're resisting. Both the federal government and the (Ontario) government have both put us on notice that they expect to see us do something to continue to reduce the costs of the Canadian Three.

Our competitors are Germany, Japan and the United States. I can assure you, as national president, that we won't do anything that puts us at a disadvantage against those competitors. The reality is, today we're very much competitive with industry standards. That race-to-the-bottom theory is just not something that we're going to accept."

14. How will you avoid conflicts with CAW members who work at autoparts plants that may not benefit if you help large automakers?

"The autoparts sector, even outside of the global financial crisis, is going to have to restructure. There's going to be less Tier I autoparts suppliers. You can't build five million less vehicles and assume it's business as usual in the autoparts sector. The pressure on the autoparts sector has already been horrendous, because of the restructuring of the Canadian Three. They have downloaded the cost to the autoparts sector for the last two years. We have worked incredibly hard - creatively, innovatively - to improve productivity and we've made little or no gains in the autoparts sector in the last couple years.

We've been, in most cases, just holding on and, in some cases, making major compromises. We've already had to do some very creative bargaining. We've resisted direct wage cuts, but wage freeze and cost of living protection and those issues that were culturally important to us have not been attainable in the last couple years. Quite frankly, we're working our asses off to keep our autoparts suppliers in business ... In manufacturing in general, our culture today is to reduce the pain to our members."

15. So, in the event of a bailout, there's no conflict of interest between CAW members who work at Big Three automakers and parts plants?

"No. Our relationship with the Canadian Three strengthens our combined relationship with the auto parts sector."

16. What is the CAW doing to ensure its members are heard by politicians?

"The workers didn't create this global financial crisis, so we have been very forceful in demanding government action. We were one of the first unions, if not the first union, that came out and was incredibly aggressive against (federal Finance Minister) Jim Flaherty and (Prime Minister) Stephen Harper's economic statements.

"(They) attacked collective bargaining, attacked pay equity, attacked political-party funding but didn't talk about the core economic challenge that we were facing. In fact, it was totally ignored. We played a fairly significant role, in collaboration with the Canadian Labour Congress, to come together for the benefit of the economy - not for the good of the New Democratic Party or the Liberals or the Bloc (Quebecois) ... We were able to bring Gilles Duceppe, Jack Layton and Stephane Dion together ... Some people called it a crisis. I called it democracy."

17. What do you say to people who say that Ottawa shouldn't provide bailouts?

"Governments in every province in Canada, and every state in the United States, provide some incentives for investment. That's what economic development is all about. That's what the collective tax base allows us to do - reach out to whoever wants to do business and provide some opportunities. If we can't support the key industries in Canada, then what can we support? Every single country that manufactures automobiles has recognized automobile manufacturing as a key industry, and is now supporting their industry."

18. How do you manage your diabetes and high blood pressure during these stressful times?

"Through medication. I've been lucky. My life turned around three years ago when I changed doctors. The doctor said to me when I walked into his office: 'Mr. Lewenza, I'm not a treating doctor. I'm a preventative doctor, and I'm going to get your diabetes and high blood pressure in order. You're going to have to take some medication and you're going to have to watch yourself a little bit.' I've got everything in order."

19. What do you want your legacy to be with the CAW?

"Legacy doesn't mean anything to me. If I last one more day on the job or 10 more years on the job, the only legacy I want is for people to recognize that I worked my ass off for the union and for the members."

20. What will you do when you're not president of the CAW anymore?

"I'll be retired. There'll be no second career ... I'd like to think that I'd go back to Windsor and Essex County and do some fun-filled community services."

Canadian Auto Workers

* Brass: Ken Lewenza, president; Jim O'Neil, secretary-treasurer; Jean-Pierre Fortin, Quebec director.

* Profile: The CAW, one of Canada's largest private-sector unions, began in 1937 as the Canadian region of the U.S.-based United Auto-workers Union. In 1984, the CAW split from the UAW in a bid to negotiate its own contracts. The CAW has since merged with several smaller unions, including the Fishermen, Food, and Allied Workers and the Canadian Brotherhood of Railway Transport and General Workers.

Today, the CAW's 261,000 members include workers in many sectors.

* Stats: The CAW has 225,000 members in automotive, aerospace, forestry, gaming and a variety of other sectors.

* Structure: The CAW is governed by an elected National Executive Board that oversees union councils and locals.

* Website: www.caw.ca * HQ: 205 Placer Court, Toronto, M2H 3H9 * Phone: (416) 497-4110

Ken Lewenza

* Title: President, Canadian Auto Workers Union.

* Born/raised/age: Windsor, Ont./54 * Education: Lewenza attended school until Grade 11, when he quit because he was about to become a father.

* Family: Lewenza lives with his partner, Laurie Dritton. He has two sons, aged 37 and 33, from a previous marriage and two grandchildren.

* Career: After leaving high school, Lewenza worked for a fire-equipment business in Windsor for two years and then landed a job as a muffler installer at the Chrysler auto plant. In 1978, he was elected as a CAW Local 444 steward in the chassis division. He moved on to full-time union roles of committee person, chairman and vice-president. In 1994, he became president of the local. He also served as president of the CAW Council, which the union describes as its parliament. He was acclaimed as the CAW's national president last September, replacing Buzz Hargrove. Lewenza has chaired the CAW's master bargaining committee during the last five rounds of contract negotiations with the Big Three automakers - Ford, General Motors and Chrysler.

* Moonlighting: Lewenza serves as an executive vice-president with the Canadian Labour Congress. He has held board positions with the Windsor and District Labour Council, Motor City Credit Union, Guardian Board of Windsor, Community Development Group, Hotel Dieu Hospital Board, the AIDS Committee of Windsor and the United Way of Windsor-Essex County. He withdrew from the community boards last fall when he moved to Toronto to become national CAW president.

* Passions: Union and family.

(Monte Stewart can be reached at monte@businessedge.ca)