UBC Local 27 (Toronto) and Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Local 975.

In the former, I was a laborer in construction working for my father, making money for my tuition.

In the latter, well, that was a different story. I started a union in my workplace.

Working at my first job in electronics, I got fed up with our owner. It was a small company, about 40 people, with all job descriptions from cleaning staff to engineers.

But the boss was a real piece of work. He practically WAS Montgomery Burns - old, balding, money-grubbing, insulting and arrogant. He was filthy rich from the company, yet he ran an ad hoc lending business, making loans for his employees. He also owned about 20 houses and liked selling them (with his own mortgaging deal) to employees. He loved that. He also tried to pay a receptionist to have an abortion when she became pregnant and tried to pick physical fights with people on the shop floor.

He was terrible as a boss as well. An engineer once demanded that this boss institute a profit-sharing program in a public letter, because we were all paid so little, but the company was raking it in. The engineer was let go. His customers hated dealing with him so much, they banded together and threatened to stop buying from him.

So, one day, I just walked into the nearby C.E.P. union office and said, "How do I organize?".

Well, they took me in hand. They gave me an education in Labor law, signing up members and negotiating.
I had about half the signatures I needed when "Mr. Burns" found out. He came up to me, grabbed me by the collar and threatened me. I didn't back down.

The next day, I was fired. The reason? "We don't need this kind of trouble here". I left quietly, knowing I had the union at my back. The next week, the boss had a summons to appear at a Labor Rights Tribunal.

Long story short, I won the case, got my job back and the case of the unfair dismissal helped us get our certification. We even had a vote (even though we didn't need one) and we won anyways with a majority.

I ended up leaving the company (I hated the job, I just did it for the others who worked there) and got another position that was far better.