UPIU Merges with OCAW to Form New Industry Labor Union

The United Paperworkers International Union (UPIU) has merged with the Oil, Chemical, and Atomic Workers Union International Union (OCAW), and will operate under the new banner of PACE (Paper, Allied-Industrial, Chemical, and Energy Workers International Union.

The merger, which unites 320,000 workers across key U.S. industry sectors, was approved today during simultaneous conventions held by the two unions.

"I am proud and honored that members of the UPIU and OCAW have joined forces and created a strong new union," said Boyd Young, previously president of the UPIU and now the first president of the merged organization. The name of PACE was chosen "because it represents all of our members, including those from the Allied Industrial Workers (AIW)," he added. The AIW merged into the UPIU in 1994.

"We intend to set the pace for organizing a progressive vision and international solidarity," Young continued. "Members of this great new union deserve to be, and are prepared to be, on the cutting edge as labor advances into a new century. We must fight for our future."

OCAW president Robert Wages is now the executive VP of PACE. He will assume key responsibilities in the union's organizing program and will continue to coordinate national oil bargaining.

"When the merger discussions started with the UPIU, Young and I committed to a basic premise," said Wages. "We were not interested in merging for the sake of being larger; we were interested in creating a new, more powerful, and progressive union prepared to do the work our membership expects."

Both officers praised the work of the merger committees that created the new union's framework. "It was a fair and equitable process in which the larger union, the UPIU, never once played the game of 'size dictates results,'" said Wages.

"It was a strenuous but fruitful process," said PACE VP Glenn Goss, who represents Indiana, Illinois, and Lower Michigan on the new union's executive board. "Everyone worked together to get through the knotty organizational issues and craft a new structure that will work well for both memberships," he said. Goss chaired the UPIU side of the merger effort.

The UPIU and the AIW bring PACE members in pulp, paper, automobile parts, appliance manufacturing, and a wide variety of other industries. Cement workers from the Independent Workers of North America affiliated with the UPIU in 1991. The OCAW's contribution includes members in oil, chemical manufacturing, nuclear energy, pharmaceuticals, and a variety of related industries.