Canadian Federation of Labour (CFL),

Canadian Federation of Labour (CFL),
 national organization of labor unions in Canada from 1982 to 1997. It was founded in 1982 by building-trade unions that broke away from the Canadian Labour Congress (CLC). For most of its history the CFL represented over 200,000 workers, about 6 percent of the total union membership in Canada. The CFL was disbanded as a central labor body in 1997. An earlier, unrelated national labor organization called the Canadian Federation of Labour existed from 1907 to 1927. Unlike the CFL of the 1980s and 1990s, which had close ties to the union movement in the United States, the earlier CFL was a nationalist organization formed in opposition to United States-based unions.

The original CFL began as the National Trades and Labour Congress (NTLC) in 1902. The NTLC was largely made up of Canadian-based unions. These unions wanted to offer Canadian workers alternatives to the international unions based in the United States that dominated the Canadian labor movement at the time. In 1907 the NTLC changed its name to the Canadian Federation of Labour. By the 1920s the CFL only had a few thousand members because of its cautious tactics, its disapproval of strikes, and the strength of the competing international unions. In 1927 the remnants of the CFL helped found the All-Canadian Congress of Labour.

The later CFL grew out of grievances between the Canadian Labour Congress and its conservative member unions in building trades such as carpentry and electrical work. The building-trade unions disagreed with the CLC’s support of the New Democratic Party. They were also upset that the CLC insisted that local unions, not union leaders, choose convention delegates. Finally the building trades wanted the CLC to discipline the Québec Federation of Labour for forming a rival provincial construction union. When the building trades withheld their dues from the CLC in protest, the CLC expelled them in 1981. The building-trade unions formed the CFL in 1982.

The CFL's founding convention chose James McCambly of British Columbia as president. The CFL began an investment fund called Working Ventures, which invested workers’ money as venture capital for small businesses. Working Ventures and the CFL's political conservatism won praise from the business press. The CFL’s influence was weakened when the 100,000-member Carpenters' Union, which had also been expelled from the CLC, declined to join the new group. The CFL also lost its fight against double-breasting (the hiring of both union and nonunion workers by so-called union contractors) and other antiunion practices in the construction industry. In 1996 the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers left the CFL and returned to the CLC. By 1997 the CFL reported only 101,000 members. In that year the CFL ceased operating as a central labor body, keeping only the Working Ventures fund active.