A change in leadership takes place for Unifor Local 195 later this month.
Gerry Farnham has announced his retirement and former vice-president John Toth is the president-elect. He takes over in the position at the beginning of June.
Toth says he has been best known for his role with the Veterans Cab unit.
"That was one of my assignments — I had 17 other assignments as vice-president — but now I'll have oversight of all 50 of our workplaces," says Toth. "That's going to broaden the scope of my work for sure but also broaden the activism of the members in those types of fights when we take them on."
Toth says the local chapter of the union is on the upswing.
"Our membership has grown and we've added a couple of units so our membership base is much healthier now it's a stable 4,500," he says. "Some months a bit higher, but that gives us the opportunity to do some of the things we've been wanting to do for many years to get our members involved and make them feel that they're part of a union."
Toth says there had been about 7,200 members before the recession of 2008 and 2009 decimated the workplaces they represent.