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National Defence Employees Association The Canadian military has always employed civilians in some capacity. With the rise of human rights movements, the move towards unionization of these civilians may have been inevitable. Union-type activity existed on many Canadian military bases and stations during the Second World War and in isolated cases even earlier. In the absence of departmental staff association at National Defence, all membership branches at bases and headquarters in Ottawa were directly affiliated to the Civil Service Federation, which had been in existence since the early 1900s. In Jun 1953, a meeting in Quebec City was held between representatives of 17 independent civilian employee associations, just prior to the opening of the Civil Service Federation Convention. A motion was passed "that the Group present go on record as endorsing the formation of a national organization of Department of National Defence Employees." At that time, there were 31 DND branches, with the seventeen persons present representing 4,805 of an estimated 5,500 dues-paying civilians employed by DND. The group accepted a Constitution Committee proposal to use the name National Defence Employees Association and Gordon Shortreed of Clinton, ON became the first President. The organization was later renamed the Union of National Defence Employees.
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