Many of the members of the EHS Unit began their affiliation with Local 975 as unionized employees of Consumers Gas, whose unionized roots can be traced back as far as 1938. These members were represented by 1 collective bargaining agreement under CEP Local 975. In 1998, Consumers Gas began unbundling portions of its business and services. The Utility side of the business became Enbridge, the service side of the business or “downstream” side of the business became Enbridge Home Services and the Customer Service side of the business was sold to Accenture.
In 2002 Centrica, a British owned company wanted to expand their HVAC business into Canada, so along with the acquisition of Consumers’ “home service” workers, they purchased the Gas Marketing company, Direct Energy and merged the two operations under the Direct Energy name. These unionized workers became CEP Local 975’s third Unit, the Direct Energy Home Services (DEHS) Unit.
Direct Energy then sold off the rental water heater portfolio into an income trust, known as Consumers Water Heater Income Trust, which later became Enercare.
In 2013, CEP (Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada) and CAW (Canadian Auto Workers) joined together to form Unifor, the largest union in Canada.
On Oct 14th 2014, Direct Energy sold its Canadian “home services” company to Enercare, thus forming Unifor Local 975’s EHS or Enercare Unit. The Home Service Company and Water Heater business were now back together.