SFL Pensions and You Conference Report

Financial Officers Workshop Report

I took the art of Negotiations February 2^nd in Ottawa and was truly impressed by our facilitator Maureen.  She is very knowledgeable and very labour focused.  Among other things, we learned about the bargaining process, creation of proposals, various bargaining tactics, and the use of strikes.  I am looking forward to taking additional COPE Ontario workshops.

Winter-Spring Educational Workshops (2014) Revised

Download (PDF, 92KB)

Saskatchewan Federation of Labour

Women, Work and Ability Workshop 

June 9 – 13, 2013

I was extremely lucky to attend the Saskatchewan Federation of Labour’s “Prairie School for Union Women” in Waskesiu located in northern Saskatchewan.  There were approximately 160 Union Sisters registered and they came from across western Canada representing many different Unions.

I was registered in the Women, Work and Ability workshop and we had 11 participants and 2 awesome facilitators.  I chose this workshop to help me in my role of Union officer.

This course was designed to explore the myths, mistaken beliefs and assumptions regarding disabilities and to raise awareness of barriers women with disabilities have experienced over the years in the workplace.  We learned that the list of disabilities is extremely long and includes both visible disabilities and invisible disabilities.

We touched on many subjects including Duty to Accommodate & Return to Work, Harassment, Human Rights and our role as a Union in representing members.  We discussed the stigmas that are attached to persons with disabilities and the history on how its changed over the years but still exists to some extent.  One statistic that surprised me was that women with disabilities are less likely to work than men with disabilities.

A Duty to Accommodate is primarily an Employer obligation but both the Union and the accommodation seeker have a legal obligation as well.  The parties have the obligation to take measures short of undue hardship to remove barriers that prevent a worker with a disability from being able to work.  We discussed how sometimes our own members try to put up barriers because they don’t understand the need for an accommodation.

I was surprised to learn that out of the 13 women in the workshop that they all (including the facilitators) had a disability except myself.  They all had stories to share on the difficulties they have endured.  This added a tremendous amount to the workshop as we listened to their personal stories and hardships that they have had to face and how they overcame them or are still working on it.

We came away from the workshop with some excellent handouts, gained some tools on how to make the workplace accessible, disability friendly collective agreement language, issues and facts regarding disabilities and some arbitration cases that have been successful.

It was an excellent workshop, very informative and helpful!

Respectfully submitted by,

Karen Carle

Parliamentary Procedure and Public Speaking

1st CLC Weeklong Women’s Summer School

CAW Family Education Centre, Port Elgin, Ontario

July 14-19, 2013 

Report by: Debbie Rebeiro, RVP CUPE National Office, Ottawa

This was my first CLC Labour Educational, my first time at the CAW Centre in Port Elgin and my first time in beautiful Port Elgin. Needless to say my weeklong stay at the Centre and overall experience was fabulous.

We had started the course with an opening plenary on Sunday (July 14) evening after which we broke into our respective course groups. Patty Clancy and Kelly Hayes were the two instructors assigned to my course. The first part of the course was about understanding the role of a chairperson in a meeting, and about how we needed to develop a working understanding of the rules of Parliamentary Procedure and to develop skills in chairing a meeting using Bourinot’s Rules of Order. To develop some facilitation skills in preparing for and running less formal meetings.

The highlight of my week was when Barbara Byers, Executive Vice-President, CLC came in to our class-room as special facilitator and co-facilitated for half a day on Tuesday morning. She helped us with positive energy and a safe place to practice our skills in chairing a meeting and resolving a motion. In pairs we each had a turn to participate in this practical. Barb was instrumental in giving us the confidence we needed to do this.

The next day (on Wednesday) we had a presentation by Alex Johnstone, a Hamiltonian, public school board trustee, and a New Democrat, on Public Speaking, which was the second part of our course.

The week went by quickly and each day was filled with positive energy, friendship and loads of new skills that we learnt and practiced.

The following are some processes and skills that we practiced for the first part of course:

– Process for chairing a meeting

– Adopting and passing a motion

– Being an effective chairperson

(To be organized, be a good listener, being focused and respectful, being impartial, punctual, knowledgeable, confident and inclusive)

For the second part of the course ‘Public Speaking’ we covered the following:

– Wrote a speech – three minute long

– Gave our speech (either in front of class or in private)

– Speech was video-taped

– Video was played in class-room

– We had a chance to critique each one’s speech with written positive comment and suggestion.

– Comment and suggestion was collected and distributed to each participant

In addition to the course learning:

– Morning/Evening plenary

– Great presentations given by union activists

– Social time / camp-fires / friendships

– Sisterhood / solidarity / sharing

The CAW facility by Lake Huron is one of the best with friendly staff, great dining and comfortable dwelling. Beautiful sunsets mark the location and a walk on the beach made it all so special and spectacular.

I would recommend participation at future CLC Summer Schools, CAW Centre in Port Elgin and hope that more members have an opportunity to attend.

When we learn new skills we strengthen the union. When we share our information we build the movement.            

Thank you for the opportunity given to me. I hope to use my knowledge in carrying out union work with COPE 491.

In solidarity!

Debbie Rebeiro

/dr:cope491