Grand Lodge Representative Heather
Kelly coordinates Women’sDepartment
programs in Canada.

Women — 2

The IAM Women’s Department works both nationally and internationally to improve the status of women and their families. In Canada we have put together a National Women’s Committee as a method to keep our sisters informed and involved from coast to coast and to follow the Department’s lead on getting our sisters involved within the organization. Each province has a women’s representative that acts as liaison for the locals or districts and they participate in yearly meetings as well as attend schools, conferences or seminars and take that message back to the locals. In addition, we have put together a Women’s Manual to help our sisters understand our Union and to help them better understand their role within it.

We have networked with other unions in Canada through the Provincial Federations, the Canadian Labour Congress and the Local Labour Councils on women and their issues. In addition, we have held two Canadian Women’s conferences in conjunction with

our sisters from Steel and both were widely attended. We have participated in the Women’s Vote campaigns to get our sisters out to vote in their provincial and municipal elections and have actively been involved in several of the campaigns during the elections. Globally, we had a sister attend the World Women’s Conference in Australia and she was able to bring back a great deal of information for us to share.

Many of our sisters have participated in the our week-long schools held at W3 and have returned to then act as facilitators within their own provinces for training conducted by the Provincial Federations or the Canadian Labour Congress.

In Canada, our sisters have also conducted a survey to find out what the training needs are for women within the organization and the following is the result of the survey conducted in 2002:

1) Identifying and understanding women’s issues

2) Facilitating and/or counseling and their role with community service groups or employee assistance programs

3) Problem solving

4) Assertiveness training and public speaking

5) History of women in the union

6) Healthcare trends and its effect on women

7) Non-traditional roles for women in the workplace and in the Union (e.g. Health and Safety committee and specific concerns for women/proper PPE, washroom facilities, breastfeeding/ pregnancy, etc).

8) Equity issues in the workplace and contract language

9) Getting sisters involved on all committees

10) Body language

11) Connection to retirees such as through pension and economic needs specific for women ─guest speaker on what life was like for our sisters

12) Human Rights ─what’s acceptable/what’s not, bargaining language and setting policy

13) Communicating effectively and alternative methods. Clear language/messaging

14) Violence in the workplace and in the home ─addressing these issues as Union issues

In addition, our IAM sisters in Canada put together a list of demands for action for the World March of Women and have used this list as our guiding principles in all of the work that we do. These actions were also adopted by the entire delegate body attending the 2000 IAM Women’s Conference held in Chicago. Our sisters will be participating in the World Women’s Charter for Humanity in 2005 and will actively work to have several of these demands added to this charter.

The following is the list of IAM Women’s demands for action:

• Job security and protection through the elimination of outsourcing. Ensure that all persons have the right to employment that provides for dignity and respect within their communities.
• Ensure equity, dignity and respect within the workplace and within their unions amongst all workers (this includes all equity-seeking groups) regarding job progression and promotion, training and/or apprenticeships, wages, benefits, vacations, hiring, opportunities, etc. Ensure equity, dignity and respect in our communities for the elderly and disabled.
• Guaranteed adequate paid family leave. Provide quality universal childcare and elder care.
• Provide for effective and enforceable labor legislation and contracts. For example, human rights, employment standards, health & safety (not just for the workers but which includes their families and their unborn children).
• Guaranteed universal health care.
• Access to and equity in public education at all levels from grade school to university.
• Guaranteed workplace training and/or apprenticeships in every workplace that does not infringe on workers’ family time.
• Protection from violence, mental and physical abuse in all aspects of our lives, at home, at school, at work and in our communities.
• Ensure that all persons in positions of power or authority can be held accountable for their actions.
• Ensure that all forms of public education include accurate information on diseases (i.e. HIV/ AIDS), labour history, and the history of all equity-seeking groups.
• Organized labour must have an equal voice and vote within any and all organizations that have the ability to execute changes that may affect them.
• Ensure all people are not without the essentials to life, that they are recognized as equals and that they are treated with fairness, dignity and respect; which must be enshrined through adequate and enforceable measures.

previous|home|next