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e Sister Brenda Wagg, who was elected as the chairperson of the National Women's Committee, facilitat

1.W.A. Women take
inspiration from
national conference

by Carole Pearson

=t was a weekend of education
' and inspiration for 44 women
| delegates attending the first
_ LW.A.Canada Constitutional
_ Women’s Education Con-
iference June 8 - 10 in
Richmond, B.C.

The conference was the first
organized solely by Women’s
Committee members and designed
to enhance and encourage
leadership skills through a series of
workshops. Ontario and B.C.
delegates were in the majority but
prairie locals were also represented.
The lone delegate from New
Brunswick delegate made the
conference virtually coast-to-coast.

Opening the conference, National
President Dave Haggard spoke about,
the changes, challenges and future
of the I.W.A. Noting the difficulties
in transforming from a traditionally
male-dominated organization he
said, “Change is never easy, but it is
inevitable and so important for the
future of the I.W.A. It starts at the
plant level and grows to the local
level and up into the national
(executive) level, I’m sure, in the
very near future.”

There are also challenges facing
the union if it is to remain strong.
According to Haggard, it means
encouraging pees penecnation of
more women and young people.
Predicting a future with fewer
unions, he added, “The labour
movement will also grow from the
30-something percent (of workers) it
now is in this country to a helluva
lot more. That’s the challenge we
have to accept here, today — to make
sure that happens, to make sure
we're an integral part of that and
we don’t become one of those unions
that gets eaten up by a larger union,
to make sure that we grow
and become one of the larger
unions in this country.”

Making inroads to organize the
predominantly female workforce in
the retail and financial sectors has
been a struggle when management
employs bullying tactics to keep
women from joining a union.
Haggard says, “That’s why a
conference like this is so important
for the women of the I.W.A to sit
down to start to put together a
program that will work better for
our union so we can continue to grow
to give the other members and
ourselves the protection of our
union.”

Angela Schira, Secretary-
Treasurer of the B.C. Federation of
Labour, was next at the podium.
Among her many accomplishments,
Schira is the first woman elected
to an international office in
the International Association of
Machinists. Noting similarities and
the close relationship between the

EA

¢ National I.W.A. president Dave Ha:
participate in the building of the union.

20/LUMBERWORKER/SEPTEMBER, 2001

Machinists’ union and the I.W.A.,
she told delegates of her success in
gaining support within the male-
dominated airline industry.

“When we come from a male-
dominated industry, we have to
work with our brothers,” she said.
For Schira, the solution was to create
trust and interest on other issues.
She became very knowledgeable
about trades training programs
within the airline industry, issues
that concerned both men and women.
“There was a building of trust in
knowing that I believed deep down
in the labour movement, not just on
women’s issues but the whole issue
of the labour movement.”

Starting off the workshop
component of the conference was a
session on strategic planning. This
was roughly defined as “identify
where you are, where you want to
be and how you're going to get there”.
Facilitated by Brenda Makeechak of
the Canadian Labour Congress
Pacific Region and Sister Mary Lou
Scott, two groups were given
exercises in planning a strategy to
achieve union-oriented goals.

The balance of the con-
ference included workshops in
stress management, effective
communication, public speaking,
harassment/human rights, assert-
iveness training and parliamentary
procedure. Facilitators included;
Lynn Bueckert, from the B.C.

ed a workshop on parliamentary procedure as

Federation of Labour; Health and
Safety director Terri Van Steinburg;
a labour educator, Heather Lee of
the Office and Technical Employees
Union; Barinder Rasode, formerly
of the BCGEU and CLC and I.W.A.
Women’s Committee Chair Brenda
Wagg.

The Sunday morning plenary
session included a final workshop,
“Planning a Workplace Campaign”,
facilitated by BC Government and
Service Employees’ Union director
Patrice Pratt. Sister Pratt used
examples of BCGEU campaigns she
had been involved in, and methods
used to get a message out to the
public. Strategies included seeking
allies with common interests to
create a broad base of community
support.

The conference concluded with
the election of officers to the
National Women’s Committee.
Sister Brenda Wagg, one of the main
organizers of the conference, says,
“The goal of this union is to grow
and we want to help the union to do
that. You can’t expect women to —
just like that — go out there and
organize. You have to use activism
and you've got to give them the tools
along the way so that finally they
reach a point where they say, ‘Hey,
Ican do that!’. And that’s what we
want to do at this conference — to
excite people, to excite that
activism.” @

ggard said that women and younger people must be encouraged to

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