WOMEN ZS

1S SUPE S

= Judy Anderson and Local 363’s Rick Wangler take the oath from national president Dave Haggard in September.

A first for TWA women

Northern Manitoba logger elected as first-ever
women local union president

SISTER JUDY ANDERSON is not
the kind of person who enjoys the
limelight. So when she attended the
TWA convention in Richmond this
past September, she was surprised
by all the attention she received from
fellow delegates. In late August she
became the first-ever woman local
union president in IWA history, fol-
lowing an election in Local 324 (The
Pas, Manitoba).

“T think Judy was rather bemused
by the whole scenario,” says IWA
National Women’s Committee chair-
person Brenda Wagg. “She didn’t set
out to become the first IWA woman-
president, she set out to make posi-
tive contributions to her local union.”
But Sister Anderson’s election victo-
ty has acheived considerable noteri-
ety. Judy has also become the first
women to be part of the national
executive board of the union, along
with twenty-six male union leaders.

Sister Anderson can hold her own,
as she has done for close to 30 years,

- asa rank and file union member. By

trade, she operates a log forwarder
for Tolko out of Wabowden.

She is a senior member of the,
woodlands crew, having started for
the crown-owned Manfor operation
in 1973. She worked in the kitchen of
a logging camp at Conlin Lake for
the first nine and a half years and,
following a period of camp closures,
got a job at the Pipin Rail Spur for
seven of the next eight years, with a
one year stint in the Manfor sawmill
in The Pas.

At the rail spur, she helped load
cars and worked around the yard,
eventually breaking in on a grader
and front end loader. Then it was off
to the bush for the next five years as
a grapple skidder operator and later
to the log forwarder.

Bom in Pelly Saskatchewan and
into a farming family, she set out for
Cranberry-Portage and got a job ina
camp kitchen in 1971. Along the way,
Sister Anderson learned more about

union activities and served on safety
and camp committees. During the
rapid period of tech change in the
early 80s it was a challenge-for the
union to hold things together, as it is
today. “I think more and more, work-
ers are seeing the value of being in a
union and taking steps to get back
what we lost,” she says. “There’s a lot
of work to do and I’m learning more
about it each day.”

Former Port Alberni Local 1-85
president Larry Rewakowsky has
been to the local in recent months to
help the new officers and adminis-
tration out.

A former trustee of the local,
Anderson says she enjoying the chal-
lenge of working with others to run a
local union. Sister Wagg and other
National Womens’ Committee mem-
bers have also offered to help where
and when they can.

“We all congratulate Judy,” says
Wagg. “What she is doing is really
significant for our union.”

Ladies’ Auxiliary pioneer pays visit

ALL IWA MEMBERS’ attending this
year’s convention banquet were hon-
oured to be in the presence of a very
special women from the IWA’s past.
National union president Dave
Haggard introduced former Ladies’
Auxiliary pioneer Mona Morgan to the
crowd which gave her a standing ova-
tion. Earlier during the convention
week Sister Morgan was seen in a new
video on the history of the union,
speaking on some aspects of the role
of the Ladies’ Auxiliary in building the
union’s foundation of support.
Sister Morgan rose to prominence
as the vice-president of the B.C.
-District’s Ladies’ Auxiliary vice presi-

= Atthe convention Mona met with
Sisters Anderson, Wagg and Ferris.

dent in the 1940s. She and many other
dedicated unionists fought for equal
pay for equal work for women and pio-

neered political lobbying on important
issues including family allowances,
price controls, government run health
care and unemployment insurance.
IWA women organized in many com-
munities throughout the province.

“The contributions of the Ladies
Auxiliary and extraordinary women like
Mona are being celebrated as we review
our history,” says Brenda Wagg, the
IWA National Constitutional Womens’
Committee Chairperson. “It’s extraor-
dinary women like Mona who helped
create IWA solidarity.” At the conven-
tion, Mona met with Local 324 presi-
dent Judy Anderson, Sister Wagg and
video co-producer Claudia Femis.

Locals to provide liasons for
national women’s committee

At this year’s convention dele-
gates unanimously passed a resolu-
tion that local unions develop a net-
work of women in the IWA to help
process and distribute information
related to women’s activities. It was
resolved that each local union elect
or designate a woman to function as
a liason between the national
women’s committee and their locals.
The liason may attend women’s
committee meetings prior to annual
education conferences.

“It's important for the national
women’s committee to communi-
cate efficiently and effectively with
the membership and setting up lia-
sons in each local is a good step for
us to take,” says national secretary-
treasurer David Tones, who has sent
a letter to local unions as a first fol-
low-up measure.

Women’s website creating
discussion and interest
There's a place in cyberspace for
IWA women to go and share infor-
mation about upcoming events and
other things. You can link to it
through the
IWA‘s national
website at
www.iwa.ca.
Click through
Local 1-424's
sub-local site in
MacKenzie or
= Bonne Ammstrong type http://iwa-
mackenzie.home-
stead.com/iwawomen.html.

The web site, which features a
Guestbook for WA women to share
news, includes general information
on the IWA’s Women’s Committee
and its role and goals.

Credit goes to Sister Bonnie
Armstrong from the Abitibi
Consolidated Site 1 mill in
Mackenzie for posting and maintain-
ing the site. “| hope it's something
that we can share and build upon in
the future,” says Sister Armstrong, a
member of the National Women’s
Committee, who works as a banding
operator in the mill.

‘Building our Union’ course
postponed til early Spring
IWA women interested in assisting
their local unions organize and who
can make a future commitment to
doing so, should contact their local
union to find out more about an
upcoming week-long course on
building the IWA. The course is
scheduled to take place in Vancouver,
between March 2-7, 2003.
Unfortunately enough word didn’t
get out to hold the course in
November and not enough dele-
gates were registered in time.

T.O. to be location for next
national women’s annual
Next year women from all over
Canada will gather in Toronto
between June 19-22 for the third
constitutional women’s education
conference. It should be the biggest
and best conference to date. On
June 18 the national IWA women’s
committee will meet in the same
city. “It's time to get the word out,
way ahead of time,” says committee
chairperson Brenda Wagg.

DECEMBER 2002 THE ALLIED WORKER ie 13