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WOMEN ZS

Iss U55

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PHOTO BY NORMAN GARCIA

= Trade union education has been the cornerstone of progress for the IWA Women’s Committee activities.

Another year of progress

IWA National Constitutional Women’s Committee
heads into fourth year of activities

AT THIS YEAR’S conyention, the
IWA National Women’s Committee,
reported on another successful year of
activities and outlined a series of goals
for the 2003/2004 year.

The major highlights included a
visit to Chile, an organizing course for
IWA women in Western Canada and
the Annual Women’s Education
Conference, in North Bay this past
June.

In February of 2003 Sisters Brenda
Wagg (Local 2171) and Bev Humphries
went to Chile to co-write a women’s
education course for the National
Confederation of Forest Workers of
Chile (CTF). They were assisted by the

CIF’s Silvia Leiva and IWA Local 1-
3567’s Rolando Quintul.

“We're proud of helping the CTF in
putting together this new course,”
Sister Wagg told The Allied Worker.
“It will be the first of its kind that we
are aware of in a trade union confeder-
ation in Chile where women are in a
minority.”

In the spring, 20 IWA Women
from Western Canada took a week
Jong leadership and organizing course
at the union’s new training room in
Burnaby, B.C. The course was
instructed by national secretary-trea-
surer David Tones and Sister Wagg
with assistance from national staff

member Scott Lunny. “We look for-
ward to seeing more women out there
organizing in the future,” says Wagg.

The biggest event of the year
reviewed in the women’s report was
the North Bay conference, which was
attended by 56 sisters from sixteen
local unions. Courses offered were
assertiveness training, effective speak-
ing, harassment and discrimination,
and motivating members.

A meeting was held between the
national women’s committee and local
union liaisons, a new committee was
elected, planning for next year’s con-
ference was initiated and committee
goals were set (see column, right).

Xo) J] FRAN BORSELLINO - ORGANIZER

It’s her union and she’s proud of it!

IN A MALE-DOMINATED union,
IWA organizer Fran Borsellino (above
middle) is an exceptional addition and

_ isa perhaps a person that is indicative
_ of the future as the union continues to

organize in non-traditional areas. Sister
Borsellino originates from Hamilton,
The former CUPE Local 786 mem-
from St. Joseph’s Hospital in

Hamilton, is one of the union’s pre-
mier organizers and has brought new
members into the IWA from the pri-
vate health care field.

Born in England, her family moved
to Canada when Fran was eight. She
worked in and around the Hamilton
area until she was hired on at the hos-
pital at age 23. When the union orga-
nized part-time food service staff there,

Fran was one of the movers and shak-
ers. She became the chief steward for
over 500 workers and has remained
active as a unionist since.

Today she’s out in the field for the
IWA, organizing from Ontario to New
Brunswick to B.C. She’s brought in
such notable bargaining units as the
Anagram Premier ResCare facility in
Niagara on the Lake and recently assist-
ed in the organizing campaign at the
Pinegrove retirement home in
Fredericton, as well as manufacturing
plants and hotel workers along the way.

Fran is concerned about the future
for all workers. She says that, whether
or not people agree, the privatization of
health care services is occurring at a
rapid rate and that workers need pro-
tection. “We are becoming the union of
choice for health care workers in
Ontario and elsewhere in the country,”
she says. She is also the temporary
coordinator for the Ontario Health
Care Coalition which has been fighting
to protect public Medicare, influencing
the recent Romanow commission.“I
tell people we have a proud union and
we're out there to help workers in
need,” she says. “That’s the heart and
soul of what the IWA is all about.”

= A leadership course was held
in the spring of 2003.

Committee sets goals for the
2003 - 2004 year of activities

At our national convention in
Kelowna, the IWA National Women’s
committee outlined its goals for the
next year of activities. Here they are,
outlined in the report to this year’s
convention.

1. Get More Women Involved -
the committee wants to see the
union not only grow, but grow
stronger. One of the ways to do this
is to encourage the active participa-
tion of women in union activities.

2. Develop a National Network
of Women in the IWA - the com-
mittee will work
to determine
where the
female members
of the union
work to accom-
plish the goal of
getting more
women
involved.

3. Educational Efforts - the com-
mittee will attempt to provide exist-
ing active women with the tools to
expand their roles to participate
more fully in their local unions and
take further steps to push for new
member education.

4. Promote IWA Women as
Instructors - The committee rec-
ommends that more women be
trained as educational instructors.

5. Increased Communication -
The committee plans to submit a
column to The Allied Worker and
local union
publica-
tions to

pt discuss
“ as women’s
(4) issues at

| home and
abroad. It

also says the union must demon-
strate the diversity in its workforce.

6. Resource Library - the commit-
tee will endeavour to put together a
resource library, to include informa-
tion on
human
rights,
labour
codes,
harassment
and dis-
crimination
and other
issues.
Courses
and course
materials
are also to be integrated into the
library to be accessed through the
secretary of the IWA women’s
committee.

NOVEMBER 2003 THE ALLIED WORKER | av,