CEP UNION WOMEN'S CONFERENCE
NOVEMBER, 2001 - OTTAWA

When large groups of women gather, the discussion moves freely between the immense social issues of the day and stories of personal lives. The links between the person and the world seem always at the heart of women's conferences. For example, when the issue is racism, a union sister who had experienced it will stand up and comment on her experience. It was the same with violence -- or poverty. Again and again, we saw that people, not just statistics, were at the centre of the issues.

The CEP conference in Ottawa was host to many interesting speakers, including Cecilie Counts (AFL-CIO U.S. Unions), and numerous excellent panel speakers covering topics such as equality issues, grassroots rank-and-file action, and globalization. rene PohorŽ�ka, Kelly Mazur, and Cindy Garofalo, were elected to attend this conference by Local 191 members at a General Membership Meeting.

Here are excerpts from their reports.

Kelly Mazur - Breaking Down Barriers - Bargaining for Equality. This workshop was energizing, to say the least. We were presented with the 2001 edition of Bargaining Equality. The content of this book covers areas of discrimination, harassment, employment equity, equal pay, persons with disabilities, part-time workers, rights for gay or lesbian workers, hours of work and family leave as well as child care. So one can clearly see that Bargaining for Equality covers a lot of ground. The next task in our workshop was to review the Power Structure, we were asked questions like: 1) How do you build support for winning equality language in the collective agreements? 2) Who makes the decisions formally? What is the role of key groups in the Union? 3) Who influences the bargaining committee? 4) Where do you fit in the Power Structure? 5) How can women influence the process? During this workshop I had the opportunity to hear from other locals and what their Collective Agreement s contain or don't contain, also the real importance of Language in a Collective Agreement, how two simple words can make a big difference. For the complete report, click here.

Cindy Garofalo - The workshop on the Social Delegate explored opportunities for members to extend a helping hand to coworkers beyond the structure of the collective agreement. The male and female participants in the workshop discussed openly the issues they faced themselves, as well as the more prevalent issues that have surfaced in their workplaces. It was obvious that mental health and stress were high on the list of concerns that people deal with regularly. Workshop participants spent considerable time dealing with the every-day consequences of the problems workers face. Union counsellors are not therapists, but frequently they can direct Union members to the help they need. For the complete report, click here.

Irene PohorŽoka - A group of approximately 12 women tackled the very challenging topic of Globalization. Members of the workshop included Cecilie Counts (U.S.A), and Ruth Arroyo from ISAT in Peru. The balance of the workshop participants included women from across Canada. We were asked to put into a word, what we think of when we think of globalization. The responses ranged from "confusion" and "frustration" to "exploitation" to "corporate imperialism". The workshop took us from initial groups of two to larger and larger groups, discussing larger issues (such as changes in community and workplace) -- and, finally, to considering the global situation. In the words of Cecilie Counts: "The global economy has come home. ... and it's a race to the bottom" Globalization involves moving capital without restrictions. The means to this end include: Labour flexibility (being able to use labour markets in other countries without labour regulations in place.); Free trade agreements (to eliminate tariffs, national protection of industries) ; Unregulated capital (such as dumping U.S. dollars into other countries; this has backfired in the case of bin Laden's financial dealings); Union-free environment (to keep wages down); Privatization (less money demanded by governments in tariffs, and taxes, to be used for services, etc.) At the end of our workshop, we determined to raise awareness of global issues within our workplaces and community. For the complete report, click here.