Summer Institute for Union Women 2016

Ok, It's time to resurrect this thing and what better event than my experience at the Summer Institute for Union Women in Los Angeles last week.

We always talk about how relationship building and solidarity are at the very core of our trade union principles. That our values are built on the strength of the collective in the struggle for equity and inclusion and we always do better when we rise together. "What we desire for one, we desire for all.”

The opportunity to share space with women from BC, Washington, Oregon, Hawaii and California from a variety of unions and community groups has been equally humbling and inspiring. In our workshops and on our panels,  the incredible diversity of the speakers, artists, facilitators and participants has made this one of the richest learning experiences of my life (and I’ve attended a lot of conferences, meetings, forums, conventions, yo).

The SIUW’s opening plenary ignited the fire for some truly strategic and honest conversations we need to have as women in the labour movement. The session had a fiery start last night when Shanara Sanders - a spoken word artist and singer-songwriter - sang and spoke about the worth and value of women’s work and the struggle that her mother and grandmother faced  - her “sheroes” She also shared the hope she feels for her children. It’s not a secret that there are systemic barriers our own members face in our unions and it’s time we call it out for what it is:

“A house divided cannot stand, and we must abolish classism and racism in our own band.”


Sister Joey Hartman - our friend and first woman President of the Vancouver and District Labour Council started the plenary session with what she does best - she set the historical context of women in labour in Canada and the United States. The history was interesting but my takeaway was her call to action for us to eliminate the word “APATHY” from our vocabulary and to truly start figuring out why our perception as unions continually focuses on the status quo and irrelevance. We need to commit to intersectional feminism. -  everything is connected so that we can ensure our movement is diverse and inclusive, that when we reach out to community groups we need to eliminate the hierarchy and the narrow focus on ourselves. It’s about all of us. How do we make society more equal for women? We commit to paid maternity leave, affordable childcare (for those of you not familiar check out 10aday.ca), eldercare, the end to racism and rape culture and the end to violence against women. She also made the point that we have to bring women along with us - Joey has had tremendous influence on me as an and activist in the labour movement. She’s the real deal -  she brings women along with her and walks the walk when it comes to femtorship.

Our next speaker, Lola Smallwood Cuevas - the director of the Los Angeles Black Worker Centre taught us about empowering African American workers in LA to solve the black job crisis. It was eye-opening because we don't have the same issues of unemployment for black workers in BC and we have the human rights code to protect workers from discrimination based on race. At the end of the day civil rights are worker’s rights and there are opportunities to engage and organize black workers so that they can assert themselves into the economy.


Gloria Alvarado is the National Citizenship and Immigration Coordinator for the AFL-CIO and she talked about why it was important for women to be involved in all levels of the labour movement. It we are not there our issues won’t get heard. She introduced me to the saying “if you're not at the table then you're on the menu.”

Lastly, Saru Jayaraman - Director of the Labor Centre at UC Berkeley and with Restaurant Opportunities Centre blew the top off the conference and challenged all of us. The restaurant industry in the United States is the fastest growing  - employing over 11 millions Americans (mostly women and women of colour) and yet it’s only 0.001% unionized. The federal minimum wage for tipped labour is $2.13. $2.13!!! What. The. Eff. I don’t think any one person thinks that that is a liveable wage by any stretch of the imagination. On top of that we learned that the labour movement left those workers in the dust when they were fighting for $15 minimum wage when they got it for everyone but tipped workers. Not cool. It doesn't help people’s perceptions of unions being the champion for all. They continue to fight to eliminate tipped wage levels across the country and I can’t give them enough props for keeping on.

After that last presentation we went straight into a reception where I connected with sisters from the IBEW 11 here in LA - both women electrician apprentices and a table full of California School Employees Association workers who are the support staff in the K-12 sector in the state. It was interesting to hear about trades training and certification as well as the similar challenges K-12 support staff in California face in proposition 55 which would continue the income tax on the top 2% of wage earners in California. - which of course would help address funding issues.

What a great start to our conference!