CUPE National Sector Conference Day 2 - Creating Safe and Respectful Workplaces, Anti-Oppression, Sexual Violence on Campus, Mental Health
Sharon Richer - Ontario Council of Hospital Unions (OCHU)
Sharon set the context by sharing the horrific violence healthcare workers in Ontario are experience - often by the very patients they are there to take care of. Not enough is being done to create a culture where violent behaviour would be tolerated in the workplace. OCHU has spent a lot of time over the last little while surveying their members - asking them about frequency of violent incidents at work, incidents of sexual violence/harassment, fears, frequency of reporting, employer follow up and support.
The stats she shared were staggering. There are so many factors as to why members are scared to report - normalization of violence ("it's just part of the job"), lack of support from supervisors, fear of reprisal for speaking our or reporting, lack of respect from patients/visitors/supervisors/managers. So what do they want? Meaningful and enforceable zero tolerance policies that include a commitment to on-going support (whether it's EAP or on-site counselling services), mandatory sensitivity training for all managers, increased staffing levels, consistent legislation, whistleblower protection, criminalization of assaults on healthcare workers (similar to transit workers). There was some good news out of this - for the first time ever, OCHU/SEIU/UNIFOR negotiated comprehensive violence language in their provincial framework contract earlier this year.
Beth Mahan - Vice President - Air Canada Component
Govind Rao - National Rep, Nova Scotia (CUPE 4764 - Community Justice Society)
Govind shared the tale of the small but mighty CUPE 4764 where 6 restorative justice case workers in Nova Scotia walked a picket line for weeks to demand respect for women's work from the Department of Justice in the province of Nova Scotia. This story reminded me of the West Virginia Teachers - it had the same heart and soul. I digress...these workers deliver important community support to victims of and those who have done hard to them. They facilitate healing circles and report back to courts on progress (or not) and so much more. Historically, 95% of the membership of the local have been women and this was a fight about gender equity.
They knew their wages didn't come close to their male counterparts, probation officers to the tune of a 35% wage gap as well as weaker pension protection/contribution and back time language. It was time to strike and here are their main lessons:
1. BE PREPARED! They relied heavily on CUPE resources - legal, job evaluation reps who provided research and comparators, cost-share campaign to run a media campaign that included radio ads and print ads directed at the Minister of Justice. Members also amplified the messages, set up flying pickets at courthouses, the Minister's house and offices.
2. MAKE FRIENDS! They actually worked with the employer to help advocate to government. The employer endorsed their central demands and they hand delivered the report to the Department of Justice and advocated on the inside. They also reached out to volunteers, former clients and lawyers in the sector to advocate as well.
3. BE BRAVE! They unanimously refused a 50% wage increase because they were committed to closing the 90% pay gap. They help rallies and reached out to the media who was intrigued by the David vs Goliath story.The members were determined to last one day longer than the government and they did! On Labour Day, they were the ones who led the parade in town (because they had ratified their contract the day before).
So what did they win?
- improved bank time
- doubling of pension
- parking reimbursements
- 25% wage increase over 4 years
The most impressive thing? They won those wages for non-union case workers who work in the province as well! It really exemplifies "what we desire for ourselves we desire for all."
How did they engage with members?
SR - members started coming to OCHU. They held an RPN conference in 2016 and created space to respond to their questions and concerns.
BM - the local really focused on building TRUST with their members. As soon as the word got out that members were believed and listened to, more came forward.
GR - with such a small membership who were always on the road they created a closed facebook group and mobilized there.
What great stories of using the resources of the national union to fight back! So good!
After the panel, our National President Mark Hancock took the stage to talk about the national response to violence in the workplace. The most respectful thing workers can do - is join a union and he talked about some of the recent organizing drives - especially the recent WestJet win. He talked about how respect at work takes many forms. Everyone has the right to go to work and come home safe at the end of the day. Violence is not part of the job. Violence has affected a lot of us at work, it's affected someone we care about and the people we serve. Mark talked about some of the victories and challenges around the country - whether it was recent contract language to protect EAs in BC, new government regulations to protect workers from harassment in New Brunswick, a local media campaign to address workload issues in Magog, Quebec, PTSD presumption for paramedics in the Workers Compensation Act in PEI, a campaign for ECEs and EAs in Prince Edward County Ontario to create a culture of safety to end violence in classrooms. Wow!
Our National Union's response to violence in the workplace is to create a united front to demand respect. He ended his remarks by promising solidarity - solidarity to build respect, to stand for each other, to pull each other forward, not one step back. I'm in!
After the plenary we took a few minutes and took a photo of the BC delegates. It's always nice to gather (almost) everyone before we all scatter again and move back into our sector meetings.
The first topic of the day in our post-secondary meeting was anti-oppression organizing and activities where we heard from our comrades from CUPE 3902 (University of Toronto) and Gloria Lepine, CUPE National Diversity Vice President, Indigenous Workers to talk about Truth and Reconciliation in the sector.
First up were Dr. Merlin Charles and Amy Conwell from CUPE 3902 to talk about the work they are doing in their local to foster community in their local which meant prioritizing and doing extensive anti-oppression and anti-racism work. They are taking meaningful steps to change structures and systems in the local that dismiss, silence and exclude because when you silence voices, you are doing a disservice to the local. Couldn't agree more.
They embarked on an ambitious project to look at the impact of systemic racism at the university, in the union at on the campus community and consider it all a safety issue. They are also undergoing a bylaws review by an anti-oppression consultant who will also look at how they conduct meetings, investigations, and rules of order.
All of this work is part of their "Sick of Racism" Campaign - which has been part of a CUPE National cost-share.
Next was Gloria Lepine who was heartfelt in her willingness to speak to us about Truth and Reconciliation in our sector. As Justice Murray Sinclair has said, " Education got into this mess, and education will get us out." It was so great to have her and Yolanda in the room for the whole session. Often the NEB members hang out for a few minutes at a time and then go to another room - I guess to be seen. I think it's more meaningful when they stick around and spend time with members and it's important for us because no one on the current NEB comes from Post-Secondary. Anyway, Gloria was so informative - she did her homework and shared some of the initiatives happening at universities and colleges across the country. She covered everything from mandatory First Nations studies courses at Lakehead University, UBC's Aboriginal Strat plan, numerous programs, hiring practices (where she used the phrase "adding more brown faces in white spaces"), and more. She pulled the specific TRC calls to action that were relevant to post-secondary education and then challenged us to follow the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of indigenous Peoples. So good.
Govind was our moderator and he ended the session with the challenge to replace the word immigrant with referring to those of us who aren't first people as early settlers and late settlers. Interesting.
During the Q&A we talked about the meaning of diversity, potential opportunities to bargain UNDRIP into our contracts, connecting with K-12 and health and safety. When people spoke this time, we all acknowledged the territories out institutions were on - that was cool.
After lunch was the heavy part of the day. We were going to talk about addressing sexual violence and harassment in the post-secondary sector. I had written about the session at the 2016 session We were so lucky to have Lauren Montgomery research staffer at the Alberta Union of Public Employees (AUPE) and member of CUPE 4600 at Carleton and Alice Audrain, a CUPE Human Rights officer who is one of the folks working on the sexual violence tool kit.
Lauren's presentation focused on some of the statistics and faces about sexual violence in Canada and how unions approach the issue of sexual violence in a labour relations context. She covered survivor centric programs and processes and recounted her experience working with CUPE 4600 on the Carleton policy and the challenges she faced there. Ensuring the proper support services are in place, prioritizing solidarity over division with other unions on campus (in particular, Faculty Associations), power dynamics within the union, grievance procedures, alternate dispute resolution models, privacy acts. She also dropped the f-bomb a few times, which I always like. Overall she gave us a good foundation to have the conversation in our locals about concrete steps we can take to tackle this issue.
Alice Audrain gave us a sneak peek of the sexual violence tool kit for locals that was mandated by the 2017 convention in Toronto. What wasn't shared was how the national union was going to resource and train our national reps on the issue. The topic is too complex to ask locals to figure it out for themselves and there needs to be some training and workshops associated with the materials for it to be useful and meaningful. Just one more thing to push for...
I decided to hop over to the Library sector meeting for the latter half of the day where they were doing a session on mental health in the workplace with a focus on certain mental health disorders (the facilitator's choice of words not mine) and accommodation. It was nice to see my people from the library sector even if it was only for a short while.
It was another jam-packed day - full of lots of information! I'm ready to finish up and go home Thursday evening.
Thanks Karen, had not realized you were doing this. Love catching up on CUPE activism!
ReplyDelete