What are the key issues facing women workers and unionists in your country?
I think the whole issue of organising precarious workers is extremely important.
Another issue is that when organising, we typically forget the people who are already in the union. We need to make sure we stay relevant and concentrate on such collective bargaining issues as childcare, maternity leave, and balancing work and family on a regular basis.
Our 1+1 campaign is an excellent campaign. Its about one woman speaking to another woman, speaking to another woman.
Were also looking organising from a community perspective. We need to educate communities about what unions are and the advantages they offer.
What do you hope to bring to the conference?
We hope to learn from women from the South, but also tell them about some of the things that have been successful for us.
Such as: pay equity being recognized as a human right as opposed to a labour code issue.
Federally, we do have maternity protection. The government has given us a year paid maternity leave and our unions can top it up.
While we have a lot of women in leadership positions, we still live in a paternalistic society. We need to look at how that affects us as women leaders and in affecting us as women leaders how that affects our membership.
What do you hope to gain from the conference?
We have a lot to learn from women from the South, who do a lot with very little.
Any other comments/impressions?
At the press conference there was only one question and it was about the issue of war, not even peace. The issue of peace is where we need to be at. Overwhelmingly, right across Canada and right across the world working class people have said peace is what they want. They dont want to go to war.