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Canadian Leaders Meet
Issue 1 - 2008
Winnipeg, Manitoba was the setting for a meeting of the IU Canadian Congress on November 19, 2007, which was presided over by Congress Co-Chairs IU President John J. Flynn and Local 1 Saskatchewan President Clarence Medernach.
Guest speakers at the Congress and at the Regional Council meeting that followed included Susan Alevas, an Adjunct Faculty member at Cornell University’s School of Industrial and Labor Relations, and Patricia Blackstaffe, Commissioner of Workers of the Canada Employment Insurance Commission (CEIC).
Ms. Alevas facilitated a workshop and discussion with delegates focusing on the importance of strategic staffing at the Local Union level, and offered techniques for effectively managing current staff, as well as in the hiring of new staff.
Commissioner Blackstaffe, a former senior policy advisor at the Canadian Labour Congress, outlined the CEIC’s role and functions, which include administering the nation’s employment insurance, employment services, and overseeing how labour market resources are developed and utilized.
Also on the Congress agenda was a report by Co-Chair Medernach and Local 1 Newfoundland Business Manager John Leonard on the activities of the Canadian Congress Apprentice Committee in the areas of training curricula and compulsory certification. Since the Committee’s November report, the government of Ontario has expanded its outreach to apprenticeship and certification stakeholders in the province to encourage them to submit their findings and research on the effect of expanding compulsory certification on individual trades that are currently voluntary. In response, BAC as well as BAC’s Ontario Provincial Conference and four affiliated Local Unions provided submissions in support of the expansion of compulsory certification to trades represented by BAC to the Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities. The Ministry is weighing the impact of expanded certification and held six focus group meetings with stakeholders in February, where BAC representatives presented the Union’s case for mandatory certification.
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