Union Update
Spotlight on PSAC Education - June 2009
- Spotlight on PSAC Education
- Why does union education matter?
- E-Learning: PSAC education where you want it, when you want it
- Union education: building confidence, building activists
- Dig in deeper with the Union Development Program
- Justice for Sharon McIvor and all First Nations women – almost!
Spotlight on PSAC Education
This issue of Union Update focuses on PSAC's education programs – opportunities for union members to sharpen skills, build solidarity and network with like-minded activists. Union education trains activists to struggle for workers' rights and promote social justice in the broader community. PSAC has lots of opportunities for members to learn about how to take a more active role in their union. People tell us that all it takes is one course to get hooked on union education.
Why does union education matter?
According to U.S. President Barack Obama, “the fight for social justice and economic justice begins in the classroom.”
Education plays a critical role for us as union members, fighting for justice in our workplaces, in our communities and in our world.
Nelson Mandela calls education “the most important weapon for changing the world.” He recognizes that education brings us solidarity, helps us develop a stronger analysis and gives us tools for change.
PSAC uses a popular education approach when developing courses.
The word popular comes from the Latin word popularis meaning “belonging to the people."
The first book on popular education, as we practice it at the PSAC, was written by Brazilian literacy worker Paulo Friere in 1968. He believed that education should be “the practice of freedom, the means by which men and women deal critically and creatively with reality and discover how to participate in the transformation of their world.”
PSAC education programs are designed to shine a light on the strength and diversity of experience that each participant brings. Our courses invite members to share their knowledge, reflect on new learning, take action and change their world for the better.
Rosa Parks, who in 1955, famously refused to give up her bus seat to a white man in Montgomery, Alabama, attended a training on school desegregation just a few months before she took action. The course was offered at the Highlander Folk Center (now the Highlander Research and Education Center), a labour and civil rights school in Tennessee. Parks' brave act launched a powerful shift in the civil rights movement in the United States.
Thousands of PSAC members who have taken union education courses have returned to their workplaces and used their new learning to create positive change at the bargaining table, on picket lines and on issues of social justice.
Sign up for a PSAC education course today and, to quote Gandhi, be the change you want to see in the world!
E-Learning: PSAC education where you want it, when you want it
PSAC has built a strong union training program that has benefited many members over the years.
Most courses involve face-toface interaction with a facilitator and other union members. While these environments are rich for learning and building change, they also present barriers to some PSAC members.
Not everyone who is interested in learning more about their union is able to attend union training. But many of these members want to become more engaged and need information about their rights, how their union works and how to get help if they need it.
This is why PSAC developed a web-based learning program, E-train.
E-train is not meant to replace on-site training, but offers all members an opportunity to learn at their own time, place and pace. E-train can be accessed 24/7 with a simple click of the mouse.
Registering at psac.com/etrain provides members with union-specific courses that help them better understand collective bargaining, grievance representation, human rights issues and the operations of their union. It also includes courses of a personal development nature, such as building stronger communication skills and how to deal with stress and burn out.
The e-campus will continue to grow, offering members more specific courses.
By using technology to give more members access to union knowledge, PSAC is building more strength in its membership and by extension a more just society.
Visit psac.com/etrain today, to sign up for easy-to-access online union training.
A sampling of course offerings
PSAC offers a wide range of basic and advanced courses. Some examples include:
Talking Union Basics: Get an introduction to the fundamentals of trade union activism.
Grievance Handling: Develop your skills, knowledge and confidence in effectively solving problems in the workplace.
Stewards' Training: Develop your skills in recruiting new members, representing them in the workplace and encouraging their activism.
Local Officers' Training: Learn to work together as a team to effectively administer local business and organize members in your workplace.
Strike Training: Develop the knowledge, skills and willingness to perform the roles expected of members during a strike.
Health and Safety Training: Explore workplace health and safety issues and work together on possible solutions.
Political Action: Understand better how political decisions affect working people and how activists can work together to influence the political system on behalf of workers.
Building an Inclusive Union: Explore ways to ensure PSAC is accessible and welcoming to all members.
Human Rights: Develop skills, knowledge and critical perspectives on how to become human rights activists in your union, workplace and community.
Each region also offers union schools and the three-week Union Development Program. Course schedules and contact information are available on regional websites.
Visit psac-afpc.com to link to the regional website near you, where you can find a full schedule of education programming.
Union education: building confidence, building activists
Vicki-Lynn Smith works for the Canada Revenue Agency, processing electronic tax returns and responding to public inquiries. She's also a proud member of PSAC's Union of Taxation employees and a strong advocate for union education. Vicki-Lynn is involved in so many union-related committees that there's barely room to list them – this includes the National Capital Region Health and Safety Committee and the Regional Education Committee, among others.
This is what she had to say about the value of union education:
The experience and knowledge that I have acquired through PSAC union education has been positive as it has given me the privilege of gaining knowledge and the ability to freely express my knowledge and opinions.
I have found that the more education I received, the more I wanted, as it gave me the ability to advise fellow employees on how to interpret policies and our collective agreement in a professional manner.
I also found that the networking that takes place during PSAC education programs has also been effective and serves to be a great support system. I strongly believe that if members participated in more PSAC education programs, all of our workplaces would be better places.
Dig in deeper with the Union Development Program
Are you passionate about standing up for workers' rights?
Do you believe in social justice and human rights?
Are you active in your union and interested in deepening your knowledge and skills?
The PSAC Union Development Program (UDP) is an opportunity for you to prepare yourself to assume leadership roles in your union and in the broader labour and social justice movements.
The in-residence course is offered in three modules, held over two five-day periods and one six-day period. Participants will be assigned a project to work on between modules, giving them a chance to practice their new skills in their workplaces, locals and communities.
Here is what some UDP grads have to say about what they gained from attending:
This program is built on solid union principles and was truly an inclusive program for all union members, including equity seeking members.”
– Marlene Hoce, Chairperson of the Regina Human Rights CommitteeAs the young workers' representative on my regional council, this training has given me the knowledge and experience to represent my fellow members with confidence.
– Ryan Ayres, PSAC Ontario Council Young Worker RepresentativeI had the opportunity to be a participant in the pilot project for the Union Development Program in 1975 … I believe that this changed my outlook on how to become an active part of PSAC. I also believe that the UDP's continuation has been instrumental in the development of our union.
– John Gordon, PSAC National President
For more information, contact the PSAC regional office closest to you.
Justice for Sharon McIvor and all First Nations women – almost!
PSAC is thrilled to celebrate Sharon McIvor's victory over discriminatory provisions in the Indian Act – a struggle for justice won on behalf of all Aboriginal women in Canada.
On June 2nd, Chuck Strahl, Minister of Indian Affairs and Northern Development, announced that the federal government will not appeal an April decision in McIvor's favour by the B.C. Supreme Court.
McIvor's long and difficult road began in 1985 when the federal government amended the Indian Act to correct a century of discrimination against Aboriginal women. Prior to this amendment, an Aboriginal woman who married a non-status Indian (as defined by the Act) lost her own status, as did her children. Aboriginal men, however, not only kept their status if they married a non-status woman, but conferred status to their partners and children.
When McIvor, a professor of Aboriginal law and proud feminist, applied to register her and her children as status Indians of the Lower Nicola Band, she discovered that the sexism in the Act had not been eliminated. It had simply been postponed. While she was able to regain her status, her children could not.
In 1989, McIvor took her case to the B.C. Supreme Court and launched a Charter challenge, alleging that the status provisions in the Act discriminated on the basis of sex and marriage. It wasn't until 2006, following years of federal government interference, that the court finally agreed with her. Her struggle, however, did not end there.
The Crown appealed to the B.C. Court of Appeal and soon after, Stephen Harper's Conservative government threw up yet another roadblock. McIvor's case had been previously been supported by the federally-funded Court Challenges program, which funded court cases that supported language and equality rights guaranteed under Canada's constitution. Harper cancelled the program, leaving McIvor to make her case unassisted.
Undaunted, McIvor carried on. With the help of PSAC, as well as other unions and progressive organizations, she raised the necessary funds and committed her own legal talents to defend her case at the B.C. Court of Appeal. Again, the B.C. courts agreed with her, ruling that section six of the Indian Act infringes on McIvor's right to equality under section 15 of the Charter.
The fight is still not over
Despite the B.C. Court of Appeal's decision in her favour, McIvor remains critical of changes that the court made to the original ruling that would see the number of persons granted Indian Status greatly reduced. She has since announced that she would appeal the decision.
The B.C. Supreme Court first issued a ruling that would have extended status to anyone who could prove discrimination in their family tree from 1876 to 1985. McIvor says that ruling, had it not been appealed, would have added about 100,000 people to the ranks of status Indians.
In April 2009, the B.C. Court of Appeal ruled that that the current definition of Indian Status will be struck down by April 2010, unless Parliament adopts a new definition. That ruling recognized a more narrow form of discrimination, limited to the period from 1985 to the present. This will severely restrict the number of people who will be able to reclaim their Indian Status.
“I am confident that Sharon McIvor will once again emerge victorious following this most recent appeal,” said PSAC National President John Gordon. “Her determination during this 20-year struggle isn't about to go away,” he added.
PSAC's National Aboriginal Peoples' Network has been supportive of McIvor's case, making it a focal point in their postcard campaign to further the rights and social conditions of Aboriginal Peoples.
