United Food & Commercial Workers Union
Local 1400

Women's Committee Report Archives

2007 Women's Committee Reports

Summer, 2007

Greetings from the Saskatoon Women’s Committee. With all the beautiful lake and vacation weather we have had, it has been a quite a summer. The Saskatoon chapter of the Local 1400 Women’s Committee has settled in to our new format over the past number of meetings and we are looking forward to a busy and exciting fall and winter.

We have some social events tentatively set up for later this year and also a number of informational evenings in the works that we hope will promote and address many common women's issues. There are also a few other projects that we have just started to work on that we feel will be very beneficial. We will share further details on all of the upcoming events, projects and plans in the near future.

Those of us on the committee are looking forward to all the changes and plans and would like to invite anyone interested to come join us. If you would like more information on our committee or are interested in joining a Women’s Committee chapter in any area of the province, please call the Saskatoon office at 384.5787 from within Saskatoon, or toll free 1.800.274.4036 from other locations, or speak to any member of the Committee.

Watch our webpage on the Local 1400 site and your posting boards for more information on upcoming events.

Kathy Erickson
UFCW Local 1400, Saskatoon Women’s Committee Chair

Spring, 2007

March 8th was International Women’s Day. Our local’s Women’s and Aboriginal Committees marked this special occasion by holding and attending many events.

Three of our Saskatoon Committee members, Niki Wruck, Judy Hrycuik, and Deb Goodwin, attended the Federal Women’s Equal Opportunities Committee of Saskatoon’s Symposium “Making a Difference” on March 7th. This inspiring event included speakers from NASHI, a non-profit organization committed to combating the epidemic of Ukrainian children being trafficked for the sex and slave labour trade; Debbie Lone who was featured in “A Makeover Story” in the The Star Phoenix; Margot Weiner from United Way of Saskatoon and Area; Master Corporal Carolyn Gallager on her life experiences being both a mother of three (the youngest being 2½ months) and a ammunition technician in the Canadian Forces; three constables from the Saskatoon Police Service on home, car and personal safety; and concluded with C95’s Rambling Dave with his words of wisdom on how to successfully co-exist with women.

With a mandate from the local to form regional committees and new members joining, it was decided some time ago that the Saskatoon Committee had grown to the point that it could sustain its own committee and certain positions would need to be filled. A Women’s Committee meeting was held on March 8th where members were nominated, and graciously agreed to fill, those positions. Barb Logan will remain the Saskatchewan Women’s Committee Chair; she will be the liaison between all Local 1400 Women’s Committees in Saskatchewan as well as with the UFCW National Women’s Committee. The Saskatoon Committee positions were filled as follows: Chairperson – Kathy Erickson, Recording Secretary – Niki Wruck (Glenda Kurylyk will be the alternate), Member Coordinator – Judy Hrycuik, Communications – Amy Price and Kathryn Hiller.

Also on March 8th, Local 1400 members from Regina participated in an International Woman’s Day rally at the Legislative Building. With other affiliates of the Regina and District Labour Council, and members of CUPE National, over 200 rallied in support of women’s issues giving “report cards” to each MLA on how they have handled issues affecting women, families and the labour force.

On March 9th, Prince Albert and District Labour Council Women’s Committee, the Community Against Family Violence, CUPW and UFCW Local 1400 Women’s Committees co-sponsored a Women’s Day event at the Union Centre. The program featured the Director from Children’s Choice Day Care speaking on the effect of the cancellation of Federal Child Care initiatives on those who needed it the most and a speaker from Women of the Earth on the concern of cutbacks to the Status of Women office. The speeches were concluded with the formation of a large circle and the song Bread and Roses, followed with a social. Committee member Sharon Breadner contributed a timeline of important events and quotes in women’s history, colour coded to international, national, provincial and local. Contributions from the event were donated to the West Flat Child Day Care Program.

On March 10th, 2007, the Saskatoon Women’s and Aboriginal Committees held an informational luncheon in support of the Crisis Nursery in Saskatoon. At the luncheon, Lisa Welter Mills, Program Director of the Crisis Nursery (pictured below, first row left, with Saskatchewan Committee Chair Barb Logan), made a presentation to the guests, among them NDP MLA Pat Atkinson and City Councillor Maurice Neault, about the facility. The Crisis Nursery is a residence that provides a second home for children during a family crisis or emergency. If there is no alternative care available, parents may leave their children while the problem is being resolved. Offering a safe, homelike environment, the nursery is a service for the entire family. A crisis is an emergency in the home that makes the parent less able to care for the child, such as sudden illness or hospitalizations, high levels of stress, marital conflict, housing problems, lost children (children found by police) or people in fear of hurting their children. The Crisis Nursery accepts children from birth to 12 years of age, providing immediate shelter any time of the day or night, meals and snacks, infant feeding, cribs and beds, clothing as needed, a play area equipped with toys and books, and supervised activity in and out of doors with trained child care workers.

A call for donations was sent to our members, employers and other businesses to support the Crisis Nursery and the response can only be described as phenomenal. A special thank you goes out to all who made donations. Even our customers started to make donations, in one instance a customer of the Saskatoon Co-op Agro Centre, upon learning of the project, made a donation of $100. Also, we would like to thank Store Manager Colin Merrit, from the Saskatoon Co-op Attridge Drive grocery store, for providing us with the lunch, compliments of Saskatoon Co-operative Association, and to Local 1400 for allowing us the use of the main meeting room.

Closing out the month, on March 31st a Steak Night was held at Uncle Barley’s in partnership with the Aboriginal Committee. It was a complete sell out, with 70 people in attendance. Thank you to all who donated prizes, with a special thank you to Pat Ferris and Shirley Crouse from Western Grocers, who donated the fabulous raffle prize hamper won by Roger Haatvedt (pictured below, first row right, with Saskatoon Committee Chair Kathy Erickson),  and to all who attended, making it a tremendous success and another great fundraiser. Nearly $1,000 was raised for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society of Canada, the UFCW charity of choice.  More pictures from this event below and on the Aboriginal Committee page.

    

 

    



2006 Women's Committee Reports

Fall, 2006

At the second Local 1400 All Committee meeting this year, the Women’s Committee decided that we wanted to play a role at this year’s Shop Steward Conference. We knew that we wanted to host a social again but felt that we should also educate the members in some way.

We decided that we would present a skit that had been done at the UFCW Canada Women’s Conference by some of the delegation from Alberta which showcased the five Canadian women who took on the all-male Canadian Government of the day with the Persons Case. This case challenged the law of the day and the women that took this important step are now known as The Famous Five. We were hosting the social in conjunction with the Aboriginal Committee, and invited women from that committee to join in the skit. They added bios of two famous Aboriginal women into the history presentation.

Karaoke and hotdogs, smokies, and beverages around the fire pit completed our evening. During the conference, we also sold raffle tickets on a digital camera, mp3 player, Pampered Chef bar pan, and a DVD player, contributing to the over $2,800 raised at the conference for leukemia research.

On October 14, all of the local’s committees joined together for a Steak Night enjoyed by approximately 50 people at Uncle Barley’s in Saskatoon, raising over $670 for leukemia research.

December 6 is the National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women. Our committee members will be participating in vigils and other events planned in our home cities. Please watch your posting boards and the Women’s Committee web page for more information in this and other upcoming events. If you would like to know more about the committee or would like to join, please call the Saskatoon office at 306.384.5787 or toll free at 1.800.274.4036.

 

 

Summer, 2006

Judy Hryciuk and I attended the Canadian Labour Congress (CLC) 13th Annual Women’s Conference which was held in Ottawa from June 11 to 14, 2006. The theme of this year’s conference was Fighting the Blues.

Delegates were welcomed to the conference by Barbara Byers, Executive Vice President of the CLC. Elaine Shipley, an Aboriginal Elder, performed the Aboriginal opening ceremony. Irene Harris, Secretary Treasurer of the Ontario Federation of Labour, brought greetings on behalf of the Federation.

The Dandelion Dance Company danced, stepped and sang Spreading the Seeds of Change Through Movement. These young women portrayed the struggles within our society through the gestures of this beautiful dance.

Anuradha Mittal, Executive Director of the Oakland Institute in California, spoke on The Taste of the Blues - What the Social Conservative Agenda Means for Women.

The remainder of the conference was spent in workshops preparing to lobby the government on Parliament Hill. We met with various Members of Parliament (I met with MP Carol Skelton) to lobby the government to enact a National Child Care Program.

This proved to be a very educational event. One thing that we learned is that we can’t stop here. We must take action within our movement and communities. The women of our unions must continue to fight to advance our struggle for economic and social equality. We must build our movement to ensure that we maintain the advances we have achieved and move our agenda forward in our workplaces, our communities and our legislature.

The local held an All Committees Meeting on July 6, 2006 to continue the work started earlier this year in our workshop. The Women’s Committee did a lot of work at this meeting on the structure of the committee, the direction we would like to take and ideas that we would like to put into action. We have also planned a number of events into next spring. Please watch for notices of upcoming events.

April, 2006

UFCW Members Visit Tamara’s House In Saskatoon

In honor of International Women’s Day, members from UFCW Local 1400 and Local 649 spent an educational afternoon on March 4 at a very unique facility in Saskatoon for female adult survivors of childhood sexual abuse. Founded in 1991, Tamara’s House is a residential facility which opened in 2002 and is the first of its kind in Canada, specializing in the care and treatment of abused women seeking therapy.

A group of ten UFCW members prepared lunch and toured the amazingly warm environment that as many as eight women can safely call “home” for a period of time.

What an eye-opener that there aren’t more of these homes across Canada, especially since statistics state that one in three women has been sexually abused.

Tamara’s House is a non-profit organization and are continually seeking volunteers to assist in various capacities ranging from craftwork to support staff. If you are interested in helping at Tamara’s House, please call the Saskatoon office for contact information.

   

International Women's Day Workshop – Prince Albert

Janice Kezar and Sharon Breadner from the Prince Albert Superstore were two of the approximately fifty women who attended this workshop. The theme was Healthy Hearts - Healthy Minds and featured guest speaker Linda Jurkins, a nutritionist and a psychologist. She gave a very interesting presentation on healthy eating, dealing with stress, vitamins, and maintaining a healthy lifestyle.

A short presentation on Harper versus Child Care was given by Shirley Klassen, followed by a circle drum band for everyone who wished to try her hand.

The day concluded with a chance to socialize over appetizers and wine and each woman was given a rose as she left. The event was co-sponsored by CEP 1120, CUPW 810 and the Prince Albert and District Labour Council Women's Committee (of which Sharon is a member). Tickets were a very nominal $2 as the sponsors covered all of the costs for the day. All of the money raised at the door was donated to the local women's shelter.

 

January, 2006

The Women’s Committee took part in two community events in the last few months, the Take Back the Night evening which took place on October 20th and the December 6th memorial for the National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women.

The Take Back the Night march is an annual event to publicly express women's determination to struggle against the sexism and violence that plague our communities and surround many women’s lives.

Initially, the event aimed to protest conditions causing women to feel unsafe when alone at night on the streets and focused on poverty, single mothers, and prostitute safety; "night" is also a metaphor for the fear, isolation, intimidation, and cruelty that women experience daily. Take Back the Night offers women an opportunity to take these injustices and break the silence by publicly naming these wrongs, and symbolically reclaim our bodies, our homes, our workplaces, our streets, and our lives.

This year, Saskatoon’s annual Take Back the Night evening was held at the YWCA and consisted of a one hour forum where two individuals spoke about “Crystal Meth Realities”, a problem that has become much too prevalent in our neighbourhoods, then a march with approximately 200 people from the YWCA, through the downtown to the Avenue E and 20th Street area and back to the YWCA where a coffeehouse social was held.

The National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women was established in 1991 by the Parliament of Canada. This day coincides with the sad anniversary of the death of 14 young women who were tragically killed on December 6, 1989 at l'École Polytechnique in Montréal because of their gender.

In Saskatoon, approximately 50 people took part in a memorial evening at the YWCA where there were speakers, interpretive dancers and U of S students who read out the names of the 14 women who were killed. A social followed.

Coming up this spring in honour of International Women’s Day, an event will be held at Tamara’s House in Saskatoon on Saturday, March 4th which will include an educational seminar followed by a meal for those in attendance prepared by UFCW women. On March 8th of each year, International Women’s Day is an occasion marked by women's groups around the world. It is a day for women on all continents to come together to celebrate their day and reflect on their struggle for equality, justice, peace and development.

Our committee is in the planning stages for another steak night and plans have also just begun for a UFCW National Women’s conference tentatively to be held in April 2006. I will pass information on about these events as they become available so please watch your posting boards at work and the Local 1400 website for information on these events and other fundraisers coming up this spring.