Vicki Sundher (Treasurer) and I (Darrell Joyce, President) have been enjoying our second day of conference, getting down to the nitty gritty of hearing all the committee reports and voting on resolutions. Highlights of the day include guest speaker Ivan Coyote (who you may remember from last year’s staff day for GVPL workers), who gave a moving and informative speech about their experience growing up as a transgender, nonbinary person. One thing that came from this speech was we ended up scratching out our “preferred” pronoun area on our credentials and instead wrote “uses” pronoun, as gender identity is not a preference. In fact, today a resolution was passed to look at using gender -inclusive language and moving away from gendered language, such as “brother” and “sister”–something we have already passed in our own local!
We also heard from outgoing CUPE New Brunswick President, Daniel Legére, about the plight of workers working in nursing homes in NB who have been prevented from striking by the NB government through various court injunctions and appeals. Delegates of CUPE BC showed their support in a Facebook live stream, video can be found on CUPE BC’s Facebook page and here is the embedded video:
Tomorrow, at lunchtime we are joining the student Climate Strike event at Victoria City Hall (time/location may change, so check here for up to date info: https://climatestrikecanada.org/)
This is not a labour strike (i.e. GVPL/AGGV staff are not striking!) but a student movement, which we are attending as guests. Anyone not working tomorrow, or on their lunch break, is welcome to join this public event. See the above website for details.
In Solidarity,
Darrell Joyce
President, CUPE 410- Greater Victoria Public Library & Art Gallery of Greater Victoria Workers