This past weekend my local (1698) sent me to a Youth Convention for my union (CUPE). There were two of us there from FVRL (Fraser Valley Regional Library), myself and Trista, and we happened to be assigned to the same cabin with another girl named Charity- a lifeguard from Quesnel.
The conference took place in Naramata, which is a cute little village up high in the wine country, above Okanagan Lake in BC's interior. It was planned and implemented by young people from within CUPE.
Long story short, (because I've been writing this for over a week now) we got the nicest cabin, met some great people, drank ourselves stupid, learned about our union, drank some more, learned about collective bargaining, went to the pub, had some pretty decent meals, had a few more beers, went skinny dipping, got very little sleep, bought more beer and started all over!!
It wasn't all about the booze, but it is funny how a bottle of Rye can level the playing field and bring people together.
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Actually, one of the most useful seminars was on the first day- an orientation of sorts to CUPE and Union hierarchy. Trista & I both found it really interesting since we'd been slotted into delegate spots for various councils, and until then, didn't really undertand what they did and where they fit in to the whole scheme of things. We also did a "Know your collective agreement" seminar which we hope to duplicate at our local level. The most important part (for me, anyway) was the networking. I've met some great people who are involved with the $10 minimum wage campaign with BC Fed, and I hope to get involved. It was also a really good experience to be able to put a face (or faces) to various locals who are approaching possible job action- sort of humanizes the process and reminds you why working people need to organize.
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