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16 November, 2009
The Communications, Energy, Paperworkers (CEP) Union of Canada held its Eighth Bi-annual Women’s Conference from 8-10 November in Ottawa. Entitled “Breaking Down Barriers…Building Equality,” the conference was attended by a record number of women from the 150,000-member union – 250 – making it the union’s largest women’s conference ever.
The conference was organized mostly with workshops, with one on the opening day dealing with the new harassment policy of the Canadian union. Three other workshops were held over the ensuing days, including “Confronting Harassment and Bullying,” “The Economic Crisis: We’re Not Taking This Sitting Down,” and “Finding Our Voices.”
Lara Acheson, CEP
Lara Acheson, a rank-and-file CEP member from the telecommunications sector, serves as chairperson of CEP’s National Women’s Committee.
The conference paid special remembrance to what has become known in Canada as the Montréal Massacre. Twenty years ago, on 6 December 1989, 14 women were shot dead at École Polytechnique de Montréal by a deranged man who stormed into a classroom, separated men and women, and shot dead the women in anti-feminist lunacy. Because of that, Canada designates 6 December as “National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women,” and that theme was carried out in CEP women’s workshops last week.
CEP Women's Committee
The harassment workshops emphasized that there would continue to be zero tolerance for harassment on the job and in the union. The economic crisis workshop detailed the effects that the crisis was having on women. And in the “Finding Our Voices” workshop, CEP women were empowered to begin standing up and speaking, and begin to be heard.
The Canadian crisis in the pulp and paper industry was one recurring theme at the conference, specifically on the toll such economic depravation is taking on women in communities. CEP women developed a set of demands for the Canadian government to counteract the adverse economic consequences, such as affordable childcare and reform of the employment insurance scheme.