ALBERTA LABOUR HISTORY INSTITUTE (ALHI)

The Alberta Labour History Institute collects, preserves, and disseminates the stories of Alberta’s working people and their organizations. This website includes full transcripts, podcasts, and profiles of our interviewees. It also includes videos, booklets, themed essays, annual calendars, and a link to a book created by ALHI. To learn more about us, visit About.


International Women’s Day 2024

Women and work in Alberta: achievements and issues 

Alberta labour activist women are recounting achievements for women (including trans women) in the workplace while highlighting ongoing struggles for gender justice as International Women’s Day (IWD) is celebrated worldwide on March 8. Although Women’s History Month in Canada is officially in October, March is celebrated as Women’s History Month in the EU, the UK, the US, and in other countries.

Achievements in the labour movement and the workplace

In terms of achievements, Karen Kuprys, Secretary-Treasurer of the Alberta Federation of Labour (AFL) and a member of United Nurses of Alberta (UNA) Local 154, provides  examples of women in leadership roles in the labour movement: Bea Bruske, President of the Canadian Labour Congress (CLC); Siobhan Vipond, Executive Vice-President of the CLC and formerly Secretary-Treasurer of the AFL; Heather Smith, President of UNA; Sandra Azocar, Executive Vice-President of the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees (AUPE); Leanne Alfaro, Vice-President of the Health Sciences Association of Alberta (HSAA); Richelle Stewart, Secretary Treasurer of the United Food and Commercial   Workers (UFCW) Local 401; Kathleen Mpulubusi, a Vice-President of the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) Local 730; Delanee Daviau, IUOE Local 955 Business Agent; and many others.

There have also been significant achievements in collective bargaining, observes Charmaine St. Germain, Co-Chair of the AFL Women’s Caucus and a Labour Relations Officer for UFCW Local 401. She and Erin Alyward, an active member of UFCW Local 401 who has participated on the negotiating committee, describe the bargaining that led to Superstore/Loblaws agreeing to a policy to protect workers experiencing domestic violence. Through the policy, once a worker informs the employer of needing a transfer to a different worksite because of safety risk relating to domestic violence, the employer will take steps to initiate a transfer. If the employee has full-time status, that status would be maintained.

Also in collective bargaining, St. Germain, who is Métis, notes the achievements by Angela Fiddler in advocating for a cultural space in camps in the Fort McMurray area where Indigenous workers could conduct their spiritual activities. As a member of the UFCW negotiating team, Fiddler also persuaded management to recognize National Indigenous Peoples Day as a paid holiday for Indigenous workers. See the ALHI interview with Angela Fiddler here.

Activism and advocacy continue on issues

Harassment and violence in the workplace remain a major issue affecting women, particularly racialized women, says Karamjit Ryan, Walking Steward with UFCW Local 401, Secretary of the Workers’ Health Centre, and Chair of the AFL Ethnically Diverse Committee. She has experienced it and has seen it inflicted on a co-worker by a customer using a vulgar misogynist slur. “You can’t even stand up for your co-workers,” she adds. “If you do, you’re in trouble too.”

Although there has been headway in achieving collective agreement language addressing workplace harassment and violence, the issue is lack of implementation, observe Kuprys and Dr. Glynnis Lieb, Executive Director of the Fyrefly Institute for Gender and Sexual Diversity at the University of Alberta, Co-Chair of the Executive of the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) Local 3911, and a member of the Association of Academic Staff University of Alberta (AASUA). Lieb notes that there is ongoing discussion on post-secondary campuses on the issue of how to respond to sexual harassment and sexual assault, but too little discussion on prevention, on attitudinal shift. She adds that the highest risk group on campuses is cleaners – often women, new Canadians, working by themselves.

Education to address racism is a priority both for management in workplaces and within unions, notes St. Germain. The history of mistreatment of Indigenous people can affect Indigenous women in multiple ways in the workplace, she observes. “If employers understand that better, they can work with their employees better.” She adds: “The education and training component needs to also be delivered and spread out through the union community so that we can better understand the membership that we are representing.” Union support can make a profound difference. “As a Métis woman, when I see my local and my local president tell me that they want to incorporate truth and reconciliation more into our organization, that makes me feel more proud of my local that they are recognizing me and my people and the membership. It makes us feel that we belong more.” 

A continuing issue disproportionately affecting women is lack of access to safe, affordable childcare. This is often fundamental to women’s ability to participate in the workforce, notes Kuprys. Also related to care for family is lack of paid personal leave to care for a sick child, observes Alyward. The issue arises particularly for non-unionized workers. Alberta’s Employment Standards Code currently provides for 5 days per calendar year of unpaid personal and family responsibility leave. The Canada Labour Code personal leave section provides for 3 days of leave with pay, and up to 5 days in total per calendar year; however that legislation applies only to employees in the federal service and in federally regulated sectors such as banking. Losing days of pay to take care of a sick child is a serious affordability issue, Alyward emphasizes. 

Other continuing issues include lack of pay equity, notes Kuprys. Indigenous and racialized women are disproportionately affected in that they often work in under-paid sectors such as the care sector, the educational support sector, meatpacking, and retail, she points out. “Unionization is one of our strongest tools to combat that inequity.”

“We invite you to stand beside us, and walk with us, as we ‘Rise Up! For Gender Justice’ this International Women’s Day,” says the statement for IWD 2024 by the Women’s Caucus of the AFL. The full statement can be accessed here.

ALHI honours the work of women in Alberta – both in the paid workforce and in unpaid work, such as caregiving to young children, to family members with disabilities, and to aging family members. The experiences, achievements, barriers, challenges, and activism of Alberta women are told through various themes on the ALHI website, and in interviews with women from various communities and various workplaces. On the themes of Alberta women and work, women in the skilled trades, and other themes in which interviews with women are included, see here.