Date: 2022
Location: Edmonton
Profile: Joy Correia has been a member or staffer of the Non-Academic Staff Association at the University of Alberta since 1982. She became involved soon after being hired as a technician in the Department of Genetics, became NASA president in 2002, and since 2007, has served as Labour Relations Officer.
Born in Kenya to parents of Indian ancestry, her family arrived in Canada when she was five. She studied for three years at the Blood Reserve school where her parents taught. She graduated in Science at the University of Alberta shortly before being hired to her technician position. Her interview traces NASA history, its past victories and its ongoing struggles with management and the provincial government. One victory was persuading the Workers Compensation Board to recognize radiation-induced illness. Another was persuading the University to recognize employees paid from grants and endowments as University employees. Still another was getting anti-harassment and anti-discrimination language in the agreement. But NASA has been stymied by privatization of much work done by its members and by the university’s staff cuts. Printing services, food services, and cleaning services have been contracted out, and 1000 member positions disappeared from 2020 to 2022. Understaffing has led to many grievances.
Keywords: Anti-discrimination and anti-harassment language in union contracts; Blood Reserve School; Department of Genetics; Labour Relations Officer; Privatization; Radiation-induced illness; Understaffing; University of Alberta; Workers Compensation Board.
Transcript: Download PDF
See also: Alberta Federation of Labour; Friends of Medicare; Occupational Health and Safety in Alberta; Non-Academic Staff Association; Systemic Racism in Alberta; Women and Work in Alberta