Date: 2007
Location: Edmonton
Profile: Louise Rogers, RN, graduated from the Sick Children Hospital in Toronto, and had a long career as a nurse and a union leader. She was working in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at the University of Alberta Hospital and serving as a union steward when she felt the call to action. Rogers became the president of the Staff Nurses’ Association in 1982/83 and helped to steer that organization as it grew from one site to representing multiple sites, with a name change to the Staff Nurses’ Associations of Alberta. Rogers soon moved to the position of Labour Relations Manager.
Rogers was instrumental in talks being held between the United Nurses of Alberta and the Staff Nurses’ Associations. Late one night during a Labour Board hearing in 1997, Rogers and the Staff Nurses’ Associations knocked on the caucus room door of the United Nurses of Alberta and set in motion the planning for a merger that allowed all nurses in Alberta to be represented by UNA.
Keywords: Labour Relations Manager; Neonatal intensive care; Staff Nurses’ Associations of Alberta—merger with UNA; United Nurses of Alberta—merger with Staff Nurses’ Associations; Union steward.
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See also: United Nurses of Alberta; Women and Work in Alberta