Year: 2011, 2021
Location: Edmonton
Profile: Ramon Antipan is a union militant and human rights activist with roots among the Mapuche Indigenous people of Chile. He arrived in Edmonton in 1977 as a refugee, fleeing the earlier military coup during which he was arrested. In Edmonton, Antipan was exposed to racism and other challenges facing immigrant workers. He worked in restaurants and construction, but inspired by Jean-Claude Parrot who had been jailed for defying back-to-work legislation, Antipan decided to work for Canada Post in the Edmonton Mail depot in 1985. He was active in CUPW Local 730, serving as a shop steward, and then as President from 2003 – 2007, during which time, he was instrumental in bringing the Rural Delivery drivers into the Union. He also chaired the Alberta Federation of Labour’s Human Rights and International Solidarity Committee. Antipan has been named life member in CUPW 730, and has taught union stewards in that union and for the Edmonton and District Labour Council. He continues to work for social justice in the broader community as well as in the Latin American and Chilean community. In his 2021 interview, Antipan talks about the similar oppression and struggles that Indigenous people in Latin America and Canada have faced.
Keywords: Canada Post; Chilean community; Chilean Coup, 1973; CUPW Local 730; Human Rights; International solidarity; Local President; Mapuche; Refugee.
Transcript: Download PDF (2011) Download PDF (2021)
Ramon Antipan appears in the video: Temporary Foreign Workers
See also: Alberta Federation of Labour; Canadian Union of Postal Workers; Indigenous Labour In Alberta; Systemic Racism in Alberta; Temporary Foreign Workers in Alberta