LEARNING OPPORTUNITIES IN UNIONS -
KATHY KUSISTO, LAURELL RITCHIE & ANN HARLEY


Kathy Kusisto does historical research on a contract basis. She has been a part-time co-ordinator/researcher with the Women and Work project in Halifax. She has also organized workshops such as "Women and Occupational Health" and "From Waitressing to Welding".

Laurell Ritchie has worked for over eight years as an organizer with the Canadian Textile and Chemical Union whose membership is based in Ontario and is largely female and immigrant. On behalf of her union, she has been active in the National Action Committee on the Status of Women, the Coalition for Equal Pay for Work of Equal Value and the Ontario Council of the Confederation of Canadian Unions.

Ann Harley is the Director of Professional and Personal Development in the Faculty of Continuing Education, University of Western Ontario, where she is responsible for most non-credit courses and seminars. Prior to this, Ann has worked extensively in the fields of labor education, education for older adults and affirmative action.

Kathy Kusisto considered unionization as a strategy for women in the struggle to gain justice and equality in the paid labor force. She talked of conditions for working women in the Halifax area and of the difficulties faced both in organizing non-unionized women and in furthering women's interests and concerns within the existing union structure.

Laurell Ritchie also addressed the need for women to unionize and to be able to both assert and defend their rights. Noting that a union certificate is only a license to struggle and not a guarantee of anything, she proposed a number of issues and strategies around which women workers need to organize if they are to achieve their aims.

Ann Harley gave a brief overview of where union women are in Canada regarding paid educational leave, drawing on the recent report of the Commission of Inquiry on Educational Leave and Productivity (June 1979). After describing the report and its recommendations, she discussed the importance of the issues it raises for women. Ann suggested that by supporting the inquiry, demanding that its recommendations be discussed publicly and that; the government ratify the ILO Convention on Paid Educational Leave, CCLOW would be working toward an environment which is more supportive of creating learning opportunities for women.

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