Dragana Ristivojevic
Edmonton Area Council Rep
Prairie Region Council May 2019
I spent numerous hours in reconnecting and holding conversations with my coworkers as to why the loss of interest with their Union and what issues they felt were important to them for example: bargaining, phoenix and the two elections (the Alberta provincial and the federal), etc.
It was my honor to present Sister Elaine Gariepy who was the winner of the Prairie Member Contest with her travel voucher.
Lunch hour rallies were held outside of Canada Place in showing our support for the bargaining team. Cookies helped entice UTE members to come out.
On May 17, 2019, Justine Trudeau was expected to arrive at the Shaw Conference Centre. It was Friday, many of our UTE members are on CDO’s, we all decided that we still should go out and show Justine Trudeau that we were not happy. We grabbed “We Support Our Bargaining Team” signs and went outside. There was a very large group of supporters for the Alberta oil and gas. They were loud. This rally was turning out to be very successful. Both Sisters Anne Juneau and Carm Chan brought with them flags, “Burn’t by Phoenix shirts” and more “We support our Bargaining Team”.
An Edmonton UTE committee is being created where planning and implementing future rallies will be discussed. More rallies are needed. This committee will focus on engaging more members to participate in Union activities. I submitted my name to be part of this committee as I love being at these rallies and I feel the need to increase the number of rallies, talking to MP’s, etc. With these planned events, the members will see that the Union is there for them.
In Solidarity,
Dragana Ristivojevich