Greetings Sisters and Brothers,
I am pleased to be the newly elected Geographical Rep for Northern Alberta. I’d also like to thank everyone for the support I received at the PSAC Prairie Region Triennial Convention in April.
Since convention, I have stood with the members the Vegreville Case Processing Centre (CEIU) with two rallies. The first rally that took place was an impromptu rally that was held outside of the Telus World of Science Centre in Edmonton, when we became aware that the Prime Minister would be there to deliver a speech. The information was released late in the afternoon of Friday, May 19. With the help of social media and members of CEIU, we had a great group of people out to rally on the Saturday of a long weekend. The rally garnered much support from the public, and many people in attendance for the Prime Ministers speech were sporting new “Support Vegreville” buttons. There was a rally in support of Vegreville May 25 at Canada Place in Edmonton. Leading up to the event, I passed out flyers in and around Canada Place to encourage ALL members to join the rally. I believe this was another successful event in support of our sisters and brothers, that included coverage by local media.
In support of the PSAC boycott of National Public Service Week, and with the help from the Edmonton Area Council, an email was sent out to all the rural locals encouraging them to boycott NPSW and hand out ice cream and popsicles instead. A poster was included in the email for them to distribute to their members and the presidents were advised that funds were available from the Area Council to support the boycott. I supported Area Council with the creation of posters, assisted in plant gating, as well as handing out nice cool treats to members at Canada Place on June 14. On June 15, I
joined one of the RO’s travelling around Edmonton in our “vansicle”, handing out treats to members.
I’m currently still waiting for a listing of emails for all the local presidents within the region from the RO, and I look forward to reaching out to them all and finding ways in which I can support them. I hope to plan some meet and greet events with members in the fall, allowing an opportunity for me to hear directly from the members how I can best support them as the geographical rep.
I am looking forward to my role as the Geographical rep for Northern Alberta and working with Prairie Regional Council to foster strong relations with our members.
In Solidarity,
Stasi L’Hirondelle